ToEE - A New Fluent Let's Play!

Hey everybody!

In this exciting new video, I start my first ever Fluent Let's Play of the classic Dungeons & Dragons RPG, The Temple of Elemental Evil!

Check it out and follow along with the fun! I will update it regularly, so feel free to take your time and enjoy.

Hello everybody!

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, children of all ages - gather 'round as Uncle Fluent takes you on a wild adventure in the Dungeons & Dragons classic RPG, The Temple of Elemental Evil!

I have never played this game so it's going to be an exciting and new experience for all of us! Yes! Let's do this!!

Thanks and enjoy!

More information.

My experience was: Great engine/mechanics, but bad story. Once I was in the Temple, I lost interest and sadly never finished the game.

The slog to/from town just to rest up was too much. Great graphics, typography and music though.

This game should be played only with the
Circle of Eight modpack 8.1

After ten long years, the Circle of Eight is pleased to present the 'final' version of our modpack - Circle of Eight Modpack Version 8. This release falls ten years to the day after the release of The Temple of Elemental Evil in North America. It is the culmination of years of dedicated work from literally dozens of contributors, and it serves as testimony to the enduring passion for quality turn-based strategy games in the modern era.

Originally Posted by HiddenX
This game should be played only with the
Circle of Eight modpack 8.1

I agree. I liked the game in it's original form, bugs not withstanding. But the starting town was a bit boring and the Temple itself 'anticlamitic'. The Co8-modpack changed that dramatically.

Edit: Thread takes a different turn; so I thought I'd write my question in bold.
Have any Watchers tested Co8's Keep on the Borderlands yet? I've been curious about that one. Any detailed feedback of sorts?


I've completed ToEE three times already (for alignment purposes) and probably won't return to it unless it's for a full conversion mod of some kind. The combat engine is fantastic but as others have stated, the content itself is at times a little underwhelming.

Still, if this is your first time with the game Fluent, enjoy the classic AD&D atmosphere! The encounters in the game can still serve to really draw you into the adventuring spirit of things.

Yes those first level characters don't hit very often. I suspect the game is balanced toward character generation using many re-rolls; they expect you to keep rolling until you get a nice stat range. (Which, to me, is why point-based is preferable.) I'd also have let the cleric character try a turn undead. You'd have a semi-decent chance against zombies.

It's a nice throwback to the old days, and I enjoyed it for a while - until the hollow nature of it all became too much. I still love the combat, though, but the rest of the game is middling at best. That's with or without the Co8 patch.

Originally Posted by Darkheart
My experience was: Great engine/mechanics, but bad story. Once I was in the Temple, I lost interest and sadly never finished the game.

My experience is exactly the same. It's a decent D&D 3.5 combat simulator but a very mediocre game.

I gave the game a try after hearing lots of positive hype from hardcore cRPG fans, and also found myself pretty underwhelmed and bored with it.

Are you going to do a proper Let's Play? From start to finish? Or will this just be 3 or 4 videos of over-the-top positivity that get's cancelled as soon as you hit a boredom threshold?

Great combat system. I didn't find the rest of the game that terrible, but I don't think every RPG needs to be a masterpiece of story telling - and most aren't. It was a representation of a pnp module, and did a pretty good job of it.

I really liked how companions get a share of the loot (though the implemenation could use improving) and wish more party-based games used it

Originally Posted by lackblogger
Are you going to do a proper Let's Play? From start to finish? Or will this just be 3 or 4 videos of over-the-top positivity that get's cancelled as soon as you hit a boredom threshold?

Don't want to be overnegative, but yes, what's the point of those Lets plays if they are never finished? Maybe better call them something like "first look" or "my thoughts".

Another relevant question to ask is, why these Let's Plays are featuring on the main news page?

Originally Posted by Aditya
Another relevant question to ask is, why these Let's Plays are featuring on the main news page?

Because we decided so.

Ohhhhh, I'm quite happy for Fluent to be the site's currently promoted Let's Player, I'm just curious as to whether this will actually be a Let's Play as this is a title I'd be interesting in following for 30-40 vids.

If the guy gets me into it and then shuts off after 3 or 4 vids and moves onto Final Fantasy IV for three or fours vids then I'll be naturally disappointed. It's quite hard finding decent Let's Players out there as an awful lot of them are just kids that jump from game to game like literal Froggers.

It's even harder to find good blind Let's Players, unless you're German. For some reason the Germans are the only population on the planet that understands what a Blind-run is and knows how to obey the rules of a Blind-run. There's like three Germans with Blind Let's Plays of Simon the Sorcerer, for example, but the closest English speaking channel is a fraudulent run where this guy 'pretends' to not know what's coming up.

I've managed to find a few great English Let's Players, but it's a matter of luck if they're playing a game you want to watch.

I replayed this last year with cot8 patches; I decided I don't like the game anymore. Its not that it was bad; but better stuff has come along. Much rather play a game with a good story on the divinity engine than the toee engine.
-
As a comparison right now I'm playing icewind dale ee (played icewindale one before around 2006 or 2007) and having a blast (just reached dorn's keep). Not sure why toee was so 'unfun' last year. I think the bugs really annoyed me and the story was yucky. One could argue that icewind dale's story is shallow but still it seems to help move the game along.

I never ever understood the point of let's plays… if you have time to watch a let's play, why not play instead?

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
I never ever understood the point of let's plays… if you have time to watch a let's play, why not play instead?

What's the difference between a game and a movie?

Thanks for all the responses everyone! A few things I'd like to address.

#1 - If you know me, you know that I have done many Let's Plays over the past year and some change, and none of them have been finished. The whole point of Let's Playing, to me, is to enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts, whether that's 3 episodes or 30 episodes.

My Gothic II Let's Play lasted for 40 hours of content, with more to come in the future! So if I really like the game, I will continue playing. I'm sure that I'm not going to play ToEE for only a few episodes and quit, unless something bugs me about the game or it's not as good as I anticipate it to be.

Don't watch my Let's Plays if you want to see a conclusion to the game in every one. Just watch my videos if you'd like to enjoy a fun ride for as long as it lasts, no matter what the final outcome.

Also, I have "First Impressions" and "My Thoughts/Fluent Reviews" on my channel already. A Fluent Let's Play is specifically different because I am playing the game and broadcasting it, not just giving my overall thoughts on the game in a quick video. You can expect my Let's Plays to last longer than any First Impressions video.

P.S. The few Let's Plays on my channel that have a few episodes and nothing, aren't because I got bored, but because I hit a wall with my passion for gaming right in the middle of making them. It happens to me often, and it's something I struggle with. Sometimes I go 'cold' and completely lose a passion for awhile, only for it to return later twice as strong. Consider now that we're in the twice as strong stretch.

Thanks for watching and I hope you all enjoy! I'll update this thread with new episodes as I make them.