Rating: 
Summary: One of SSI's worst efforts.
Review: Ok, let me start by saying that it is extremely rare for me to return a computer game to the store, especially after owning it for less than a week, but this is not your average game. It is by far the worst RPG (if not worst game) i have ever played, and the the last time i saw this many bugs was AREA 51 for DOS. It hangs, it crashes, the gameplay slows to a crawl, then picks back up, etc...This game is a production nightmare. Seriously, didn't anyone beta test this thing? It takes literally about 45 minutes to install (even on a system that is about twice as fast as the RECOMMENDED specs). You could prepare a small meal in the time it takes to install. The thing takes up anywhere from 750MB to 1.5 G on harddrive space, a fact which completely baffles me. (granted I got about 1/30th of the way through the game). It must be the depth of the game cause it sure .... isnt' the sound (which sounds like it was recorded by Alvin and the Chipmunks in their bathroom) or the video (which is nice, but not that nice).
so back to production flaws. There is no setup utility to allow you to tinker with things like sound card specs, or resolution, or the like, and the in-game options menu is a joke as well. As many people have stated, if you are unlucky enough to have version 1.1, the thing wipes your system files when it uninstalls. Lucky for me i got version 1.2. woohoo. Onto gameplay, the real reason i am dumping this game.
THe game is so complicated difficult it just blows the mind. The first dungeon is ENOURMOUS, and nearly every enemy encountered is considerably stronger than you are. This leads to the drudgery of having to save every few minutes (especially annoying in a game without a quicksave feature. In probably about 20 hours of play, i just barely made it out of the first level of the first dungeon. After being annihilated 10 consecutive times on first encounter of the second level, i deceided to throw in the towell. ANother failure is the instruction manual, obviously geared toward people familiar with D&D which i am not. It makes no effort to give you even the slighest introduction to the actual mechanics of the game (dice rolls, etc.) The maps are so large that after having gone off on a side quest, it took me half an hour to find my way back to the level exit. Another really sad aspect of this game, particularly for RPG players, is that in a game that is so combat-oriented, any class other than barbarian, figher, or cleric is almost useless. Socercers and monks particularly gain good abilities at high levels, but it is next to impossible to even have them survive that long. Gamplay summed up: it is like trying to climb a mountain while dragging a piano tied to your waist.
When i think of the SSI games i enjoyed when i was younger such as Dungeon Hack, Pools of Darkness, and The Shattered Lands (still my favorite RPG of all time), Pool of radiance really stands out as a pitiful effort. On a side note, this game has more than the usuall number of problems encountered when trying to run older games on windows XP. I believe however, that this is mostly the fault of microsoft. Bottoms line? you are better off spending the money to see the latest Jennifer Lopez movie. [.......].
Rating: 
Summary: Fun, if you bother to save every three minutes.
Review: I will never buy another UBIsoft game. I expected an at least playable game. My state-of-the-art computer still crashes when I play the game, at least twice every hour. Crashes are minimized by turning the sound off. That helps, for what it's worth.I can't believe that I bought such a bug-ridden, crash-prone game. I spent at least 200 hours playing the original pool of radiance game. I wish this game had at least managed to give me 2 hours of fun. BTW, Ubisoft released a patch that was supposed to help with all of these complaints. I downloaded and installed it. It did not help. Steer clear, unless you can get it for three or four bucks.
Rating: 
Summary: simply the best!!!
Review: this games is simply the best despite it's problems with crashes if you don't have a decent system or UPGRADES!!!
i wish more games would be turn based like this one, they could be so much better, you know what each player can do and have them do it, unlike balders gate, or icewinfdale 1 or 2 where they all are going at once and can't keep track of them.
i hope more come out like pool of radiance, i hope they do a part 2 and do it the same way.. if you like to take your time and play you will love this game..
Rating:
Summary: Worst gameplay ever?
Review: Pool of Radiance shows every sign of being rushed to market despite obvious problems in the user interface and serious bugs. It's only redeeming feature is a turn-based combat system that is deeply flawed and the ability to save at any time which is very important. Let's start with the boring and repetitive dungeons which look like they were expressly designed to antagonize the players. Long detours are required to travel between nearby locations. The automap is almost useless as it consistently shows openings where none exist. ... Frequently characters fail to take anything close to the obvious, direct route to their targets and consequently arrive there too late to take any further action. Often a character would walk through a cloud of death rather than take a shorter, clear route. However, the bad guys were just as stupid so I guess it evens up. The targeting algorithm is equally bad. All the characters are animated (wings flapping, etc) and even when the cursor is stationary they will move in and out of the target zone of an arrow or spell depending on which frame of the animation is being shown. Not only does this cause a problem when trying to target the character, but it causes problems when trying to target nearby characters, too. The angle of view also prevents you from targeting characters when there is a larger character in front (from the viewer's point of view, not the character's point of view)... The non-combat part of the targeting algorithm is also flawed. Quite frequently it was impossible to persuade the group to move to the desired location because of the angle of view (which cannot be changed). There are also artificial restrictions on how far characters can look and travel both in and out of combat. You can arrange your party to travel in a particular formation. This feature doesn't work. I had my fighters up front, thieves and clerics next, and my magic-user at the back. So why is it my magic user always seemed to walk into a room first? I couldn't get my fighters into combat until the bad guys had killed the magic-user because the silly sod was blocking the door. I wish there was a way for my fighters to kill the magic-user first. I lost several turns in each fight because the computer has a habit of ending your turns prematurely. It's also unstable. During about 100 hours of play the system crashed or hung about a dozen times. It also pauses for up to five seconds at a time with annoying regularity. I would expect this from a FPS game, but not an isometric view. Diablo never hung once. All in all, this loses to Diablo in every way except the turn based combat (in theory, anyway) and the ability to save at any time (which I really like). Two thumbs down.
