''Pools of Darkness'' is a

role-playing video game Role-playing video games, also known as CRPG (computer/console role-playing games), comprise a broad video game genre generally defined by a detailed story and character advancement (often through increasing characters' levels or other skills) ...

published by

Strategic Simulations Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) was a video game developer and publisher of over 100 games from its founding in 1979 to its dissolution in 1994 (though the brand was in use until around 2002). The company focused on computer wargames then lat ...

in 1991. It is the fourth (and final) entry in the ''

Pool of Radiance ''Pool of Radiance'' is a role-playing video game developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc (SSI) in 1988. It was the first adaptation of TSR's ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' (''AD&D'') fantasy role-playing game for home computer ...

'' series of

Gold Box ''Gold Box'' is a series of role-playing video games produced by Strategic Simulations from 1988 to 1992. The company acquired a license to produce games based on the ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game from TSR, Inc. These games ...

games, and the story is a continuation of the events of the third game, ''

Secret of the Silver Blades ''Secret of the Silver Blades'' is the third in a four-part series of Forgotten Realms ''Dungeons & Dragons'' "Gold Box" adventure role-playing video games. The game was released in 1990. The story is a continuation of the events of ''Curse of t ...

''. Like the previous games in the series, it is set in the

Forgotten Realms ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setti ...

, a campaign setting from ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

''. Players must stop an invasion from an evil god, eventually traveling to other dimensions to confront his lieutenants. The cover art and introduction screen shows female

drow The drow ( or ) or dark elves are a dark-skinned and white-haired subrace of Elf (Dungeons & Dragons), elves connected to the Subterranea (geography), subterranean Underdark in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. The drow have t ...

though it is unclear who in the gameworld they represent. The novel '' Pools of Darkness'', loosely based on the game, was released in 1992.

Story

The party starts their adventure in the city of Phlan, charged with the task to safely escort Council Member Sasha on a diplomatic mission. Upon leaving the city, Lord Bane, along with four of his lieutenants, claims the entire land of

Faerûn Faerûn ( ) is a fictional continent and the primary setting of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' world of ''Forgotten Realms''. It is described in detail in several editions of the ''Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting'' (first published in 1987 by TSR, I ...

as his own, and magically teleports, destroys, and removes many cities off the face of the land. The goal of the game is to systematically restore order to the realms by destroying Bane's minions one by one, and returning light and order to the land plunged in darkness.

Gameplay

To play ''Pools of Darkness'', one simply needs to create characters and form a party. The gameplay basics are identical to all games in the series. The game does come with a pre-designed party, but many players prefer to create their own characters. One can modify the appearance and some colors of the character's combat icon and then name the character. A maximum of six characters may be added to the party and it's highly recommended to use all six spaces as the game does not give any handicaps for smaller parties.

Non-player character A non-player character (NPC) is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster (or referee) rather than by a ...

s sometimes join the party in the game, making it possible to have more than six characters. Characters can also be transferred from ''

''. The party's objective is to defeat Bane's lieutenants Thorne (an ancient red dragon), Kalistes (a Marilith), and Tanetal (a Glabrezu) and acquire the items they possess. The ultimate goal is to reach Bane's Land and face off against Bane's last and greatest lieutenant, Gothmenes (a

Balor In Irish mythology, Balor or Balar was a leader of the Fomorians, a group of malevolent supernatural beings, and considered the most formidable. He is often described as a giant with a large eye that wreaks destruction when opened. Balor takes ...

). All of the lieutenants are found in other dimensions, which can be reached using portals known as Pools of Darkness. Traveling through the pools can cause many types of items the characters are holding to be permanently destroyed and lost. The party may opt to leave these items in a vault to save them. Any items from the dimensions will suffer this same fate when traveling back to the realms. Some very powerful magic items and all non-magical items can survive the trip. There are also many side quests the party can do along the way, which can help the party in gaining experience and items, especially early on. There are many unmarked areas on the

overworld An overworld or a hub world is, in a broad sense, an area within a video game that interconnects all its levels or locations. They are mostly common in role-playing games, though this does not exclude other video game genres, such as some pla ...

the party can enter, which can be found if the player looks around the open fields for any such places. This is true of all the overworlds.

Quests

The mandatory quests involve: * Clearing the Steading near Dragonhorn's Gap, which opens the way to the Dragon's Aerie. * Clearing the Dragon's Aerie, which opens the way to Thorne's Cave via a Pool of Darkness. * Clearing Thorne's Cave, which will give the party the Horn of Doom. * Clearing the drow caves and Kalistes' Temple under Zhentil Keep, which opens the way to Kalistes' Land via a Pool of Darkness. * Clearing Kalistes' Parlor, which will give the party the Crystal Ring. * Clearing the red tower of Marcus, which opens the way to Moander's body via a Pool of Darkness. * Clearing the heart of Moander where Tanetal resides, which will give the party the Talisman of Bane. * Clearing Arcam's Cave under Mulmaster, which opens the way to Bane's Land via a Pool of Darkness. * Finally, clearing Bane's Land and defeating Gothmenes, who then battles

Elminster Elminster Aumar is a fictional character appearing in the ''Forgotten Realms'' campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. He is also known as the Sage of Shadowdale, and is depicted as a powerful wizard featured i ...

