Rating: 
Summary: DON'T!
Review: my god, why did I ever installed it? wait a few months and buy it after the first 10 patches comes out, becouse you know what? it doesn't work without it, I'm using PENT4 1G with 512MB mem win XP, sound O.K?, well it's slugish and crash all the time... just wait...
Rating: 
Summary: So much potential...
Review: This game had the potential to be the closest pc game to the original PnP games, however, it has turned into a giant disappointment. Here's why:-completely unfinished dialog
-far too many bugs to mention. Basically, a +3 Cloak, which is all you ever know by the vagueness of the description doesn't even give you +3 nor do many other "bonuses"
-the game was rated "T" at the last minute which caused the developers to take out many, many things but the remnents of those quests/people remain which leads to unsolvable quests
-uses the Arcanum engine which was outdated when Arcanum was released 1-1/2 years ago. Do NOT buy this product unless you want to encourage other software companies to release beta games. This title, while it had been promising, is an utter disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Wait for the bargin bin slot on this one...
Review: Don't get me wrong. I'm not trashing the game. Half of this game was one of the best experiences I've had playing D&D on the pc. The other half was so frustrating that I've decided to stop playing it entirely. Serious bugs all through. Horrible charactor pathfinding, enemies showing up on the other side of walls has me reloading because I can't resolve the battle. Slow camera response (or just poor camera movement) and many many other problems. Unbelievable potential and great fights had me trying to get through the bugs, but in the end I'm just dissapointed. Not worth 50 bucks. Poor form Atari, poor form.
Rating: 
Summary: This would be 5 stars, but for the bugs
Review: This game has enormous, but as yet unrealized, potential. I spent a great deal of time 20 years ago playing the original D&D. Although the rules have changed somewhat, this game is easily the closest to that pen and paper experience any game has come. I particularly like the fact that parties have different starting points and motives based on party alignment, and that different dialog options are available based on skill level in interpersonal relations. This gives the game a role-playing feel that is unsual for a CPRG. Combat is immensely enjoyable. Although the interface is a little difficult to learn, once mastered it makes game play truly enjoyable. Now for the gripes: I am not at all amused that Atari took my $50 to be an involuntary beta tester. This game should not have been released in its current form. Although the game has not proven to be literally unplayable for me, some of the bugs completely disable certain features of the game. Many others are so obvious that it is quite apparent that either (1) no one bothered to quality check the game, which seems hard to believe; or (2) no one had any compunction against releasing an unfinished product to the market, which seems more likely. I do not expect perfection; every CPRG I've ever bought had some bugs that needed to be patched. This one, though, is astonishing in the frequency and severity of problems. For this, I blame Atari, not Troika. That being said, I hope to see a patch (very, very soon) and hope to see a sequel. I'll be playing this for a while, I suspect.
Rating: 
Summary: True to DnD
Review: Hello there all of you who visit Amazon.com I wanted to say few words about this product just because it seems that some people have missunderstood the concept of this game. Some of you might know that the key developers of this game have also been working on games like Fallout and Arcanum - both games with an original world and original quests. But this time Troika (the developer) wanted to create a game which would be true to the original DnD system which was not a computer game at all. yes, other companies have tryed to convert that feeling before but in my opinion they have failed to deliver the "rights" feeling - Troika did it. I'm loving this game, it may not have the great worlds of Arcanum or Fallout, heck I can say that's it's a dungeon crawl, but it has the best such game I have ever played. So if you're into tactical fighting, DnD and some adventuring this is the game for you. Bugs, yup there are some bugs, I've not seen any game stoppers (some claim that there are) but I've encoutered few of them - most of the "bugs" are actual the way the game is supposed to be. But there will be a patch any time soon so maybe you can keep waiting for few more days and you will have the game of the year. Why do I like this game ? Is it the story - I have to say that the story is that great what I was waiting from Troika, but it's because the game is a perfect copy of the original module - Troika put something new into it and also changed the world to fit the new 3.5 ruleset. The story isn't original (it's great, but not an Oscar winning writing). The game world isn't original (all DnD games are alike - more or less). It's the way the game world reacts to your actions, it's all in the choices you can make. And also I have to say that the game looks fantastic. Don't even try to tell me that the engine is same with the one they used in Arcanum ( yes yes, I know it's somewhat the same engine but gazillion new lines of code). I hope this was helpfull and I also hope that you would try this game before you judge it.
