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Review IGN reviews ToEE

Ibbz

Augur
Joined
Jun 20, 2002
Messages
499
Tags: Temple of Elemental Evil

<a href="http://www.ign.com" target="_blank">IGN</a> have churned out a 5 page <a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/450/450917p1.html" target="_blank">review</a> of Temple of Elemental Evil. They're final rating is a 7.5 {which is very close to the reader rating of 7.7} with the main disappointments being the amount of bugs present in the game:
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<blockquote>Unfortunately, the complicated interface and AI problems aren't the biggest problems with ToEE. That dishonor goes to the numerous bugs that you'll run across while playing. As ToEE is a huge, complex, detailed RPG, I can see how some bugs would slip through the QA process, but ToEE is just infested. While none of the bugs I encountered are necessarily fatal or detrimental to the game, they certainly are annoying.</blockquote>
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and the unintuitive interface:
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<blockquote>As with nearly every RPG, there's a lot to be done in ToEE, and this adds up to a lot of gameplay options. Unfortunately, the interface isn't the best at presenting all of these options in an easy-to-use manner. The control scheme is very reminiscent of Neverwinter Nights' interface where there's a circle of options surrounding the selected character's portrait with expanding menus containing more detailed options extending from the original choices. While the interface in Neverwinter Nights was complex and fairly easy to use, ToEE's interface is convoluted, unwieldy and confusing, and playing with it actually seems to extend the gameplay time as choosing trivial actions take a lot of time. This was the most frustrating aspect of the early parts of the game, as it takes a few hours to learn. ToEE really could have used the help of assignable action hotslots so you wouldn't have to drill down the chain of options for your most-used choices. </blockquote>
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The one disturbing aspect I noted was the recommendations at the bottom of the page. The "You may also like:" listed Lionheart at number 1 ... ugh. Best we dont associate Lionheart with ToEE.
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Montez

Novice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Messages
58
Location
The Hub
While the interface in Neverwinter Nights was complex and fairly easy to use, ToEE's interface is convoluted, unwieldy and confusing, and playing with it actually seems to extend the gameplay time as choosing trivial actions take a lot of time. This was the most frustrating aspect of the early parts of the game, as it takes a few hours to learn. ToEE really could have used the help of assignable action hotslots so you wouldn't have to drill down the chain of options for your most-used choices.

What kind of morons do they have doing the reviews at these sites? It took me about 5 minutes to get used to the interface, and the radial menu is a lot more useful than hot keys and practically the same as the NWN menu. If anything, its even easier to use than the NWN one because everything is spelled out for you, no need to memorize icons or wait for tool tips. Maybe it's just me, but I think the overall interface is one of the better ones I've seen in an RPG.
 

Rayt

Liturgist
Joined
Nov 24, 2002
Messages
192
Location
Swingin' Groningen
TOEE doesn't have hotkeys then? Shit, that was the one thing that made the radial menu driven interface of NWN bareable.

Maybe it's not so bad in turnbased combat *fingers crossed*
 

protobob

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 31, 2002
Messages
332
Location
USA
...I hate reviews that take a sentence to complain about a missing feature, when said missing feature is mentioned on page 1 of the manual. Maybe he didn't have the manual, though. Sometime you have to wonder.

To create a hotkey for the radial menu, CTRL-'key' lets you assing that key to an option.

I've got tons of hotkeys for things like search, run, charge, ready vs. approach, total defense, coup de grace, etc. etc.
 

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