Pool Of Radiance 2

txa1265 said:

That was what I felt - the story took a serious backseat to the combat system. But the fights just rocked. And since you didn't get to high levels, you *really* needed to use strategy.

Click to expand...

Yes, I am in complete agreement. The combat system was just outstanding. Why oh why can't we get a cRPG that has a great and involving story (Fallout/Torment), real choices with real consequences (Wizardry 7), and combat like TOEE! I'd let someone pull out several of my teeth without anesthesia for a game like that.

I really like to read posts that say things like this.

"Bought POR2 because it was cheap, didn't think it would be good.
But it was."

Not that this thread started anything like that, but i like a start like that anyway.

I know i bought POR2 after have played a demo of the game. I was captivated. Loved the feeling of it. Read some posts on forums and some really really bad reviews. The price of a new ex here in sweden was 99 SEK which was really cheap at that time. Installing the game, started to play I was amazed over the gameplay it brought to me.

I hung out at the official forum were the most nay sayer had left and some few fanatics stayed behind and gave support.

POR2 is I think the best retro game i played in a long long time and as some of you pointed out, the strategy involved in every fight was great. The story was entertaining and i remember having a Bards Tale feel all over the game. I never finished it, but i do mean to do it. I know i put much more hour in to this game than any other rpg played.

I for one think of POR2 as one of the great lost games no one will play. Which was bad. But then again, i love using tactics in game, and it worked well in POR2 and it was possible to just put in 30 mins into the game and then leave.

As much as i love NWN2 i want more than 30 min to play cause i want to have time to get immersed in the story. In POR2 it was exploration and fighting that was king.

So Todd, or, however it was who didn't started the thread in the manner i would have wanted it, but atleast telling about a great game.

Yes. POR2 was great and i think largly out of time. POR2 did exactly what it sat out to do. Do a "remake" of a classic.

For ONCE, VB and I are in agreement; will wonders never cease!!

Pool of Radiance 2 was okay in my view -- and much better than most people seemed to think -- but even I (a hardcore rpg Wizardry, etc.etc.) became very bored with the clunky turn-based combat. It lost the immersion for me when everyone would take a turn so that time would stand still while each person acted and combat in general was so slow-paced that it was too slow for me. I wasn't able to finish it though I did play it for probably 2/3 of the game through.

I hated it. I tried to like it, but I remember that I gave up on that game app. 5 hours into it. These five hours, if I remember correctly, were filled with one kind of enemy in one kind of tileset with one kind of battle.

Yep Rend, that was my opinion as well. 10 slow moving monsters who all moved separately into position while you died from boredom WAITING for your turn to do something-and I LIKE TB combat!!

It's fun to see how we percieve things.

I can't judge a game for a few hours though (in that case NWN2 would have been a miss). But i see your points. Me have seldom time to play a game for more than an hour a time, tops. And game with interesting storyline, as BG2 for example, can't cut it. The cratification for an hour play is perhaps a cutscene / in game story telling for 2-3 minuts, some walking, and talking to endless NPC to find the correct one who tell you the thing i need to know and then some fighting with some plottext and a new marker on map. (NWN2 does one thing right here, put names on NPC that do something in game! )

Well, POR2 was one fight after another and you didn't had time to think about what to do next. It was all about fighting.

The thing most people dispise about POR2 is what i really liked.

Like i said, its funny how different we see think.

Funny and lucky.

I think i am one of the few how got bored with BG2 because of the endless dialog. But i am also seeing how great that game was. But it wasn't for me, i couldn't enjoy it as it was supposed to. It was to much reading, listening, talking, walking. Not much exploring and instant gratification. For the same reason i see that NWN2 is now starting to get into the same category as BG2, great talking, great story, but the fightings lack. Misses POR2 and foremost, misses ToEE who did turnbased fighting a dream come true.

Well, just wanted to add my points in why i liked and looked for in POR2 and / or in a game in generell...

You'd hate PS-T then, whereas I loved it!! I'm NOT an action gamer!!

I didn't hate PS-T, i saw how fun it was. I played it quite a bit between christmas and new year some time before. But yes, i got bored of it. BUT i would never ever say it was a bad game, because it isn't. I enjoyed it immensly when i could concentrate, but then real life kicked in and i dind't find the time. PS-T is on my incredibly long play list (looking at my three shelfs of game... ).

But your correct, it wasn't "my" game.

Todd, i read your post over att ToEE fourm at Atari. You did some raving about POR2 and when i readit i realized. Man, I have to give this a shot again. I know I stopped playing approx, 40 hours in, i think i still have the save on my other computer. Must start looking for it!

