1. Ultima V - PC2. Ultima VI - PC3. Might and Magic VI - PC4. Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny - PC5. Pool of Radiance - PC6. Curse of the Azure Bonds - PC7. Secret of the Silver Blades - PC8. Pools of Darkness - PCPools of Darkness is the culmination of the SSI quadrology, and frankly, it's a mixed bag. I personally think the main problem is the fundamental limitations of the AD&D ruleset that forced the developers to just toss numbers and resistances at you to form a challenge, as otherwise you run roughshod over everything. But it goes too far and now you have the opposite problem; every fight is a real slog and the end game sequence relies on you getting lucky in terms of turn order, monster composition, and who makes what saves on each side.
The first thing you'll notice is we are now in glorious VGA. While the leap from CGA to EGA was dramatic, the leap from EGA to VGA is no less stunning. Everything takes on a more natural look, and the resolution is a big higher, so the text and graphics aren't so jagged and pixelated. They've also added soundcard support for everything. In addition to opening title music there are also musical moments for particularly dramatic scenes. Still nothing for general gameplay, but I feel like that has to be an aesthetic choice at this point. More noticable is that all of the PC Speaker sound effects have been replaced with digitized sound. While it was a bit jarring at first (I have a bit of fondness for old PC Speaker effects in RPGs) I soon found myself enjoying it, especially the little death scream.
The game starts with you returning to Phlan, the city where everything began. Shortly after you arrive and you are told the place is peaceful and doesn't need adventurers things go completely to hell. The city is literally lifted out of the ground, along with nearly every other town around the Moonsea. Apparently, Bane is pissed at you for foiling all his plots and this time he's sending the greatest of his lieutenants to take over the area. Thus begins your quest.
The game is sort of a best-of presentation of all the other games. You have back the overworld exploration of Pools, though now it's fully zoomed out so you have a better idea of where you're going. You have the more non-linear quest of Curse, though the geography encourages you to do things in an escalating order. And you have the deeper dungeon design of Secrets, though they resisted the temptation to have giant sprawling areas. Instead you get to see them use all the tricks they learned to create a bunch of small areas and some neat dungeons that feel much more natural than previous entries. And adding to that is a fairly substantial number of optional side quests that give you access to more side story and goodies, as well as the satisfaction of helping people in need.
You might remember my musings on the power curve. Here it's all out of whack. For starters, the level cap is now 40, and you'll get close to it by the end. However, after the first few levels after SotSB it's all empty levels (outside your magic users, who still get extra spell slots every level). Your fighting types' last meaningful level was either 13 or 15, and your cleric's last meaningful level was 18ish. Thiefs never had a meaningful level. So really, only your magic users care about levels to get a few exxtra spell casts. Breaking from tradition, you get to keep all the gear you brought with you from SotSB, and it definitely helps. However, the game's unique structure means it only matters for half the game.
See, the basic setup is that you need to dive into three dungeons in the overworld, and at the end of each of them you pass through one of the titular pools and make your way into a private realm of one of Bane's minions. In the process, all your magical gear will get destroyed (though you do have the opportunity to store it ahead of time so you don't lose it). This means your magic users pull extra duty, as starting off they are the bulk of your offense. While you usually can gear up in mid-range gear pretty quickly, you will notice the fact that your AC is worse by about 10 points compared to what it was beforehand. On top of this, these realms are objectively harder than the preceding dungeon. This is where the game's difficulty starts to take a nasty turn. The first one isn't so bad; it's short and the enemies are pedestrian at this point. The next two are longer, and the enemies are a pain in the ass. One realm is nothing but casters who are highly resistant to magic. The other realm is a bunch of giant blobs that are immune to most magic, resist physical, and can poison or stone your characters (both instant death). And these realms have their own overworld components, with at least one area required before you can do the final "castle" of each one. That said, the last of the three is an amazing concept; the realm is the body of a sleeping god, so you get to dive into his ear, brain, and heart. And if you thought you get rewarded for all of this by getting to use your pimp gear for the end, guess again. Yup, another private realm (though it's short).
The game also tosses in a ton of references to the previous three games. You'll run into a bunch of old companions, and there's numerous callbacks. It really is intended to be a wrap up of everything, and that's why it's a shame that it falls flat in terms of combat. The actual exploration and story are both quite good, and I enjoyed the dungeon design. But high level AD&D sucks. This game would have been amazing if it was a level 6-12 campaign.
Ah well, I'm glad I finished. Now on to the two Savage Frontier games, which bring us back to a 1-6 and 6-12 set of games, so I'm back in the zone of the fun part of AD&D rules. I'm going to try making a big bet on myself and going for the sextuple magic user dual class; I still haven't decided if I go rangers or fighters for my base. If I do fighters I can get my 3/2 attacks and dual in Gateway, but I won't get my fighter abilities back until Treasures. If I do rangers then I have to wait until Treasures to do the first dual. Rangers do have the benefit of being able to cast in armor.