Rating: Summary: Gameplay flows like concrete, but some good points too Review: I was really looking forward to this game after finishing BG2 and its expansion pack. Unfortunately, it was disapointing.The game had a lot of potential, and did a lot of things right. Character generation is fantastic, and the graphics and sound are pretty good. However, it wasn't enough to make for it's serious defects. The interface is convoluted and difficult. More importantly, combat is turn-based. This makes for very slow gameplay, and it got boring quickly. Also, the story line is pretty weak, and the NPCs are flat and lifeless. To the games defense, it reminded me a little of a modern version of the old RPGs from TSI (like the pools of radiance or dragon lance games). I guess if that's what I was looking for this might have come across better. But after finishing the Baldur's gate games, this came off as needlessly slow and badly executed.
Rating: Summary: Worst game I've bought in two years Review: The program crashed several times (after a clean Windows 2000 install) and finally crashed while I was in the middle of saving my game, which caused me to lose my whole game. You have to install the patch from (...) to prevent save game corruption, which gives you an idea of how much QA they did before the release. Gameplay (stinks) too. It literally puts the word CRAWL in 'dungeon crawl' because your party trudges at a snail's pace compared to the easy, intuitive movement afforded in Baldur's Gate and other RPG's. Boring as hell. I'd rather spend (dollar amount) in Amazon's Kitchenware section than buy this thing again.
Rating: Summary: What a letdown! Review: I was so much looking forward to a righteous dungeon crawl, and this showed promise. Previews were very encouraging. Unfortunately, the final product didn't live up to those previews. I have not experienced any of the serious technical issues reported by others, nor install issues. Performance took a serious hit, though, and gameplay was just plain tedious. The interface was difficult to use and very non-intuitive. After growing extremely bored with the first dungeon level, frustrated at the layout of the game world, and annoyed at the cursor drag and graphical performance hit, I uninstalled it and found someone else to pawn it off on. May they be more easilly entertained than I.
Rating: Summary: The Pool is flawed--but not totally. Review: I had been expecting this game for over a year. Since I had played all of the original Gold Box games it had been a long time coming. I thoroughly enjoyed the "Baldur's Gate" series but missed the actual turned based combat from the original games. What UBI Soft put out was something short of ready for consumer use. Believe me there are a lot of bugs! When I first received it I couldn't even play after I initially played the game for a couple of hours, restarted my system the next day and tried to run the game again. To remedy the situation I unstalled the game, restored my (Windows ME) operating system to a previous time before the installation, updated all of my drivers (which were already fairly new), reinstalled the game and finally installed the patch and it works ok. But sometimes the game shuts down by itself. One time one of my characters just disappeared and I was lucky I had saved prior to that since I was getting ready to save again before I noticed he vanished! The story line isn't as colorful as previous games and the combat can be monotonous. But the graphics and sound are great and they almost make up for the problems. I personally like the turned based combat but if your expecting something like the other games I mentioned you'll be a little disappointed. If you like D&D type games then buy it. Maybe by the time the next one's released the manufacturer will learn from previous mistakes and produce something a little better.
Rating: Summary: Slow, frustrating, and boring Review: Like so many very early attempts at role playing games, Pool of Radiance has failed to capture the very intent of D&D. The game is slow playing, has very little plot, no room for character development, and is technically inept. Combat simuilation is so slow as to be agonizing. Once combat is entered, you can't leave. Initiative (per combat rules) is almost impossible for a player character. In the early game, you can make a load of money, but you have practically nothing to spend it on. The graphics are poor, the interface is clunky, and the game respresents a bad interpretation of the 3rd edition D&D rules.
Rating: Summary: This pool is full of problems Review: On the serface "pool" looks good. However just a quick look at there own tech. page, makes it clear that not all the bugs have been worked out. crashes and freezes are just for starters.
Rating: Summary: Get past the issues and have fun Review: I have had no problems with the game on the V1.2 patch. I am running it on Window XP without any issues. The game has some quirks that you need to get used to but it is fun. I was hooked after playing 1/2 an hour.
Rating: Summary: Have not yet played it as has problems Review: Having problems and needs patches to play:>(
Rating: Summary: bad Review: too bad 1 star was as low as I could go
Rating: Summary: DONT BUY THIS GAME Review: Beyond a slightly irritating interface, the real issue with this game is that it does not work. Ubisoft seemingly released it without doing any bug testing whatsoever. The game crashes constantly(usually within 15 minutes of game play) on a multitude of platforms, there is little troubleshooting information, non-existant tech support and useless patches which only allow you to uninstall the game without wiping out your hd... The companies WWWboards have been overflowing with complaints, yet there have been no responces.. Oh well, if you enjoy rebooting your computer and having to save your game every 30 seconds, this is the game for you...
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