Rating:
Summary: Think about what might of been...
Review: How good could this game have been? Very good. How good is it? Not at all, in my opinion.
Understand that this isn't based on graphics, gameplay, or any thing like that. It's based on if you can even run the game.
I have a pretty fast machine (1600+) with enough good hardware to run any game I've come across. Except this one. Even with all the patches installed the game is unplayable(?).
I have done alot of research on this game, through websites and forums, and MANY (if not most) people have problems with this game. It seems the developers put so much detail into the sound that it is near impossible for most pc's to run it well. That's right, the sound. The slower pace of the game wouldn't bother me if the game play didn't stop every two min.'s so my computer could try to keep up with the sound. I have a good sound card! I updated my drivers...
Now, I did know that this game had problems before I got it. But I run some pretty high end games on my machine. So, I assumed The problems were with other peoples slower computers. Nope.
Still, some people have no problems with this game (once they install 2 or 3 patches...). Just be aware that getting this game is a gamble...
All I can hope is that the very poor sales of this game will let the developers know that consumers aren't willing to reconfigure their machines for one game with good sound...
Rating:
Summary: Shame, Shame , Shame . . .
Review: I really hate writing negative reviews, but this game needed it. When I first heard of PoR, I thought "Cool, a game using the 3rd edition rules that looks pretty decent." It was $50. The next time I seen it, I hade no money, but gave it a look anyway.It was $30. At the time I bought it the price was $20. Yes, through explaining the rate at which the price of this game dropped, I can support my opinions. Before I played the game, I gave the instruction manual a glance through, and I was horrified. There was NOTHING on quite a few things that make D&D.
No two weapon fighting, only four people to a party, VERY limited character generation, and there's more, oh so much more. I'm really glad I bought this game for only $20, otherwise I would not be a happy gamer. This is NOT a solid game and I scoff every time someone asks me about it. Don't waste the time and money we all have so precious little of.
Rating: 
Summary: Ultimately Disappointing
Review: I was looking forward to this game--a real D&D 3rd Ed game. It started out fun, for the first few days. However, I soon realized that I was playing the same game over and over again, in different, but very similar areas with higher level players and monsters. I will say that I really enjoyed the graphics and the combat system. Magic is prety cool as well. And the outside areas of the game are fun. But this is mostly an underground dungeon quest and the dungeons are essentially the same. I finally reached a point where I was bored stiff and quit playing. I never finished the game, and I had been playing for weeks. I started with eager anticipation, ended up extremely disappointed in the almost endless repetition of the game.
Rating: 
Summary: Pool of Radiance leaves a murky taste in your mouth
Review: For long time fans of the series of this game, people may be slightly dissapointed. Althought the graphics are flawless, and the options are great, actually playing the game can be frustrating. It has a very good story line, however, you'll find that you'll quickly tire of taking 5 minutes for every battle, and that moving your party long distances can be extremely irritating.
Several bugs are present, so do not play without downloading the patch, or all your work will be lost at the most critical of times.
Other than that, the interface is nice, spells are done nicely, and multi-play works flawlessly (depending on your connection).
Rating:
Summary: Ick...
Review: Many hours of my life have been wasted playing this poor excuse of a game...boring, boring, boring. But I finally finished, without cheats, and solved every subquest in the game. And you know what, I'm left with the feeling I just killed a Dracolich with mediocre characters using absolutely insane weapons and armor...huge demon sword with +5 hit and triple damage on a level 8 character. PLEASE!! THAT'S SO STUPID!! I still can't believe I found some +3 warhammer with a level 1 character. This game is insanely boring and just an attempt to have a chance at killing a Dracolich, a monster that in any normal D&D situation would be next to impossible to kill.
Rating:
Summary: Zzzzzzzzz...oh, it's my turn already?
Review: Yikes, this game is slooooow! Sure, it's got the d&d format and feel, but the painful interface takes forever to do anything, get anywhere, and go up in levels. Combat is particularly excruciating. Instead of a nice keyboard shortcut (say...W?) to switch weapons, I have to right click, choose weapons from a drop-down menu, leading to yet another drop-down menu. By the time I've chosen a weapon, any tension that might have been has pooped out with a whimper. The same is true for spells, etc., etc. Moving around isn't much better. Can't I make my party run when I'm navigating? Um, why do zombies get to hobble twice as far as my elf during a round? Why bother staying alive when there are so many advantages to being dead? Ugh. That said, I suppose there are a few redeeming qualities. The music isn't bad (except it's on a very short loop). It's fun to run around and talk to different folks, and for the brief percentage of time my people actually get to hack and slash during a round, I feel rather heroic. However, I enjoyed the Might and Magic games far more. In short, after playing this game, I feel like a zombie. I can't believe I have any brain cells left to write this.
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