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Unrealized potential

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: October 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I'm a big fan of CPRGs... I played all Baldur's Gate series and loved em... I even tried Pool of Radiance, but returned it the next day it was so bad.

This game falls somewhere in the middle... There are LOTS of bugs, but the basic design of the game is good... A basic dungeon crawl with nice graphics and kewl spell effects.. the user interface is ok once you get used to it.. There are some major problems with the current game however:

1. You can't escape combat if your guys are starting to die off... running is not really an option. (It takes forever and you can't exit to a different level - even if your standing right next to the stairs.)
2. When camping inside the dungeon, wandering monsters sometimes appear WITHIN WALLS! You can't get at them and they cant get at you, and if you get into combat mode your only option is to try and run away from them, one painful move per character at a time.. I've spent literally 20 minutes trying to get all my guys far enough away so that it exits combat mode.
3. There is a bug where the game will hang on one of my characters and cntrl-alt-delete is the only way out...
4. Game will sometimes exit completely when trying to move my party to another level.
5. Broken quests
6. Weapon bonuses dont appear as they are suppossed to.
7. Even running on a 3GHz machine with a GeForce video card, the scrolling stutters.
8. If I click to move my party to a different spot, sometimes the NPCs will stay in their current location, while the rest of the party moves away.
9. There is no custom AI scripting you can set for your characters. (Best you can do is set them to fight defensively, or cast defensively)

If you like dungeon crawls, and 3.5 edition DnD, you might still like playing despite all the problems... Too bad they didnt finish the game before it was released though..

Anyone know if there a new Baldur's Gate coming out soon?

Much better after patch

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: January 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

No doubt, this game NEEDS the official patch. 'Nuf said.

After that, artwork is good, implementation of 3.5 rules is excellent and very insightful. NPCs are a bit weak, so make a good party. Fortunately, you have complete control over character generation. Game difficulty at the start can be tough because it's hard to tell which encounters are over your head as a 1st level party and resting is not a gimme - once you're past that, it's better.
Radial menu commands and mapping system can be tricky at first. There's a ton of helpful tips you might miss at first that let you hot key popular commands, check for "clickable" items, check your path, etc. Yes, for the first time ever, I'd recommend going through a few of the "Tip of the Days."
If you want a faithful electronic implementation of the latest D&D rules, here it is. If you're new to RPGs, Baldur's Gate II, while older, will be more fun.

Finally what I'm looking for!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: January 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I started by playing the demo. There was another article by a person who played the demo that I have to somewhat agree with. This game does not make everything uber easy. Your not going to survive every encounter like most games. Resting is difficult, and it should be. If I'm sleeping in a dungeon, I deserve to wake up to a cadre of ghouls or giant rats. But if I think about the situation, find a room with a door, close it, and then rest I'm okay the vast majority of the time. The game, and especially the demo are great once you realize that this game makes you think a little and is not extremely easy. And in my opinion, that's the way it should be.
On another note, I'm completely psyched that someone has brought back the turn style encounters. Time freezes and allows you to choose what you want each character to do. To me this game is more like the table version than any other game I've played in a long long time. Great graphics to boot. Make sure you get all updates before you play the game. Its worth it. Good job atari!!!!!!!

addictive and fun d and d adaptation

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: March 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

i can sympathize with some of the reviewers here who have experienced problems with the game on their systems. i installed it on a machine that met the requirements but quickly uninstalled it because gameplay was unbearably slow. unbelievably slow. i shelved the game and then when i got a new system last month (2.8 hyperthreaded gigahertz, 1GB of DDR memory) installed it and i've been playing it ever since. my new system doesn't even blink even when the screen is filled with a dozen enemies with spell effects going off right and left. so, buy this game if you have a brand new system. the minimum requirements should be at least a 2 gig processor and lots of memory on a new system. old systems are dog slow. performance aside, i love the game. i wish there were more battles, like pool of radience. the quests are fun and entertaining, but it seems like the game designers had a Baldur's Gate (for the consoles, not the pc) type of template for the game in mind and wanted more quests than fights. oh well. i also hope they come out with a sequel that lets you import old chars. another great thing about the game is that you can play the game multiple times with differently aligned characters. i can't wait to replay the game with a chaotic evil party. pillage and destroy!

This game is unfinished!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: November 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I bought TOEE at it's release based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback on previews in game magazines, sadly this game
is not a finished product. Items lack descriptions, items do NOTHING (including all boots), characters do not get spell progression they should (cleric domain spells, NPCs don't level up correctly) and the game world is pretty darn small.
The major positive for this game is the combat, which is interesting and tactics intensive (although there is a long stretch where all you are doing is fetch and carry quests) and the wizard spells and turn undead spells which are pretty devastating.
The game is somewhat buggy, even after the extremely delayed patch but is playable all the way though if you can get over your annoyance at how many game aspects just DIDNT GET DONE!
If you buy this game you will want the Circle Of Eight Fanfix which will make it less annoying and more playable, but I would save my money for a game the publishers actually let the developers complete.

Jessica

I agree, unfinished, unpolished, untested

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: October 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Most of the crash and instability glitches come in the last third of the game so it presents itself fairly well for at least a couple dozen hours of gameplay.
This also tends to leave a positive impression with many people that write reviews before the progress to the end -- they havent experienced the worst yet. Still, having seen the worst, and having spent hours reading the unofficial support forms for answers, I still like this game and await a patch. In good conscience I can not give ToEE a good rating however.
If there was a catagory for rating the publisher, ATARI, I would give them ZERO stars because they unprofessionally pushed this product out the door without beta testing it.

