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[manikus]

Hillsfar is related, but the gameplay is very different and the graphics set is completely different. I did not enjoy this one.

I've played all the way through SotSB at least 4 times. One of the Pools I finished and the other I didn't, and I don't think I ever finished the Curse of the Azure bonds. I haven't completed any of the Savage Frontier games. SotSB was the only one I had before FRUA, so once I started another of the lot, I would end up trying stuff out in FRUA.

[Uatu]

Hmm - seems your run has been similar to mine, except for my never trying FRUA

Secret of the Silver Blades is one of the ONLY computer games I have ever finished (I was pretty exhilarated when I destroyed that lich, although the ending was sort of lackluster). Besides that, I guess I beat Ultima VI, and that's about it. (Darn games were too hard!)

Plus, I finally had a PC that was fairly fast and able to handle those games at that time...

[LurchBrick]

I've beaten every goldbox game except Silver Blades and Pool of Darkness. I must admit I had to use a hint now and then to get through the hard bits.

[Uatu]

I have never been without a hint book for my Gold Box games (I just never was a cartographer at heart.)

[Jadefang]

Secret of the Silver Blades seems to be the easiest of the Gold Box games, IMO. I never really felt pressed for resource preservation or found battles impossible compared to the others (That's not even mentioning the utter ease of duping items using the vault). I think Curse of the Azure Bonds is probably the hardest, or possibly Pools of Darkness if you include the Dave's Challenge portion or try to beat Gothmenes without exploiting the waiting-while-enemies-can't-see-you-until-combat-ends glitch.

[Uatu]

Easiest? (Gulp!) No wonder I beat it!

In the end, I don't really like games to be too hard, since I don't want to spend FOREVER trying to beat them (and failing!)...

[manikus]

Hint books? I've always been too cheap. I know they're all available online now, so maybe I'll have to take a look. I didn't find any of them to be too hard. I didn't finish due to lack of free time and eventually waning interest. It was the same for the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games.

I really liked all the mapping. What can I say - at least I had something to show my friends when it was all done.

[Uatu]

Ah - I never had hint books since Internet was available - FAQs are all over the Net, after all

In the old days, I just HAD to buy those hint books - I mean, there were no other sources of hints, really...

[manikus]

There were news groups, usenet, etc. But we're talking way old school.

[Uatu]

Hmm - I did try a few BBS's back in the day... It was too much effort to log on and read stuff, though - not nearly as fun as the Internet is nowadays