The Codex's official opinion on Temple of Elemental Evil?

[Cassidy]

Good game, would be great had they made Hommlett into nothing more than a place for buying and resting and taken more creative liberties about the adaptation of the module, including more interesting dynamics in the temple. Improved by the CO8, specially by the combat-centered quest that replaces the banal shit boring Hommlett fetching as an early game source of XP. This is a dungeon crawler and the sections that aren't about it show up their weakness. Considering this was the first combat-centric CRPG Troika did, they did it pretty well too. Had it been a bit more balanced and bug free and the few non-combat sections been fun rather than boring, it would stand as one of the best CRPGs of all time.

 

[Outlander]

I would love it if inXile used the ToEE engine for Wasteland 2.

 

[Johannes]

I would love it if inXile used the ToEE engine for Wasteland 2.

Why the hell would that be good? The combat rules might've been good, but the engine itself was pretty shit what with all the pathing, save corruption etc. issues.

 

[Outlander]

I'm sure the dudes at inXile could iron out those issues.

I did suggest it in the 'Engine' thread in the W2 boards weeks ago, but no one seemed to know what the fuck ToEE was, everybody going on about cryengine, UE3 and whatnot.

 

[Johannes]

So would be the actual worthwhile reusable part of that engine?

 

[Spockrock]

graphics, man. Infinity's hand-drawn backgrounds are shit compared to what ToEE has. not to mention 3D character models that don't look out of place. ToEE is the most beautiful RPG I've ever played

 

[Excidium]

And what does that have to do with the engine?

 

[Johannes]

Also, Infinity's backgrounds are not hand-drawn.

 

[Spockrock]

"pre-rendered", whatever

graphics have everything to do with the engine. not the textures of course, but stuff like lighting, shadows etc. this is why Unreal 2 Engine games all look the same.

 

[Excidium]

I know.

What I don't know is why you would want the buggy mess that is the ToEE engine when pre-rendered backgrounds with 3D models (what you like about it) can be done on others.

 

[Spockrock]

well, because I'm not entirely sure in inXile's programmers' capabilities to take just any engine and make an isometric game as beautiful as ToEE. unfortunately, I only played the Co8 version of the game and only encountered one game-breaking bug. I don't know how bad the engine really is. so you could be right, of course.

still, how many engines are there today that are designed with 2D in mind? Unity maybe. I bet there are others. but ToEE's graphics really hold up well even today, with a bit of tweaking it could've been used to make a kick-ass game, I think. that's my reasoning

 

[kingcomrade22]

ToEE is a combat engine looking for a game.

 

[.Pixote.]

Hat's off to a bunch of guys who only had 18 months to build a CRPG...imagine what could have been made if Atari gave them 2 or 3 years. It's obvious that the lack of time hurt the game greatly, firstly the role playing elements are very weak, and the writing isn't the best, but the engine and combat are first class. The game is too easy though, a solo sorcerer can waltz through the game charming everything, then it's just a case of sitting back and enjoying the slaughter.

I was very excited about this game when it first came out because I have the original D&D module it is based on. I'm just lucky I have an older brother who collected everything D&D from about 1979 - 1988 and passed it down to me. Now it all sits in a box out in my shed waiting to be rediscovered.

 

[Deadeye Dragoon]

Buggy and half-finished game, typical of Troika. My first run-though I took Druella, who PICKED UP EVERY ITEM ON THE MAP and never, ever traded it despite being Max Encumbered. Still managed to fight through that (hell, I didn't even sacrifice her: RP +1!)
and other ridiculousness to finish.

The winning aspect is the fantastic turn-based D&D combat, and it is that indeed. Yet paying attention to it is wholly unnecessary after 3rd or 4th level, as the fights become MUCH easier than even, say, BG realtime-with-pause battles. At least BG dished out a plethora of challenging fights every damn level and map. TOEE is: tough for the first few quests outside of Hommel, then, uh...faceplant a few thousands enemies in dozens of boring and safe set-tos.

The CO8 mod made things a lot more challenging though, and makes the game pretty damn good. Too bad Troika or their everpresent (possibly valid but I as a consumer don't give a shit) excuse of publisher pressure led them to give out a crappy virgin game.

 

[laclongquan]

Condemnation:

Even though Codex rave and rant about the goodness of ToEE, I never find the curiousity to not remove this from inventory, let alone trying it. Lackaluster game!

 

[DragoFireheart]

Hat's off to a bunch of guys who only had 18 months to build a CRPG...imagine what could have been made if Atari gave them 2 or 3 years. It's obvious that the lack of time hurt the game greatly, firstly the role playing elements are very weak, and the writing isn't the best, but the engine and combat are first class. The game is too easy though, a solo sorcerer can waltz through the game charming everything, then it's just a case of sitting back and enjoying the slaughter.

