Ok the title was written to be a bit of an attention getter :) My apologies to any who were temporarally overwhelmed by anger, seared by inner pain, or blinded by unquenchable hatred bordering on outright violence.
I just bought this game (patched) and I don't hate it so far. In fact I think it's pretty damn decent.
Reading the forum It's easy to see that most people would rather vomit razor blades than play POR. Their reasons are mainly legitimate (Buggy/ hard drive wipe lol) but quite a few of the reservations are (imo) illigitimate.
Dungeons are to big? Many RPG players prefer large, if not vast, maps. Who the Sam Hell likes small maps? The "Dungeons are to big" reason for hating POR is, in my opinion, illigitimate.
"Battle is too tedious" doesn't float either (imo). In POR you have to have your sh** tight or you're dead. It's more realistic to have to struggle a bit to get through a situation. I've messed more than a few spells so far but prefer it to simply clicking one button. As we've all heard before, It "aint Diablo". (thank christ for that)
Also the turn base system is very fun and adds a great element of strategy. If you want to advance through the battle more quickly you just hit the space bar. (It's the long one on the bottom of the keyboard:P )
The "Game is to difficult" doesn't wash either. (imo). I've died probably a hundred times so far. It makes for challenging game play.
Call me a sucker for punishment for now. Perhaps as the game progresses I'll have a change of heart. I just thought I'd address some of the "whining" that's going on around here.

If you think PoR is that good, I'd hate to see what would happen if you'd play any other CRPGs covered on Sorcerer's Place, like the Baldur's Gate series... your head would probably explode from sheer goodness. :shake:

It didn't probably last 10 minutes on my hard drive.

It didn't probably last 10 minutes on my hard drive.

So you haven't played it. Alas.

I played it through a couple of times. Even ignoring the bugs, it blew.

In fact I'm in the minority here, because I think it is a decent game... ;) ...the only thing I couldn't stand was huge dungeon levels, (and bug with trandescent characters...that is). I mean first few levels. Nearly imposible to navigate, forcing you to play few hours only to find out that you missed few vital places, map that forces you to note which wall has a door, one room after another boring room chased by a few dozens of nearly identical rooms with nothing important or interesting inside. I didn't make it out so I don't know, some say that after first dungeon game becomes much better....

Honestly, I like this battle system, and this game was great to play until first dungeo....oh...you know that already I guess... ;) ...also menu system used for options and spells is nice, but this dunge...erm...whatever...and difficulty isn't a big problem for me, only that dung...hmm... :lol:

radagast@ - like you I was fortunate enough to play *patched* version...but if one game completely messed up your hard drive you can understand those frustrated...

About dungeons being too big... there's useful/neat big, and there's "Dear Gods, kill me now" big.

I don't have a lot of PoR experience, but I found the dungeons in it to be the latter... extremely large, but mostly empty and lacking in things to do and monsters to fight. It's not that they were big... its that they were boring.

I just thought I'd address some of the "whining" that's going on around here. I not sure I would consider it "whining." It might just be good sense.

I thought the game had the capacity to be fun, and it unleashed the "little explorer" in me who loves to explore every nook and cranny within a dungeon.

For me combat wasn't too difficult nor were the dungeons too large. Both were tedious, however. Combat seems to take forever, and there's no way to speed it up (that I've found). Going from end to end of a dungeon literally takes an hour, and it's much too easy to get lost. I can deal with the get lost part - you hear most players screaming for more "wide open environments" and "open ended gameplay" anyway. But the time to go from one side to the other just blew chunks.

Add to that there was *nothing* to be bought, very few interactions with NPCs, and bleh.

I'd rather have a small, well written, tightly knit story than an expansive romp.

I got bored with it. Maybe I'll finish it someday; I've got about 7 hours of gameplay into it.

http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/PoR2/index_editors.php

Got the Speed Control Utility?

lol.

Time's like that are why I tend to cover my butt with "(as far as I know)." Nope, I haven't seen that but I will definitely give it a try - the "slowness" of the game is my primary complaint.

Glad to see that others apparently felt the same way. :)

Thanks Tal.

Np, I hope it helps. ;)

i only played the demo and that was enough for me to not want to play it again

I have the game since it came out...Yes, you heard me...the original release!

Kinda odd though, because it never deleted everything from my hard drive when I eventually took it out, never patched it, and even odder, I didn't find any bugs or transparency issues at all with the game. Go figure...

But yeah! It was the first game I got that had 3e rules (got it before IWDII), which is the only part that really disappointed me. While 3e rules have some good points, I still liked 2e rules >_>. What I did like though, was the combat system. Last time I saw this system used on a D&D game (which, I can't really remember if it was D&D) was in Dark Sun: Shattered Lands. That game rocked, and having that combat system in this game brought me back.

Didn't really get far in the game before my computer crashed at the time (not due to the game, but due to my archaic VooDoo 3x video card clashing with a Celeron chip x_X), so I took it out, and I haven't been able to play it since.

Overall though, I thought it was a good game for what it was trying to accomplish. Sure, it had its bad points, but overall it did its job :p

I got this game in 2001, I have played it though twice and am doing it again, but haven't played it since 2001. I like it still. I had the other games, Curse of The Azure Bonds, and the ones after it. I am looking to start playing this type of game more again, I had heard that there was a game that I could take the characters from this one once that I have completed it and export them to the other game to continue playing them, can that be done? Also what is a logical progression of game play from Pools to continue on playing?

You must be thinking of the original PoR. This forum is for the discussion of PoR: Ruins of Myth Drannor (PoR 2, essentially). There were no sequels to it, so you can't do anything with the characters from it.

No, we are talking about the same game, although I did have the others as well. Thanks for tell me though about not being able to export the characters though. I will have to find another game after I play this one through again. Any suggestions on which ones I should check out?

Hah, you only need to look around you... http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php

You'll find forums there for all the (A)D&D games covered on SP. You can buy them at http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/Store/index_pc.php and help support the site.

I bought PoR, and I can honestly say it was a terrible game. I got a refund the next day.

I'm w/radagast on this one. The game is a gem. The BG series bored me to death but PoR:RoMD kept my attention.

Acknowledged: there's no explaining taste.

I love this game!!! The patch, speed utility and XP fixes all improved it for me, while the adjustable turn-based combat was easy to figure out. What I really like is the tone of the game - especially the music and the sense of mystery and tradition.

The game could definitely be improved. But I enjoy every minute spent in Myth Drannor. Try soloing for an extra "challenge."

P.S. I also like the BG trilogy and Neverwinter Nights.

I do like PoR-RoMD too...
And hope some of you guys will join me when I am done to try the multiplayer campaigns - provided they're still available. :D