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| Developer: | SSI | | | Release Date: | 1991 | | | Systems: | DOS, Amiga, Mac, PC-98 |
This week on Super Adventures, I'm checking out the climactic chapter of the Pool of Radiance saga: Pools of Darkness. There was once one pool but now there are more.
I've played so many Gold Box RPGs now. I'm two games into the Krynn trilogy, I just started the Savage Frontier duology, I tried Neverwinter Nights for ten minutes, and I even checked out Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday. But this is the first time I've reached the last game in a series! This is A FORGOTTEN REALMS Fantasy Role-Playing Epic, Vol. IV!
You can tell just from the title screen that the game is running in 256-colour VGA. That's nothing new, Gateway to the Savage Frontier supported VGA as well, though it seems that this time they weren't shy about using the colours available to them. On the other hand, the classic CGA mode was finally abandoned here, meaning players had no way to switch to eye-searing 4-colour cyan and magenta visuals anymore.
I'm really sympathetic to people who don't like continually upgrading their PC to keep up with modern system requirements... but the game came out in 1991, so if it got anyone to drop CGA and pull the trigger on a new graphics card, maybe even a Sound Blaster too, then it did them a favour.
Anyway, I should inform you that I will not be beating this game and bringing this saga to a satisfying conclusion, but I will be dragging this out over two parts anyway. So there will be SPOILERS here for events that happen early in Pools of Darkness, and it's game #4 so I'll probably end up spoiling something from the other three as well. The heroes survived, there's a starter spoiler for you.
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Here's a shot of the modern launcher. You can almost kind of see the original box art in the background.
It seemed to have been a tradition for Dungeons & Dragons games to get second hand art, and this was originally a painting by Keith Parkinson called "Queen of the Spiders". You can see she's got a spider web costume and a spider-themed headdress, and even the throne is decorated with them.
Don't ask me if she's actually in the game, I haven't got a clue. Though judging by the earlier games I'll probably be seeing some spiders at some point.
_03.png)
Here's something I didn't realise at first: the game has an intro that's supposed to come on before the menu. It wasn't appearing for me though and I had no idea it even was there until it finally decided to play. Turns out that if you press a key at any time during loading it gets skipped.
It's always funny when the most evil monsters are called together for a meeting and they just have to stand around and listen to their boss talk. Especially when one is a literal dragon.
And it turns out that their boss is...
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Oh damn, it's... some guy. I don't know who this is. Presumably one of the main villains of Pool of Radiance, as the game is taking us back to the city of Phlan.
He wasn't very happy about being defeated, so he came up with a way to get revenge on the team of heroes that saved the city...
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... by giving them the curse of the azure bonds in the sequel Curse of the Azure Bonds!
Hey, I remember this picture, though it looks a little cleaner now that they have all those VGA colours to use. Anyway, that plan failed as well. But that's okay because they had a third plan to lead the meddling heroes to their deaths against a defrosted dreadlord.
_03d.gif)
That didn't work out either. In Secret of the Silver Blades
the heroes became Silver Blades and kicked his ass. At least, I assume
they did; I only got as far as the bit where they were looking for 8
pieces of a staff to pass a test to join the group.
I checked out the other versions and this isn't even animated on the Mac, though at least it's in colour. It's not black and white like the original game. The Amiga version does better, though it's clearly not the most powerful hardware anymore.
Anyway the intro ends and the game gives you a choice between "Play" and "Demo". Though if you wait too long it chooses for you and starts up the demo.
_03a.png)
This is actually a second
intro that hypes up all the dangers and spiders you'll face, and unlike
the first intro, this one isn't so easily skipped. In fact if there's any way to get it to stop once it's started, I couldn't find it.
It eventually shows off a long fight against an army of giant spiders and you either have to sit through all of it. or quit and start again, which is what I did. At least now I know this probably isn't a game for people with arachnophobia, even if they are low res pixel spiders.
Alright, I know the Gold Box RPG routine by now. The first step is to create six new characters.
_04a.png)
Good start, very encouraging.
To be honest I did this deliberately because I wanted to see if the old 'click the wrong bit of the screen' bug was still there. Definitely seems a little bugged to me.
Okay, character creation is just like it is in the earlier Gold Box games. You pick your characters' class, their race, their sex, their moral alignment and then roll for some ability scores. Then you can even edit the scores if you want, in case you want to recreate your character from the pen and paper tabletop game. Or in case you don't want your hero to be a complete liability.
Though there is, as usual, one big problem with this process:
_01s.gif)
I'm just really bored of using this editor to make characters.
