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Zzzzzzzzz...oh, it's my turn already?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: July 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

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.

Kind of a Shame

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: April 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I remember fondly the time I spent on a C64 working
my way through the original Pool of Radiance. I was
really looking forward to the release of this game-
unfortunately it comes up dry in several areas. I won't
repeat what was said about the lack of variety in character
creation or the agonizingly slow path to leveling other
than to say that review is spot on. The variety of monsters
you encounter is slim, the plot is not really there at all.
Finally, the combat (the meat of this game..) is plodding and
time consuming with very little flash or drama.

Bottom line, and I am sorry to say it- unless you're just
between games and have something like "federal prison" type
time on your hands to kill- don't waste the hours of your life
playing PoR.

after much hype the verdict is.........

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: October 13, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Not superb. Graphically superior than it's predecessor Baldurs Gate, Pool of Radiance lacks the game play that BG held. I've always said I would take a game that lacks in graphics if it makes up for it in Game Play, and BG did that, This game is mediocre at best. It is stable on my computer, I have yet to have it crash (knock on wood)so I'll give it point for that, having a game for near two weeks with no crashes is pretty good. I'll give it a point for graphics, as mentioned earlier they are great. I'll give it a point for allowing you to create up 4 members of your party. Where does it lack, Game play as mentioned is poor, interface is tiresome, I guess the hardcore table top player geeks like it, but I can't stand the turn based combat.... I turned it off. With Baldurs Gate Infinity Engine, it was customizable... players could make their favorite sword from whatever book they read and through it into the game to be bought of found, one group even made a whole new add on for it, but I don't see that this is as customisable, there for not very player friendly, so minus a point. If you are a BG fan, don't buy it thinking you will get something like it, you won't. It doesn't hold the interaction of BG, I like that, if I like running around hacking things up with little to no problem solving, I would play Diablo II. I guess SSI created a concept that had a following already with the original Pool of Radiance game, made a graphically great game so they could hype it up and then threw it at us.

Think about what might of been...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: September 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

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...

Defending the Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 23
Date: October 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Ok, so many people ripped apart this game. Personally, I didn't think it was that bad. My game has only crashed once, much less then BG2 when it first came out. It's one of those games that gets really bad if you don't like it.
Problems:
Long combat (slow game)
Little choices (example you can cast level 8 spells but theres only one option for a class)
Interface (takes time to figure out what things do)
The manual is little help
Knowledge of D&D is important
Not much of an RPG

Positives:
Great Graphics
Runs Smoothly (No jerky movements)
Cool dungen crawl system
Fun combat (Turns allow you to enjoy spells)
Turn based system allows you to enjoy combat
Many mini quests in a dungen
many items

Overall I enjoyed the game, then again I got a great deal. It is definatly not worth [the money], but if you find it for a cheap price, I recommend getting it.

Sign of the Times

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: October 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

In the past few years, an annoying trend has emerged in the home computer video game world. Game developers, presumably tortured into submission by their publishers, have been releasing outlandishly buggy games. PoR is another in a long list of casualties.

Online role-playing games such as Ultima Online and Everquest were barely functional at release. Black and White crashed constantly. Anarchy Online was a complete joke. Even Max Payne had a couple problems at first (in this case, the patch was out within a couple days).

This "release and then patch" method of rushing a game out the door has got to stop. Often the problems aren't fixed for weeks. In the case of PoR, a few people actually had parts of Windows removed due to a bug with the uninstaller. The other problems people have reported are too numerous to list. Add to this some gameplay balance mistakes (or possibly bugs), and you've got an army of angry computer RPG fans flooding the official PoR forums with vitriolic hate letters.

The saddest thing, in the end, is that all of these problems are with a game that turns out to not even be that good. It's a notch above mediocre, a somewhat pleasant and totally mindless diversion. There's no real depth, excitement, or role-playing to speak of.

Wait for the bargain bin on this one. It'll be there soon.