Rating:
Summary: SERIOUS issues with this game
Review: I have waited anxiously for months for this game, and now that I've played it for a couple of weeks, and my characters are at 5-6th level. I have to say I am disappointed. I have encountered several of the bugs mentioned (crash to desktop when moving items, NPC's overloading themselves, others). Unfortunately, plotting and game play don't make up for it. The voice acting is uninteresting (as opposed to BG I and II), the items lack the interesting descriptions of the BG series - in BG I and II, even some low-power, magic weapons had interesting little histories written. I wound up keeping some low-power weapons just because I found their stories interesting. I have found little that is that interesting in TOEE. There are a number of odd quirks that do NOTHING to enhance game play. For example, at every merchant I shopped at, you say "let's barter" and the merchant says something like - "I have to help this person who was here before you first. All right. Now let's trade." This happened EVERY SINGLE TIME I TRIED TO BUY SOMETHING. This is just an irritant.
The good news:
I like the combat system, some of the battles are VERY hairy, and I like the fact that NPC's grab a share of the loot - makes you look for balance rather than just snapping up everyone available. But they will overload themselves and there is no way to get them to part with valuable stuff. Suggestion to ATARI - let the PC's buy stuff from the NPC's.
This is a GORGEOUS game visually though, with great spell graphics, movement, and well-rendered characters and backgrounds. I hope that the patch(es) that come out will fix the bugs, but overall, I have to agree with the reviewers who say WAIT FOR THE PATCH.
Rating:
Summary: Great game, but unfinished
Review: We got this game almost the day it came out, as we were very excited about it. I LOVE the game itself, as it is extraordinary many ways - I will have a hard time going back to anything which does not have this turn-based style of combat. The combat interface incorporates pen and paper turn-based style, with full/half/free actions, and an initiative order! While the game occasionally gets a bit confused (I have had five foot step free actions interpreted as full actions, annoying to say the least) overall it works the way its supposed to and makes combat better than any crpg I have seen to date: really exciting from a strategy standpoint. The radial menu available to all characters is a bit unwieldy in that mousing slows down (particularly in big battles) and is difficult to "catch" the option you want to choose for your mouse wavering all over the place. You can work around this, however, and once you learn how to implement the various options (it took me forever how to figure out how to unlock doors, for example) It becomes easier and faster to use. However, the truth remains that it is an unfinished game, and it should never have been released as such. There is little to no "finishing touches" ie. no item descriptions, and obviously temporarily named objects which remained in the game. The bugs are numerous, and some of them are game-stoppers or quest-breakers. Many of them are obvious, so I don't think anyone did any quality testing. I am having to read up on what does and doesn't work in the game, and play my game based not on what I want to do, but on what isn't bugged. That's just not right - Atari shows (IMO) poor business ethics by charging unsuspecting customers $50 for an unfinished beta version of what WILL be the best crpg ever when it is finished.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Game
Review: This game is by far the best D&D simulation of all time. I truly loved the old gold box games - for their time they were brilliant an a lot of fun - but this game is really as close to the real thing as I hoped. I also enjoyed the Baldur's Gate games and Neverwinter Nights, though I found Torment to be a lot less like D&D and more like its own game. ToEE is, without a doubt, the best of the bunch. I always dislike the limited number of conversation options available for computer "RPGs", but that's my main gripe. The combat system is organized and easy to manipulate. It's all turn based - just like the real thing. There's no lame click-click-click combat which requires no strategy or thinking. This is NOT your mindless Diablo-type game. The AI is remarkable in that certain monsters will focus totally on the spellcasters and try to kill them, while other, dumber monsters just go for whoever is closest. I remember playing the original ToEE and a few of the encounters and running into the characters from the module was a real kick. I didn't remember enough to spoil the game though and there are enough differences so that everything is new and fresh. As far as bugs go, I have encountered some, like monsters in walls and one crash to desktop, but nothing major. An up-to-date computer is recommended, as one of my friends with an older system has had more issues than I have. I agree that Atari/Troika should have refined the game and cleared up the problems prior to release, but even with the bugs it's the best game I have played in years. Now... How about making the sequel for levels 10 and up using the Against the Giants series? I'm in!
Rating:
Summary: Hold out for the patch!!
Review: I was anxiously awaiting the release of this game! It has so much potential! Excellent grpahics, and an interesting new take on the DnD game system set in the original Greyhawk campaign. It's too bad Atari & Troika rushed to get the game to market - the game quality is severely lacking! Items do not have full descriptions.
The scrolling speed is woefully slow.
Many of the item creation and skills/feats do not work as described. Do yourself a favor because I believe the game is worth playing - Wait for the patch!
Rating:
Summary: Not that many bugs!!!
Review: I can't believe the people pissing and moaning about the bugs.....they're not that bad and really don't affect gameplay. The only bugfree software I ever see is from Blizzard, and that's because it takes them 3 years to release it. TOEE is a very cool game....great graphics, very cool music, some good humor, and incredible combat and character design. I quit playing Neverwinter nights due to the completely lame combat and the horrible graphics. The 2d isometric with the hand painted rendered backgrounds will always be better than NWN's Aurora engine...which is looking very dated. I've lost plenty of sleep playing TOEE, and I highly recommend it. It needs a little polish, but that's it.
| 
