The Temple of Elemental Evil
Going where no game has boldly gone before – to Greyhawk! Classic D&D lives!
Tags: The Temple of Elemental Evil Categories: PC Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Dec 26th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Temple of Elemental Evil (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
PORTIONS OF THIS REVIEW APPEARED IN THE SEATTLE TIMES
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The pen and paper role playing game Dungeons and Dragons has been the subject of several games in recent years. Many have been good versions, of the game, but none a true representation of the game as it is today. Atari changes that, and a few other things too with the Temple of Elemental Evil.
Taking the ruleset 3.5 (this is the first game to incorporate the new rules), Temple of Elemental Evil is the first Dungeons & Dragons game set in the popular world of Greyhawk, a familiar setting for many adventures. Players will choose their band of adventurers, which can either be a pre-set bunch, or the player can elect to create each person from scratch. This allows players to either jump right in, or for the more experienced players to take their time and do things their way.
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In choosing a band of adventurers, many things come to play which normally wouldn’t in a typical RPG, and that’s the appeal of the Dungeons & Dragons rules and settings. A character’s alignment will alter the character classes available, as well as party members available. If a player wants to have a ‘chaotic neutral’ alignment, there’s no way it will be a Palidin. Similarly, Rogues will have a hard time being ‘lawful good’ in alignment.
After building up the stats players pick their band of fellow adventurers. Character creation plays out just like the pen and paper version, and is deep enough to not get into here. Suffice to say that if you want control over the little details, you have that freedom. If not, then the game allows for that as well, with pre-generated characters. How many games do you pick a Diety to worship?
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Combat is turn-based, and the side with the higher initiative goes first. Pretty standard fare, especially in the D&D world. The spells are ripped straight out of the pages of the latest version of the manual, as are the various feats and skills, so I won’t go into them here. Suffice to say that players looking for something with a bit of depth will definitely find it here.
The monsters too are also well represented with a wide array present, not just variations on the same monster. Again, these are ripped out of the pages from the 3.5 D&D ruleset, which will be a major draw for gamers.
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The graphics are solid, if not groundbreaking. There isn’t a lot that can’t be seen clearly, and the environments are flush with detail. There isn’t anything groundbreaking here, wut what is in the game is solid.
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The audio is a bit lackluster, especially the voices. It sounds as if the voices are almost canned caricatures of what people expect them to sound like. The music is decent, and altogether, the over quality of the sound may be the worst feature in the game. That’s saying something.
That’s not to say the game is a shining example of what PC games can be. There are problems, technical bugs mostly, but there have been some patches released. ToEE doesn’t require the latest technology under the hood to run, but it really really helps. This is why I don’t play many PC games. It’s a shame that a console version isn’t planned.
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Where the game really shines is in the controls. Controlling 5 different characters in any given situation can be a chore, but developer Troika has done a great job of streamlining the process.
The radial menu options are a nice innovation. This allows easy access to virtually every necessary command without having to worry about the right menu button pressing sequence. There’s a massive amount of spells and weapon strikes. Having to assign keystrokes to them would be a massive pain in the arse.
Moving the party as a group or individually is also painfully easy. If more PC games played like this one, I might be swayed to play them more often. Thankfully, I have a robust machine, so those technical issues don’t crop up as much, it really comes down to gameplay.
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The ending to Temple of Elemental Evil isn’t set in stone like most RPGs. Actions taken throughout the game, which are influenced by the makeup of the player’s party will determine how the story evolves, and ultimately finishes. The replay value is extremely high, especially when factoring in how different parties can be created and will have different skillsets available, enabling different tasks to be accomplished.
Accessible to the typical PC RPG player as well as the fan of Dungeons & Dragons, Temple of Elemental Evil is a solid game worthy of purchase. Most Dungeons & Dragons fans will have snatched this up, and rightfuly so.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ D&D ruleset 3.5 + Streamlined graphical interface + Charater/party creation + Open ended gameplay + High replay value |
8.1 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- Newer PCs needed to play - Sound is a bit lackluster |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| If you like RPGs and have a decent machine, then consider getting Temple of Elemtal Evil | |
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Tags: The Temple of Elemental Evil
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Dec 26th, 2003 and is filed under PC Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
