Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor
- OS: Windows 2000/XP with DirectX 8.0
- CPU: Pentium II 400 MHz or AMD 500 MHz
- RAM: 64 MB
- Graphics Card: 16 MB Direct3D - compatible graphics card
- Sound Card: DirectX compatible
- 2.8 GB free hard disk space
- 8 x CD -ROM drive,
Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, unofficially referred to as Pool of Radiance 2 is a computer role-playing game of the U.S. game developer Stormfront Studios. The developed originally commissioned by Strategic Simulations, Inc. game in the tradition of the eponymous role play Pool of Radiance in 1988 and is the first computer game that used the third edition of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game rules. It was released on 14 September 2001 on the French publisher Ubisoft, the SSI had taken over in the meantime.
Action
The City of New Phlan suffers from the dark influence of an undead dragon and a witch queen. These have taken control of the magical pool of the lost elven city of Myth Drannor and stand in front of it, now to tear the rule over the entire region itself. The wizard Elminster seeks to hire a troop of adventurers with the closure of the source. However, a first group who were equipped with the necessary gloves to the Moander is lost. Therefore Elminster requested four more adventures with the search.
Gameplay
As the same time the D & D game from BioWare and Black Isle Studios ( Baldur 's Gate 2, Icewind Dale) used developer Stormfront an isometric presentation, the figures were inserted as 3D models prior to two-dimensional backgrounds. Unlike its competitors, however, Stormfront sat on a turn-based battle system, based on the rules - Edition 3.0 of Dungeons & Dragons and working with fixed time windows. The clearest contrast to previous D & D conversion is the so-called point -buy character system of D & D 3.0, which came through a points system with fixed prices for the character creation and acquisition of skills in place of the random-based, out -scrambled AD & D rules.
At the beginning of the game to create a heroic group of four figures. You can choose between different races ( human, elf, dwarf, half-elf or half-orc ) and classes ( Barbarian, Cleric, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Thief, Ranger and Wizard ). Compared to other D & D games Stormfront renounced the implementation of these classes Druid and bard, and the race of gnomes. This initial group can grow by the inclusion of other characters in the game to six figures. As is common in role-playing collect the figures by finishing tasks ( quests, total 60 ) experience points, a level-up is available through certain points on reaching borders. In this way, the abilities of the game character can be improved. In Pool of Radiance the player characters can reach a maximum of level 16. Due to an adjustment by the developer, however, the figures rise to much slower than expected from the role-playing game rules.
The size of the game world will be about 9 km2, of which the upper world about 1 km2 accounts, while the remaining area spread over eight large underground dungeons. Main content of the game is turn-based battles, behind which withdraw action and non- combative interactions (eg dialogs) with the game world and its characters. Similar to the Pen & Paper initiative value of each figure determines the order in which the characters must act. About text menus, the player can give his characters movement and combat instructions. However, for this it is only a certain window of time. If he lets this time, the character performs a standard command.
Even if the player has completed the main quest, it is possible for him to lead the remaining side quests in connection to an end. In addition to the single player campaign, there is a multiplayer mode.
Development
Ruins of Myth Drannor was a continuation of SSI's Gold Box series (including Pool of Radiance ) designed with the company from 1988 won great critical acclaim. Originally Ruins of Myth Drannor was developed based on the second set of rules Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. During the development of the game, however, was changed to the third edition rules introduced in 2000. It is the first computer game that used the 3rd edition of D & D rules.
To ensure a high level of recognition dedicated Stormfront an architect who drew up the ruins of Myth Drannor based on the floor plans of the D & D TSR manufacturer. Although the representation of the game world as in Baldur 's Gate was limited to two-dimensional pre-rendered backgrounds, the game characters were, however, no longer integrated as sprites, but as polygonal models. The cover design was illustrated by Gerald Brom.
On 6 September 2001, Ubisoft announced the completion of the work on the English version. On 26 November 2001, Ubisoft finally gave also the completion of the German version known, published on 13 December.
Reception
Reviews
The game received mostly negative reviews ( Metacritic: 57 100 / GameRankings: 60.33 %). In the first two weeks ( Stand: 10 October 2001) only 40,000 copies of the game were sold.
Was multiple criticizes the unübersichtiche, cumbersome menu control, in addition there was criticism of the adaptation of the D & D rules. The developers have therefore made improper changes.
In the test of the U.S. version of the German print magazine PC Games described the fighting due to the large number of opponents as sometimes sprawling and dungeons as huge. The tester also expressed the suspicion that computer game opponents from the program would receive an unfair advantage compared to the games characters. He also criticized the superficial action, insubstantial dialogues and that the benefits of available classes is not balanced. In the posttest the German version of the magazine praised the successful German language version. However, there was no improvement of the fun rating. Both versions received 70 %, the reviewer described the game as the competition from Baldur's Gate 2 and Arcanum: Of inferior steam engines and magic.
In his review for the U.S. online magazine GameSpy author Allen complained noise that D & D fans after the successful Infinity games ( Baldur 's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment ) by the prospect of a revival of the gold box classic and initial implementation of the rules 3.0 high expectations would have had that would have been disappointed for the worst:
"What ended up coming out on what atrocity on several levels. [ ... ] Sometime the past shoulderstand just stay the past. If you see this game, walk away ... really fast! "
" What came out at the end, was a cruelty on several levels. [ ... ] Sometimes the past should prefer to rest. If you see this game, goes on ... very fast! "
The U.S. gaming magazines Computer Gaming World gave Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor in its annual review the libel award Coaster of the Year ( German: roller-coaster ride of the year):
" Forget the unusable interface, the hideously repetitive play, the lack of real role-playing in a role-playing game, and nearly every other profound failure swirling the drain of this horror. It was the betrayal of trust and the gamer 's Gold Box Pool legacy cemented did Pool of Radiance 's place as the worst game released in 2001. "
"Forget the unusable interface, the ghastly repetitive gameplay, the lack of real role playing in a role play and almost all other profound errors that whirl around in this outflow of horror. It was the deception of the players confidence and the legacy of Pool-/Gold-Box-Reihe, the Pool of radiances have cemented place as the worst games release in 2001. "
Bugproblematik
The first release of the game in the United States suffered from two significant bugs. On the one could not be changed the default directory path during installation. Secondly, when you run the uninstall routine and important system files of the operating system have been deleted.
The later published German version contained the first two updates released and was put on the market with the version number 1.28. On 22 December 2001 patch 1.3 was released, in March 2002, followed by the final patch 1.4.
Novel
- Carrie A. Bebris: Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. Wizards of the Coast, Renton (Washington ), 2000, ISBN 9,780,786,913,879th