Review ToEE enjoyed by GameAxis

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Temple of Elemental Evil

<a href="http://www.gameaxis.com/">GameAxis</a> has posted <A href="http://www.gameaxis.com/articles/view.gax?id=175">a review</A> of <A href="http://www.greyhawkgame.com">Temple of Elemental Evil</a>, saying it's fun, but hard, and it's pretty, basically. The final score being an <b>8.0</b>. Here's a clip:
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<blockquote>While this is a godsend on the stat side of things, like any CRPG, there's not a whole lot of "role" in this roleplaying. It's nice that the game has tried to customize itself to your playstyle even further by making adjustments to the game script based on your party's alignment (more on this later) and intelligence, but you're still limited to the same old tree branch response system you?ve seen in EVERY SINGLE RPG YOU?VE EVER PLAYED as <u>opposed to the brilliant improvisations you could get when you played the traditional game with a Dungeon Master who was really on the ball</u>. Oh well, you can't have everything. Still it's D & D, and it's recognizably so, and it's set in the world of Greyhawk, and for old veterans of the classic D & D rpg system, it's all familiar and breathtakingly brought to life in terms of visual splendor. </blockquote>
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...just like you can't do everything you can do in paintball with a first person shooter. I'm not sure what the hell the point of that even is.
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Spotted this at <A href="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</a>

 

[Voss]

Ah those brillant improvisations. I remember those. But hardly the norm, since there were other people in the game group, including:

-sulky guy, that doesn't really want to be there, and couldn't care less about the game.
-kill-everything guy, that only wants combat. (and loot)
-uber-role-playing guy, that wants to RP everything out in excruciating detail down to taking a shit.
and...
-clueless guy, which is fine for a while, but who you start to suspect of a serious learning disability, since he remains completely clueless even 10 sessions later. "What do I roll to attack again?"

Just having a good dm is rarely enough. And what are the odds of finding one of those anyway?

With PnP, generally if I'm having fun most of the game, and can block out the more annoying players, I'm fairly satisfied. But the masterful on the ball GM with brillant improvisations is a fairly rare thing.

 

[Elwro]

<blockquote>, but you're still limited to the same old tree branch response system you?ve seen in EVERY SINGLE RPG YOU?VE EVER PLAYED as <u>opposed to the brilliant improvisations you could get when you played the traditional game with a Dungeon Master who was really on the ball</u>. </blockquote>

...just like you can't do everything you can do in paintball with a first person shooter. I'm not sure what the hell the point of that even is.

Why, can't you see? The guy is clearly referring to "Tell me about" options of Fallout, Wizardry and Daggerfall, and would like them to be more advanced and partly randomized .