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Review Gamerz Edge praises ToEE

Vault Dweller

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Tags: Temple of Elemental Evil

<a href=http://www.sbgi.net>Gamerz Edge</a> posted this <a href=http://www.sbgi.net/template/entertainment/gamerz/pc/reviews/temple.htm>ToEE's review</a> awhile ago, but since it's very positive I felt obligated to share this unbiased opinion with you. They gave it <b>8.4</b> overall, giving 8,7,9,8,10 for graphics, sound, fun, gameplay, and depth.
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<blockquote>The gameplay of ToEE isn't like your normal RPG. While it has your common RPG elements of an eclectic mix of people in a party, gathering money and new items, and lots and lots of dialogue, the battle system is what separates it from the rest. This if of course classic D&D - while you won't be tumbling any dice, you will fight in a manner as if the game had come to life. When engaged in a battle a row of icons will appear on the screen designating the order in which the turns will take place. Each of your party members will be represented as well as any of the enemy scum you have to deal with. When it comes time for one of your characters, you will be presented with many different options. Each character has a time bar that allocates times to any given action. If you choose to move your character a few feet forward to get into better position for attack then the time meter will drop, and any other actions must be able to be performed in that length of time or your turn is essentially up. If your want your character to do anything other than simply waltzing around the battle field, all you have to do is click on your character and a series of menus will be displayed in a circular fashion. It is a radial menu system, so if you want to cast a spell, you find the right icon for casting a spell it then will branch of to a sub menu, and from there you pick which way you want to flambe the nearest zombie.
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Gameplay is varied in this game so much that it is recommend that you play through it more than once, and I can see why. The characters you choose with their specific skills as well as the different alignments you can choose , from lawful good to chaotic evil, vastly change the path you will take in the game. Initially, my main character of focus was a three foot tall rogue halfing who could pick pocket anyone with a purse. However, I have feeling that if I create a band of barbarian half-orcs that my approach to the game would be much different.</blockquote>
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It's actually sad that people refers to TB gameplay as "not your normal RPG". Of course it's also sad that they describe RPGs as "mix of people, gathering money and items, and lotsa dialogues". What a terrible time we live in :)
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Transcendent One

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It's actually sad that people refers to TB gameplay as "not your normal RPG". Of course it's also sad that they describe RPGs as "mix of people, gathering money and items, and lotsa dialogues". What a terrible time we live in :)

It's sad, but really is the truth. I mean since Bioware ate too much and puked out Baldur's Gate in 1998, how many truly turn-based RPG's were there that were not commercial failures? And how many games out there that were not commercial failures were not about gathering money, ph4t l3w7, and lots of cheesy forced dialog?
 

Volourn

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You justd escribed TOEE except it's dialogue isn't even as good as cheesy dialogue.
 

Sol Invictus

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KOTOR has some cheesy dialogue from the 3rd party characters. Just listen to the Outcast Doctor in the undercity.

"If you let the rakghouls out they will surely destroy us all!"

hahah.
 

Volourn

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Never said it didn't. All I said was TOEE's dialogue wasn't as good as even cheesy dialogue. :lol:
 

Volourn

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And how many games out there that were not commercial failures were not about "gathering money, ph4t l3w7, and lots of cheesy forced dialog?"


How is that not pretty much describe TOEE? There's nothing in there about tb combat.

VD, no, they didn't write the dialogue.

Hey, GH, why you erase your post?...
 

Transcendent One

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Volourn said:
You justd escribed TOEE except it's dialogue isn't even as good as cheesy dialogue.

ToEE's dialog had it's moments. Like try talking to a Burne's Badger with a dumb character. Or try killing that kid that poison's Black Jay's crops and then talk to Black Jay.
 

Transcendent One

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Volourn said:
And how many games out there that were not commercial failures were not about "gathering money, ph4t l3w7, and lots of cheesy forced dialog?"


How is that not pretty much describe TOEE? There's nothing in there about tb combat.

VD, no, they didn't write the dialogue.

Hey, GH, why you erase your post?...

I misunderstood your point :oops:
 

Volourn

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Ahh.. No problem. Anbd, of course, it had it's moment. Every game has its moments.
 

Vault Dweller

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Basically limiting the number of words to make localization cheaper is a guarantee of bad and cheesy lines, same way as Atari butchered the sound. Common, the true and only fault of ToEE is Hommlet (going back and forth to tell people who said what was bad). Sound, dialogues, and bugs are Atari's fault.
 

Volourn

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Yeah. 'Cause TOEE is the *only* game to ever have word count limits. :roll:
 

Vault Dweller

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Interesting argument :roll:, regardless of how many games managed to create deep conversations using 2 word per sentense limit (You bad. Me Kill. Get loot ), the main issue is the limitation and those who created it.
 

