What's the opinion on this game? I heard it was very buggy, so I'm downloading the latest patch before I install, but what was the actual gameplay like for people? Is it worth investing hours of life in, when I should be revising for my GCSE's in June?

Thought the game was junk, myself. The best part was the song sung by the bard of Kara-Tur.

<center>Nightowl2</center>

Go here for player reviews:
PC Game Reviews of PoR2

They are not good. Try at your own risk.

This is one of those "could have been" games. It has the potential to be great but is let down by a horrible interface, it feels like you are controlling your guys using those big robot arms they have in nuclear plants there is that much delay in what you want them to do and what they actually do.
Going into your inventory and equiping and removing items is pure torture, as is movement.
Combat is bad too as it is so slooooooow, there is a speedup program out there like the one for Wiz 8.
If you are unlucky enough to have bought this game then I'd download that too.
I sold my game within 2 week it was that bad.
Now I've run through the bad points it's difficult to remember any good ones, avoid !.

If you've not bought it yet, then don't. Buy Might and Magic anything, or Morrowind or any Baldurs game.

I already own Morrowind, and all Black isle games. The only reason I bought was the novelty of seeing a D&D based RPG I had never played.

One thing you need to realise is that the designers tried to make this a truely Turn Based RPG like the PnP version of DnD. That means initiative rolls and everyone gets their actions in turn...yes it is very slow in combat. But, that is how it is for a PnP game as well. Personally I slowed the timer down so there was no time limit to the turns. That way you can look and plan your actions. But, if you don't like Turn Based combat then don't buy it. Buy some other RTC game, there are tons out there. Otherwise the game is slow and the scenery is repeatative and boring as heck. After awhile I got tired of clomping along through areas that looked like every other area I had seen.

Desdicado is right...this is a "could have been great" game. But, the designers didn't have enough resolve to make it what it could have been.

I remember posting about this game a month or two ago, you could search for topics like this one.

If you need help, my copy of the game came with the strategy guide.

A friend of mine bought this game and also managed to get one free (he should have been suspicious), so he gave the extra one to me. After 5 minutes play I wanted a refund [img]smile.gif[/img] .

I ot it veeery cheap last week, I had heard so many bad things about it I just had to see if they were true, surely a Forgotten Realms game couldn't be this bad... well it is... I mean it uses the 3e rules and the Ranger can't use 2 weapons?!? No Wizards! No Gnomes! and slllloooooowwwww....

One of the worst game I tried recently... thank god I didn't buy it when it came out...