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Too buggy to play

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: October 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I wanted so badly to like this game. I love D&D and the game at times can be fun, but it is simply unplayable. This is my first ever review on here and I hate that it is a bad one. I would not advise anyone to buy this game. I would say stay away and do not touch when you see it on the shelf. Others have said wait for the patch. I do not even know if that would help. I have had more crashes playing this game for about a week, then I have had in my entire life of using computers. I cannot say it strongly enough, stay away from this game. If there were negative stars I would give them to this game. This game is still in EARLY Beta, unfortunately they released it as such.

A Most Dreadful Encounter - the Game That Is.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: December 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is a truly dreadful game. It is buggy, slow and annoying. It has nice graphics but plays worse than a beta version. There are hardly any magic or treasure items to find, there are more empty chests and barrels than there were ones with items in them. You only go to level 10, you basically have to travel back to an Inn to rest as you restore hit points on 1 in 6 or 7 rest cycles. and the list goes on and on. There are only two D&D games that I have not even bothered to finish, Temple and the other Troika game Arcanum. There are some good concepts but overall you spend more time traveling than gaming or adventuring. After playing this game and then uploading the new Neverwinter Nights modules...I was in heaven. Dont get this game...

Mindnumbing boredom that 3 patches cant fix

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: September 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Ill get straight to the point: Stay away from this game.

I have played The Icewwind Dale series, Baldurs gate 1 & 2 and the excellent Planescape: Torment several time over. They are all great games.

When it was announced a PC version of Temple of Elemental Evil, I was very excited. I remember the the thrill playing, and then DMing the PnP version of the game some 15 years ago.

And THIS is what they come up with?!? Crap!

1. Bugs. After installing the three official patches the game is still bug-ridden: clicking on a character brings up the inv. of another, spells dont work, desktop crashing, numerous clipping issues (which is very rare in 2D game), an interface that seem to do the exact opposite of what you want it to do. etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc.

2. Tedious. The D & D 3.5 rules does not translate into a computer game. At all. It is that simple. In the Baldurs gate series the game play was fast, intuitive. exciting. In ToEE its a big yawn.
The Homlet quest are, with two exceptions, dumb, boring and errand boyish: Tell X to bring me a turnip, get a hammer for the blacksmith, tell X that Y really likes her, play cards with some bum at the inn. You get the idea.....
Combatwise it is none the better: I spent som 50 minutes chooping up 2 frogs just to get inside the Moathouse.
Had the 50 minutes been exciting I wouldnt mind, but its just a series of going through motions, linear clicking on options on each characters unwieldy radial menu.
Accurate representation of combat? Maybe.
Fun (which, in the end is why we all play computer games)? If your idea of fun is sticking needles in your eyes, this game is a blast.

3. Visuals & audio
The voice acting is in the top 3 worst games ever. A good example is the character Elmo whom you meet at the begining. After the encounter, I was left wondering if this was a joke on the gamers by the makers of this game.
The visuals are an anachronism. Great in 1998. Maybe. Today you get better visuals on high-end mobile phones.

4. The bugs, incredibly crummy gameplay, DD 3,5 rules, bad visuals and audio coupled with a thoroughly uninspired story makes this a game you should steer clear of.

Advice: If you havent played the Baldurs Gate or Icewind Dale serie yet: get those.
If you have: play them again

Anything but ToEE, even if it is in the bargain bin for 2 bucks.

Do not purchase - Unfinished product

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 139 / 183
Date: October 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Atari (publisher) and Troikka (developer) have done a great disservice to the consumer public by releasing this game. After purchase, I attempted install on 3 separate systems that met the recommended specs and was never able to get the game to even start. I immediately returned the game the next morning. After a heated "discussion" I was refunded my money. I am not willing to spend valuable time attempting to diagnose a product. I don't do that with a car or television...I am not doing that with a game.

Atari has taken the stance that they will not refund money for the game and has specifically stated that you must fight your retailer to return the game.

The Internet was not made as an excuse for computer companies to release unfinished product. Producing a patch available at a later date over the web to repair an obviously flawed product does not redeem the company.

This product should never have been brought to market in this state.

Game unfinished

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 22
Date: November 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I disagree with the other reviewer who thinks that everybody's computers are bad except for his. The bugs in this game are all in the gameplay...spells that last forever, spells that don't work, broken quests,and too many story glitches to count. Most damaging; the main battles (including the final one) in the game is broken if you approach it in a certain way. If you go on the Atari's bulletin board, the comprehensive bug list posting is over 30 pages long and growing by the day. They are supposed to release a patch, but my patience has worn out. I have taken the game off my computer and wil never play it again. Nor will I be buying another game by Atari or Troika.

Too many bugs to count

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 16
Date: October 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

A good game but way too buggy. There are so many glitches that the game is almost unplayable. Atari should be ashamed for relasing such an untested, unfinished game. Their technical assistance is nonexistent and the game's bulletin board is deluged with disappointed customers. Atari has lost my trust. I will never buy another game from such a shoddy company again.

Bug Filled - Game Won't Start

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 20
Date: November 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Bought this game and returned it the next day. What kind of game doesn't start after you install it? I have a new system and have never had this problem with any other game. Save yourself some grief and buy something else.

Probably the worst CRPG ever.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 20
Date: June 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I played PnP D&D for years. If I wanted an exact copy of it on PC, I'd still be ticked off about wasting $50 on this pice of garbage. I wanted a bit more "pc game" out of this pc game. This game delivers when it comes to it's adherence to the 3.5 rule set and formulae, but as a video game it is a piece of junk. D&D fans would be better served by investing in the latest books and playing the traditional way.

The graphics are god-awful. The background environment in the entire game is 2D. This game may have been on par in 1999 with the then current level of graphic complexity, but it came out at the end of 2002, when Neverwinter Nights had already been on the market for some time. NWN graphics were and are far superior. In fact, Baldur's Gate II graphics are/were far superior. I dare say I believe BG ONE had better graphics.

Buggy? This game put a whole new meaning to the term "buggy". It crashes. And it crashes. And it crashes some more. Despite the garbage gui, it still slows to a grinding halt even on my up-to-date pc. Even with the patch I have yet to be able to complete this game.

Support? You won't get any from the producers of this crap-fest. In the words of the head honcho, "...I like to put the [completed games] behind me and move on to the next project..." I've been keeping track. A second patch, which is supposed to fix the problems the first patch either missed, or created anew, has been promised for over a year. Release dates are promised, then the developers just disappear for a time. No, I don't ever suspect I'll ever be ableto finish this game.

Linear. Probably the most linear RPG created in the past 6 years. You get no opportunity to explore the world...mainly because it doesn't exist. Despite the games strict adherance to the D&D 3.5 rules, it doesn't even give you remotely the same experience as TOEE gave when played on PnP. The side quests are a joke. They are the worst example of fedex I can think of. "Go tell him I said OK I'll wait here." "He said OK." "Tell him I said I like OK, I'll wait here." "He said he likes OK." "Good. Tell him to come here. I'll wait here" etc, etc, etc. This is just an example of the hours upon hours of useless "missions" you'll perform. And you have to perform them as they unlock certain key mission areas. So in a sense, they aren't side quests at all. You are STUCK doing them in the exact fashion and order.....linear. No, you cannot wander off into the woods to explore.

If you like D&D...buy the 3.5 rule books and go play the old fashion way. You'll have a much better time. If you want a D&D based game for your pc, go get Neverwinter Nights and both expansions. Besides, theres thousands of mods out there to keep it interesting for years. NWN has the potential to stay around for as long as Elder Scrolls has.

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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