Rating: 
Summary: WAIT FOR THE PATCH !!!! Don't waste your money.
Review: Almost unplayable.
Both Troika and Atari should be ashamed of themselves.
Rating: 
Summary: If this game weren't good, it would get a *ZERO* for bugs.
Review: First off: DO NOT BUY THIS GAME UNTIL A PATCH IS RELEASED. It is nearly unplayable in its current form due to an absolutely insane number of bugs. Check out the forum at www.greyhawkgame.com for a taste. I'm pretty unhappy with Troika and Atari for letting this thing out the door.Anyway, the game itself is more in line with actual AD&D rules than any title I've played recently. I'd compare it more with the old 'gold box' series than Neverwinter Nights. Which is very good. The graphics are great, and I like the return to turn based gameplay. Unfortuneately, I cannot write an in depth review due to the ever-present drop to desktop bug. Had this game shipped without so many bugs, I'd have given it 4, maybe even 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: An awesome game with limitations and tons of bugs
Review: I would say if it was not for the incredible amount of bugs that this game is excellent. I will definately want to wait out a patch from Troika and Atari. If they added in higher levels than level tens with subsequent spells and abilities, that would help. There are bugs with enchanted item creation as well, and some of the quests cannot be completed either because of various bugs. There is also the occasional lockup or program crash, so make sure you save your game often.
Rating: 
Summary: Good game that needs a bit more polish
Review: TOEE is a true Dungeons'n Dragons game modeled after a pen and paper module of the same name. The strength of this game lies in graphics and combat. It is by no means created for DnD newbies, who most likely will become frustrated by the sheer complexity of the combat elements. Players who do not understand DnD rules can easily get their characters wiped out during the first few combats. Combat is as good as it gets, true to DnD elements. It is turn-based and the options that your characters can pick from during combat are enormous, and that's where TOEE shines. The game, however, doesn't feel polished. Quests are quite straight forward and boring, some quest elements were taken out before release due to M-rating. There are little hints here and there in the game indicating that Troika took shortcut and rushed the game out to the shelves. Several bugs in the current release version of the game may also hamper gameplay, hopefully these will be fixed the the patch is released. The game overall, to me, is very enjoyable mainly due the combat elements. The graphics and visual FX are very well done, voice acting and music is good enough. However, if you expect a game of Baldur's Gate quality, this isn't quite it. The game lacks an epic feel, and the complex story of Baldur's Gate. NPC's also aren't as interesting. Think of TOEE as a quick dungeon romping DnD style with extremely detailed turn-based combat. If you can look past everything else and focus on the combat part, TOEE is a very fun game...and hence 4 stars from me.
Rating:
Summary: Temple of Elemental Boredom
Review: I can't believe I paid $50 bucks for this game...it is slow, awkward, poor mouse response, and it takes forever to get anything done. Either you are walking around talking to other NPCs or you're fighting some impossible monsters. It is difficult to gather points for leveling up...and so it makes the whole thing seem just...endless. I've been playing it now for approx 30 hours...thinking, this HAS got to get better. It never did. I uninstalled and moved on...I recommend you do the same.
Rating:
Summary: How do they (Atari) stay in business?
Review: The Temple of Elemental Evil (TOEE) might be a great game on
anything besides a PC. The game will not load on a desktop PC or
a laptop.
Atari offers the lame advice: "Update your drivers."
Hundreds of people on the TOEE Forum (http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums//, then Temple Of Elemental Evil Forum) have tried everything they can think of to make this game work. It doesn't.
I consider Atari incompetent. I will never buy anything from them again. Perhaps their console games work. The ones for PC's don't. I wish Amazon had a "zero star" rating. That's what it should be.
