Temple of Elemental Evil: A Greyhawk Adventure (Jewel Case) Horror Games Review

Compare at: $29.99 (New)

Buy Now: $3.99 (New)

You Save: $26.00 (87%)

Buy Now: $6.00 (Used)

You Save: $23.99 (80%)

Title: Temple of Elemental Evil: A Greyhawk Adventure (Jewel Case)
Format: CD-ROM
Score:
Platform: Windows 98
Publisher: Los Angeles
Hits: 42

Review of Temple of Elemental Evil: A Greyhawk Adventure (Jewel Case)

[ Back to Homepage | Back to Horror Game Reviews Index ]

HellHorror.com not responsible for reviews/comments and they may be removed at any time.

Comments for Temple of Elemental Evil: A Greyhawk Adventure (Jewel Case)

• Posted on 2009-10-22
  Good D&D implementation, but an overall directionless experience
  
  First off, I have to say that my review is based on the game with Official Patch #1, Official Patch #2, and Moebius' Unofficial Patch (a popular fan-made patch). Combined, these patches fix many bugs and make the game playable. I never played the game unpatched, so I can't comment on how unplayable it may have been. When patching the game, there are two options: the three patches listed above, or the Circle of Eight (Co8) mod instead of Moebius' patch. There is an Official Patch #3 but this actually causes more problems and, for me, made the game unable to load. 1/2/Moebius fixes many bugs but does not alter gameplay. 1/2/Co8 fixes bugs but does add new content, items, quests, etc. and will alter the experience somewhat. I recommend choosing whichever you prefer to be your in-game experience.
  
  Now for the game itself. It is certainly a good implementation of the D&D 3.5 ruleset (however, I should qualify that by saying that I am not a pen & paper player, but I have read the Player's Handbook), but there is a fair learning curve if you want to know what's going on, particularly in combat. The combat is turned based and fully implements the D&D rules of one move/one action per turn. It will take some practice but I found this to be a fun combat system and not at all tedious, though some may find it so.
  
  The graphics are about what you'd expect for a game like this from its time period, but I did notice that the characters on the screen move much more fluidly than, say, the characters in Baldur's Gate, etc.
  
  My biggest complaint, and one that ultimately sinks the experience for me in a big way, is that the game feels very directionless right from the start. You are directed to the starting village of Hommlet via a quest, but this quest is unrelated to the rest of the game. You then learn about the next big place you are supposed to visit, but this isn't even added as a quest! In fact, other than the mere mention of it, there is no reason to think you are supposed to go there to progress the story, and no reason that you over anyone else should have been asked to do so. There are side quests in the village, and then you move on to another village (again under a pretense that does not materialize into anything relevant to the quests), and then the Temple itself. Once in the Temple, I still had no idea what I was supposed to do or why, except that I needed to "destroy the evil" in the Temple. Well, okay, but can't I have more to go on than that? I suppose a part of this lack of story development has to do with the original module the game was based on, but the developers still could have fleshed out parts of the story somewhat, even if just to make the player feel like he's actually involved in the events and not just being led around by vague hints of where to go.
  
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
• Posted on 2009-06-12
  ToEE review
  
  This was an extremely engaging game, requiring strategy and follow through.
  All in all, 9 out of 10.
  
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
• Posted on 2009-03-24
  As close to the 'real' thing as you can get
  
  This game is fairly buggy and barely works sometimes, but dammit, when it works can it is as close to a pen-and-paper game of DND 3.5 as i have ever played. Add the co8 mod (found at www.co8.org) and it's damn near impossible to tell the difference. Well worth what i paid for it originally and a steal at discount amazon prices.
  
  
  On the negative side -
  1. Some TOEE discs have a problem being detected by some computers... it will say "please insert the CD" even when it's already in. You may have to find a solution for this... and I assure you that one exists, though I will not say where.
  
  2. Without a mod, some of the rules are annoyingly different from the PNP game and you will be forced to guess which rules those are. Irritating if you happen to base a character on a false understanding of the rules. Probably not an issue if you didn't know the rules in the first place.
  
  3. Navigating the first town can be very tedious. Fortunately it is not a necessity.
  
  4. The open world style does not provide the story structure that many rpg fans are used to.
  
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
• Posted on 2009-01-07
  Does not run at all.
  
  I enjoyed the other 2 Troika games (Arcanum and VtM:Bloodlines), so I thought I would give this one a go. Unfortunately, after several hours dealing with it, I still can't get this piece of trash to run at all. I meet the system requirements, it just won't run. I've narrowed down the causes of why it isn't running, but that hasn't helped.
  
  Possible cause #1: The game will only run in 75hz. My lcd monitor only runs in 60hz. I found a way to disable the intro movies, which also want to run only in 75hz, but not a way to change the way the game renders.
  
  Possible cause #2: SecureRom. Like all pieces of trash, I mean fine quality games from Atari, this is loaded with SecureRom. Sometimes you can get around this with no-cd patches. But should I really have to resort to piracy to play a game that I just *barely* purchased?
  
  So, I ended out throwing this against the wall in frustration. This is the LAST $[...] that Atari will get from me.
  
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
• Posted on 2008-12-02
  If your not a D&D fan there's a bit of a learning curve.
  
  I bought this game being a fan of turn based rpgs and the company that developed it, troika. This game is very faithful to its D&D ruleset which meant I, having never played table top D&D, had to do a lot of studying before I was able to play the game. If you like D&D I can't imagine you disliking this game but if you've never played D&D and are buying this out of love for turn based rpgs you might be slightly confused in the beginning. Character creation and skills are handled much differently in this compared to other games like Fallout or Arcanum. It's still a good game, especially the combat system, it will just take some reading for a non D&D fan to be able to play. It's a little buggy but just download the patches and it's playable and for the price on this site it's worth a try.
  
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10