Temple of elemental evil

ruessel

Watcher
Joined
October 29, 2006
Messages
14
Location
Ger
In a post in this forum I saw this game mentionened. I read some reviews, which were about 70%, mostly because of numerous bugs. So how is the situation now?
Have patches fixed the game? How is it anyway, let´s say compared to King´s Bounty? Does anybody know?
 
Joined
Oct 29, 2006
Messages
14
Location
Ger
I finished the game when it was new, and despite being an obviously bugged and unfinished product, I enjoyed it. The end part is even less finished than KOTOR2 was though, like playing an alpha release.
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
6,027
The game is good in late part. Beginning is a little boring. And play it only for great fighting system (and atmosphere, but that's later only) because you won't find in this game good dialogues or story. For me the game was really enjoyable in the temple - I joined it and atmospere there was awsome, though in the end I felt the game is unfinished and you finish it in the middle. Anyway give it a try, and even if you won't like it you'll come back to play it ;)
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Messages
730
Well you really can't compare it to King's Bounty because it's a totally different experience. You create a party of 5 (or less) members, and it uses the D&D 3.5 rules. It takes place in the Greyhawk campaign setting, and is the only crpg to use that setting afaik.

If you like turn-based combat, and D&D, then I would definitely give it a try. Most of the bugs have been fixed by patches, both official and unofficial.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,138
Location
Florida, US
Did they ever "fill" the final maps?

I remember that when you moved through the final maps there were rooms with pre-rendered design that look unique, but there weren't anything in them, no monsters, no treasures, no puzzles. It looked like that they were designed to be filled with content, but got ripped out of their hands as soon as the mapper was done. I also think there was a named non-enemy troll that just stood there without dialogue.
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
6,027
This game broke my heart. It had such promise, was set in a module I had always wanted to play way back in the 80s, plus they had talked about converting the G-D-Q series of modules afterwards. All the hype was making this game sound like it was to be Fallout 1 & 2 set in Greyhawk.

Alas, the dialogue was terrible, and the game was plagued with bugs. IIRC a lot was fixed through the official patches, but it's all too apparent the game was not finished even with them installed. I would say it's still worth a play because there are still lots of positives: nice character creation, beautiful backgrounds, PnP feel, turn based combat. Don't pay over $10 USD for it.
 
Joined
Jul 18, 2007
Messages
491
I don't remember that about the final maps, but then again, it has been a long time since I played it.

What I really liked about ToEE was that it featured some monsters that weren't in any of the other D&D crpgs. There was even a Gelatinous Cube, which has to be one of the coolest D&D monsters of all time. :)
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,138
Location
Florida, US
This is more similar to Icewind Dale, basically, a D&D combat simulator.
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
5,645
Location
Tardis
The first dungeon was interesting. And the combat system was great. But that's about it.

Basically no story (even IWD is better for this), as soon as you enter in the temple of elemental evil(ie Temple of Boredom!), the game becomes boring, repetitive. It was quickly put back on my shelf.
 
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
1,271
Location
Quebec city
I don't remember that about the final maps, but then again, it has been a long time since I played it.

What I really liked about ToEE was that it featured some monsters that weren't in any of the other D&D crpgs. There was even a Gelatinous Cube, which has to be one of the coolest D&D monsters of all time. :)


The gelatinous cube is in Dragonshard, by the way. It's pretty cool how they handle it too, it slurps your minions in one at a time. Hopefully everyone can pound on it quickly enough to make it splatter before it digests it completely and goes for another!
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
5,228
Location
San Diego, Ca
Awesome combat system, beautiful graphics (I swear, it's baffling why this engine wasn't used again, I can totally see a new Baldur's Gate or IWD game using it), good U.I.

But the writing was terrible, the story very basic and the beginning very slow and boring. I think I only got halfway through it before I put it aside for something else.

I see IWD compared to it but really, IWD was a fun combat based adventure with a decent story (and it was well told), great setting, wonderful music and some memorable dungeons. TOEE seems very barebones in comparison. The only thing that comes out on top is the combat engine.
 
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
775
Location
NYC
the dialogue is greatly reduced compared to most RPG's since Ultima 7 but its part of its charm - at least its consistent that way. There's actually quite a lot of quests in Hommlet its just that they are greatly simplified. Its part of its charm IMO.

And keep in mind this is a 25 your old D&D module. Both BG and IWD had retro feels to that era but they were new stories. This is a very old game.

I waited a few months as the patches rolled out so I didn't have the same bad experience as many early players did. I really enjoyed the game but didn't finish it.

