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Elemental Failure is more like it...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 11
Date: March 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Reading the Title one may wonder why I bothered with 2 stars: well, because I'm a big Dungeons & Dragons fan. All of the D&D games for the PC have been hit or miss - like 'em or hate 'em, I suppose. This one, the ToEE, makes me writhe in hatred.

Graphics & Sound:
- the graphics were okay. They could have been much better and the other D&D game contemporaneous with this one - the Ruins of Myth Drannor - looked and sounded better. Suffice to say the graphics, music, and sound effects are tolerable but not particularly engaging or well done.
- I should redeem some points for the game in saying that graphics and sound aren't the end-all of PC RPG games. But in today's market, with the hardware available for home gaming, it's a shame that we role-players can't have more!

Gameplay:
- Vastly inferior to Neverwinter Nights, Ruins of Myth Drannor, and Baldur's Gate... Character creation was very sloppy and somewhat removed from the real D&D process. It's not hard to create a superhero character in this game (as in other games as well) and there is no real chance to create a "wrong" character. It takes away from the responsibility.
- Playing in game was clunky and cumbersome. The interface for the game is not intuitive and those new to D&D-style RPG games will find navigating the various menus and commands a bit irritating.
- The story was ghastly. The intro movie clip didn't make any sense - especially if you are unfamiliar with the world of Greyhawk to begin with. There is no clear reason for your character to be embarking on his quest and no real sense while playing that you're accomplishing something signficant. Sorry, but the "go here and do that" model is too weak.

Performance:
- the game performed well enough but had several noticable problems. Movement in game was confusing and erratic. The requirements on the box seem to be adequate but the game didn't feel smooth and seamless. Accessing and moving in certain terrains and environments was clumsy and the perspective on screen difficult to manage.
- If your PC meets the minimum requirements you should have no problems. But as always check your video and sound drivers and disable any background programs if this game runs poorly. On multiple systems I found VERY different performance levels.

Take care

Bugs a major issue

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game was fun to play, but the bugs are significant, even after installing the 3 patches. The biggest pain with the play was that in certain areas when there is a lot going on, the play would slow to a crawl. My fight with the boss in the fire elemental node took about an hour, but should have been over in about 10 minutes if things went smoothly. Also, in these areas, doing a save takes 1-2 minutes sometimes. Other than the slow play in some areas, the game was fun. Just be patient.

Nowhere near the worst, Nowhere near the best

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Graphics:
I Really enjoyed the graphics to this game. Of Course, they're not up to date with other games out on the market today. However, I am just a fan of this visual style (the top down third person view), there is a simplistic elegance to it. A beautiful wash of vibrant colors just pull you into this digital game world, (I have a high res monitor so it may look a bit different for others). The graphical animations of spells is very well done as well, very smooth movement and once again very vibrant colors. However, I can't say they even come close Baldur's Gate's and Icewindale's hand-drawn graphics (Which in my opinion, even if someone invents Star Trek Style Holodecks, the graphics in those games will still be better.) Also, for some reasons there are areas you can walk into on a map that slows everything down into clunky frames, but when you get away from those areas on the map, everything returns to normal.

Sound:
I enjoyed the sounds to this game, although they weren't the best I have ever heard, the music and sound effects did there job. The Battle Music was Battlie, and the Scenic Music was Senikie, and the voice acting was ok. For example of music when entering into the first town in the game, the ambient music in the back ground felt distant, quite, and peaceful. Which only emphasized the fact that the town was far away from anything, and small. So I would say that their sound department did it's job.

Gameplay:
Character creation is very simple, which is nice if you really don't want to take the time to obsessively pay attention to every detail of your characters development. Also, the game is turn based, which I enjoy because I usually get overwhelmed in not turn based RPGs, such as Baldur's Gate (I usually turn the real-time off). However, I know turn based is not everyones cup of tea. The in game combat menu is easy to figure out. However, other menus are kind of clunky and are accessed in ways that take some getting use to. I think this was a game that came out a little too soon in its production. It has an overall sense of feeling incomplete, there are large are maps with only 25% of it being utilized, this make it so you frequently stumble upon large empty rooms. Sub Quests are too short, as well as the story arc is fragmented to the point of almost being non existent(If you're looking for a well written, epic Story Line, with plot twists, and protagonist character development like many other D&D games, you are definitely barking up the wrong tree with this game). The overall world map is sparse in areas you can visit, and if you know what you are doing, you can actually beat the game in about 2 hours. There is also a Level Cap for players at level 10, (However, that problem is easily correctable).

