Good Old Games - Temple of Elemental Evil Released and Antara for Free

They say good things come to those who wait and a good thing is exactly what Good Old Games has just released. It now has in its ever growing library Troika's Temple of Elemental Evil. At its release it was a very flawed gem, but over the years those flaws have been polished down and made into a truly fine gem of a game. You can get it here for $5.99.

I should also mention that GoG now includes Betrayal at Antara for no extra cost if you get Betrayal at Krondor. They're now calling it the Betrayal at Krondor Pack. Antara is not set in the same setting as Krondor and Raymond E. Feist had nothing to do with it, but the combat is similar. The gameplay will feel familiar if you played BAK before it. You can get both games here for $5.99.
More information.

They should include the CO8 patches in TOEE. Not sure if that would be exactly legal, but without them the game still is a very flawed gem.

As for Antara well I was underwhelmed by that game. They tried to recreate the magic that Feist infused into Krondor, but failed.

Too bad too, Betrayal at Krondor at the time of release didn't do that well, but the sales kept growing. It didn't follow the normal rules of marketing. Huge sales in the beginning and then it sharply drops off. BAK from what I remember was a sleeper hit. Not a blockbuster mind you, but it sold very well over a longer period of time than was normal. I believe that's why they made Antara. To try and recapture some of that magic. Without Feist on board it just wasn't the same. I will say I did like the marble puzzle chests. Those were unique and a nice addition to the riddle chests that were introduced in BAK.

The one impressing thing about this is that they actually got Antara to work on modern systems. I've tried replaying that game and couldn't get it running without VirtualPC. I tried everything to get that dang game running, but without win98 virtualPC the graphics were all messed up and all kinds of other problems.

To release those two games togheter feels kind of like bundling rat meat and a sirlion steak.

EEgghaadd, you mean to tell me that my family could be in that download???

Great way to put it. At the time when I bought Antara I hadn't read all of Feist's books and thought that this setting might be in some upcoming book. I was confused with all the new creatures and kept thinking when the hell did he put those things in there? It wasn't until I had played it for a few days that it finally occurred to me that this had nothing to do with Feist.

The voice actor for the main character was a whiny little toad that got on my nerves. I'm not even going to mention the other pcs that are along for the ride. They needed to put some of that money they saved from hiring Feist again into better voice actors and a halfway decent plot. Still not sure what the heck was going on in that land.

I try to play it every now and then because of the combat, but I never get very far without throwing my hands up in disgust and loading something worth my time like Arcanum.

Question: I don't really get on with BG2 or NWN. Would I like ToEE? I've had my eye on it for years, but I've never played it.

Edit: P.S. Wasn't Bloodlines Troika's final game, not ToEE?

TOEE was IMO a BG2 style game

Dwagginz said:

Question: I don't really get on with BG2 or NWN. Would I like ToEE? I've had my eye on it for years, but I've never played it.

Edit: P.S. Wasn't Bloodlines Troika's final game, not ToEE?

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Yes, it was. I fixed it. I was going to say it was sadly one of the last truly great turnbased games I played that was made for the mass market, but that wasn't exactly true so I edited it. Unfortunately I left out the turnbased part

It is a great game. You need CO8 patches to truly make it shine. However, the storyline is …….barely there. It's more a combat game than a true rpg. It does have some rpg elements in the two towns you visit, but once I was in the temple it turned into pure combat. If you played Knights of the Chalice and liked it you'll probably like TOEE.

This is awesome news for me. I was just hunting around for ToEE 2-3 days ago, and there wasn't really a viable option. This is the only Troika game I haven't played, and I dig Troika. And I've been on a turn-based kick lately. Wound up buying an nostalgic fave, Lords of the Realm 2, and something called Gorky 17 from GOG when I couldn't find ToEE. =P

Loved Gorky 17 (Odium in NA). A truly atmospheric game. The only bad thing I can remember is that I passed that game rather quickly. Not sure if it was a short game or I just couldn't stop playing it

Dwagginz said:

Question: I don't really get on with BG2 or NWN. Would I like ToEE? I've had my eye on it for years, but I've never played it.

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That would depend on why you didn't like BG2 and NWN.

Things that you may or may not like:

ToEE implements the D&D 3.0 rules quite well with all their glory *and* flaws.
ToEE has no real story and no interesting characters. I played it twice and I cannot remember a single character nor anything concrete about the plot.
ToEE is turn based for combat.

I have never tried using GOG, but have a question.

When you download games from GOG, do they come fully patched to the latest version? Or do you need to apply updates/patches still? Also, once downloaded, are they "patchable" or "mod-able"? Is it like getting a regular install of the game, or is it something else?

Hope someone can answer. Thanks in advance.

Haven't done much with Gorky 17 yet; just run through the first couple fights. It seems to have an unusual chess-like combat system. I won't let that stop me though. I like unusual stuff. Might get distracted by ToEE now, though. =P

Totally patched. Not sure about modable though.

I'm curious about that as well. If it's possible to use CO8 patches in this one. Maybe someone with Arcanum who has loaded Drog's patch could answer if it ran ok.

i went round and round trying to keep TOEE consistently working on win7 x64 to no avail. If it truly works on this OS as they say it does, and I dont have to fire up some old computer to finally play this game, theyve accomplished a wonderful feat of geekery in my eyes worth the $6.

skavenhorde said:

Totally patched. Not sure about modable though.

I'm curious about that as well. If it's possible to use CO8 patches in this one. Maybe someone with Arcanum who has loaded Drog's patch could answer if it ran ok.

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All GOGs are moddable, though some require updates to the mods (like BG1 — this has been done). I've tried the CO8 pack and it works fine. Note you don't need to install or remove any patches, just install the pack.

And yes, it works fine on Win7 x64.

Thanks for the infp, Chautemoc. Was curious about the Co8 mod myself, if ToEE turns out to be too buggy still after the official patches, as some say it is. Have to research that mod still. Not always a fan of the content changes some modders make while fixing the broken stuff. I like my first playthrough to be as close to the developers' intent as possible.

All the games i've bought from GOG accept the famous mods just fine. I never had problems applying mods on Fallouts, Arcanum, Planescape: Torment, Gothics etc. This isn't Steam, where installing mods on some games can be a PITA.

I must admit that I'm lost as to *which* CO8 mod pack I should use.

I'm especially lost in what's the difference between "normal" and "NC" ? What does "NC" mean, after all ?

Ha!

What does CO8 stand for?

chautemoc said:

All GOGs are moddable, though some require updates to the mods (like BG1 — this has been done). I've tried the CO8 pack and it works fine. Note you don't need to install or remove any patches, just install the pack.

And yes, it works fine on Win7 x64.

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Awesome, you are the man!!! Thank you for that. Now I can go order some of these games I've been putting off since I wasn't sure if they could be modded or not.