Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor

Rating:
Summary: AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!
Review: This game is, without a doubt, the most worthless attempt to make a Dungeons & Dragons computer game. It has numerous crash bugs, boring gameplay, and more bugs than an ant farm. Did I mention bugs? It has no "role-playing" to speak of, you can't customize your charaters, and also has the minor problem of occasionally EATING people's operating systems. Did I mention that it is buggy? If it worked (which it usually doesn't) it would be a bad copy of Diablo II. Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape:Torment and their sequels are all vastly superior products.

Bottom line: it is a 2 gigabyte virus.

Rating:
Summary: An unfortunately poor showing for Pool of Radiance
Review: When I first heard they were continuing the Pool of Radiance series, I was very excited as there were some of the best D&D adaptations ever brought to the PC. They were intriguing adventures that finally implemented what seemed like the complete rules.

Once I finally got it installed (forced to install to C: regardless of directory chosen), I was sorely disappointed.

This game is a sad hack and slash adventure in slow motion. The other reviewer hit it on the head with 'Diablo done slowly'. You crawl through the dungeon, fighting groups of orcs after groups or orcs (or skeletons, or zombies, or whatever) resting after every fight and talking to almost no NPCs. Additionally, in order to compensate for D&D's purposely slow leveling, they had you magic items like they're throwing out pocket change. I have low level characters with some stats 20+ (supposedly godlike) because of the equipment they are wearing.

The game seems pointless and less than thrilling. At least it won't flare up your carpal tunnel as much as clicker games like Diablo, but it's the same type of game. The random adherance to the AD&D rules is frustrating, and this game does not deserve to be called D&D. Fortunately, they put 3 seperate intro videos into the load procedure, so I'll constantly be reminded of who released this garbage and avoid their games in the future. I may continue playing after the patch comes out and the sound actually works. Until then, I'm afraid to uninstall after reading the horror stories of people losing their OS during an uninstall.

Avoid this game.

Rating:
Summary: Worst widely release Computer RPG ever
Review: Do not but this game. I have been PC gaming since the early 80s and I can say this: This game is one of the worst RPGs ever made. There is no depth. It is tedious to play. No wizards. No bards. Barely any NPC interaction. And definately no fun.

And I haven't even mentioned all the technical problems yet! You will be very lucky to get this game to run on your system at all. The installer in buggy, and infact, has on occaision ERASED the players operating system. Computer viruses do less damage. Even if the price dropped, I still couldn't reccomend this game becuase of the possible damage it could do.

There are plenty of better RPGs out. (Heck even Evil Islands is better). Save yourself (and your comptuer) some heartarche and just say no.

Rating:
Summary: Alas, it could have been so much more...
Review: It was supposed to have been the second coming of the Gold Box, the triumphant return of the old SSI tradition of AD&D CRPGs. Sadly, while Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor LOOKS like the 21st century incarnation of the Gold Box, it has too many issues to be truly an enjoyable experience.

(For the younger folks, the "Gold Box" series was the old turn-based CRPG series for AD&D produced by Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI). It included such classics as Curse of the Azure Bonds, Gateway to the Savage Frontier, and the original Pool of Radiance.)

If you actually play D&D 3rd Edition and have the Player's Handbook, most of the rules in the manual are repetitive - you have them all in your PH. The game tries really hard to stick to the core rules. It succeeds in some places - it uses the point-buy alternate character generation system from the DMG (and only that system is available), and it handles the new multiclass system well. You can progress up to 16 level in a class - and since you can theoretically multiclass to practically every class, that's a lot of levels. However, it starts to go downhill from there. No gnomes. No bards or druids or (GASP) wizards! Just sorcerors! Rangers hve no dual wield. YOU CAN'T ALLOCATE YOUR OWN SKILLS AND FEATS! =sigh= No female characters either. After a game like Arcanum, this is a real letdown.

