Some games never really die. They just wait, on old discs and in old memories, for someone to bring them back. Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor is one of those games. The 2001 Dungeons & Dragons cRPG, long out of print and unavailable digitally, has been restored and is now available for the first time digitally on Steam and GOG, priced at $19.99 / £16.75 / €19.99.
The restoration comes from boutique publisher SNEG, in partnership with Wizards of the Coast, and it is a careful one. This is not a remake or a reimagining. It is the original game, fixed up and made comfortable on modern hardware, with its classic turn-based combat, its party of six heroes and its sprawling Forgotten Realms dungeons intact. For D&D fans of a certain age, it is the return of a genuine piece of cRPG history. For everyone else, it is a chance to play a game that has been effectively lost for almost 25 years.
As announced by SNEG via Games Press, Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor is out now on Steam and GOG.
What Is Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor?
Originally released in 2001 by Ubisoft and developed by Stormfront Studios, Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor is a party-based, turn-based cRPG set in the Forgotten Realms. Its name carries serious weight in role-playing history: the original Pool of Radiance from 1988 was one of the games that defined computer role-playing, and Ruins of Myth Drannor was its long-awaited successor, built on official Dungeons & Dragons rules.
The story begins with a new Pool of Radiance discovered beneath New Phlan, spreading a wave of pure evil across the realm. Answering Elminster’s call, you build a party of heroes and descend into the haunted ruins of Myth Drannor to stop a sorceress and a dracolich from turning the power of the Pool against Faerûn. It is classic D&D, in the best sense: a clear quest, a terrifying dungeon and a party of heroes standing between the world and disaster.
Character creation is the heart of the game. You create up to four heroes of your own, choosing from different races and classes, and you can recruit two more companions along the way, building a party of six. Characters develop up to level 16, with more than 90 spells to learn and powerful magic reaching 8th level. Combat is tactical and turn-based, with an optional turn timer for players who want extra pressure and a faster pace in battles.
How the Pool of Radiance Restoration Modernises a 2001 Classic
The new release is designed to make Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor much easier to enjoy on modern hardware while keeping the original experience intact. It runs smoothly on current systems, fixes numerous bugs from the original game, adds widescreen support up to 4K with sharper visuals, and introduces an improved user interface with a new action bar and additional tooltips.
Full controller support has been added, along with reworked camera controls and adjustable combat animation speeds, making exploration and battles much more comfortable for today’s audience. Those are the kinds of changes that matter most for a game of this age: the original was not built for gamepads or widescreen monitors, and playing it today should not feel like a chore.
Crucially, players can also choose how far they want the enhancements to go. An optional Legacy mode preserves the original gameplay and visuals, while the in-game settings let you adjust the scope of the modern improvements. The goal, as SNEG puts it, is not to replace the original game, but to make a large, tactical Forgotten Realms cRPG easier to discover and enjoy today — whether you remember Myth Drannor from its first release or are entering its ruins for the first time.
Why Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor Matters
There is a reason SNEG’s work matters. Games like Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor were once simply gone: out of print, incompatible with modern systems, and unavailable anywhere legal. Every year that passed made them harder to play and easier to forget. Restorations like this one do not just sell a game. They preserve a piece of gaming history and make it available to a new generation.
The D&D connection makes this one especially significant. The Forgotten Realms is one of the most beloved settings in all of fantasy, and Ruins of Myth Drannor is a substantial, old-school adventure through it. With official Dungeons & Dragons rules, a party of six, sprawling dungeons and tactical turn-based encounters, it offers something that modern RPGs rarely do: a slow, deliberate, dungeon-crawling experience where every spell slot and every positioning decision matters.
It is also a reminder of how rich the D&D video game legacy is. SNEG describes itself as a boutique publisher dedicated to reviving classic gaming gems, and Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor is exactly that: a gem that has been sitting in the dark for a quarter of a century, waiting for someone to polish it up and put it back on the shelf.
Where to Play Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor
Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor is available now for the first time digitally on Steam and GOG, priced at $19.99 / £16.75 / €19.99. The restoration includes widescreen support up to 4K, full controller support, an improved UI, reworked camera controls, adjustable combat animation speeds, numerous bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements, plus the optional Legacy mode for purists.
If you have fond memories of the original, this is the version to return to. If you have never played it, this is the easiest it has ever been to descend into Myth Drannor. Either way, the Pool is waiting — and Elminster is calling.
Source: SNEG, via Games Press. For more classic games returning to PC, check out EA Just Dropped a Mountain of Classics on Steam — and Some of Them Are Absolute Bangers and Lords of the Fallen II Looks Like the Dark Fantasy Sequel We’ve Been Waiting For.
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