Forgotten Realms: The Archives - Collection Two

Pool of Radiance is the first ever DnD video game (released in 1988). It starts off brutal, but levels off if you can manage to get yourself to a lvl 3 party, so retreat and rest after each encounter until you lvl up. Also The game is open-world so you can skip encounters until you are ready for them. Once you are strong enough to get past the first encounter area, the game gets surprisingly addictive. The original game had a code wheel that was required to actually play the game (an old form of copy protection, you were screwed if you lost it), this version has technically removed it (just press "Enter" when prompted) This series of games is unique in that you can actually choose to Fight, Wait, Ambush, Run, or Parley (which also breaks down into HOW you want to Parlay; Meek, Haughty, Overbearing, Equal) in EVERY encounter, so make sure you know your Monster Manual to determine the best course of action. In Curse of the Azure Bonds (the 3rd game released, but the 2nd game in the story; you can import characters from either Pool of Radiance or Hillsfar), I obtained a +2 ring by promising an Otyeugh that we would split a nearby pile of refuse (they eat garbage and sewage and can communicate telepathically) Since it's the first ever DnD game, class and race options are limited (they add the Paladin class in literally the next game: Hillsfar). Make sure you know your class limitations as well; to summarize: fighters can use all equipment, clerics can use any armor but only blunt weapons, rogues can only use light armor (studded leather, leather, padded) and light weapons (short sword, short bow, lt crossbow, etc) and wizards get almost nothing (padded armor, staves, slings, daggers, that's it). There's a huge variety of armor and weapons, and a lot of it has basically the same stats as something else so it can be confusing if your trying to find the "best" equipment; banded, splint, and ring mail are basically the same, bronze plate is 1 point worse than regular plate, polearms do the most/same damage but there are several different types (glaives, halberds, fauchards, etc), The game also implements ADnD 2nd edition's resurrection limitations (albeit poorly). Elves cannot be resurrected, and other characters permanently lose 1 Constitution point (in the PnP game, you could only be resurrected as many times as you had points in Constitution). Leveling up requires you to go to trainers (easily found in the starting town in the north-most building). This was also required in the actual PnP game until characters got to a certain lvl (8?) and could handle their own training. Sadly, a lot of the story dialogue gets lost in this version as you cannot actually use the journal and some notes flash too quickly to actually read.

Almost 35 years after first trying on my Commodore 64 I finally finished Curse of the azure bonds. Will I ever finish remaining two games (secret of silver blades and pools of darkness) before I die? Who knows.

This is just like the old Pool of Radiance i played in 1993 on a PC 386DX 40mhz by AMD 4mb ram, 40mb hard disk floppy 5 1/4 floppy 3 1/2... these were the times. Practically this game is the ancestor of Baldur's Gate 3. And the battles are just like Baldur's Gate 3 apart the graphics of course. The only problem i have with this game is that it can't run for me in full window mode but still the view area is about 15 inch which is as big as my vga CRT Hantarex monitor of 15inch was back then. So it's ok. It doesn't use mouse. It playes entirely via keyboard. The controls need to get used too but are not hard to get the hang of. You practically do most with the numerical pad keys as for going forward backward turn left turn right etc. It's easy to navigate through the areas as it is first person view but also top down view that shows you position relative to the map. So the game is very user friendly. You can save at any time during rest menu. And you quit also via rest menu (after you save it will ask you if you want to exit to dos) It's just as i was remembering it. An easy thumbs up.

Tolle Sammlung von unterschiedlichen DnD-Titeln, die allesamt Spaß machen! Die verschiedenen Spiele bieten genügend Abwechslung und haben jeweils ihren eigenen Reiz. Insgesamt eine wirklich gelungene Zeitkapsel für alle, die klassische Rollenspiele und Teile der Gamingwurzeln von Dungeons & Dragons erleben möchten. Klare Empfehlung!

i got this a few years ago to try playing and i spent over an hour rolling and rerolling the dice to make my characters, i loaded into the game, went to the tavern, started a fight with the thugs, died, and all of my characters got deleted. i have not opened the game since. i was even more disappointed when i couldn't figure out how to turn on the music for the game because that was always my favorite part about the old nintendo version.

I beat Pools of Radiance on my Commodore 64, so to get to play this faithfully-modernized version was an absolute blast. Thanks!!

Never had the chance to play or even know about them when I was a child. I became a gamer much later, when I was 16 probably. I played PoR and it was a very fun experience and a lovely jump back in that era of gaming. I'll play for sure also the others.

retro feel

And the answer is absolutely yes! These are classics. End of story. This collection is unbeatable, you get all the glory of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons aka 1E ruleset, before they became mainstream crap for hipsters. It's arguably even better; since it's sprawlingly bigger, than the OG BG games (AD&D 2E ruleset). Only caveat, these are old school, and so they look like crap. 8 games set in the forgotten realms campaign setting; the games are subdivided so: 1. The Tetralogy of Radiance, this is the classic campaign for PC, 4 awesome games which are exceptionally well made with really good narratives and the ability to import the party from one game to the next so you will play the whole tetralogy with the same characters for a really EPIC saga. Granted the graphics look like ♥♥♥♥ BUT this is one of the reasons why they are far superior to say D:OS3 aka BG3. They force you to go the way of the pnp game, you have to supply the graphics and there is no question that the best graphics ever made are all in your head. Mind you this is like playing the pnp game, no scripted cringefest dialogues, no netflix like questlines, no romancing everyone including the mouse cursor and no strolling around with the whole party naked for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles like you do in BG3, also not boring like BG3. 2. Hillsfar. OK you can skip this standalone travesty, this is just unbridled crap, no need to even try it. It's just a set of clunky minigames, no story, no relation to the other games, some genius thought they could try to crossover into nintendo minigame territory, but it's a total fail. Only reason why it's in this collection is because you can import the party from the first game Pool of radiance, play through the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ minigames and export the party into the second game Curse of the azure bonds, and you'll get a couple of bonus items; just a marketing gimmick. 3. The Savage frontier duology this second set of adventures is unrelated to the original saga, takes place in another area of the Forgotten Realms but features the same system of exporting the party into the next game for a great adventure half as long as the first saga. 4. Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures, this is the engine editor you need in order to make and play modules for the gold box engine, released in 1993, as of today there are still fan made modules being released which means around 33 years and counting. it's also really easy to use. Considering the limitations of the era, these games a marvel to behold. For all games you also get the PDF files for the original manuals, the cluebooks and the in game journals with all the extra lore. Absolutely recommended especially if you have only played that hipster masquerade D&D 5E.

have all the og SSI titles and the beamdog EE series play them all still and enjoy more than bg3 or modern rpgs tbh