Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (PC)

...(which are admittedly very pretty), Pool of Radiance 2 could have been released in 1988 along with the original, so completely does it ignore almost 15 years of development in computer games. And not only is the gameplay a disgrace, the plot - the key element of roleplaying games since they first appeared - is feeble to the point of almost non-existence.

Pool of Radiance 2 ("Ruins of Myth Drannor") is a fantasy roleplaying ...
...his powers from the magical Pool of Radiance. But now the Pool has returned to the city, and is turning the population into zombies for some unexplained reason.

That's about as far as the plot goes, to be honest. For some contrived reason, the party is sent to investigate the haunted city of Myth Drannor, where they encounter monsters of various kinds. Generally after clearing an area of monsters, you will find someone to talk to who ... more

This game is proof that what worked for computer games in the 1980s isn't always a good thing today. If it wasn't for the graphics (which are admittedly very pretty), Pool of Radiance 2 could have been released in 1988 along with the original, so completely does it ignore almost 15 years of development in computer games. And not only is the gameplay a disgrace, the plot - the key element of roleplaying games since they first appeared - is feeble to the point of almost non-existence.

Pool of Radiance 2 ("Ruins of Myth Drannor") is a fantasy roleplaying game, set in the mystical Forgotten Realms (which you may know through other RPG's like Baldur's Gate) where magic is real and evil monsters abound. You control up to six characters, who advance in skills as they gain levels and experience, through killing monsters and completing quests. In the original game, a party of adventurers freed the city of New Phlan by defeating a horde of monsters whose leader drew his powers from the magical Pool of Radiance. But now the Pool has returned to the city, and is turning the population into zombies for some unexplained reason.

That's about as far as the plot goes, to be honest. For some contrived reason, the party is sent to investigate the haunted city of Myth Drannor, where they encounter monsters of various kinds. Generally after clearing an area of monsters, you will find someone to talk to who tells you where to find another monster-infested area, after which you will find someone else who tells you the directions to another place, and so forth. This would be a rather pathetic attempt at a plot even for an FPS game, so in a genre that depends on the storyline above all else it's shockingly bad.

Pool of Radiance 2 was the first computer roleplaying game to use the 3rd edition D&D rules, which have been praised for their flexibility - customising your character is far easier than with the 2nd edition rules (used in the Baldur's Gate series among others). However, the developers, in their wisdom, decided that the skills and feats your character is given when he (or she) gains levels should be pre-set, giving you no choice except what class the character advances in. And, for reasons best known to themselves they've made the bizarre decision to get rid of the Wizard class altogether.

Even considering the points described above, the game could have made a passable hack-and slash fighting game. But even the game interface is worse than anything I've seen made in the last ten years. In fact, it's almost identical to the original - each of the characters and monsters take it in turns to take an action, which may be movement, attacking or casting a spell. The development team seem to be completely unaware that turn-based combat games have been obsolete for over a decade. They have tried to make some progress by adding an optional limiter on the time taken by each unit for their turn, but that is as ludicrous in practice as it sounds on paper. In addition, even the turnbased system is not properly implemented, as they haven't put any limit on the movement of the enemy - in a single turn, a monster can walk as far as he likes, despite the fact that the player characters have a limited rate of movement. The ridiculous interface makes combat a chore rather than a pleasure.

The one redeeming feature of this game is the graphics - they're far nicer than I've seen in any other RPG, including the more recent Neverwinter Nights. However, every other feature of the game, with the possible exception of the sound, is of an equivalent level to, or even worse than, the original which was made so many years ago. Even a few months after its release, most shops now sell Pool of Radiance 2 for around £20 - approximately half of its original selling price.

Don't be tempted by the game's low price - you can get Baldur's Gate 2 for the same price, or Neverwinter Nights if you're prepared to pay a little more. Even the original Pool of Radiance - which you can download for free from abandonware sites such as theunderdogs.org - is a better game than this, and it will run perfectly on any computer made in the last 15 years, rather than needing a 450MHz processor like PoR2.

Whatever you do, don't spend your hard-earned cash on Pool of Radiance 2. 

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