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The Temple of Elemental Evil PC game was released in mid-September of 2003. The game was developed (written, designed, and programmed) by Troika and published (liscenced, funded, manufactured and distibuted) by Atari, formerly known as Infogrames.
The Temple of Elemental Evil was originally a "supermodule" for AD&D that was written by Gary Gygax, published in the mid-80's. It is set in the World of Greyhawk, and incorporated the previously released module T1, The Village of Hommlet.
There are two main modes of play: Standard and Ironman. Ironman is a no-save option.
Test System:
Athlon XP 2500+ (actual clock speed 1.8 GHz)
NVidia GeForce4 Ti4800
ASUS A7N8X 2.0 Deluxe
512 MEG DDR RAM
WD HD ATA100 7200RPM 2Meg Cache
Win 2000 Pro
IRONMAN
It was my intention to finish the game in Ironman first, then try playing through in Standard mode and try the stuff I had missed, or deemed too risky to try. I knew I would lose my first few parties. That was fine because it would serve as a tutorial of the game's systems, demonstrate what worked and didn't as far as characters themselves, and basically help figure out how to adapt to Ironman.
LET ME OUT OF THIS DAMN TOWN !!
So I start up my first game of Ironman. I've made my party, I go through the opening vignette for my party alignment, and arrive in Hommlet. I begin looking around the town, and so forth. I noticed my mage and cleric have spells prepared that I really would not have chosen. So I switch the spells to my liking, and try to go rest at the inn. The ostler says I have to pay 2 gold, I suddenly notice I arrived in Hommlet without even a silver piece, and my fighters are wearing leather.
Que ?
What the heck?
Anyway, the Ostler says I can get room and board for free if I can prove Furnok of Furd is cheating. But I need 10 gold to gamble with him, in order to prove it, and if I had 2 gold I would already be resting at this inn...OK, I see. Perhaps there is some logic here that escapes me. In any case I am broke and can't sleep at this inn. So I try to go rest outside. Just like Baldur's Gate, I can't rest in the town. So I wander around the entire map without success trying to find a remote corner I can rest in.
I then try to find a wilderness map that I can rest at. Can't do that either. At this point I am starting to consider robbing/killing someone to get 2 gold so I can sleep at the damn inn so I don't die in my first encounter and lose the entire party because I am playing Ironman, and my spells are worthless, and it is impossible to rest for even 8 hours.
And this is how I spend my first hour of playing the game.
Not exactly a smooth beginning.
I eventually figured out the best way to start. Sell your already meager possessions to get the 2 gold, in order to rest a night. In addition to useful spells, take read magic for your 0 level spells, get the scrolls from the temple of Cuthbert, rest, ID the scrolls, sell the ones you choose, and you now have as much as 2000 gold, which should be totally sufficient for your starting needs.
Of course, this short circuits the entire point of starting as poor, "hardcore" Ironman, but at this point I don't care.
I begin to notice other issues with Ironman. For example, the Load/Save shell interface is buggy. The commands don't work the way they are supposed to. Clicking the Return to Game command exits you from the game, everytime.
Que ?
Yeah, it is "by design", but it still doesn't make sense. "Save and Quit" apparently does nothing.
In the end, the conclusion I came to is that Ironman is simply not playable. This is not because of difficulty (though it is difficult). It is because of technical failures. I lost one Ironman game to save game corruption, and another to being location locked. This last one is especially painful. In my previous lost Ironman games I didn't get past the Moathouse. In this one I am on the second Temple level, having done many things, including a fantastic nail-biting battle in the corner tower/keep. Unfortunately I am now locked in combat mode, in a secret room with some things outside the room. I can't find/open the secret door, because of the combat mode, and I can't fight them because I am locked into a room.
This is another annoying feature of the game, how irritatingly hard it is to end combat. There are times when you are better off just mowing everything down so you don't have to deal with something in some remote corner trying to fight you, but you don't know where it is. It also makes turn undead not an asset but a hindrance.They just run around the screen while you hit space bar a couple hundred times, then come back and fight you. What the heck is the point of the ability?
The consequences of losing all that you invested in a game makes it feel and play very differently. Its actually VERY fun while it lasts. Its unfortunate this mode was so poorly supported. I have now started a psuedo-Ironman game that is crash-proof, by playing it as a standard game, using 2 leapfrogging saves in case one gets killed by save game corruption. It should be fun.
FALLOUT AND GAMEPLAY
Troika is known for creating the genre-defining Fallout. Among the highlights were an immersive world, and more importantly, the best CRPG gameplay ever. In ToEE that standard is shattered with a better still combat engine.
There is a bit of a learning curve, as you learn how use the commands and so forth. The radial menu can be a bit irritating to use outside of combat. But once learned, the sheer fun of the game is absolutely engrossing. It will be impossible to go back to Baldur's Gate after this. That combat is just so dull and stale compared to ToEE's.
It doesn't set new standards for character interaction, but it does at least meet those standards, unsurprisingly, since these are the same people who set the standards. You will be able to make effective use of Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and the other interaction-based skills. And with 5 characters you make, 3 more character slots for NPCs that can join your group, creatures you can charm, summon, and animate, you can create whatever kind of group you want. Did I mention that when you charm something (which lasts for hours), they stay with you even when you move from map to map? Wandering the halls of the Temple with an ettin, a werewolf, and a troll chieftain as your vanguard is a pretty cool experience.
If you like Fallout's gameplay, you will love ToEE.
IS IT D&D ?
For D&D fans, there is a question of how faithful the translation is to the roleplaying game. It is my pleasure to report that it is VERY faithful. There are limits to how much the developers could incorporate (non-standard races and non-standard feats were especially sorely missed) but complaints about those limits ignore what WAS accomplished.
