Finally, I picked the Mac version for my "first play 30 years later". But when I played the Amiga version during first parts, to decide which version to use, I ended quickly cut the sound because it's the only way I found to not have to listen again and again the same few seconds of music. The music could be cool but it's quickly repetitive.
In fact, even sounds of Amiga version are better, it's not just graphics and the few music. But for sure it's only few sounds. It's unfortunate Gog can't sell and maintain this version.
The British Retro Games magazine recently had a nice article on the game (and a far bigger one on Monkey Island)
I had put in back the game and series, but I was still reminding how great it's been, and that PoR was for me the best of the series, eventually I didn't played the last (4rth), I can't remind. I thought during decades it was a large part of nostalgia even if then I was 30 or a bit less/more.
But that replay 30 years after, but with Mac version (could have work with Amiga version but certainly not DOS version I never played and will never play), is a smash.
Woo the game was really that great, hard to believe. Eventually now I see better various flaws or some weird designs, but so many elements very well done and hardly find in any modern RPG.
I also realized how PoR was a strong influence of Temple of Elemental Evil, ToEE has much better combats, but it's so far in term of global quality.
On many aspects quite great in PoR, most are probably just impossible to reproduce/redo well in a modern context.
Moreover on multiple aspects the difficulty is based on weird if not bad rules, for example:
- Levels leech, which means between 50% to 75% xp removed, is a weird design. You have some tools to manage it, silver arrows, henchmen, few restoration scrolls, but this isn't well tuned. And even if lost 50% to 75% xp is manageable for one character in a party, it's still a dumb design.
- Poison, I could not know some tricks, but to manage it's Elf, Slower Poison and pay 1K GP anyway, again eventually henchmen, long range but you can't just have long range, absurd resurection price in case you screwed up with Slower Poison. Overall it's still a dumb design.
- Get stolen in bars is absurdly harsh, it's more like a last minute addition never tuned properly. It's possible I don't know a trick here like a rogue with leather armor in party as a protection tool.
- Areas without any automap, weak design, they could have find a better trick.
- Identification cost is absurdly high, really a pointless weird design aspect.
- Instant take down of a character disabled is a weird design for player side, fine for enemies seeing the amount they are.
- No tools to identify cursed item, weak design, even if it seems there's very few of them.
- Backstabbing is stupidly complex and requires a precise coordination of 3 characters, that's dumb and as far I know it's not following the rules.
The problem is even if all those points are very weird design, and many are obviously plain bad or lacking a better tuning, you can't just remove them without mostly destroy the game and its difficulty feeling. And replace them with more coherent designs, and still build a fairly good difficulty feeling. . . this is a wide topic.
For the positive side, you can't find in modern RPG, there's a big list, some example:
- Despite combats definitely suffer of too many enemies for too many combats and the game should have implement simultaneous enemies turn like in ToEE. Despite combats rules are mostly basic, and the number of spells and special actions quite limited. Combats still build a quite good level of fun in a category of combats types, those more focused on static and positions, something you can't find in modern games, or most of them.
- For the "squares areas", the non linearity, the filling density of stuff not related to combats, and a real structured design not close to arena or corridor, this is quite an humiliation for any modern RPG.
- The outdoor implementation is quite good, so many modern RPG are filled a lot too much with trash combats and limited tourism value. But clearly for modern RPG it's at a totally different level of challenge when designing and building an area is at least 20 times longer.
- The story telling could not be advanced writing quality like a very few modern RPG have, but it's still very dense and providing a quite good feeling of non linearity. Obviously this aspect won't concern cartoons and movies generations, but for players like me, it show how much superior is text to tell a story than graphics and voice acting. Moreover if some modern RPG tried reinsert such aspect in modern RPG designs, at end they are far to achieve it as well. First reason is too much effort on text quality and not enough on text efficiency and shortness that is suiting much better a video game. Second reason, it's a lot harder to merge text and advanced graphics, and it pushes RPG to be more tourism simulators than real story telling.
- The rumors, omg, even if some more modern games did a serious work on it like BG series, they are so far behind on that aspect.
- Even if the tricks are on the easy side for most, the amount and the amount involving graphics just make wonder why most modern RPG are so limited in that matter, and I include the DOS series, that is on that aspect widely ahead any other modern RPG or mostly.