Game 230: Pools of Darkness (1991)

     

Pools of Darkness

United States

Strategic Simulations, Inc. (developer and publisher)

Released in 1991 for DOS, 1992 for Amiga and Macintosh, 1993 for PC-98
Date Started: 18 September 2016

    
There is an inescapable pull that invites us to tread familiar pathways again, to reminisce, to note what's changed, to note how much we've changed since we last visited. It's why we periodically revisit where we grew up. It's why I can return to the same 10 blocks of the French Quarter several times a year and never get bored. More to our purposes, it's why Origin Systems can set four consecutive games in the same geography, and we still love visiting.

If you try really hard and get lucky with the weather, there's a certain mountain peak you can visit in Skyrim and see, faintly, the spire of White Gold Tower in the distance. Even knowing how much content Skyrim has to offer, the pull of that spire is incredible. Even though I know the answer is, "Nothing, because it's not a real place," I ache to know what's going on in Cyrodiil. Is the statue of Martin Septim still presiding over the Temple District? Is the Dark Brotherhood still lurking beneath the same abandoned house in Cheydinhal? (Have they changed the password?) Will I still find Count Hassildor wandering the halls of Skingrad? Setting Dragonborn on Solstheim was genius for this very reason--and yet it's somehow not enough. I gaze from the south coast at the plume erupting from the mountain on Vvardenfell, and I want to go there.

Rolf gives us a tour as we arrive in Phlan, just as he did in the first game.

   

Pools of Darkness taps into this atavistic desire to return in two ways. First is the engine itself. Every time we play a Gold Box game, we are in a sense "returning" to the first Gold Box game we played--in my case, Pool of Radiance--to see what's changed. The answer here is: not very much. Pools of Darkness brings together the best improvements on the engine that we've seen in the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance series--VGA graphics, SoundBlaster support, targeting skips your own party members, previously-cast spells are re-memorized by default, and there's meaningful overland exploration--but fundamentally we're looking at the same experience as the first game in the series. This isn't exactly a complaint, because it's a great engine, but in some ways its improvements serve to emphasize its weaknesses. For instance, improvements in wall textures only serve to highlight the emptiness of the environments.

(A quick side-note in case you've come into this entry without Gold Box familiarity. Pools of Darkness is the fourth Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game by Strategic Simulations, Inc. set in the Forgotten Realms. It is the 8th or 9th game using the "Gold Box" engine. The engine is notable for featuring first-person exploration but a top-down tactical combat system, with all actions controlled by menus. The games thusfar use AD&D first-edition rules but perhaps with some second-edition allowances.)

The second way that Pools of Darkness brings you home is by literally bringing you back to Phlan, 10 years after your party liberated the city from Tyranthraxus and his forces. The gap seems too long--I have no idea what my characters have been doing since Secret of the Silver Blades. They haven't actually aged (on their character sheets) nor gained any experience in the intervening years. In any event, the game begins its references to Pool of Radiance with the text of your arrival:

As your ship arrives, you see the towers of Phlan, where before only ruins stood. The slums and decay have given way to new growth. Boats bob in the harbor under the watchful protection of Sokal Keep. In large measure this prosperity and success was born of your defeat of Tyranthraxus so many years ago.

The heroes step off the boat in Phlan and can take a tour, just like they did at the beginning of Pool of Radiance. It's even given by the same NPC--Rolf, now serving as the city's harbormaster. The explorable area of the reconstructed city consists of two 16 x 16 maps, both full of call-backs to the first game, including the basic orientation of Phlan, the park, a "Traitor's Gate" named after Porphyrys Cadorna, the councilmember from Radiance who sold the party out to the Zhentarim.

The map of "New Phlan."

The same area 10 years ago They've really simplified things.

   

In the former "slums" area, the fortune teller has a shop roughly in the area that she resided in the first game. Ohlo, who gave the party a quest to recover a potion (if you didn't kill him), now has a magic shop. And the most difficult battle in the opening hours of Pool of Radiance is commemorated in the "Troll Toss Tavern," where you can fight ettins for sport.

This feels somewhat cruel.

    
My party imported seamlessly from Secret of the Silver Blades with all gear and wealth intact. The entire party had been beating against level caps at the end of Secret, so not only were they able to immediately level up, they were able to level up a second time after fighting the ettins in the tavern. My spellcasters got 8th level spells for the first time, including "Otto's Irresistible Dance," "Mass Charm," and "Power Word Blind."
   

Memorizing spells before I set out.

    

Sasha, the clerk who gave the party quests in Pool of Radiance and had to be rescued in Secret of the Silver Blades, is now a council member. You visit her early in the game, and she insults the party: "I say these things first so you will know there is no trouble to be found here in Phlan, and second, so you will not think you can manufacture your own."

At least she got this part right.

   
But of course Sasha is wrong. There is plenty of trouble to be had in Phlan. The opening scenes have set it up, suggesting that the evil god Bane has gathered his top lieutenants--a couple of demons, a dragon, and a naga, judging by the screenshots--to exact vengeance on the Moonsea region for the success of the party in the previous games.
   

