Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor launched in 2001 amidst the isometric D&D resurgence powered by the success of the Baldur’s Gate games. Alas, it did not fare quite as well, because—bluntly—it wasn’t great. It faded into memory fairly quickly, recalled occasionally by die-hard fans of the genre and not many others, but never with enough affection to warrant a second chance.
Until now, that is, because SNEG is bringing it back to Steam and GOG later this year, for the game’s first-ever digital release. Details are a bit thin right now: The game “is being updated to run smoothly on modern systems,” but specifics on enhancements and changes will not be revealed until closer to launch, currently expected in Q4 of this year.
Frankly, I’d call this news more interesting than exciting. The truth is that Ruins of Myth Drannor generated real pre-release hype because it looked great and we were all in the mood for that sort of thing (original publisher Ubisoft also put out a phenomenal big box collector’s edition, which all these years later I’m still angry about missing), but the end result was underwhelming. Bugs were a major problem, and the game itself felt flat, with plentiful combat but none of the depth that made Baldur’s Gate 2 so compelling.
Still, I can’t help wondering if Ruins of Myth Drannor will fare better in a new critical examination, removed from the expectations set by its early 2000s contemporaries—particularly among the GOG crowd, which has much more of a pronounced taste for this sort of thing.
Obviously a lot will depend on the enhancements SNEG brings to the table, but the game’s the thing: Baldur’s Gate is still singularly brilliant, and The Temple of Elemental Evil is absolutely worth your time thanks large to the efforts of the Circle of Eight, which took a flawed Greyhawk adventure and turned it into the most D&D game ever. Will Ruins of Myth Drannor surprise us with an unexpected resilience, or is it really just the kinda craptastic trend-chaser it looked to be 20 years ago? I’m eager to find out.
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Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor isn’t the only old game made new that SNEG is bringing to Steam and GOG. It’s also got the strategy games Warlords 4: Heroes of Etheria and Soldiers at War, the action-RPG Dark Earth, survival horror games Ecstatica 1 and 2, and the Second World War tactics game Soldiers of War in the pipe as well.
“Each of them tried something interesting and pushed PC gaming in its own way, with all the creativity, ambition, and even technical limitations of its era,” SNEG director Artem Shchuiko said. “We believe these games deserve to be available again—for players who remember them, for people discovering them for the first time, and hopefully even for creators who may find a spark of inspiration in these lost gems.”
Ahead of all that, SNEG is running a publisher sale on Steam with discounts of up to 90%, including a bunch of old-time D&D games. The sale is on until July 27.
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