Pool of Radiance
SSI, which has achieved success in the computer role-playing games market with QUESTRON, PHANTASIE, and WIZARD'S CROWN, has now teamed with TSR, Inc. to produce POOL OF RADIANCE, the first CRPG based on TSR's popular ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS (AD&D) system. Included in the attractive gold box along with the game disks, are a manual, an Adventurers Journal containing game information, history, and background material, and a code wheel. The wheel serves, among other things, as copy protection (the disks are otherwise not protected). The Commodore 64/128 version, upon which this review is based, uses four double-sided diskettes. (IBM-PC and Macintosh version notes follow.)
In POOL, you enter a fantasy world called the Forgotten Realms, on the shores of the treacherous Moonsea. As explained in the Adventurers Journal, your characters have just arrived in Phlan, lured by tales of the riches, glory, and fame that may be gained there. Phlan is an ancient seaport which at various times during its long history was among the great trading centers of the world. As the game begins, Phlan has lain in ruins for the previous few hundred years, infested by thieves, pirates, and a variety of monsters. Only a small part of the city is civilized; city guards are posted around the clock to keep out invaders. The City Council has put out a call for "heroes of all kinds" to come and free Phlan from the evil hordes that stand in the way of the city's renaissance.
Experienced AD&D players will quickly note the familiar "feel" of POOL; for the most part, POOL plays by the book. AD&D rules and considerations underlie almost all aspects of the computer game, even in ways glossed over or unexplained by the manual. These aspects include character classes and stats, weapon range and damage, and magic items and their effects. AD&D players will be interested to know that TSR has published a game module, "Ruins of Adventure," which allows AD&D players to take their characters through the same situations found in POOL.
Your group of adventurers may consist of up to six characters of your own creation, or you may use sample characters included on the game disks. Character creation is a fairly detailed process. After you select a character's race (human, dwarf, elf, half-elf, gnome, halfling) and gender, you are given a set of six ability scores (Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma) generated randomly on a scale of 3-18; some abilities will have higher or lower limits depending on the character's race and gender. You may accept the stats or have the computer roll up a new set; you're also given the ability later on to modify any or all of your character's stats, including hit points.
You then choose your character's profession: fighter, cleric, magic-user, or thief. Non-human races may opt for multiple professions at the penalty of slower level advancement. Next, you pick your character's alignment -- his/her personal moral philosophy -- and decide on a name. You may then create a customized portrait of your character by selecting from an assortment of heads and torsos; this is the picture that will appear on the screen when you view your character later on. During combat, your character is represented by a small figure (icon) which may also be customized; this makes it a lot easier to pick him or her out from among a mob of monsters. The character will have a small amount of gold to start with, but no armor, weapons, or other equipment; you'll need to purchase these at one of the shops in Phlan.
Characters begin at the lowest level of experience; their abilities, spells, and hit points increase as they gain levels, which come from accumulating experience points (XP). XP are given for killing or subduing monsters and for discovering treasure, and additional XP are awarded upon completing a commission (a task assigned by the City Council). Gaining a level is never automatic; you must report to the training center in Phlan and pay 1000 gold pieces to the appropriate instructor.
Movement and other activities in the game may be controlled by either keyboard or joystick. Battles and wilderness travel are viewed from overhead; exploration within the city ruins and other places gives you a character's-eye, three-dimensional perspective, and you may call up an overhead view via menu selection. Appropriate menus are available at the click of a button, and allow your characters to buy and sell goods, parlay with people and monsters, and aim a weapon. Choosing a menu item will often bring up a sub-menu with still more options. The system is simple to use, but you'll want to keep an eye on what you're doing until you become familiar with the menu options.
Magic in POOL OF RADIANCE works quite similarly to that in AD&D, with one notable exception: Spell components are not needed. Both mages and clerics must memorize a spell before it can be cast, which requires meditation and prayer (for clerics) or study (for magic-users) and a period of rest (for both). Available spells are an abbreviated list of those found in AD&D. Magic items to be located include enchanted armor and weapons, and magic wands. Good and evil clerics are also given an innate ability to affect the undead.