Seven

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Volourn said:
Yeah. 'Cause TOEE is the *only* game to ever have word count limits. :roll:

Yeah, but this is a Troika game dialogues are supposed to be their strong suit, so this also begs the question of why they accepted this term (but then again they gotta pay the rent)?
 

Volourn

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LOL VD. I would wager to bet that TOEE has as many words as more than few other crpgs that actually didn't suck int erms of writing. Heck, not once during playing TOEE did I think to myself,"OMG! This writing sucks, and it's ebcause there's simply not enough words." LMAO It's not the quantity; but the quality of words that are lacking in TOEE, me thinks.

I agree Sveen. Arcanum had great writing for the most part. However,c rap happens. I think Troika was too focused on getting the rulez as close to "legit" as possible they forgot it takes more than accurate D&D rules to make a superbe role-playing game.
 

Killzig

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OH GOD PLEASE TELL ME YOU GUYS ARE NOT HOLDING KOTOR UP AS A GOLD STANDARD OF RPG DIALOG. YOU'vE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME.
 

Seven

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Volourn said:
No, no we're not; but compared to TOEE it is.

I wouldn't say that. The only dialogue derivation you got was based on persuasion. No class difference and no stat difference. At least in TOEE dialogue had a wide base of affecting statistics.
 

Saint_Proverbius

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Greyhawk said:
It's sad, but really is the truth. I mean since Bioware ate too much and puked out Baldur's Gate in 1998, how many truly turn-based RPG's were there that were not commercial failures? And how many games out there that were not commercial failures were not about gathering money, ph4t l3w7, and lots of cheesy forced dialog?

I've been trying to think of one turn based CRPG since 1998 that flopped, as in didn't make a profit.. And I can't think of one. PoR2 turned a decent profit, even. However, I can name LOADS of real time CRPGs that didn't turn a profit or barely eeked one out: Throne of Darkness, Gorasul, Harbinger, Nox, Revenant, Konung, and so on. There are gobs of Diablo clones out there, and I don't think any of them have had much success.

The fact of the matter is that most publishers seem to think that BioWare's and Blizzard's games are the rule, when they're really the exception. You make a BG clone or a Diablo clone, chances are that you're setting yourself up for taking a loss.
 

DemonKing

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Volourn said:
No, no we're not; but compared to TOEE it is.

I didn't think the dialogue was so bad in TOEE, but the voice acting was generally atrocious.

KOTOR had some cheesy dialogue, but generally the high quality of voice acting helped cover it up a bit. Saying that, Carth's whining still got on my nerves. :evil:

Saint_Proverbius said:
I've been trying to think of one turn based CRPG since 1998 that flopped, as in didn't make a profit.. And I can't think of one. PoR2 turned a decent profit, even.

Yeah - I think people forget that POR2 spent a couple of week's as the #1 PC game in the US before sales dropped away sharply, whereas TOEE peaked at #5 and IWD2 #7, if I remember correctly. Now I would say catagorically that both of the later games were way better than POR2, but maybe a lot of people got their fingers burned with POR2 and held back and read the reviews before committing on the later titles.

Does anyone know how TOEE went in terms of profit? It would be nice to see a sequel if only to see what a game built on a stbale version of the same engine would be like.

...But please Tim, if you're reading this, not "Against the Giants" - I think wading my way through a hoard of hill giants, followed by a hoard of frost giants, with a hoard of fire giants for dessert, would really test my patience (sorry if I spoiled the "plot" for anyone).
 

Volourn

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Dk: I think Carth wa smenat to be annoying. 'Cause if it wasn't meant to be that way; oh dear. :shock:

Sp; You sure POR2 made a profit? IIRC, after getting out good for thefirst month; word of mouth basically killed it outright.

Seven: At leats on my part, I'm referring to the actual writing quality; not the drivation based on skills. tha said, persuasion was used lots in KOTOR as compared to TOEE's and it tended to matter more in the grander scheme of things from my perspective. I mena, with TOEE; the npc would just just react a bit differently and that's it. Of course, there are exemptions to this rule wher eit mattered a geat deal.
 

Otaku_Hanzo

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Volourn said:
Sp; You sure POR2 made a profit? IIRC, after getting out good for thefirst month; word of mouth basically killed it outright.

They made their profit within that first month. It debuted at #1, just like DK said. Granted, it didn't make much of a profit, but it made one. Sadly, I was one of the suckers who contributed to that first month profit. I never even made it past the first 'real' dungeon in the game before handing it over to my friend and saying "You like, you keep. You no like, you break. Me no care." :(
 

DemonKing

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Volourn said:
I'm just as guilty as you, Otaku. :cry:

Sob - me too.

And I have no excuse - it didn't get released where I was till a month after the US release so I already new it was a stinker but I still got it. Even finished the sucker through sheer bloody-mindedness.
 

Seven

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LOL, I am the only one who didn't put my money in that sink hole?
 

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