You have to click the 'next' button over and over, cycling through all the options until you reach the weapon you want. Then you do it all over again to pick the hair that you want. Then you do it for the colours you want, and so on. SSI made so many Gold Box RPGs and yet they still haven't come up with a better way of doing this.
To be fair it was only 1991 and Pools of Darkness was ahead of the curve for having any kind of character editing at all. From what I've seen, other games weren't really doing this, so there was nothing for them to learn from.
Alright, here's a look at the Amiga port:
Wait, what? How is this so much better? Everything is just right there on screen so I don't have to cycle through anything. They've even given me a proper palette of colours to pick from.
The port was developed by MicroMagic and it's a shame they weren't coordinating better with SSI as the DOS release could've really used this.
Though replacing the 'next' and 'prev' buttons with a slider doesn't really solve the problem that you have to cycle through all the different weapons and heads to see what there is. What the editor really needs is a button that displays all the variations at once so you can just click the one you want.
And it has one! Not bad, Amiga port, not bad at all.
I already have a good idea who is going to be in my party this time, so my first choice... is going to be to quit the editor. I'm going to quit the whole game in fact and go back to the launcher.
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Each game in the series lets you import characters from the previous ones, so I'm going full Avengers with this finale. I'm going back to the heroes I used in Pool of Radiance, Hillsfar, Curse of the Azure Bonds and Secret of the Silver Swords to put together an unstoppable team... of humans. Demi-humans are just not good enough to operate at this level. Seriously, their level cap is so low that they basically won't level up at all in this game. Unless they're thieves, weirdly.
_03d.png)
This can apparently be fixed with one of these buttons in Gold Box Companion, a fantastic add-on tool so useful that it comes equipped as standard for the Steam release, but I'd rather not have the hassle.
If you've finished the previous game, Secret of the Silver Swords, then your team will likely be around level 15, as that's its level cap. This means an imported hero can be a slightly higher level than a newly created Pools of Darkness character, which start around level 14 depending on class.
Unfortunately I didn't finish the game. I didn't finish any of them!
_04.png)
So my fighter/thief Selina from Curse of the Azure Bonds is still only level 6/7.
She's also a dwarf, as only demi-humans can multi-class like this, so she'll stop getting fighter levels when she reaches 8. This is not good. But I want a thief on the team and she'll carry on levelling in that class at least, so she's coming. And so is Ivy the cleric.
I'll be bringing over three characters from Secret of the Silver Blades, seeing as they'll be the highest level. Zoe's a ranger with high intelligence, so she's an ideal choice to dual-class into an unusually tough magic user somewhere down the line. I'm also taking Mal the paladin, and Kaylee's the only human magic user I have so she's invited by default
And I suppose I have to bring over fighter Rogers from Pool of Radiance, seeing as he was the one I imported into the weird spin-off Hillsfar. Even though I didn't actually getting around to saving the experience he'd earned because you have to ride you horse to the save point and back.
Oh, I should mention that importing characters has a catch. Pools of Darkness can only import from the Secrets of the Silver Blade, which can only import from Curse of the Azure Bonds etc. So to get my characters into the game they have to go through the whole chain.
_04d.png)
Alright, this is what I've got. Their levels are low, but their scores are good.
I've played so many Gold Box RPGs now. I'm two games into the Krynn trilogy, I just started the Savage Frontier duology, I tried Neverwinter Nights for ten minutes, and I even checked out Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday. But this is the first time I've reached the last game in a series! This is A FORGOTTEN REALMS Fantasy Role-Playing Epic, Vol. IV!
You can tell just from the title screen that the game is running in 256-colour VGA. That's nothing new, Gateway to the Savage Frontier supported VGA as well, though it seems that this time they weren't shy about using the colours available to them. On the other hand, the classic CGA mode was finally abandoned here, meaning players had no way to switch to eye-searing 4-colour cyan and magenta visuals anymore.
I'm really sympathetic to people who don't like continually upgrading their PC to keep up with modern system requirements... but the game came out in 1991, so if it got anyone to drop CGA and pull the trigger on a new graphics card, maybe even a Sound Blaster too, then it did them a favour.
Anyway, I should inform you that I will not be beating this game and bringing this saga to a satisfying conclusion, but I will be dragging this out over two parts anyway. So there will be SPOILERS here for events that happen early in Pools of Darkness, and it's game #4 so I'll probably end up spoiling something from the other three as well. The heroes survived, there's a starter spoiler for you.