Encounters with monsters and other possible enemies can take place just about any time. Sometimes altercations may be avoided by a successful parlay, but most of the time the monsters just want your blood. In combat, you may direct each character's every action (including movement, spellcasting, weapon selection, etc.), or you may opt to let the computer run things (as in SSI's game WIZARD'S CROWN). One aspect of POOL that differs from other computer role-playing games is that a character who loses all of his or her hit points is not necessarily dead. Instead, he or she falls unconscious with 0 HP and is out for the remainder of the fight (and might still die if not bandaged by another character). After the battle, the character remains unconscious until at least 1 HP is restored by a clerical Cure Light Wounds spell, a healing potion, or 24 hours of uninterrupted rest. Dead characters may be brought back to life at one of the three Temples found in Phlan, at the cost of a considerable sum of money and the loss of one point of Constitution.
The world in which your characters journey is richly depicted with both graphics and sound. The walls surrounding them may be the ivy-covered stone of an inn, the rough boards of a stable, or the jewel-like colors of a stained-glass panel. Terrain in the wilderness ranges from green forest to rugged mountains to squishy marshland. Each of the over 40 types of monsters has a different animated portrait, as well as a unique icon. During combat, you hear the twang of bowstrings, the patter of running footsteps, the solid thump of a weapon landing a blow. The theme music, played upon booting the program, deserves special mention. The dungeons are, with few exceptions, easy to map; most are laid out on a 16x16 square grid, and the screen continually displays your coordinates within the grid.
If you wish, you may spend your game time traversing the countryside, slaying the monsters you randomly encounter. But the true objective of the game is the completion of the commissions given to you by the City Council. Most of these tasks involve some fighting, but many of them require cleverness (e.g., figuring out the teleporters in the Pyramid), diplomacy (convincing the nomads not to join forces with the enemy), and other abilities. As you work your way through the game, you're given a succession of more and more difficult tasks. In this manner, the storyline develops, and you discover that Phlan has even bigger problems than you'd thought.
POOL OF RADIANCE is a well-crafted game with a cohesive plot that gives the player a true sense of continuing adventure. With its moderate difficulty and abundance of written information and clues, POOL can be enjoyed by novice and seasoned CRPG'ers alike. AD&D players will especially appreciate the underlying logic, but familiarity with AD&D is not necessary to enjoy the game. I'm looking forward to subsequent releases in this series. (POOL's subtitle reads: "A Forgotten Realms Fantasy Role-Playing Epic, Vol. I.")
And what of the magical Pool of Radiance, from which the game takes its name? Well...it may be real, or it may be just a myth!
IBM-PC VERSION NOTES
The IBM/MS-DOS version of POOL OF RADIANCE has some definite problems. None of them makes the game unfit for purchase. But given the fervor with which this game was anticipated, the effect is somewhat disappointing. It feels as if a lot of technical corners were cut to meet time constraints.
First of all, the installation is a nightmare, possibly the worst arrangement to darken my disk drive since Mindscape's WILLOW. You _must_ have two floppies or a hard drive; this game cannot run on a single-floppy system. For hard drives, the manual estimates installation time at between 10 and 25 minutes; for dual floppy systems, the manual reports between one and two _hours_. I installed it onto a hard drive system with a Norton SI speed of 26 Mhz; the installation took exactly 13 minutes (even allowing for disk swaps). I also installed it at 7.14 MHz and abandoned the procedure after 25 minutes. The install procedure unarcs about 1.75 MB of program from three 5-1/4" floppies (or two 3-1/2" floppies, if you purchase that version, available separately).
If you run the game from 5-1/4" floppies, you will need _six_ working disks. There are other permutations of two-floppy systems supported; even dual 3-1/2" systems will require four working disks. The documentation for installation is quite confusing, since a "partial" and a "full" install are described. The partial install is included as a time-saving measure. But then there's a special information card reporting that late changes in the install program actually result in the partial install taking _longer_ and advising against its use except in certain circumstances.
Confused yet? Don't worry. The plentiful paragraphs describing how all the disks should be labeled will clear up everything. Unless you have a system with configuration 4a (see table G6), in which case the latter applies, and you should the make labels as described in Section F above, unless it's Thursday. To save time.
