Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $17.95

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

How much can you slow the action in an RPG? [Posted on 2005-04-29]
I have owned this game for quite some time but because I was involved in playing several other RPG's I just got around to trying it and boy was I dissappointed. This has to be the slowest game play ever. If you don't mind playing 30 minutes to kill one monster (maybe a SLIGHT exageration) then this games for you. I played for several hours and never made it past level one (and I didn't die). I will be archiving this game in my trash can never to be mistaken for something I might like to play again.

TOTALLY HORRIFIC WASTE OF MONEY [Posted on 2006-01-25]
WOW! I wasted my money on this piece when it first came out. I just bought it because it was a D & D RPG and I remember the old PoR (Yes, I am an old man). I am so glad that everyone (or most people) agree with me. This game sucks especially because the gameplay is SLOOOOW!

Yeah, maybe the worst game I've ev er played... [Posted on 2006-01-26]
Lets disect the product summary...
*The player must create a party of six adventurers and explore the haunted elven ruins of Myth Drannor in order to stop the Pool's evil influence.
This was the best part of the game - making characters.

Pool of Radiance 2 is the first game to use the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition rules.
*But Ubisoft didn't apply these rules correctly.

Playable character classes are Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, Sorcerer, Monk, and Rogue, while the races include Half-Orc, Human, Halfling, Dwarf, Elf, and Half-Elf. Characters advance from 1st to 16th levels, allowing spellcasters access to 8th-level spells.
*I wouldn't call what they sold me as "playable".

As you explore the ancient ruins of Myth Drannor, the Dungeon Master will communicate all important events and findings.
*The DM doesn't communicate to you that you probably want to kill yourself for paying for this hunk of garbage.

Combat is based on turns, just as in the tabletop game.
*Except that the tabletop game is fun.

With a great single-player campaign as well as multiplayer support, Pool of Radiance 2 is ready to carry on the legacy of the famous Gold Box games and lead D&D RPGs into the era of 3rd Edition rules.
*Legacy?! Bwahahaha!!! Yeah, right!!!! I'll never purchase anything from Ubisoft again!

I spent $60.00 for the "Gold" edition as soon as it was released. The Horror!!!! At least it came with a lame music soundtrack and a dice bag, which I've since lost!

After years of patches... [Posted on 2006-05-12]
When this came out I wholeheartedly agree with the previous reviewers here--- and then some! It was awful, buggy, and slow. Now with computers much faster than the specifications required and with 4 count 'em, 4 official patches later, one having been released fairly recently by the distributer-- it's a little better. It is at least playable. You may get better play by turning off anti-aliasing features in your video card.

If you have the discs collecting dust or see it in a 99 cent bargain bin, it might be worth satisfying any residual curiosity. There are still a lot of aggravating aspects, but one thing that was good was the background artwork for the time. People disappointed with it when it came out should be aware of patches up to version 1.4

There are also some good mods out there for changing your character icons.

Unfortunately, it still does not hold a candle to the classic 8-bit gold box game.

Crash dummy game [Posted on 2008-01-15]
Okay, this is one of those games that crashes frequently. I have played all the way through a couple of times. The story line is good, the graphics are good, but the game is so unstable that it crashes about every 15 min. on my computer. The scroll down spell lists are a pain in the .... while in the turn base combat. There are a shortage of quick key options in this game and I seem to waste a lot of time walking back and fort to areas that should have a short cut (most areas do not respawn). A recall spell of some kind would make this game so much more bearable. This game would take considerably less time if you didn't spend so much time walking your characters from one corner of the world to the other without even having one encounter.
I really like the story line, but there aren't very many things you can do for extra XP. This game had all the makings of a great game but fell incredably short because of a crashing problem and so far to walk with nothing to kill.
Like I said I did play this game through a couple of times, but it is a slow play. The multi-character part of this game is okay, but it seems like my wizard always ends up first through the door or on the front lines when combat starts. There is no way to prevent this flaw that I have found. This game is fun if you can look beyond the crashes and the constant walking and the characters blocking the leader and the weakest character always going first no matter what you do to stop it. Neverwinter Nights is a much better game in my opinion or even Heritic Kingdom, but any game will have its flaws and this one has several, but it is still fun to play

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