BUGS, BUGS AND A GREAT D&D GAME!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: March 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If you like D&D on the PC you will love this, If you play "pen and paper" this is probably the best entry into PC D&D gaming. The engine is great and spellcasting could not be easier or more rewarding.

The bugs are real bad:
1) Patch the game before using.
2) If you know little about computers or get easially frusterated look into neverwinter. But patch that one too.

True to DnD

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: October 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Hello there all of you who visit Amazon.com

I wanted to say few words about this product just because it seems that some people have missunderstood the concept of this game. Some of you might know that the key developers of this game have also been working on games like Fallout and Arcanum - both games with an original world and original quests. But this time Troika (the developer) wanted to create a game which would be true to the original DnD system which was not a computer game at all. yes, other companies have tryed to convert that feeling before but in my opinion they have failed to deliver the "rights" feeling - Troika did it. I'm loving this game, it may not have the great worlds of Arcanum or Fallout, heck I can say that's it's a dungeon crawl, but it has the best such game I have ever played.

So if you're into tactical fighting, DnD and some adventuring this is the game for you.

Bugs, yup there are some bugs, I've not seen any game stoppers (some claim that there are) but I've encoutered few of them - most of the "bugs" are actual the way the game is supposed to be. But there will be a patch any time soon so maybe you can keep waiting for few more days and you will have the game of the year.

Why do I like this game ? Is it the story - I have to say that the story is that great what I was waiting from Troika, but it's because the game is a perfect copy of the original module - Troika put something new into it and also changed the world to fit the new 3.5 ruleset. The story isn't original (it's great, but not an Oscar winning writing). The game world isn't original (all DnD games are alike - more or less). It's the way the game world reacts to your actions, it's all in the choices you can make.

And also I have to say that the game looks fantastic. Don't even try to tell me that the engine is same with the one they used in Arcanum ( yes yes, I know it's somewhat the same engine but gazillion new lines of code).

I hope this was helpfull and I also hope that you would try this game before you judge it.

Too Much Gone Wrong

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: December 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Okay, I'm an avid D&D Gamer, both PC and Pencil&Paper(P&P), I have played almost every D&D game that has come out on the market and I believe this to be the WORST game I have ever played, it was given to me for Christmas this year. There are so many things wrong with it, it's hard to figure out where to start but I'll try:

1) The Graphics seem like they'd be decent if the game itself wasn't immpossibly dark and there is no way to brighten the screen.

2) The controls are slow and extremely sluggish(for scrolling purposes), confusing at best(The P&P Rules are never this confusing). The arrow keys are the best means of scrolling the game screen, of course you've got to be careful because you might have the trouble of the game not scrolling at all.

3) I accidentally hit the Windows Start key and lost have of the game screen when I brought it back up. I had to uninstall it and delete all the game info from and HD (including the recycle bin) just to get the game screen back to normal.

4) The game itself is not a very accurate integration of the D&D Rules. Playing D&D as much as I do on P&P I know the game very well and can definately say this game comes nowhere close to being true to the rules.

5) The voice acting is dry, dull, and unimpressive. There is only one PoV. The interactive menu is hard to understand and at time uncomprehensive leaving you with little choice as to what to do or nothing at all.

So i have listed a few of the many things gone wrong. The only good thing i can say about this game is how the work the monetary system in this game, I like how the divided it up into Platinum Pieces/Gold Pieces/Silver Pieces/Copper Pieces. The same thing that should've been done with Nevewinter Nights(NwN), but never happened.

So if you really want to have a good gaming experience playing in The Temple of Elemental Evil, then you should use the Aurora Toolset on NwN and create it, Then that way you know you'll be able to play the game and enjoy it for all it's worth.

So my recomendation on this game is to not buy it and if someone gives it to you, laugh and tell them to take it away for something better.

P.S. I've never heard of the game companies Troika or Bink but I'm not sure why WotC would let Atari take a game to inferior game publishers, when they just should've stayed with Bioware for game development. The game would've been far better if taken to Bioware.

Not worth it.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: May 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm a huge fan of D&D based products, like the earlier releases of Baldur's Gate and it's sequels/expansions. This game I was hoping would be something similar to it. It at least had the "look" of a similar product by all of the screenshots I saw.

First of all, the game is painfully short. I mean, there aren't really that many areas to even go to, and you can technically beat it in only a few hours. If you do every little sub-plot.. you can beat it in a full day of play. There's barely any replay value whatsoever. Alignment choices effect your "starting scenario" which was kind of cool, but throughout the rest of the game, it barely ever comes up as any sort of significant issue.

Bugs.. there were a lot in the initial release.. one of the worst ones being resting in a small area and having enemies that get stuck in the wall, so that you cannot get to them, they can't get to you, and you're stuck in combat and have to load the game. There was no way to exit combat mode until all creatures were defeated or your party dies. I've heard these issues have been resolved in a patch, but why on earth wouldn't they have seen these kinds of bugs in play testing? As others have said, I don't think they tested this game extensively, if even at all!

If you're looking for something boring and frustrating to do on a saturday afternoon, buy this game, and throw it away on Sunday after you've either finished it, or haven't been able to get it to function correctly.

Either way, it just wasn't worth the fifty dollars I spent on it, and as of this writing, Amazon is selling the game for ten dollars. I'm not sure if its even worth that, but at least if you buy it now, you won't have wasted as much money as I did.

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