_01.jpg)
It seemed to have been a tradition for Dungeons & Dragons games to get second hand art, and this was originally a painting by Keith Parkinson called "Queen of the Spiders". You can see she's got a spider web costume and a spider-themed headdress, and even the throne is decorated with them.
Don't ask me if she's actually in the game, I haven't got a clue. Though judging by the earlier games I'll probably be seeing some spiders at some point.
_03.png)
It's always funny when the most evil monsters are called together for a meeting and they just have to stand around and listen to their boss talk. Especially when one is a literal dragon.
And it turns out that their boss is...
_03b.gif)
He wasn't very happy about being defeated, so he came up with a way to get revenge on the team of heroes that saved the city...
_03c.png)
Hey, I remember this picture, though it looks a little cleaner now that they have all those VGA colours to use. Anyway, that plan failed as well. But that's okay because they had a third plan to lead the meddling heroes to their deaths against a defrosted dreadlord.
_03d.gif)
I checked out the other versions and this isn't even animated on the Mac, though at least it's in colour. It's not black and white like the original game. The Amiga version does better, though it's clearly not the most powerful hardware anymore.
Anyway the intro ends and the game gives you a choice between "Play" and "Demo". Though if you wait too long it chooses for you and starts up the demo.
_03a.png)
It eventually shows off a long fight against an army of giant spiders and you either have to sit through all of it. or quit and start again, which is what I did. At least now I know this probably isn't a game for people with arachnophobia, even if they are low res pixel spiders.
Alright, I know the Gold Box RPG routine by now. The first step is to create six new characters.
_04a.png)
To be honest I did this deliberately because I wanted to see if the old 'click the wrong bit of the screen' bug was still there. Definitely seems a little bugged to me.
Okay, character creation is just like it is in the earlier Gold Box games. You pick your characters' class, their race, their sex, their moral alignment and then roll for some ability scores. Then you can even edit the scores if you want, in case you want to recreate your character from the pen and paper tabletop game. Or in case you don't want your hero to be a complete liability.
Though there is, as usual, one big problem with this process:
_01s.gif)
You have to click the 'next' button over and over, cycling through all the options until you reach the weapon you want. Then you do it all over again to pick the hair that you want. Then you do it for the colours you want, and so on. SSI made so many Gold Box RPGs and yet they still haven't come up with a better way of doing this.
To be fair it was only 1991 and Pools of Darkness was ahead of the curve for having any kind of character editing at all. From what I've seen, other games weren't really doing this, so there was nothing for them to learn from.
Alright, here's a look at the Amiga port:
_04b.png) |
| Amiga |
The port was developed by MicroMagic and it's a shame they weren't coordinating better with SSI as the DOS release could've really used this.
Though replacing the 'next' and 'prev' buttons with a slider doesn't really solve the problem that you have to cycle through all the different weapons and heads to see what there is. What the editor really needs is a button that displays all the variations at once so you can just click the one you want.
_04c.png) |
| Amiga |
I already have a good idea who is going to be in my party this time, so my first choice... is going to be to quit the editor. I'm going to quit the whole game in fact and go back to the launcher.
_02.jpg)
_03d.png)
If you've finished the previous game, Secret of the Silver Swords, then your team will likely be around level 15, as that's its level cap. This means an imported hero can be a slightly higher level than a newly created Pools of Darkness character, which start around level 14 depending on class.
Unfortunately I didn't finish the game. I didn't finish any of them!
_04.png)
She's also a dwarf, as only demi-humans can multi-class like this, so she'll stop getting fighter levels when she reaches 8. This is not good. But I want a thief on the team and she'll carry on levelling in that class at least, so she's coming. And so is Ivy the cleric.
I'll be bringing over three characters from Secret of the Silver Blades, seeing as they'll be the highest level. Zoe's a ranger with high intelligence, so she's an ideal choice to dual-class into an unusually tough magic user somewhere down the line. I'm also taking Mal the paladin, and Kaylee's the only human magic user I have so she's invited by default
_36c.gif) |
| Hillsfar (MS-DOS) |
Oh, I should mention that importing characters has a catch. Pools of Darkness can only import from the Secrets of the Silver Blade, which can only import from Curse of the Azure Bonds etc. So to get my characters into the game they have to go through the whole chain.
_04d.png)
In fact Zoe is impossibly strong, as female characters have a lower strength cap. That's because I forgot that she was wearing gauntlets of ogre power. Unlike the earlier games, you get to keep the items you brought with you this time.