Nothing radiant about this

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 17
Date: October 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

PoR has to be the most disappointing CRPG release ever. I played the original gold box games when they were released, and this does not live up to the legacy. There are numerous crash bugs, a tendency for the save files to become corrupted and unusuable (wave goodbye to hours of play), a horrible user interface and the most unbelievably awful gameplay system I've ever had to slog through. I imagine that SSI, before starting development on PoR, had two folders available: one for the best features of the gold box games, one for the worst.

The devs picked up the wrong folder before starting.

The combat is terrible. It amounts to waiting (slowly, even with gamespeed set to max) for monsters to make their way towards your party and then, just as slowly, attacking them. And SSI brought in the 2-part turn method which was definitely NOT one of the endearing features of the gold box games. It makes for redundant effort and a great deal of wasted time. On the other hand, I *am* getting a good deal of reading done while waiting.

People have complained that comparing PoR to the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale/Planescape:Torment run is unfair. I agree. It's horrendously unfair to take a beta-code "game" which shows little to no knowledge of, to say nothing of love for, the D&D license and compare it to the magnificent efforts of Black Isle Studios' products. It's like setting a flea against Godzilla.

PoR is the favoured acronym for this disastrous undertaking. Advance the last letter forward one letter in the alphabet and you'll have a better idea of what this game truly is.

If I were you I'd pass on this one...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: October 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I played the original Pool of Radiance on my Commodore 64 back in 1989. Naturally, I've been looking forward to this updated sequel for months. Ordered it, received it, eagerly installed it... all I can say is what a disappointment.
The storyline is generic and uninteresting, the interface is cludgy and unintuitive, and there are several things that are just plain annoying. I don't know if I can bring myself to finish this game...
Like the original 1988 version of Pool of Radiance, you will waste a lot of time fighting long meaningless battles for little or no experience points.
All negative aspects aside, the graphics and animations are great. If you don't care about role-playing and an interesting storyline, and just want to run around spending all of your time fighting for no reason, then this game is for you.

My opinion sinks ever the lower into the Pool of Radiance

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: October 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Those of you unfortunate enough to have bought this game will realize just how bad it is from the start. That is to say, you'll be just a bit perplexed when the autorun greets you with an unrecoverable crash. If you manage to get past that, then the installer will crash, causing you to repeat the 30-minute process (for a 'typical' install) over again. And then, when you load the game, it will crash once more, or if you're lucky it'll just dump you back out on the desktop. By this time you will be feeling ripped-off and disgusted. If that wasn't bad enough, the game has a nasty tendency of being uncannily stable during actual play, and then crashing once and for all- sort of like what SSI's stock must be doing now. Only a complete reinstallation will fix it once the thing goes.

All right, so this is all fixable with patches, and I'm very optimistic about SSI and UBI-Soft getting those out (sheah, right). If you are a very, very patient player, then you will perhaps not break the discs over your knee and stomp on the remains in wanton rage. The game box proudly advertises 'over 100 hours of gameplay.' It delivers, and you'll be bored stone dead for the first fifty. I have seen exactly 4 kinds of monsters in the first 10 hours of game time. That would be orcs, skeletons, ghouls, and shadows (with various HP differences among them). Battling undead hordes was never this boring. I do believe I have lost a point of my IQ clicking on brainless skeletons.

This is one of those titles where you will repeatedly shake your head and mutter 'what were those ... thinking?' The game seems to have a lot of features, but as to what you can actually use, there's just about nothing. You can't choose your feats, your racial enemy, change formations, dual wield, etc. The Dungeon Master is based on a real-life DM that nobody plays D&D with, and is often the target of rotten tomatoes when he ventures outdoors. It gives out experience so sparingly you'll beat the monitor and rip out your hair in fury. It won't let your party members get more than half a screen away from the leader (forget about scouting, thief boy) and it keeps saying you can't do things you should be able to do.

So, if you haven't played a D&D CRPG yet, then you really should. Just make sure it isn't THIS one. Go get Baldur's Gate, or wait until Neverwinter Nights comes out. This is shaping up to be one of the biggest, most unexpected flops in CRPG history and you should avoid it like the plague.

If it works (25% chance or so) it still isn't any good

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: October 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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...

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