Bane schemes.

   
Sasha is due to "inspect our forces in the land of Thar" and asks the party to accompany her. No sooner have you left the city--the game mentions the party passing through Kuto's Well and Podol Plaza--than a storm erupts "from horizon to horizon," Bane's voice booms that he "claims this land for my own," and a spectral hand literally scoops Phlan from the surface of the world, leaving a crater behind.
    

But...I just spent all kinds of time liberating that city!

    
Bane's voice designates his lieutenants as Kalistes, Tanetal, and Gothmenes, and he suggests that anyone living surrender themselves to their graces. He then blots out the sun, leaving the Moonsea region in darkness.

Before the party can react, they get sucked through a portal and into the plane of Limbo, where they meet Elminster, the famous Forgotten Realms character, although I don't really know why he's famous since I haven't read the Forgotten Realms books.
    

In case you don't know: you're not Gandalf. You'll never be Gandalf.

   
Elminster says that Bane seeks to conquer the world and has made "a crossroad between the dimensions for the use of his allies," somehow using various pools of darkness, and Elminster can do the same for the party. At the end of his speech, you get tossed back to the Plains of Thar and the game really begins.
   

The game world.

   
The game takes place on a map that encircles the Moonsea, though it doesn't appear that you can cross from north to south on the east side. Since you start near the northeast, I figured I'd go east as far as I could, then start exploring in a counter-clockwise manner. I soon ran across a cave in the mountains. Entering, I ran into Vala, my Silver Blade companion from the last game. She explained that "Vaasan" forces were using elementals to tunnel under the mountains, hoping to join with Bane's army. She believed we could stop them by assembling 4 artifacts found in the caves, which would allow us to control elementals.
   

Fire elementals attack as I find one of the artifacts.

   
The artifacts were easily found in the small map, and after a number of easy battles, we went to fight the final battle against the Vaasans (I have no idea who they are). After we used the devices to remove the elemental threat, Vala took them and dove into a collapsing passage, promising to hold off any reinforcements.
    

The men in my party feel suddenly unchivalrous.

   
I was taken by surprise by the difficulty of the final battle. There were about 7 wizards along with a couple dozen high hit-point fighters. In my first attempt, they got the drop on me and "Lightning Bolted" my spellcasters before I could act, repeating this strategy every round. (As a reminder, spellcasters who are hit by any damage cannot cast spells during that round, so whichever team can damage the other team's spellcasters first basically dominates the round.)  It wasn't long before my team was wiped out. I reloaded and better prepared with buffing spells. My spellcasters started with the initiative and I fared much better.
   

Being able to cast first makes all the difference.

   
I never found out what happened to Vala. I exited the cave and began my journey westward. Three of my party members can level-up again, and I'm concerned about how long it will be before I find a city with a training facility.
    

One woman is holding off an entire army?

   
At this point, it wouldn't be too hard to start over with some changes to the cast of characters. I say that because I have some concerns about my existing party, particularly since I've heard the final battle is nearly impossible and depends heavily on initiative, which is in turn controlled by dexterity. This is who I have, in detail:

• Bolingbroke, a lawful good male human paladin of Level 17. Un-augmented, he has 18(89) strength and 17 dexterity.

• Karnov, a true neutral male dwarf fighter/thief of Levels 9/17. Because of racial restrictions, he can no longer rise as a fighter, so half of his experience points are being wasted. But those 9 levels as a fighter do make a big difference when he backstabs. He has 18 strength and 17 dexterity, and for some reason 99 charisma.

• Goldeneye, a chaotic good female human ranger of Level 17. She has 17 for both strength and dexterity.

• Brutus, a chaotic good male cleric of Level 17. He previously served as a fighter but was dualed at Level 8 (meaning he stops advancing in his fighter class, but unlike the multi-classed Karnov, experience points are not wasted on the old class). He has 18 strength, 18 wisdom, 17 dexterity.

• Cesario, a lawful good male human magic user of Level 17 who had previously dualed from a cleric at Level 9. 18 intelligence, 16 dexterity.

• Viola, a chaotic good female human magic user of Level 17. 18 intelligence, 16 dexterity.

   

I'm not sure Viola is ready for the rigors ahead.

   
What changes would you recommend while the game is still new and I still have enough time to develop a new character?

Some other miscellaneous notes:

• The perspective seems to have changed a bit to make it look like doorways and walls in front of you are a bit further ahead than in previous games. I keep trying to walk one square too far.

• A new "death scream" accompanies the slaying of monsters. It is high-pitched and goofy, like a Wilhelm Scream, and I hate it.

• Helms appear for the first time. Regular ones don't seem to have any affect on armor class, but I found some magic ones in the first map.

• In the wilderness, my characters fought a "bulette," or "landshark," for the first time in a D&D game.

  

     

• In some of the cavern fights, I was able to directly control Vala. I don't really know why.

• My party started the game way overloaded with potions, arrows, and scrolls. I need to significantly pare down my equipment list.

A very serviceable Gold Box experience so far. It feels like it's going to be very linear, though.

Time so far: 3 hours
Reload count: 1