Recenzia zatiaľ nie je preložená — zobrazujeme pôvodné znenie (English).
When I first launched Pools of Darkness, I was surprised how much I missed pen and paper. This game throws you into a fantasy world without mercy and expects you to remember the names of masters, spell lists, and the way back out of a cave where you've got three hits of health left.
It's a continuation of the Gold Box series that SSI released in the early nineties. Pools of Darkness is the final installment and plays old school — tactical dungeons, a six-character party you create or import from previous games, and plenty of moments when you'd want to curse the whole computer. You build a wizard, a ranger, a paladin, or some combination of all classes, and then you move forward, taking turns in combat and counting every step in the darkness.
The game runs in command mode — you select from menus what your character will do. Combat is turn by turn, no shortcuts and no speed-ups. For a while it holds your attention, then you're just cycling through menus. The worst part is that you're constantly exposed to deadly traps — you bend down to loot a chest and fall into a cavern where a dozen skeletons are waiting. Without any warning whatsoever. That was an era when cruelty was part of the design, not a bug.
Pools of Darkness belongs to those games that were decent when they came out, but time wasn't kind to them. The mechanics have aged, the text interface can't adequately convey the complexity the game demands anymore. To today's player it'll feel like filling out forms instead of adventure.
It's worth playing if you're curious what computer RPGs looked like before Baldur's Gate. Emulators handle it without problems. But bring a notebook with you. Without one, you'll regret it.
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