a brief review and a question

[humanflyz]

I've been playing this game for about five hours now, and all I can say is that it's definitely a disappointment for me. I mean, the value is certainly hard to beat with 10 bucks, for as a game that was once nearly $50, it is a disgrace.

First, I was shocked by omissions from D&D rules. For example, there is no Gnome race, no Wizard as a class, and no dual-wielding.

The gameplay itself is sort of repetitive: basically a typical dungeon-crawler, but the dungeons look almost exactly like each other. But some environments are very nicely rendered. The turn-based combat is okay at best and nightmarish at worst. Having to click though a lot of sub-menus to access inventory, spells, and items during combat makes it really easy to make a mistake. Even if one turns off the combat timer, it's still a hassle to access stuff. BG had a much better interface.

Also, it's really difficult that you cannot scroll around the map. I would like to have my rogue scout on his own without having to drag the entire party with him.

Also, the game seems to have trouble with my ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. I am running Windows XP, have the latest drivers, and I installed the latest POR patch. The issue is that the game doesn't render any spell-effects, or weapons for that matter. Whenever I cast a spell, all I see is the characters' invocation animation. When I attack, I don't see the weapon in the character's hands. They just swing their swords at the enemy with nothing in their hands. It looks totally ridiculous. I know the game is almost three years old, but it should still recognize ATI cards. I don't know if this is caused by WinXP or not. If anyone has the same problem, please tell me your solution, if there is one. Thank you.