User Reviews (81 - 91 of 147)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Tragic reworking of old classic

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

In the words of the immortal bard, "Man, this game [stinks]."

All the promised features have been removed, and what is left is less fun that glueing the side of your favourite head to a passing train.

Take your copy of P.O.R. and throw it around in the park with a close friend. Deeply dull entertainment.

Remember Gauntlet?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I will admit my bias, and enable you, dear reader, to take from it what you will: I enjoy role-playing games with stories. As such, I have been monstrously disappointed in this game. The closest analogy I can give is that it is much like the old stand-up game Gauntlet, wherein a collection of heroes ran around killing monsters, acquiring potions and keys, and comically eating food. It is an old-fashioned dungeon-stomp, an endless cycle of "Kill the monsters, get the treasure." The pretty spell graphics that are so touted by the designers do not come close to making up for a drudgerous party management system (no click&drag windows; horrible isometric viewpoints which create an inability to see party members/treasure/monsters behind walls; not allowing party members to scout, forcing everyone to stay close together...).

Beyond this, the game gets boring quickly. There are basically no characters, a very weak storyline, and the player is left with nothing other than killing more monsters, getting more treasure, and secretly wishing for a voice to pronounce eerily, "Warrior needs food... badly."

Dont waste your time

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

After playing all versions of Baldurs Gate, I thought I was good to go with Pool of Radiance. What a mistake!...Besides all the bugs, the game is virtually impossible to get into. Save your money!

Well..... a promising start.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Ok.. Yes this game has a few drawbacks. I have to admit I am disappointed, knowing that some of the creators of the old Gold Box SSI games were involved in the production, I expected the next generation of DQK (Dark Queen of Krynn, the last Gold Box game produced for single players.) in this package. I liked this one AS well as I liked Baldurs Gate, and BG2. I still think the gold box games hold the championship title. Neverwinter Nights.. the original.. being the king of all RPG's to date, and STILL unequaled in being just plain fun to play. Hear that game creators? FUN TO PLAY...what a concept huh? Not "WORK" to play, not a "Virtual Life", nor a part time job. Just a game that is fun to play. My kingdom for a game that is fun to play. Geez. Why is this genre getting worse as technology improves rather than better?

Pool of Radiance is worth checking out. I know the people who created it can do better. I hope this is the beginning of a long line of great titles from these folks.
Problems are:
1.. Game interface leaves a great deal to be desired. I hope they consider going back to the different screens ie.. movement vs. combat. The mechanics of mouse clicking and movement are cumbersome and awkward. Don't be afraid to use the keyboard though.

2.. There are bugs in this thing that should not have been overlooked, hopefully they have patched it by now.

3.. Graphics could be alot better.

All in all I say buy it. The storyline is good. It will keep you entertained for a few hours.

Not nearly as good as Baldur's Gate

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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.

Worst widely release Computer RPG ever

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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.

An unfortunately poor showing for Pool of Radiance

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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.

If less stars were only possible

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 07, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I bought the game. Couldn't get it to work. Waited for patches. Patched it. Still didn't work. Contacted tech support 5 times via e-mail. Still waiting for a response. This game is buggy. Beware.

Old School RPG....not BG or Diablo

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: October 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I see there are a FEW old schools RPG
(Huge dungeons and turn based) players still around.
With all the BG games and Diablo's most of you have forgotten that these games are not what RPGs were suppose to be.
We all like Diablo and all the action based RPG's because they require us to think less and just kill, and relieve stress.
I have enjoyed the BG games and Diablo but a change should be welcome!
Strategy is the key!
This game is different, still fun but strategy oriented. If you have played it any amount of time you see that there are draw backs and advantages to be had in every situation so you have to THINK about what to do next where to move etc.
To quote another reviewer this is a "thinking man's game"
Rpg's used to be about exploration and the story, and very challenging, this game has all the old school qualities and is pretty to look at.

Think about it WHY ARE there so many mods for Diablo to make it tougher? How cool is it to have a level 20 characters on the first level of Diablo? Well a little but you can't expect every game to be that way, especially when you base it on the D&D rules.

You will not kill everything with 2 hits and your characters are NOT invincible!! This game is not perfect but the patches are out now and the game runs fine.

As far as the complaints about experience gained by your characters... if you make dumb characters (low intelligence)
they don't learn as fast moron!

ALL the bashers load it up again and clear your mind of BG and the click fest syndrome; and enjoy the game for what it is and don't bash because it's different. Open your mind!

Meh.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

It's OK. Interface isn't that great, with the 'right click' menus. Not as good as the Baldur's Gate games. Go buy them first, and then get this one if you're desperate for something to play.

Review Page: Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Next 

Actions