Most games are remembered for what happened while people played them. Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor is remembered for what happened when they stopped. PC Gamer's original review counted "a multitude of outrageous bugs", and, as the outlet recalled this week, the most infamous of them deleted system files when you uninstalled the game.
Twenty-five years on, it's back, and this time the uninstaller is not the scariest thing in it. Publisher SNEG has released the 2001 RPG on Steam and GOG, RPG Site reports, in partnership with Wizards of the Coast. Steam lists Stormfront Studios as the developer, SNEG as the publisher and 6 November 2026 as the release date. According to the store page, it's the first time the game has been sold digitally.
What the restoration changes
The Steam page says the re-release runs smoothly on modern hardware, sharpens the visuals, fixes numerous bugs from the original game and adds widescreen support up to 4K. The interface gains an action bar and tooltips, and there's full controller support and reworked camera control.
RPG Site, reporting SNEG's announcement, adds two details for anyone wary of a facelift. Combat animation speed can be adjusted, and an optional "Legacy" mode preserves the original gameplay and visuals, with in-game settings deciding how far the modern changes go.
The bigger question for a game with this reputation is whether it actually holds together now. PC Gamer's Jody Macgregor played the opening hours of the re-release and reports none of the old trouble: no key items vanishing, no save files going corrupt. In his words, it's "smooth and problem-free".
The game under the patches
The name carries some weight. The original Pool of Radiance arrived from SSI in 1988 and was the first game on the engine behind SSI's "Gold Box" Dungeons & Dragons games. PC Gamer calls Ruins of Myth Drannor a spiritual successor to that game, and notes that it adapted the then-new third edition of the D&D rules.
The setup, per Steam: a new Pool of Radiance has been found beneath New Phlan, Elminster calls for help, and a party heads into the ruined elven city of Myth Drannor to stop a sorceress and a dracolich. You create up to four heroes and recruit two more for a party of six, level them to 16, and work through more than 90 spells, up to 8th level. Fights are turn-based, with an optional turn timer for anyone who wants the pressure.
PC Gamer is careful not to oversell what's underneath. Macgregor writes that it isn't "an RPG masterpiece held back by its buggy release", and that its take on third edition is incomplete. Sorcerer is the only arcane class, so there's no wizard, halflings and gnomes are missing, and you don't choose where skill points go or which feats to take. He points out that The Temple of Elemental Evil adapted the 3.5 rules far more fully a couple of years later. Ruins of Myth Drannor, by comparison, "feels rudimentary".
He's enjoying it anyway. He calls it "junk food D&D", an undemanding dungeon crawl, and says he's glad it's back.
Price and the demo
RPG Site lists the price as US$19.99, £16.75 or €19.99. A demo is on the Steam store page, so anyone who skipped the game in 2001 because of its reputation can try a little before paying. Steam also sells it in a bundle with The Temple of Elemental Evil. So the game PC Gamer measures it against now sits right beside it in the same listing.
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