The equipment selection is pretty sparse as well. Let think of it - no crossbows! And the game seems to have reverted to the 2nd edition and previous rule of weapon restrictions for mages and clerics - not surprising as there is no Martial Weapon Proficiency feat.

Magic is fine at the lower levels. In fact, the graphics for many of the spells are fun (chain lightning!). Unfortunately, the spell selection thins rapidly at the higher levels. There's only one divine spell for levels 7, 8 and 9, and not much more for high level arcane magic. Again, a letdown after being spoiled by Black Isle's Baldur's Gate series.

Okay, so you create a party and play. The first thing I noticed was the lack of interaction with the world. Just an NPC here and there. Again, a letdown from Baldur's Gate. That makes the actual combat rather anticlimactic. You wade in. You kill the monsters. You rest. (And resting is rather easy - you can blow all your spells, have an encounter, then rest again afterwards.) The story is no great shakes either. Let's just say that you start in Myth Drannor, ancient magical city of the elves in the Forgotten Realms, and it looks like you'll end in Myth Drannor. Little hope for a change of scenery, though admittedly I haven't played through the game. I may not at all.

Bottom line: Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor doesn't even come close to the standard established by Baldur's Gate in terms of systems and gameplay. Its highly-touted implementation of third edition rules is spotty at best, and it seems arbitrary. If you haven't completed the Black Isle games, you're better served buying one of those instead.

Rating:
Summary: Not nearly as good as Baldur's Gate
Review: I just got this, and I thinks its quite a disappointment. It looks great, but the gameplay is horrid, its like Ubi Soft didn't see Baldur's Gate, which is so much better at capturing the feel of the game and making good use of the computer to handle the boring stuff. First, the menu driven commands are annoying, there are no icon commands like in BG to make it easy to switch weapons, cast spells, turn undead, pick locks, etc. Instead you have to go through pull down menus, an amazingly annoying concept for a game. The combat is turned based, which was ok in the first Pools, but 15 years later we know computers can handle real time combat. The turn based concept really blows when you face spell casters, they can pop out from behind cover, cast a spell, and you die without ever getting a chance to disrupt them or spread out or anything. Its also hard to start combat in any understandable way, if you see an enemy in the distance (or even really close) and try to shoot it, you don't fire, instead you get an initiative role, and many times the enemy will run up and hit you before you can do anything. So, you're sitting there aiming at them when suddenly they run 30' and hit you and you don't do anything while they run? You can't even cast combat spells at enemies you can see until after getting initiative roles, so you have to wait until they notice you or you notice them or whatever it is that "starts" combat. So, you can be like 10' away from some zombies, but can't cast a combat spell at them, or shoot them, until one of your characters sees them, which makes it very much not like being there - what you see isn't what your characters see. Also, you can't send single characters more than 20' or so from the lead character, so you can't really scout ahead with a thief easily. Likewise, you can't attack enemies or pick up objects unless you're close to the party. I'm too far away from the others to pick up a sword, what is that? And then there's the fact you can't scroll the screen off your party to see things more than 30' or so away, even if you've just been there. But enemies can see you from beyond your site, and can attack you. Also, you can't customize your character's colors, looks (ok, a couple of skin tones), sounds, or even pick skills. No wizards or gnomes. No quicksave button. No combat scripts. I'll stop now, hope you get the picture.

Rating:
Summary: If it works (25% chance or so) it still isn't any good
Review: Here's the deal: this game is no good. It is extremely buggy and does not work on many computers. In fact, it has caused several OS crashes and breakdowns (which means it can permanently break your Windows). Those interested are referred to the forums at the official website.
So what if it works? Heres the quick and simple:
Though it supposedly has 3rd edition D&D rules the game does not allow you to roll your characters, nor choose feats and skills (there is a terrible point system for character generation and the computer chooses feats and skills FOR YOU based on your class)
Speaking of classes, the Druid and WIZARD class are not supported (YOU CAN NOT BE A WIZARD!!!!!!!!!!)
The graphics are nice if they work, but nothing truly incredible.
The interface is, for the most part, counterintuitive (its not very good). Everything is done from drag down menus accessed through right clicking. There are NO HOTKEYS for spells and skills.
Rogue characters CAN NOT HIDE or MOVE SILENTLY!!!! Also, no member of your group other than the leader can walk more than 50 ft away from the other characters. why? Cause that would be good maybe...
There are good points, but they're pretty lame: you can run, attacks of opprotunities are present (the only real 3rd edition improvement, and this just makes the game harder), and you get to make a whole party (which Icewind Dale let you do).