Btw, is it possible to buy Temple of Elemental Evil through download? I thought i was on some of the services but i couldn't find it. (looked at trygames and at direct2drive. Open my casing and my Install CD wasn't there. Sometimes i do missplace them sometimes i just place them somewhere else and last night i looked for it for an hour with no luck... thought may be i could buy for a 9.99 as download, which is really affordable for me )

Oh, well. What on earth happend me playing NWN2 and Gothic 3. Argh. Conentration!

I think i really need to spend some points on Concentration on my next level up!!

POR 2 is a Abomination... as much as Descent to Undermountain. I couldn't choose wich one is worse. For the Record, I loved POR 1 back at the time - but POR 2 is a crime with no redeeming Qualities (except that it's turnbased - but it's boring turnbased). To play it is a huge waste of time. It's more entertaining to stare a view hours at a wall.

Welll the fans is still around:
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/ubb.x?a=frm&s=400102&f=993107392

Good to see!

mute said:

Welll the fans is still around:
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/ubb.x?a=frm&s=400102&f=993107392

Good to see!

Click to expand...

Yeah, but there is also plenty of activity on the Dungeon Lords boards, so ...

The interieur of POR2 was totally boring. It was clearly visible that the devs didn't have enough time and/or money to let it look like it should (like in TOEE, for example, which is imho the other side of the same level).

POR2 was one of my first AD&D games, and I had *huge* problems understanding the game mechanics. For a newbie to that system like me, this is difficult at least.

I do hope I can finish it one day, but the fights are far too hard (constantly minumum of 1 party member dying in a little bit harder fights), so I guess I've jjust used the wrong skills (for my party characters).

I can only assume that this game could be fun for people who know the rules system very well; for me, it is not.

TOEE is the very first AD&D game in which I understand the rules a bit more - which partly has to do with the fact that I bought a starter kit from 2000 for 3 Euros to understand the rules system at least a little bit.

I just guess the more it - or any other game in that universe - is built so that gamers can recognize the system, the more fun it is for them.

For anyone standing quite outside this system it is not.

To clear a bit what I mean : To me it was as if I was playing an Realms of Arcania game, of which I know the rule set quite well. Everyone in the U.S. , for example, does not, because no-one knows the underlying The Dark Eye rule set there, so the gamer is forced to heavily study the book shipped with the game to understand things first. And if you don't have a handbook ... bad, then. It's like what basically happened with Baldur's Gate to a part : The handbook was shortened compared to the U.S. version I heard, and it never *really* explained the rule set. To use the wrong skils (this is called "verskillen" among German gamers) is easy, then, and then the game is less fun, at least.

Hehe... I played both "The Dark Eye" and "D&D" Pen & Paper-Games... you can't escape the Dark Eye as a german Role-Player . (Great Name btw. Alrik ). But POR2 had a very poor Implementation of the D&D-Ruleset... i.e. it wasn't possible to choose the Feats as in P&P, it was choosen by the Program, based on your Class (IIRC a Barbarian got the powerful "Cleave"-Feat very fast, a Fighter pretty late in the Game - in PnP both classes could choose it even at the first Level... and the Decision to drop Wizards, so you could only use Sorcerers as arcane Casters was bad as well - so all arcane Casting was Charisma-based . The Creators of this Game were either Worshipper of Cyric or of the nameless One, it is a creation of pure Evil.

I don't understand the rules, and they don't make sense to me most of the time! I think i like POR2 beause its reminds me of Bards Tale. Can't explain why.

The pointer for the board wasn't to convince anybody how great POR2 is, but just to point those of us enjoying it that there is still people playing it and people still active asking question.

I am well aware of my minority. Hehe.

... the minus point you add Fenris is one of the good point for me. I am at lost everytime i shall choose a feat. In NWN2 i press recommend so i can go forth.

But i understand those of you playing pen'n'paper that it would be annoying if it doesn't follow the rules it said to follow. Heck, i don't even care about Faerun or Illm... eh, ... okey. I mean, i don't know any lore. I just play.

I just try to protect people who see it at the bargain bin

Well, I must admit that I didn't know much of the AD&D game rules as such, when I began POR2 for the first time.

The second time I knew it a bit better, and now with playing TOEE through (at least I hope ) I think I've understood the rules so much I can rather effectively use them.

Fenris - Haha ... Great point. Right know i wonder:

1) I didn't start the thread but i going on like i never played a better game.
2) I acutally never finished the game so why on earth do i say its good.
3) Why *do* i like it...

... But i do.

Be careful, 'madness' can be contagious!!