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Forgotten Realms CollectionAre these worth it for someone who has never played them?(9 posts)(9 posts)
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Posted August 22, 2015
I've never played any of the reknowned Gold Box games when I was a kid. The only D&D video games I remember was a collection which included Heroes of the Lance, Dragons of Flame, and Hillsfar. The former two games were side-scrollers and pretty terrible from what I remember. The latter game, Hillsfar, was okay, but more of a collection of mini-games than a proper RPG.

For the gold box RPGs, how do they hold up? Would they be entertaining for a long-time D&D fan, but who has never played them before? Or are they best left for those who play them for the nostalgia?
Posted August 22, 2015
I can't vouch for the official Goldbox games (personally I never managed to get into them), but I assume that "long-time D&D fan" and you trying out Hillsfar means you were interested in D&D before Baldur's Gate? If so, I'm convinced you will find Collection Two worthwhile regardless, because it includes Unlimited Adventures and that one will allow you to play Goldbox-style community modules without the drawback of crude EGA graphics, clunky keyboard controls or outsourced text that constantly requires you to read journal entries in the manual instead of telling the story in-game. There are even remakes of Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds available for it, and if you play them with the Unlimited Adventures engine, I'm sure you'll enjoy them. Also, if you're a fan of the oldschool pen-and-paper modules, many were adapted for Unlimited Adventures, too. Check out the amount and variety of high quality adventures you can download for free. More info about this powerful Goldbox campaign creator and its community here.
Post edited August 22, 2015 by Leroux
Posted August 22, 2015
Like Leroux said, the most annoying thing about the Gold Box games will be the journal entries. I still have the old manuals so it's not a problem for me but checking a digital copy of the manual while in game will most likely be annoying unless you have 2 monitors. The Eye of the Beholder Games on the other hand have no such issue since they're dungeon crawlers.
Posted August 23, 2015
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OzzieArcane: I still have the old manuals so it's not a problem for me but checking a digital copy of the manual while in game will most likely be annoying unless you have 2 monitors.
I guess it comes down to what kind of a player you are. I always prefer fullscreen mode for total immersion, but if you're fine with playing the games in a window, then it shouldn't pose that much of a problem to have the pdf open on the side. Of course you'll still have to scroll through the document and switch between DOSBox and your OS for that, which might be annoying in any case.
Posted August 23, 2015
I'm afraid that you might be put off by the clunky user interface that those Gold Box games use. Especially the first games lacked a lot of comfort features (you had to manually cast your healing spells and manually rememorize them) that one would expect a CRPG to have. Better wait for a sale and then see whether you will like them.
Posted August 23, 2015
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OzzieArcane: I still have the old manuals so it's not a problem for me but checking a digital copy of the manual while in game will most likely be annoying unless you have 2 monitors.
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Leroux: I guess it comes down to what kind of a player you are. I always prefer fullscreen mode for total immersion, but if you're fine with playing the games in a window, then it shouldn't pose that much of a problem to have the pdf open on the side. Of course you'll still have to scroll through the document and switch between DOSBox and your OS for that, which might be annoying in any case.
No matter how old and clunky the interface, Pool of Radiance will definitely draw you in. Make sure you read the intro material to get into the atmosphere :)
You can also have the PDF on a tablet. Even a 7" one would do as it would be about the same size as the original manuals:)
Post edited August 23, 2015 by gog295
Posted August 23, 2015
My experience is limited to watching a friend play them back in the day, and him letting me tinker with a "new game" to see if I would want to play it myself. I was a huge D&D tabletop fan, but I never got into the AD&D ruleset that Gold Box is based on (I spent 20 years away from D&D in general, going from Basic to 4E between the ages of 18 and 38). I was often confused (and sometimes perturbed) about multi-classing, dual-classing, and level limits based on whether or not you were a human. In retrospect, I don't feel like I fully "got" the AD&D ruleset, and thus never had much interest in learning it to play the game(s). Having played Basic, 4E, and some 5E, I feel like AD&D may have been the most difficult to learn of the rulesets.

I enjoyed the visual customization of each character's icon, as far as race, outfits, weapon, shield (or no shield), and colors. It felt very groundbreaking at the time, especially with games like The Bard's Tale where you didn't get to choose a portrait AND you didn't even get an icon because there was no battlefield. And who doesn't enjoy "rolling for stats" when creating a character, hoping to score big with a powerful fighter or a super-dexy thief or a genius mage who gets extra spell slots?

What I didn't like was THAC0 (like most, I have many complaints about it), having to "8-hour rest" & then memorize all our spells (hoping not to get "interrupted" and have to start over again), manually mapping (which I suppose is no longer an issue, as the maps are likely all over the internet by now), and the view during combat.

Let me elaborate on the combat thing. I'm not talking about the EoB series, I mean the games in Bundle Two. I liked that the battlefield was grid-based, but I didn't like that room walls were slanted...it messed with my perception of where I could and couldn't safely move. I also didn't like that I couldn't see the entire battlefield (I had no way of knowing exactly where everyone was, friends or foes).

As far as the stories told in these games, I can't comment at all since I never played them and I never read the novels they were based on. I did, however, enjoy the hell out of playing tabletop D&D in Basic & 4E (by the time 5E came around, I had tried it for a while but didn't like having to adapt to yet another new system...it actually seemed like a good system, I just didn't have the time/patience to learn it thoroughly).

So if anyone wants to agree/disagree with me on something, feel free. Admittedly, I may be remembering something wrong, or something may have been made easier as far as gameplay as the Gold Box series games were originally released. These are games I definitely feel like I should enjoy, but I think mostly because of the ruleset and battlefield, I'm still undecided on whether to buy them.
Posted August 23, 2015
If you want something that resembles a Roguelike (but is first-person, real-time, and permadeath is optional), there's Dungeon Hack, which is in the 3rd collection.
Posted August 23, 2015
If you have any sort of affinity for Legend of Grimrock, the Eye of the Beholder games will be up your alley. Just... make sure to have the mapping companion handy because the games themselves don't have any sort of mapping feature. I can't speak for any of the Gold Box stuff though, I'm holding off on purchasing those until a sale for some of the same reasons you are. I'd love to give Pool of Radiance an honest shot, but it might cross the line for the amount of old game tedium I'm willing to deal with. As for the third collection, Dungeon Hack is basically a roguelike in the Eye of the Beholder engine and Menzoberranzan is its own weird sort of first-person RPG (with an engine that was also used in both Ravenloft games which will probably show up on this service too).
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Forgotten Realms CollectionAre these worth it for someone who has never played them?(9 posts)(9 posts)
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