I recall Troika even bragging about their early release date. And Troika didn't do themselves any favours by calling out pulling a Bioware and calling out their publisher publically (over lack of funds for a patch).

Regardless, a lot of the criticisms read on the forums were undeserved. Its really a fun game.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
5,212
Location
The Uncanny Valley
Basically no story (even IWD is better for this), as soon as you enter in the temple of elemental evil(ie Temple of Boredom!
That's probably you have played 'good' way, if you play 'evil' storyline then Temple is a place where it gets interesting. Rest of the game was boring for me, but temple was really cool.
 
Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Messages
730
I encountered not many bugs, or I missed them. Maybe that was because I used the Gamebanshee walkthrough ;) , and maybe it was partly because I'm not that deep into the rule set either.

I enjoyed it :) although I found the encounters often terribly hard. Having one or two dead or at least severely wounded companions was almost normal for me - at least in the beginning.

I also had to restart some terrible encounters several times. There was one particular, epic fight I remember ...

I don't remember why I stopped it.

What I loved very much of it was that it forced me to think and to use my brain. :)

What I didn't like that much was that my characters had to use every single, possible "exploit" like using several support spells at the same time in order to survive everything.

I just wish there were many, many more games of this type, and far less buggy ...
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,908
Location
Old Europe
Tis a good game, better than many. Combat is fun, and though the story, setting, dialogue, etc are barebones, they're still enjoyable for their simplicity. Beginning may be a tad boring, but after the temple is entered, depending on the side - good or evil - it can be ever more fun, there's even more quests for an evil party, and that's kinda of a fresh thing in a DnD CRPG. That's why to some the game may seem a bit unfinished at that point, a good party is basically thrown against the numerous monsters of the temple, which is fun in it's own way.

Official Patches do a good job of fixing some of the problems, but I'd not start a new ToEE game without the latest Circle of Eight mod pack. It's basically a compilation of different fixes, be it fixing bugs, balance or whatever, with a couple of mods (nothing large scale though) throw in for a good measure. It makes the game even better. There was a larger scale mod in development, but I kinda lost track of it over the years and have no idea at what stage it is at moment.
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2009
Messages
264
I played a few hours on my netbook last year, keep meaning to get back ... amazing combat system and engine, but a sadly unfinished game. With the Co8 stuff it is pretty decent though.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
I keep hearing about the Co8 but never checked it out. I think I may download it soon and try to start a new game. I really did love the combat.
 
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
775
Location
NYC
The greatest turn based combat system I've ever played. Fantastic score, amazing art and models. Fun and challenging game. Negatives are light story and bugs, gobs of em. I played it all the way through, top 5 all time best game for me. Not for everyone though. If you don't fall in love with the combat engine you might as well move on.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
3,593
Location
Boston MA
From what I remember it had great promise but basically just a dungeon crawl. It's really short. It doesn't constitue a full game to me. It's like an expansion or a demo. It's like if the devs took it to a publisher and said "This is what we have so far. If you like it and give us the go ahead we'll make a full game out of it."

I wrote a review when I played it for the webstore I bought it from. It sums up my opinion.

I'm not a huge D&D fan but I do love a good role playing game. I love nonlinear gameplay, running around doing lots of involved, varied and interesting quests and I like to feel I've really accomplished something (as in my character has accomplished something) when I'm done. This game let me down totally in those respects.

When I first started playing I liked it a lot. I liked the graphics, the character animations, and I especially loved the turn based combat. The problem is it's very linear.
It can be broken down into four basic sections. You start out in a town running around doing some fairly dull little quests. You are then led to a dungeon in a swamp where you'll get your first serious taste of combat. That leads you to the second small villiage where you'll do a few other little quests, then you're off to the Temple which is more or less a dungeon crawl. You fight your way through (note, this is where it starts to get seriously buggy with some infuriating hangs) to the final battle with the Big Bad, and that's it! Finished!

I wouldn't have minded so much if I knew why I was doing all this, but no one gave me a quest or mission or anything. I'm just slogging my way through this temple and I keep wondering what am I doing here?

What's so disappointing is this game could have been so much better. It's fun for a while but it's definately not worth full price and the shocking state of the original release version was totally unacceptable. But if you like D&D and you just want a dungeon romp go for it. But wait until the rumored patch 2 comes out before you play it.
 
Joined
Apr 4, 2009
Messages
526
Location
Auckland, New Zealand
But wait until the rumored patch 2 comes out before you play it.

Are you talking about another unofficial patch?

I'd be surprised to see another one after all this time. Still, with the last official patch, plus the unofficial one, most of the bugs have been corrected.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,138
Location
Florida, US
Back
Top Bottom