Back in the old age of computing, a marriage was formed between Dungeons and Dragons and computer role playing games. The first classic games to come out that union were commonly referred to as the Gold Box Games, named after the pretty gold box the games were packaged in. The first of the series was Pool of Radiance (POR). POR was a dungeon crawl, allowing you to move in a first person 3D, but switching to an overhead view of the field where you moved your characters around and engaged monsters. It was very much like playing Dungeons and Dragons with your miniatures at home. The gold box games did extremely well, and inspired countless sequels at the time.
After a while, D+D and Role Playing Games lost their popularity on the personal computer. The age of arcade flash came upon us where games started to get faster and faster, and the turned based strategy games were the first to go. Turned based games such as Warlords and Ultima sold out to the arcade feeling and became Real Time Strategy games or Action games, and even D+D got a face lift with Baldur’s Gate becoming more action orientated with only a pause feature to stop its frantic pacing. Many cried for the older days when you could sit back and take the time out to enjoy your characters, where leveling was an event that marked a noticeable party improvement, and where strategy was dependant upon well thought out plans.
I am happy to say, POR: RoMD represents a full circle in gaming development. The game has taken away the action and real time reflexes that modern games require and taken us back to a turn based strategy game that has no rival among current RPGs. If you are a hard-core RPG player and you remember checking your characters experience points and thinking.. just 2 more rooms then I can go to bed, this is the game for you.
I know what you are thinking, you are thinking that you have heard a ton of bad press about this game, words such as slow, boring, bugs and pointless. Some of these words are very true statements about the game. Upon release, many people had expectations that this game would be the next Baldur’s Gate, it isn’t. The game is the next Pool of Radiance. The best indicator I have ever heard to describe whether or not you will like this game is, do you like chess? If you find chess to be too slow, or involving way too much thought, steer clear of POR. If you like forming new strategies and don’t mind waiting for your opponent to make his move, or if the anticipation of your next move keeps you excited, then POR is truly going to be a gem of a game for you.
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