I was very excited about this game when it first came out because I have the original D&D module it is based on. I'm just lucky I have an older brother who collected everything D&D from about 1979 - 1988 and passed it down to me. Now it all sits in a box out in my shed waiting to be rediscovered.

Yo bro I dunno about you but I don't remember any lobsters in my DnD games.

 

[Deadeye Dragoon]

Hat's off to a bunch of guys who only had 18 months to build a CRPG...imagine what could have been made if Atari gave them 2 or 3 years. It's obvious that the lack of time hurt the game greatly, firstly the role playing elements are very weak, and the writing isn't the best, but the engine and combat are first class. The game is too easy though, a solo sorcerer can waltz through the game charming everything, then it's just a case of sitting back and enjoying the slaughter.

I was very excited about this game when it first came out because I have the original D&D module it is based on. I'm just lucky I have an older brother who collected everything D&D from about 1979 - 1988 and passed it down to me. Now it all sits in a box out in my shed waiting to be rediscovered.

Yo bro I dunno about you but I don't remember any lobsters in my DnD games.

You don't remember the lobsters with teeth claws and a disintegrate eyeball above them? Those were the worst.

btw, my RP complaint for this game is the actual Temple of Elemental Evil. There are I guess a dozen or more quests to do EVIL FETCHES for the elemental chiefs. Hm, I haven't discovered such in person because I roleplay a GOOD character and slaughter them all as soon as they evilly wise off to me, which is first conversation. Guess next time I'l have to RP Evil or Neutral to have any actual RPing in the meat of the game.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Condemnation:

Even though Codex rave and rant about the goodness of ToEE, I never find the curiousity to not remove this from inventory, let alone trying it. Lackaluster game!

So...you have never tried it...yet in your opinion, it is a lacklustre game?

Have you ever considered taking up gaming journalism?

 

[Lunac]

Unplayable "game" unfortunately. Hommlet is just brain numbing experience. Reminds me why I could never get into JRPGs, since those were always filled with towns upon towns that you couldn't really skip and had to go trough endless pages of inane and juvenile storyline in text form while clicking on big-eyed pixelated "characters" hoping the game would JUST m-o-v-e ON! That's what I had a flashback to when I entered Hommlet for the first time, a shitty JRPG. Not a good sign.


...
..
.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Unplayable "game" unfortunately. Hommlet is just brain numbing experience. Reminds me why I could never get into JRPGs, since those were always filled with towns upon towns that you couldn't really skip and had to go trough endless pages of inane and juvenile storyline in text form while clicking on big-eyed pixelated "characters" hoping the game would JUST m-o-v-e ON! That's what I had a flashback to when I entered Hommlet for the first time, a shitty JRPG. Not a good sign.


...
..
.

Visit Tavern; Talk to people; Find out about Moathouse.

Is this really that difficult and time consuming?

Everybody here knows they don't have to plumb every XP point from the town?

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

When it comes to XP most RPG players are plumbers. The thing is that codexers also bitch about it.

 

[joeydohn]

When it comes to XP most RPG players are plumbers. The thing is that codexers also bitch about it.

Then after consulting the walkthroughs and their spreadsheet making sure they haven't missed even a single rat while reloading every time they make a wrong dialogue decision they complain the the game lacks replayability.

 

[circ]

When it comes to XP most RPG players are plumbers. The thing is that codexers also bitch about it.

Then after consulting the walkthroughs and their spreadsheet making sure they haven't missed even a single rat while reloading every time they make a wrong dialogue decision they complain the the game lacks replayability.

Well it isn't the consumers fault that the developers can't into gameplay.

 

[laclongquan]

Condemnation:

Even though Codex rave and rant about the goodness of ToEE, I never find the curiousity to not remove this from inventory, let alone trying it. Lackaluster game!

So...you have never tried it...yet in your opinion, it is a lacklustre game?

Have you ever considered taking up gaming journalism?

I dunno~ What's good about it?

 

[circ]

Condemnation:

Even though Codex rave and rant about the goodness of ToEE, I never find the curiousity to not remove this from inventory, let alone trying it. Lackaluster game!

So...you have never tried it...yet in your opinion, it is a lacklustre game?

Have you ever considered taking up gaming journalism?

I dunno~ What's good about it?

Looks amazing, sounds amazing, has an amazing combat system and I like the UI too unlike some people. Also has a fairly advanced alignment system with a different beginning for each alignment, anything and anyone is killable, fair amount of C&C, about a dozen different endings and a few different ways to finish it too.

On the negative side, voice acting is shit and plotholes are plentiful in the already minimal plot.