Temple of Elemental Evil Genre: Role-Playing Temple of Elemental Evil (ToEE), before it was converted into a computer game, was actually a module for the ever popular pen-and-paper role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons. It was a very typical module, actually, and like all other role-playing games, it placed a party of adventurers in a dungeon-like area, filled with tonnes of monsters and of course, treasure in the forms of numerous magical items. The dungeon has several levels to explore, and in the case of ToEE, like the name implies, the 'dungeon' in this case, is actually a temple of ancient evil. Troika Games, the producer of this computer game version, has managed to successfully adapt the classic pen-and-paper version onto the computer. To top it off, ToEE is implemented using the 3.5 edition of the D&D rules. The graphics look great, the monsters are aplenty, and the colourful spells are as accurate as they can be. Enter the Temple The main focus of the game is the single-player campaign, which takes place at the evil temple itself, and its surrounding areas. Actually, there are no multi-player modes in the game, and whether there is a plan to include one in the future or not, is not really known at the moment of this review. Basically, at the start of the game, you will be required to create a party of up to five characters, each of them starting at level one with an inventory of some pretty typical non-magical items. What better way to start a role-playing game? The premise of a role-playing game is always the 'satisfaction' of seeing your character(s) become more and more powerful throughout the game, and ToEE is definitely not an exception. Unlike other D&D games implemented for the PC, ToEE places a slightly larger emphasise on the party's alignment. In fact, you are required to select a party alignment at the moment when you create your party, and all your party members must adhere to this alignment. In other words, you cannot have an evil character in a good party, and vice versa. The party alignment also affects the way the game starts (ToEE even has different opening cutscenes for each different party alignments), but the way the game ends is dependant on the actions you have taken throughout the your adventure. The Problems with Monsters Combat in ToEE is played in a turn-based manner, and whether it's a good thing or not, it's rather subjective (although I myself would prefer a semi turn-based manner, ala Neverwinter Nights). As such, combat can be very slow-paced, especially when there is a lot of enemies, and there IS a lot of monsters in ToEE. A single combat normally takes around five to fifteen minutes, but in larger battles, it can take up to a whole hour or two. There ARE reasons for making combat turn-based, however. Firstly, it adheres faithfully to its pen-and-paper counterpart. Secondly, it allows for a more tactical approach, and being tactical is certainly the way to go in ToEE, where you will most of the time find your party surrounded and vastly outnumbered. The enemies you face in ToEE are the usual types of enemies you can expect to face in any D&D adventure - Goblins, trolls, brigands... ToEE even has a few hill giants to boot! The game's interface mostly uses radial menus, what with the many options that a character can make in the 3.5 edition of the D&D rules (radial menus have been proven to work with complex rules, as in the case of Pool of Radiance and Neverwinter Nights). Unfortunately, although the radial menus work with ToEE, there are still certain departments that seriously can use some improvements. For one, some tooltips (in which many will agree that they are extremely crucial in a game with an 'overwhelming' amount of features) do not show up properly, and in some cases, do not appear at all. Description of items are also too brief, and this is especially true for certain magical items. Chances are, if you are not familiar with the world of D&D, you may end up with a magical item that you have not the slightest clue of what it can do. Cure Critical Bugs Like all role-playing games made for the PC, there are plenty of bugs to be found, no doubt due to the numerous amount of 'rules' that the developers have to implement. Unfortunately for ToEE, there are MORE of these bugs than the usual amount. Probably the most annoying of all these bugs, however, is the one found in the pathfinding logic of the game. Occassionally, if the map is large enough, your characters will never be able to find their way to the other end of the map. They will either never walk at all, stop halfway, or get themselves walking into a dead end. In the worst case scenario, your party may actually split up, with half of them finding their destination, while the other half got themselves into combat with some high-level monsters. In combat mode, the pathfinding bug got even worse, in the sense that it can even lock up your PC! Other bugs are the usual quest bugs, where certain quests cannot be completed even if you already did what you had to do, and the spell/ability bugs, where your spell/ability does not work as they are supposed to be. That are also some bugs that cripple the performance of the game, for instance where the mouse cursor movement can be very sluggish at times, even though there is nothing much happening on the screen. This may just be some bad coding, but some may still consider it as a bug. Some of the painful bugs have been addressed in the latest patch, but the rest are still persistent, at least at the time of this review. This & That Graphical-wise, ToEE looks good. Very good, in fact. The game is played with an isometric view of the map, like most computer role-playing games do. The characters are modelled in 3D, with some pretty good texture details. The terrain, or map, is in 2D, but the background art is so richly detailed that it looks like 3D. Think Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, but with much better graphics. In terms of its sound, ToEE fares pretty well, too. The sound effects are crisp, sharp, and realistic, among the best ever heard on a computer game. The ambient music makes for nice symphonies, and the combat theme certainly adds to the already adrenaline-rushing atmosphere. Conclusion All in all, if you can forget and forgive the bugs, ToEE is certainly one of the best role-playing experience out there. Imagine Fallout played in a D&D world, that is what this game has to offer. An extra bonus if you are a die-hard fan of the D&D 3.5 edition rules. Rating Gameplay - 4 / 5 stars Graphics - 4 / 5 stars Sound - 4 / 5 stars Overall - 4 / 5 stars The Good One of the best role-playing games ever released. Probably one of the few games that are able to implement the D&D 3.5 edition rules in such a faithful way. The nice graphics and sound effects are certainly some added bonuses to an already amazing experience. The Bad Performance may be sluggish, especially during combat. The mouse cursor can be so sluggish at times to the point of down-right annoying. Bad coding, perhaps? The Ugly The bugs, the bugs, and the bugs. Especially the pathfinding logic.
GOSH! this game ROCKS! never had so much fun since neverwinter nights. Phew, I thought with black isle out of the industry... there's no more hope in RPGs. Looks like I'm wrong... thankfully!
