The name
Pool of Radiance holds a very, very special place in my heart. The original game that went by that title, which happened to be the very first Gold Box game released, also happened to be my very first encounter with RPGs. I had a copy for it on my Apple file://c, and I remember playing it for untold hours after school every day. Of course, I had cheated and made my characters have all eighteens for their stats, which means even menial battles took forever as the game compensated by throwing 15 orcs at me instead of 3. No matter--the game was brilliant, and I spent many many hours exploring the various locales in it, even going so far as to buying the strategy guide, which is undoubtedly hiding somewhere around here as we speak. My love affair with the original
Pool of Radiance ended when my mom closed a drawer a little too hard when one of the discs was wedged in it. The disc bent, and many many hours of my life went down the drain as I could no longer continue my holy campaign against the evil Tyranthraxus.
Imagine my excitement, then, when I found out that Stormfront Studios was to bring back the excitement of that game in modern form. Pool of Radiance was a formative event in my young life, and Pool of Radiance had the promise of doing much the same in my adult life.
Imagine my consternation, then, when I delved into the completed product. There's no doubting that Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor is packed with more game than most games of the genre, but there's also a deeper conundrum--will you stay to play it? Some really questionable design issues mar an otherwise intriguing entry into the genre, and while there will undoubtedly be many people who spend untold hours playing this game both single-player and multiplayer, I have a strong suspicion that many genre fans will find themselves putting it aside and going back to less flawed titles.
The plot of the game is weak, but even that's more than can be said for the original game. The Pool is acting up again in New Phlan, and it's up to you to go to the source in Myth Drannor and stop it before the world turns into a bunch of walking dead. [Those who are steeped in Planescape and know just what sort of stuff really lies at the end of a Pool of Radiance will be confuddled by such bizarre plot twists, but just put your knowledge of the AD&D mythos aside and let the game take it where it will.] So it's up to you, the inevitable intrepid band of adventurers, to Make Things Right.
This, of course, will be done by adventuring in the old-school way. Lots and lots of dungeon crawling is to be had in Pool of Radiance, along with some bits in the middle that aren't really dungeons but pretty much play like them. Those of you who thought this style of play was finally going out of style will be surprised with Pool of Radiance. That's not necessarily a bad thing; a dungeon crawl done well, like Icewind Dale, can be a grand thing.
Unfortunately, while Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor does a number of things right, it also does many more wrong.
Let's start with many of the high points. Besides the absolutely absurd length of the game, the game also tries for a faithful implementation of the D&D 3rd Edition ruleset, and while it's spotty at best, it certainly gets many of the high points. Many people have complained about the point-based character creation system, but I'm glad to finally see a game where I didn't have to click the random roll button for three hours to 'cheat' the system. The game starts you off at the first level, and much like every other AD&D game ever made, the game doesn't cheat like a good DM. So be prepared to die often at lower levels. This isn't a flaw with Pool of Radiance--it's a flaw with the rule system--and the game does a good job of making saving and reloading painless. The combat system is also pretty neat . . . at first. And here is where the house of cards starts to tumble down.
First of all, the battles are turn-based, but each turn is timed. This wouldn't be so bad if you had a series of easy hotkeys you could do to, say, cast Magic Missile at an opponent. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The game is driven by a series of right-click menus, each with pop-outs similar to the Start button in Windows. While neat in concept, it ends up being very, very frustrating, as you slightly mis-mouse and lose precious time as you try to get back to the thing you wanted to do. There are hotkeys for the different types of spells, but even then you have to mouse through the levels, and I clicked 'Sleep' instead of 'Magic Missile' entirely too many times.
There's also the evil Screen Scroll problem. Would you like to, say, see more of the screen than a few meters past your characters? Would you like to send a scout to find out what's around the corner? Too bad. Would you like to throw a fireball into the middle of a group of enemies that can't see you? Too bad. On the plus side, you can pitch a tent to rest easily, but in the end it's too easy, making dungeon crawling a simple affair of heal, attack, heal, and so on. You've also got multiplayer capabilities, but unfortunately there's no way to play the core game cooperatively, which would have been nice.
There's more to say on both sides, but this section is already inordinately long, so I'll finish it up with something a little more subjective. I found myself simultaneously entranced and disheartened by Pool of Radiance. I found myself playing more and more to see if it got better, and while the game has its bright points (and I'm sure there are more past where I got), the game has a lot of areas that were just plain dull as well.