System Bugs:
There can be some nasty bugs, however, the game has been out for awhile now, so most of those problems have been fixed. There is a particular nasty bug that I encountered when I tried to run this on my higher end computer at home.
My System Quick Specs.
- 2.66 Ghz intel core 2 duo processor (overclocked to 3 Ghz)
- 680i EVGA mother board
- Nvidia 8800 768mb GTX Graphics card
- 4 gigs DDR2 800mhz
- Windows XP Pro x64 edition / Windows XP 32bit
The Problem was after installing the game, I would try to run it, but the game would always exit itself after about 12 seconds making it unplayable. I believe the problem was with the video card. I swapped the 8800 out with a EVGA GeForce FX 5200 I had laying about, and it worked fine. However, I finally got it to work with the 8800 by applying a nocd Exe. That was the only way I got it to run.

Pleasantly Surprised

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Definitely not the greatest roleplaying GAME I've seen for the PC, but it's probably one of the most enjoyable gaming EXPERIENCES I've ever had.

I would strongly recommend it... but only if you're experienced in the pen-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 game. Those who haven't played D&D 3.5 will be completely lost when it comes to things like initiative, skill points, and feats. I found myself sitting with the D&D Players Handbook in my lap at some points in time, especially when it came to playing more obscure classes (druids for example).

Anyone that has played the actual D&D modules "The Temple of Elemental Evil" and/or "Return to The Temple of Elemental Evil" will recognize characters such as Terjon of St Cuthbert, Lareth the Beautiful, Jaroo the Druid, Burne's Badgers, and so on.

A warning: this is an older game meant for an older operating system. My 2007 Windows Vista hiccuped when I tried to run it, and it took me hours of frustration to find the right patches. It runs fine with XP, but anyone with Vista should be wary.

Initially getting the hang of the controls and dealing with sometimes frustrating camera angles takes a while to become accustomed to, but don't let that deter you from this game. If you're a D&D fan, you have nothing to lose from picking this title up.

Pretty good if you're desperate for another RPG

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: June 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you love single player, multi-character RPGs like I do, then you'll dig TEE. It's no where near BGII, but it will keep you entertained for a few weeks. The only thing that slightly annoys me is that it's turn based, which goes a little slower than the space-bar pause games like BGII.

Classic PnP Adventure works well on PC after patching and modding

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This Dungeons & Dragons game was based on the eponymous pen & paper adventure, The Temple of Elemental Evil, which was voted the fourth best D&D adventure in 2004 (the 30th anniversary of D&D). Although the original adventure was written with the first edition AD&D rules in mind, this game uses the more varied 3.5 version D&D rules, which is a good thing. The characters begin at level one, and depending on how many you use (5-8 recommended), they can get to levels 10-14, even higher if you use just one or two.

You have a full control over the creation and doings of your party, and you can hire a couple of NPCs in addition. If you install the Co8 5.04 Mod pack, as you should, the looting bug will also be gone.

The best feature of this game, however, is by far the turn-based combat system. The D&D rules have been more thoroughly employed than in most other such games, so that if, for example, you run through or away from a hostile creature's square in combat, the creature will get an "attack of opportunity".

The combat system makes most of the battles at least somewhat interesting, and some of them even more interesting than the few really interesting ones in the Baldur's Gate games. The balance is pretty good. There aren't very many battles you can take casually (you should use the point-buy system at the beginning so that your characters won't become too powerful). Sometimes, though, and even with all the tactics involved, the battles seem to depend a bit too much on chance. This is an ingrained quality of the D&D rules, and tends to make the game more exciting whenever you don't find yourself losing a battle because the enemy got three critical hits and you got none.

The reason I gave the game only four stars is that the battle and party control are really the only things that make this game interesting, even unique at the moment. The story and dialogs are pretty poor. This is true of games like BG and Fallout as well. But The Temple of Elemental Evil also pretty much lacks any interesting side quests that would involve something other than combat. Fallout had some such quests; Baldur's Gate, not really, although it pretended to.

In any case, this game is very much worth buying and keeping. Get it while you still can. There aren't any comparable games in sight. Just be sure to check out the Co8 forum, and follow the installation instructions that you can find there.

D&D without having to worry about game mechanics.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I played D&D for many years off and on... from 1st edition to 3rd and I the original Temple of Elemental Evil was one of my favorite campaigns. This game really captures the spirit of that module and D&D in general. It uses the new rule structure and seamlessly integrates them in such away that they dont interfere with your enjoyment of the game.

This is no blind hack-and-slash... there is a background story and a lot of NPCs you can interact with (and even bring along with your party). You will need to take your time and bring your characters up to each challenge... just like playing the real game.

I highly recommed it... and you can't beat the price!

Can't Beat The Price

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: April 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

For the price, you can't lose much by trying this game if you're an RPG fan. However, compared to the Dungeon Siege games, Neverwinter Nights, etc. die-hard fans of the genre might be turned off. The inability to alter your viewing perspective is a real annoyance if you've enjoyed the freedom from playing the aforementioned games. However, those who love customizing their character stats would love it. The graphics are a bit dated as well and not much better than the Sacreds or Diablos, but in the end hardcore RPG fans should be satisfied.

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