Rating: 
Summary: The successor to Baldur's Gate
Review: This game has by far the closest implementation of the D&D rules of any game I've played. While the developers of Neverwinter Nights changed the 3E rules at will, Troika has gone out of their way to implement the rules faithfully. The turn-based combat is the most enjoyable of any RPG I've played and reminds me of the fun I had playing Jagged Alliance. You have dozens of options in battle, from charging to launching full attacks to preparing an attack to interrupt an enemy spellcaster. The game has over three hundred spells which grants your spellcasters a multitude of ways to deal with hostile situations. The graphics are beautiful and highly detailed. Every time you put a new hat or cloak or robe or piece of armor on your character, the model is updated. I spent quite a great deal of time dressing up my characters so that each would have their own distinctive look. The game does have some bugs. I myself only experienced a single CTD and a couple of the item crafting bugs. From time to time, the game has also been a touch sluggish when there are a lot of NPCs on-screen. However, a patch is already in the works by Troika so these problems should be rectified within a week or two.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Yet Buggy
Review: This is a five star game that I'm giving four stars to because of the bugs. Sure you may say all games have bugs especially rpgs but some of the bugs I'm seeing there's just no way any QA person could have missed them. There's no excuse for releasing a game with those kinds of bugs. That being said the bugs are not show stoppers. There are a lot of bugs but they are minor and the game is very playable. The graphics are excellent and the combat is challenging. Even though it's turn based the combat is quick (the exact opposite of PoR). Definitely reminds me of Baldur's Gate, and the character interface is very similar to Planescape: Torment.. which had one of the best. Items in the game have no descriptions and are bland. It's sad, really this game is excellent and has a lot of potential but it falls just short because it seems unfinished. Perhaps a patch will fix much of the problems but there are some design problems that they aren't likely to fix. Hopefully a sequel is in order using this engine with the problems worked out. A very enjoyable game as close to PnP as you can get.
Rating:
Summary: It's all in the Iron
Review: Despite the bugs(and there are many) this is a great game. I have only played PC games based on D&D never the pen and paper, but I can tell that it is thorough in the rules. The only problem I have is some slight miscalulations and the damage total bonus is not displayed in the character sheet. I would like to see my Two-handed sword specialist in all his glory.(1-12 +7) or + 9 with an Orc starting potential.
The adhearance to the rules is one thing, but the game sort of lacks in character depth with NPC's and the flair that series like Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights had. Voice acting is dull and so is most of the music, but if you want to stay true to D&D tradition this is the only single-player game that can deliver.(or play with your psycotic D&D buddies and get in a bad mood).
Iron man is what makes this game apealing more than the max level cap(level 10) or the flair.
This is not Baldur's Gate. If you do something bad(and your good) you have to live with the mistake(in Iron man) A paladin who mis-speaks or is rude can miss an opertunity to raise his alignment(unlike BG or IWD.) It won't hurt you to tell the someone to go lay an egg, but it certainly won't help. If you multi-class you will be very weak. 4 levels of fighter and six of paladin will not win the game and it isn't very exiting either not being able to use maximum turn undead or smite 3x per day. With five character slots a pure mono class group is best for this low level cap. Pick up a good brawler on the way.(he's stupid too and will make for interesting dialog.)
Fighting is nicely done from the animation of attacks to the scale of the size of wheapons in relation to the people who wield them. A 6'2" paladin is dwarfed by the size of his bastard sword(4'10") and tower shield(chin to toe of a 5'5 knight of real life middle ages.). It looks incredible to see the bastard sword wielded as a one-handed wheapon. The spells are beautiful and graceful. A sorcerer has fewer spells but she can cast much more often and with metamagic feats and spell maximum feats she is as leathle(or more so) than a mage. The voice talents of your characters are a bit non-threatening though and thier is no battle cry as in BG, IWD, or Neverwinter Nights. It is somewhat uninspiring to hear your dwarf go "ok" before swinging his Battle axe instead of "I split yer joe!" or something similar. This reminds me of a my supervisor telling me to refill the printer cartrage before noon. "ok". Harmless enough, it is just that.
The game is expensive, but you get a [money amount]rebate at certain stores(I bought it at [local store].) It ends up costing about [money amount]in the end. Once the bugs are worked out like the mage not memorizing spells or the optiions shadow detale reverting back to "1" It will be a five star game.
I rate it four stars, but I find Neverwinter Nights to be more fun as far as "fun factor"
Rating:
Summary: Just like DnD only buggy ;)
Review: First off this is definately as close to pen-and-paper DnD as has been done. The changes are explained and in my opinion are minor. The combat is helping me, as a DM, to better understand the tactics used in 3.5 (since I write all the story I don't have time to playtest fights or what not).
Second, it's got some bugs. Every game I've ever played does and this is no exception. When they get these worked out I'd give it a 6, because...
The replay value is tremendous! Each alignment has subtle differences and Good vs. Evil are very diff, as one works to destroy temple and the other works to save it. All quests require cleaning the moathouse, so don't let that similarity discourage you, they (G vs E) are very different. And evil has at least two paths that are different.
All-in-all I think Troika did great and that this will be a stepping stone to an even greater work from them.
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