. There are also side quests in several places, and famous people in the realm too. For example, Elminster was always there to maintain the dimensional portal for the party should they arrive at any Pool of Darkness. The lost princess ''Alusair Nacacia'' will ask the party to help her to fight Rakshasas in Myth Drannor. Lastly, after finishing the final quest, the party had the option to either end their journey or go through one more dungeon of enemies and traps, known as "Dave's Challenge".

Features

''Pools of Darkness'' differed from its predecessors in a number of ways. Unlike other Forgotten Realms

games where the party always stayed in

, the quests that the party have to endure traversed many dimensions to do battle with Bane's lieutenants. These include Thorne's Cave, Kalistes' Land, a visit to then sleeping Moander's colossus body in

Astral Plane The astral plane, also called the astral realm, or the astral world, or the soul realm, or the spirit realm, is a plane of existence postulated by classical, medieval, oriental, esoteric, and New Age philosophies and mystery religions.G. R. S. ...

, and finally Bane's Land itself in

Acheron The Acheron ( or ; ''Acheron'' or Ἀχερούσιος ''Acherousios''; ''Acherontas'') is a river in the Epirus (region), Epirus region of northwest Greece. It is long, and has a drainage area of . The river's source is located near the vil ...

. Mages have the ability to get up to level 9 spells (the maximum). A popular spell available in this game is the Delayed Blast Fireball, which can cause damage to many targets at once. Unlike ''

'', the fireball cannot be delayed and is cast immediately. ''Pools of Darkness'' followed its predecessors closely in terms of structure. The party could have a maximum of six adventurers (with two extra slots for NPCs). Characters had the ability to advance to level 40. Combat in ''Pools of Darkness'', especially late in the story, differed greatly from the encounters of the previous games. The player's characters faced some of the toughest creatures in the AD&D universe, in addition to a number of new and formidable critters created specifically for the game, such as the Pets of Kalistes (intelligent magic spiders that can see invisible enemies and whose venomous bite had a -2 save) and the Minions of Bane (which have the magic resistances of demons and the breath weapons of dragons). The game was by far the most extensive of any of the series, in storyline depth and possibilities of advancement and equipment. The game also featured better graphics at the time as it supported VGA 256 colors instead of 16. Another minor difference is the font used in the game is less stylish, but easier to read.

Differences between versions

In the Amiga version, scrolls could be joined into bundles, while the MS-DOS version didn't feature this option. Also games could be loaded in the camp menu of the Amiga version. MS-DOS users had to restart or enter a training hall and remove all their characters from the party to load a game.

Game credits

* Game creation: SSI Special Projects Group * Developer: Ken Humphries, Dave Shelley * IBM Programmers: Russ Brown, Jim Jennings, Kerry Bonin * Music: "The Fat Man", Dave Govett * Testers: Phil Alne, John Kirk, Andre Vrignaud, Brian Lowe, Alan Marenco, Glen Cureton, Mike Balajadia * Artists: Maurine Starkey, Richard Payne, Fred Butts, Jean Xiong, Mike Provenza, Cyrus Harris, Ed Trillo, Kevin Thompson, Laura Bowen, Mike Nowak, Mark Johnson * Encounter Authors: Chris Carr, Ken Eklund, Lori White, Tom Ono, Gary Shockley, Dave Georgeson, Cynthia Hwang

Reception

''Pools of Darkness'' was much less successful than the first Gold Box games, with SSI selling 52,793 copies. ''Pools of Darkness'' was reviewed in 1992 in ''

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

'' #178 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. In ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

'', Scorpia found the game enjoyable, with better graphics than in the prior

games. She criticized the "lame ending", annoying sounds, and having to abandon weapons when visiting another dimension, but called ''Pools of Darkness'' "the best of the lot" and "the ultimate challenge for the experienced Gold Box gamer". Jim Trunzo reviewed ''Pools of Darkness'' in ''

White Wolf The Arctic wolf (''Canis lupus arctos''), also known as the white wolf, polar wolf, and the Arctic grey wolf, is a subspecies of grey wolf native to the High Arctic tundra of Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands, from Melville Island to Ellesme ...

'' #31 (May/June, 1992) and stated that "The system is cleaner, quicker, easier to understand and better to look at and listen to. The adventure's plot is deep and believable, its scope is large and varied, and its monsters numerous and deadly. What more can a guy (or girl) ask for?" According to GameSpy, while "not remembered as the most memorable of the Forgotten Realms Gold Box games, but it was definitely worth playing back then, if you braved the previous three installments".

References

External links

*
Lost Citadel for ''Pools of Darkness''
{{Dungeons & Dragons video games 1991 video games Amiga games Classic Mac OS games DOS games Forgotten Realms video games Gold Box MicroMagic games NEC PC-9801 games Role-playing video games Single-player video games Strategic Simulations games Tactical role-playing video games Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by George Sanger Video games with gender-selectable protagonists Video games with oblique graphics