Temple of Elemental Evil: A Classic Greyhawk Adventure

Rating:
Summary: Too Much Gone Wrong
Review: Okay, I'm an avid D&D Gamer, both PC and Pencil&Paper(P&P), I have played almost every D&D game that has come out on the market and I believe this to be the WORST game I have ever played, it was given to me for Christmas this year. There are so many things wrong with it, it's hard to figure out where to start but I'll try:

1) The Graphics seem like they'd be decent if the game itself wasn't immpossibly dark and there is no way to brighten the screen.

2) The controls are slow and extremely sluggish(for scrolling purposes), confusing at best(The P&P Rules are never this confusing). The arrow keys are the best means of scrolling the game screen, of course you've got to be careful because you might have the trouble of the game not scrolling at all.

3) I accidentally hit the Windows Start key and lost have of the game screen when I brought it back up. I had to uninstall it and delete all the game info from and HD (including the recycle bin) just to get the game screen back to normal.

4) The game itself is not a very accurate integration of the D&D Rules. Playing D&D as much as I do on P&P I know the game very well and can definately say this game comes nowhere close to being true to the rules.

5) The voice acting is dry, dull, and unimpressive. There is only one PoV. The interactive menu is hard to understand and at time uncomprehensive leaving you with little choice as to what to do or nothing at all.

So i have listed a few of the many things gone wrong. The only good thing i can say about this game is how the work the monetary system in this game, I like how the divided it up into Platinum Pieces/Gold Pieces/Silver Pieces/Copper Pieces. The same thing that should've been done with Nevewinter Nights(NwN), but never happened.

So if you really want to have a good gaming experience playing in The Temple of Elemental Evil, then you should use the Aurora Toolset on NwN and create it, Then that way you know you'll be able to play the game and enjoy it for all it's worth.

So my recomendation on this game is to not buy it and if someone gives it to you, laugh and tell them to take it away for something better.

P.S. I've never heard of the game companies Troika or Bink but I'm not sure why WotC would let Atari take a game to inferior game publishers, when they just should've stayed with Bioware for game development. The game would've been far better if taken to Bioware.

Rating:
Summary: A Most Dreadful Encounter - the Game That Is.
Review: This is a truly dreadful game. It is buggy, slow and annoying. It has nice graphics but plays worse than a beta version. There are hardly any magic or treasure items to find, there are more empty chests and barrels than there were ones with items in them. You only go to level 10, you basically have to travel back to an Inn to rest as you restore hit points on 1 in 6 or 7 rest cycles. and the list goes on and on. There are only two D&D games that I have not even bothered to finish, Temple and the other Troika game Arcanum. There are some good concepts but overall you spend more time traveling than gaming or adventuring. After playing this game and then uploading the new Neverwinter Nights modules...I was in heaven. Dont get this game...

Rating:
Summary: Patch it with official and unofficial patches
Review: To address the NPC Looting issue, go to http://www.co8.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=14 and look for the patch that enhances and fixes other things that the official patch does not.

Rating:
Summary: D&D fans will like this despite flaws
Review: Before you read this review note that I am talking about the game when patched. When the game is not patched it is unstable (kicked me back to the desk top several times and/or crashed the computer) and has a tendency to corrupt save game files. All of them at the same time, not just one.

Even when patched I did have a few problems with some graphic bugs and the game slowing down to a crawl (this was most common when combat was starting and ending between a lot of enemies and my party).

All that said I think that this is the best computer representation of D&D that I have seen. That includes the games that Bioware and TSR came out with (Baldurs Gate series and Icewind Dale). Not only that, but it does it in a very transparent way so that no previous experience with D&D is needed.

The game is wonderfully nonliner with different beginings for different alignments. Things that you do in the game world effect how others think about you and you are able to pick up allies along the way. Even the ending is effected by what you did in the game and who you killed/failed to kill. It was actually the first time I have ever played a computer based D&D game and felt like it was actually GMed by a person rather than a computer.

I only have a few gripes about the game once it is fully patched (other than the slowdown before and after battles). The one which sticks out most in my mind is that the people who join your party make extreamly stupid choises on what they take for their loot. You see, NPC's who join you get some share of the loot you find both from the enemies you kill and hoards and the like. This isn't a bad thing until that mage who joined your party decides he wants that enchanged +1 sword you just found (enchantted weapons being wonderfully rare). So you think you will just go to a store and sell it thus allowing you to buy it, right? Wrong, the moron will proceed to carry this sword with him for the remainder of the quest. As far as I can tell followers never sell ANY loot, they just carry it around for the entire game.

The other problem has to do with the level 10 limit. You really need to be careful about what skills you pick because you will never get above level 10. While I understand why the game makers may have done this, it seems silly just the same. Be sure to have your magic users take feats that allow them to make potions/scrolls/enchanted items because once you reach level 10 that experience they are getting isn't going to be put to any other use. Thankfully you will not reach this point until near the end of the game.

There is only one more point that I suppose some people may not like. Unlike a lot of computer games, magic items are NOT common. I personally think that this is good since it makes those +1 weapons you get feel actually special. It also allows magic users which can enchant items shine by making your masterwork weapons into something really nice (at an XP cost of course).

Other than where I noted the game is a masterpiece. You will often run into battles that are very challenging, or even battles that you should run from until you are higher level. If you like RPG games you should give this a try. Fans of D&D will especially love this game. Just be sure to get the patch before you begin to play.

Rating:
Summary: A decent buy, but not without flaws
Review: This game could have beat the original baldur's gate but it doesn't. (not the sequals which pale in comparison to the orignal Baldur's gate).
But in a lot of ways it does beat baldur's gate, and every other rpg out there. Unfortunetly a few bugs and poor game design really hurt this partially awesome game.
The character animations and movements truly surpass the baldur's gate series, however, limitations such as skin color, hair color and other features which were not developed further really put a gash in the game. And the major flaw of this game is not fully developing on good introduced concepts and features such as a nifty NPC interaction idea (NPC's actually take some of the pillage). Which would have been awesome if they actually made it work right. Instead it has become a major flaw in the game since most NPC's take the good stuff before you even get a chance to see what the treasure is. Thank goodnes there are unofficial patches that disable this feature. Another bad hit to this game is the difficult way in which to add custom player voices and portraits, which made the baldur's gate series so increadable. Some of the in game voice acting really sucked, but others where quite good.
On the good side the game is fun, the adventures are decent, though some extremely tedious to the point you just want something new. The turn based system is awesome. Radial menus are a nice change to the gameplay and the character abilities are very nice.
Hopefully another title will follow with all the features in tact and working.
A good game if you get it at a bargin price.

Rating:
Summary: Run from the Temple of Electronic Drivel
Review: I've played better shareware than this.

1. Lousy pathfinding, my number one gripe in any top-down game. If the guy has to walk through three threatened areas to get there instead of taking the one clear path, this means one thing: your pathfinding algorithm BLOWS CHUNK!

2. I don't care how true to the game system the rules are. Combat and movement are tedious and annoying. Also, you can't cut out of the game when combat is obviously taking a down turn. If your entire party is dead, incapacitated or fleeing, you are stuck there forever, until the last lowly grunt is dead.

3. Frogs. Giant frogs. How horrible. Two words, guys

Dai Katana

Frogs are not scary. Nor are they fun to beat up. I would rather you reintroduce some even scarier monsters from 1st or 2nd edition like flumphs or gorbels.

I could not bring myself to finish this redundant eyesore.

I strongly suggest that you relinquish your rights to this game and hand it over to Atari so that they can at least turn it into a Neverwinter Nights campaign.