The disks that you receive are not copy-protected, but there is a code wheel protection check upon bootup. The wheel's a complex little affair that requires more than the usual amount of rune-translating. There are three graphics modes: Tandy 16-color, EGA (16-color), and CGA (4-color). If you have less than 512K, the game will only operate in CGA mode.
I played POOL OF RADIANCE at a variety of clock speeds. At 7.14, the game was unplayable in EGA, and only arguably better in CGA. Commands were carried out with astonishing slowness, and a single step in any direction was a step through the purest blackstrap molasses. Only in the combat screens, after the orders were all given and the animation was displayed, did the game seem to approach normal speed. At speeds of over 10 MHz, the entire game became a lot more comfortable.
The graphics are better than any I've seen from SSI, with the possible exception of HEROES OF THE LANCE. They're still a far cry from THE BARD'S TALE, though, particularly in the 3-D "window," where the animation is clunky and the detail is sparse. The combat screens are definitely superior to anything SSI has produced; the effect is that of WIZARD'S CROWN with a three-dimensional skew.
There are not too many differences between the IBM version and other versions. Most involve different keystrokes rather than changes in the game's capabilities and rules. You may save up to 10 games on your save game disk (or in your POR subdirectory); there are different toggles for computer/manual control during battle, sound, and magic use during computer-controlled combat. Additionally, characters set to Quick Combat will always use Readied Magic items; characters with readied arrows will use bows if no targets are adjacent. Mouse and joystick control are not offered.
Other than the game's slowness and the terribly inconvenient disk management procedures, the game has a tremendous amount to offer. Combat is frequent and as complex as any CRPG's; there's an enormous amount of exploration and problem-solving, plenty of interaction and character development. POOL OF RADIANCE is a formidable entry in the IBM roster of computer games, and will be most at home with those who are already familiar with the AD&D system and rules.
MACINTOSH VERSION NOTES
It has been over a year since POOL OF RADIANCE was first released for the Commodore 64/128. Since then, more than 100,000 units have been sold, and POOL has garnered several awards as the fantasy role-playing game of the year. The Macintosh version, although not featuring an ideal interface, does maintain the quality and feel of the other versions, and remains one of my favorite CRPGs.
POOL OF RADIANCE for the Macintosh Plus and SE requires 1MB of RAM; the Mac II (color) version requires 2MB. The game unpacks to six disks (and requires two 800K disk drives), or takes up 3MB of space on your hard drive. The disks are not copy-protected.
At first, I experienced a few problems with the game not saving properly; when I removed some questionable INITs from my system folder, I had no further problems with saves. I encountered delays during combat, and sometimes a delay ended with a battle continuing. At other times, a delay proved excessive, and I rebooted. Perhaps there are some additional INITs that occasionally interfere with combat.
For the most part, the graphics and animation effects are adequate, and include new Mac-specific drawings of monsters and characters. Although hardly spectacular, the graphics are often superior to those displayed in the Commodore 64/128 version.
The sound effects are at their digitized best in the Mac version. Battles are preceded by chilling attack screams, and the atmosphere of the battles is enhanced considerably by the sounds of bow twangs, arrow whizzes, sword swishes, etc.
In order to accommodate the Macintosh mouse controller, joystick controls aren't supported. The game utilizes a graphic of a compass that you can click on with your mouse in order to maneuver your characters across a screen. Because all menu choices are clickable, you can generally use your mouse to click your way through the game without ever having to use the keyboard. (There is also full keyboard support for all commands.)
I really do like this game, and have enjoyed playing the Mac version (on a Mac Plus with hard disk) even more than I enjoyed playing the C64/128 version (which I loved!). Initially, I was disappointed that the Mac version wasn't as dazzling as I'd hoped it would be; on further reflection, I've concluded that it is very well done, indeed. This version doesn't take full advantage of all the options we usually see in a Mac game, but that's a quibble. If you like AD&D, don't pass up POOL OF RADIANCE; I recommend it with a great deal of enthusiasm!
POOL OF RADIANCE is published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. and distribute by Electronic Arts.
