Game:

Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (2001)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 16:04

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I don't know how I forgot about how important spells for buffs were in D&D, but never more so than now.

The undead fights are an excellent illustration of how I was saying that they don't pull punches in this game. What other game, honestly, can you find undead freaks or other freaks for that matter that do things like paralyze and level drain...?

Sure, there are others that are fun to play after one or another fashion, but really where can you feel like you are in the battle more than in D&D? You really can't beat how well it translates to a realistic experience. I can't tell you how many times I have played D&D and felt as if the weapons were in my hand, down to the smell of the battle, and that ominous, tense, tired, grim hush over the battle field as the party members survey the dangers, sometimes with zeal and eager anticipation...sometimes with apprehension and caution as they steel themselves for the coming battle, with no guarantees of success or even survival.

To put it into perspective, if one of my characters gets hit and drained, he would lose XP such that he would lose a level...each time a level drain happened, potentially with each hit from a ghoul or a wight for instance. In some cases multiple drains can occur in a single hit.

But while most games either let you shrug it off or else provide a spell to remove the effects...so far I have no found one such. What that means is struggling to earn the XP again, paying another one thousand gold for leveling back up, or else going to a temple and removing the effects, which will cost a very pretty penny.

Poison, while nothing but a nuisance in most games you would ever play, knocks your character out in combat and then immobilizes him indefinitely until healed. Though there is a Slow Poison spell available to the Cleric...it only just slows the poison making the character able to act, but still taking damage over time until completely cured. I have no idea whether it wears off on its own. A poisoned comrade is dragged to the temple or else you could get EXTREMELY lucky and score a potion of some kind. Let's face it, I have only maybe found half a dozen potions in my whole game so far...what do you think my chances would be of finding a potion? Keep in mind the only potions I have found were the results of finding some scripted cache or fighting a plot battle. Pretty much, you don't get them for drops.

What happens if I am knocked out in battle? If I drop to exactly 0 HP, I am very very fortunate, since I will just wake up at the end of the battle, and can just be healed. Now if it's lower...I could lose the character, pretty easily actually. Just that aspect right there is what I am talking about when I say the game is rather raw to the point that it could be considered brutal...you don't see me stopping, do you!

The fact is, my characters are very VERY plainly mortal. But it is not only a welcome simulation, it is a compelling feature of the game! Bleeding out can happen, you have to bandage bleeding characters, what more can you say...? I know of no other game for the NES except MAYBE a disaster sim, if one even exists, that is so harshly realistic.

All that said, I really love playing the game. Don't get me wrong when I tell you all this about the game and the dangers the characters face, you don't get better than being able to smell the city reek of Phlan under the humid dusk sky as the party explores the abandoned districts of this once-thriving metropolis in the Forgotten Realms.

I just can't tell you how great it is to play at my best and with caution, employing my best tactics as I make my mark in the legends of the Forgotten Realms of D&D; facing off against gibbering goblins, trading blows springy kobolds, cautiously hedging towering, lanky, ugly trolls, shaking with revulsion and anxiously holding aloft a holy symbol to turn the tides of evil undead freaks!

If you just take into consideration how dangerous their attacks are and the effects, if you consider how absolutely deadly it is to get paralyzed, if you look at how every point of THAC0 and AC count, every single upgrade of armor or weapon counts, how you take nothing for granted, how you HAVE TO, absolutely HAVE TO employ smart, realistic tactics such as maneuvering the thief to flank the enemy and wait for the chance to close in and get the backstab strike, how you keep the magic user away from harm so that he doesn't get prevented from casting spells that turn because he took damage, how you use the fighter as the front line and the shield...this game is just great!

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