Conclusion: this game is a mockery of third edition d&d rules. The game is like a slightly more complex Gauntlet. Its no good, and chances are it wont work for you anyway. If you shell out extra money for the Collector's Edition you get some cool stuff, but no better chance for the game working. My advice is wait for Neverwinter Nights, a game that should be a quality release, unlike this game, which...

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy it!
Review: Thousands of user complaints about incompatibility with their systems, severely curtailed ability to customize the graphics and sound, reduced implementation of promised features, and little incentive to roleplay within the game are just a few reasons to avoid it.

This is probably the worst implementation I've ever seen. Go buy Baldur's Gate instead.

Rating:
Summary: Do not buy this game yet, wait until next year.
Review: First and formost, this game is buggy, and has even destroyed some OS when trying to uninstall. I got mine to run and played it for about 10 hours. During this time the game slowed to a halt about 12 times. A patch would resolve this problem, but the game also suffers in gameplay. All the hoot and holler about being the first 3E computer game for D&D can be forgotten, they butchered the rules. But there is good news, if you look past the bugs and the fact that this is not the game I was looking forward to ( A D&D 3E game ! ), I think a great RPG might be in there somewhere. But wait until they fix the darn thing!

Update: It has been about 3 months since the games release and the big patch (1.3) is not out yet. Wait until next year when (If? ) they get it fixed, it will cost less then ($) by then.

Rating:
Summary: Too many BUGS!
Review: I am a big fan of rpg's and rushed out like many people to buy POR. The problem is that there are too many bugs to play the game. The problems range from not being able to install the game, not being able to Uninstall without messing up your operating system. The problem that i am faced with is that the game wont let my party attack, which means i really cant do anything. What is worse is that there are no patches to fix any of these problems. So i would strongly advise you to wait until they fix these problems before buying this game, because chances are you wont be able to play it. I've been to POR official website and there have been so many complaints and problems it is a shame that they would release what seems to be a great game with so many problems.

Rating:
Summary: Worse as I go along...
Review: I have to admit first that this is my most anticipated crpg I've been waiting on for over a year. As it came close to being released though I saw a few let downs in the reviews; little things such as no crossbows and not being able to choose your own skills, and of course no weapon focus. This I could live with. Finally it was released though and I started playing it hard and trying out my different options. My second big disappointment came when I found out that you can't choose your own feats either. Ahh...oh well, this I can live with.

Me and my buddies had preplayed a storyline out for our characters months before this game was released, getting our guys to around level 3 or 4 multi-class before we started the game. How we were going to incorporate this into the PoR story was have us each just play the single player first by ourselves as practice to get our guys to that level we achieved on pen and paper. Then we would export those single player individuals into the multiplayer version to beat the game all together for the first time around.

Well my third(and hopefully last) huge let down came when we loaded up the multiplayer and saw that it looks nothing like the single player. No storyline as I can see, no Nottle waiting for you to save him and sell items, no elves in the tree. Where the hell is the tree? This is I could not live with. I ordered 3 of these games just so we'd all have a disk, and now the multiplayer has turned out to be some "Diablo" type game with only random monsters, dungeons, and too many special items. We're still going along...hoping we'll find some form of story and not just meaningless hack and slash in the multiplayer. If I do or don't depends on how I'll come back and change my rating.