''Pools of Darkness'' is a

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

published by

Strategic Simulations Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) was a video game developer and video game publisher, publisher with over 100 titles to its credit from its founding in 1979 to its dissolution in 1994. The company was especially noted for its numerous wargames ...

in 1991. The cover art and introduction screen shows a 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 ...

. 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 may refer to: *Decorative boxes made in gold *''Gold Box Gold box may refer to: * Decorative boxes made in gold *'' Gold Box'', a series of video games of 1988 to 1992 * Gold box (phreaking), a phreaking box to create a bridge between two ...

games, and the story is a continuation of the events after ''

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 ...

''. The

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

loosely based on the game was released in 1992. 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 alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a ...

, a campaign setting from ''

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

''. Players must stop an invasion from an evil god, eventually traveling to other dimensions to confront his lieutenants.

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, Inc.) ...

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

''.

Plot

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. He is often described as a giant with a large eye that wreaks destruction when opened. Balor takes part in the Battle of Mag Tuired, a ...

). 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 Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

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 (sometimes referred to as a hub world) is, in a broad sense, commonly 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 vide ...

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. 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 (a

), who 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 (Dungeons & ...

. There are also side quests in several places, and famous people in the realm too. For example,

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

. 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 the 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 Bane may refer to: Fictional characters * Bane (DC Comics), an adversary of Batman * Bane (''Harry Potter''), a centaur in the ''Harry Potter'' series * Bane (''The Matrix''), a character in the ''Matrix'' film trilogy * Bane the Druid, a Gu ...

's lieutenants. These include Thorne's Cave, Kalistes' Land, a visit to then sleeping

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

's colossus body in

Astral Plane The astral plane, also called the astral realm or the astral world, is a plane of existence postulated by classical, medieval, oriental, and esoteric philosophies and mystery religions.G.R.S.Mead, ''The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western Tra ...

, and finally Bane's Land itself in

Acheron The Acheron (; grc, Ἀχέρων ''Acheron'' or Ἀχερούσιος ''Acherousios''; ell, Αχέροντας ''Acherontas'') is a river located in the Epirus region of northwest Greece. It is long, and its drainage area is . Its source is ...

. 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 could see invisible enemies and whose venomous bite had a -2 save) and the terrifying Minions of Bane (which had the magic resistances of demons and the breath weapons of dragons). The game was by far the most extensive of any of the gold box 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 of ''Pools of Darkness''

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 reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

'' #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 computer game magazine 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 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'', 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". 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 NEC PC-9801 games Role-playing video games Strategic Simulations games Tactical role-playing video games Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender Video games scored by George Sanger Video games with oblique graphics