This translation of D&D is, without question, the best yet. The tactical combat system is spot-on, the character creation system is so accurate that as a character-creation simulator, it is better than software designed for that specific purpose. It is that good.
And the Gygaxian feel is preserved down to the inclusion of Ransuers, Glaives, and Guisarmes. Now, if I could only find a Lochaber Axe and Partisan to dual wield.
There were a couple things that reached out and slapped me though. Those being specific monsters.
Damn that was funny.
Anyway, in all seriousness, there are a few monsters near the very end that are questionable at best. For example, I entered an earth elemental node (you'll find out what that is) when a Galeb Duhr came up to fight me. Not too big a deal I think. I was wrong, due in part to damage resistance that outclasses some demonlords. Literally.
Later, in another node, my intrepid burrohobbit discovers a gaurdian hezrou. And so, I went forth to do battle.
But Lo, in my youth and foolishness, what I failed to realize was that this was not a hezrou, who was a gaurdian. No, this is the dreaded demonlord Gaurdianhezrou, He Who Vies With Yeenoghu and Grazzt for Lordship of the Abyss, with better saves than the demonlord Orcus. Gaurdianhezrou is a demonlord who, in his own demonic genius, for inscrutable purposes only a mad god or sadistic DM could understand, is sitting in front of this gate. You think thats a joke? Compare the stats and see for yourself. If this is a hezrou, I can hardly wait to see what the stats on whats coming.
But like a baby sucking on a pacifier, the demonlord Gaurdianhezrou spent the next 25+ rounds chomping on the Spiritual Weapons my clerics summoned, doing no damage, while my ettin, vodyani and tanks beat on him for 200+ points of damage. When my party finally retreated, we left the fiendlord Gaurdianhezrou "Badly Injured" with 270 points of damage, despite my having no weapons that could overcome his damage resistance.
Enough said about that. This kind of thing is the exception, rather than the rule. But it is a pretty hard to overlook exception.
MAKING MAGIC
ToEE incorporates the making of wands, scribing scrolls, enchanting weapons and so forth. On the whole this is really cool, although it is accurately difficult to do. This is another example of the fidelity to the ruleset.
I did find a serious problem though.
A scroll of gust of wind is a game-finishing required item. I found one in the entire game, and I used it to learn the spell before I knew how "precious" it was. Oddly, its the only spell that is not on the scribe scroll list. As of this writing, I have yet to actually solve this problem. It may make these save games unfinishable.
It also looks like there are some other serious quest issues. I waited 6 months for one reward to come. It never came. In my CG aligned group, my contact person keeps insisting I should go to Nulb to complete the quest that I already completed.
I am supposed to get a reward for that too, which never came.
ART
The art is fantastic. From the idyllic and peaceful Hommlet, to the dusty and abandoned Moathouse, all the way to the dark opulence of the Greater Temple, the backgrounds are lush and gorgeous.
The game uses 3D animated characters over the 2D background. The animation is graceful and a pleasure to watch as well. Among my favorite creature animations were the Ildriss grues, floating freaks that spin when they attack you. Also, the hulking, maul wielding temple Hill Giants, and the Leucrotta. Looking at these animations suddenly had me realizing how rigid and stick-like the animations from Buldur's Gate look.
The excellent art continues right down to the character portraits. On the whole, I don't see how the art in this game could be any better.
MORE TECHNICAL ISSUES
The tool-tips are screwy. For example, they'll indicate you can't do something, but you actually can and when you click it to do it, it does it. It took 4 days of playing to realize I should be very suspicious with what the cursor/tooltip is telling me.
The single most irritating problem with the game (with the possible exception of combat mode lock) is screen lock.
When using the mouse tip to move the visible potion of the play screen the game will frequently go into unexplained game lock. This feature is very Arcanum-like, and just as irritating the second time around.
If fact considerable portions of this review were written while waiting for the game to unlock.
You think I am joking? I'm not.
And my system isn't exactly weak.
I was going to try running the game on my 366 MHz system, but after this there's no real point. There is known bug at Scroll Speed 5, but mine was set to 3 the whole time, so thats not it.
Finally, pathfinding can kindly be described as "quirky". You will probably be describing it otherwise by the time you finish the game. It rivals the unpatched pathfinding from original Baldur's Gate, its that bad.
And I don't care for the crashes to desktop either.
There is one nice note to make. The game actually presents a tremendous amount of information, available at a click. Much of the information about specific monsters I mention is gathered from the combat interface, by clicking the hyperlinks in the combat information. It breaks down every single factor. If you are trying to figure out how things happened as they did, this is very useful.
CONCLUSION
I spent a lot of time discussing the negative issues of this game. I have nursed these flaws like a child toys with a loose tooth. Your impression may be that this game is not worth your time. To the contrary, if you enjoy computer roleplaying games, or if you enjoy D&D and have a decent PC, then you would be a fool to pass on this game. The tactical gameplay alone makes it worth getting.
Exceeding the standards set by Fallout, ToEE gameplay is king.
The name of the company Troika refers to Programming, Art, and Design. The art and design in ToEE set the new standard in computer roleplaying. Its unfortunate that the programming doesn't as well.
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Playtest Review
Mike MacKenzie
October 1, 2003
Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)
The art and design in ToEE set the new standard in computer roleplaying. Its unfortunate that the programming doesn't as well.
Mike MacKenzie has written 23 reviews, with average style of 4.39 and average substance of 4.00. The reviewer's previous review was of Monster Manual 3.5. This review has been read 5605 times. |
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In 3 reviews, average style rating is 3.67 and average substance rating is 4.67. |
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