GameBanshee Forums

Hi

Sorry if this forum is the wrong place for such basic questions but I have a couple of queries about PoR. I'm a big fan of the Baldurs Gate games and was wondering how similar PoR is to BG in aspects such as control of characters and combat. I know combat in PoR is turn-based but does this literally mean the game pauses itself after each combat round. Are there any other autopause facilities in the game as in BG? Any general advice gratefully received I'll finish Throne of Bhaal soon and would like a new challenge!

Cheers

Jon

Yes the game uses turn-based battle system but there are no auto pause settings. Every player has a certain amount of time to do whatever he likes in his turn and so on. As for the similarities with the BG saga are plenny but you should know that the game uses 3rd edition D&D rules.

In actuality, this game can be considered quite different than the BG series, depending on your viewpoint. Yes, they're both fantasy role playing games based upon the dungeons and dragons model and set in the same "world." However, RoMD is very combat oriented. There are no real puzzles worth mentioning and the quests are simplistic. In fact, you don't really need to check your "quest log" at all in RoMD if you pay attention to what you're told. It's not necessarily a linear game, but it is a dungeon hack. Thus, if the thing you loved most about BG was the interaction with NPC's and the various quests, and the thing you liked least was the combat, this game may not be for you. I'm not bashing this game (that comes a little later), as I actually enjoy it and have played it through twice in its entirety, with a couple of other stabs to experiment with different classes, I just want to warn you that it definitely has a different feel than BG -- above and beyond the 3e rule application and different interface.

Now for the bashing. The thing is buggy as buggy can be. You didn't even want to have it before the first patch as it could tank your entire operating system. Even after three patches (you should find the readme file on what the third patch alone fixed, the bugs go on for over a page), my game still randomly crashes in a couple of different ways, the least hostile of which is simply closing up shop and dropping me into windows. Thus, I and many others have come up with the simple and expedient solution of saving the game as often as humanly possible (I also recommend at least two different save games to be used in parallel because, sometimes, people have found that their last saved game can just become corrupt for no apparent reason). Saving the game has become somewhat like a nervous tic, because every time I forget to do it, my game will inevitably crash, whereas if I remember to save, I can cruise for an hour or two before the crash.

In any event, I do recommend the game. It's fun, there are more strategic issues to consider in combat than in BG, it's not a click fest like Diablo, and it can occupy you with interesting ideas relating to character generation and advancement in different classes. The graphics are also generally interesting (at least at the character level, as some of the dungeons are pretty boring).

Have fun.