I can't think of many RPG sequels that let you carry weapons over and it shouldn't really make much difference as you're moving up into a higher level game. But I've read that Secret of the Silver Blades has some fantastic gear you can't find in Pools of Darkness. It's like those Pokémon games where they released two versions and you have to trade between them to get all the pokémon, except here it's +5 swords you're importing.
Shame I didn't actually finish the game and get any of that high level loot really.
_05.png)
Turns out that he's still here waiting to greet people when they enter the city of Phlan, and he's still offering tours, though this time they're optional. Okay Rolf, show me what's new, for old-time's sake.
_05a.png)
Phlan has an entirely new layout now due to all the rebuilding that happened after we reclaimed the city from monsters. The old slums district is now full of shops and houses, and it's all very nice and clean and safe. Not much call for adventurers here these days, as the scariest thing here is the sound of my footsteps echoing down the grassy streets as I stomp around one tile at a time.
_08.png)
|
| Pool of Radiance (MS-DOS) |
This is Sasha, the Phlan City Council clerk who gives your quests in Pool of Radiance. I met her again a couple of games later in Secret of the Silver Blades, where some Black Circle mages were about to sacrifice her to a dragon. So that was a bit of a weird cameo.
_24.png)
|
| Secret of the Silver Blades (MS-DOS) |
Okay I need to head due east and pay my respects to the Phlan City Council, which I know because Rolf keeps telling me. The guy did this back in the first game as well: gave me clear instructions and directions so I didn't have to try every door in the city looking for something to do. That was a fairly revolutionary concept for its time.
_06.png)
Sasha's a councilmember now, so she's done pretty well, but she's less impressive when it comes to remembering the people who got her where she is. She's not just familiar with "heroes such as" us, she's familiar with us. I've brought heroes from each of the games so she should definitely recognise some of them. They've even got the same maximum HP they had back then!
She respects our skills at least, as she wants us to be her bodyguard when she travels to inspect their forces in the lands of Thar. Sounds good, though first I need to inspect the shops.
_07.png)
The thing about the Gold Box games, is that the economy is broken and most of what you find in shops is trash. So chances are that the loot I brought with me is probably much better equipment than anything I can buy here. But I should probably check anyway.
_08.png)
Hang on, I just realised that it's showing my funds on the shop screen like in Death Knights of Krynn, and I'm only carrying the one currency now. They've finally stopped weighing players down with piles of copper and silver coins! Though I tried selling some of my imported gear and now they're overloaded with platinum.
Alright, I'm ready to head out with Sasha's group to go visit Thar, wherever that is.
_12.png)
Hang on, I recognise that name! I've been running into Banite Priests everywhere in these games, they're never far from any evil plot, and this is the god they worship! So he was the one in the intro who's been scheming in the shadows all this time.
Seems like he's done with being sneaky though, as he's announcing all his plans to everyone.
_16.gif)
I love a bit of colour-cycling animation though. I also like the fact that despite our recent arrival none of this was our fault. Sure the intro revealed that he's mad because the heroes foiled all his other revenge plans, but he would've done this even if we weren't here. Probably.
In fact it kind of raises the question of why it took him so long to show off his power.
_19.gif)
Well the bad news is that Phlan is gone and the Moonsea is draining away down a hole. The good news is that we've been dragged away again like at the start of Secret of the Silver Blades and this time everyone got to keep their pants. You can tell by the negative AC that none of their equipment has gone missing and that's good because with their low levels they're really going to need it.
_13b.png)
In fact I'm a bit surprised he's taking such an active role in events here. He's not joining the team or anything, but he has brought us to an alternate dimension so we can fight back against Bane. Check Journal Entry 15 for more information.
Okay, fine, I'll read the journal entry. Fortunately Gold Box Companion still has a feature that lets me read the journal entries inside the game window.
_21.png)
Bane now reigns over both the Moonsea and Thar and this is just the beginning of his ambitions. Elminster grabbed us because we're the greatest heroes he could find and he's brought us to the plane of limbo. His plan was to just get a posse together and go after Bane directly, but the evil god is hiding in the chaos right now so we're going with plan B instead. We're going to use the pools of darkness to cross back to the Moonsea and then defeat the servants of Bane.
So we're killing more Banite Priests then? That's not going to be a huge change to our daily routine.
_23.gif)
How am I supposed to fix this? We're a bunch of under-levelled fighters and a single mage, and our skillset is based on causing massive property damage, not fixing it! And why are we at Hulburg instead of Phlan anyway?
Okay, I'll just head in a direction and then I'll deal with whatever situation I come across when I get there. After I take a break.
TO BE CONTINUED
Anyway, next time, it's more Pools of Darkness! So get suitably hyped for that.
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