The Temple of Elemental Evil

"Great model of actual D&D for the PC despite some technical shortcomings. CR-15"

THE TEMPLE OF ELEMENTAL EVIL for PC

PREMISE
The Temple of Elemental Evil (ToEE) is based on an old pen & paper Dungeons & Dragons module (as you may well know). The game is a good approximation of how an actual D&D game is structured, and as such, will begin in a different way depending on the sort of five member group you put together. Regardless of how you start your adventure, however, your primary goal will be one and the same - to infiltrate the insidious and rather spacious Temple of Elemental Evil. The quest is non-linear, and there are plenty of side projects to get involved in, but you can dive into the Temple early on if you want to (how BRAVE of you!!!).

GRAPHICS - 8
With the exception of it's character and monster models, ToEE is presented in beautiful, colorful, wonderfully, funderfully detailed 2D. It's a rare thing these days, and it'll really catch your eye. Yeah, the Temple itself gets a little monotonous after awhile, but everything else boasts a huge amount of detail and color. The lighting is very nice in some areas, too. The village of Hommlet is especially picturesque and convincingly laid-out, which is good since it'll take a couple of hours just to fully explore it and talk with it's residents. There is a day/night cycle in effect, and it keeps things looking fresh, although it doesn't happen in real time (changes in time only occur when you rest - sad). Environments aside, you've got the monsters, and it wouldn't be a D&D game without 'em. Happily, it looks like they crawled right out from the Monster Manual itself. There are a very nice variety of things to battle/befriend, and they all stay faithful to the pre-existing art designs from the pen & paper source material. The animations are good, and the volcanic spurt of blood that erupts on a critical hit will really give you an appreciation for the joys of brutal hand-to-hand combat (unless it's coming out of your only mage). The wide variety of brightly animated spell effects is extremely welcome and serve to liven up the battles. There is a small amount of visual character customization, such as choosing a hand painted portrait for each, and deciding on general size and hair type. Impressively, all or most of the armor, clothing, and weapons have been individually modeled and will appear on your character as they are equipped.

MUSIC & SOUND - 7
ToEE went in a little different direction in the music department, with mixed results. The soundtracks in the early part of the game, like in town and in some of the first adventure sites, are a little more synthy than I'm used to in my fantasy RPGs, but it works quite well anyways. Unfortunately, the largest part of the game (the Temple itself) has mostly ambient sounds like far-off groans and clattering. It's effective at first but becomes tiresome after awhile. Much more interesting is the voice-acting, which has its up and downs, and an occasional humorous moment or two (the traveling bard, for one). Maybe it's just me, but I found the rather inconsistent nature of the voice acting actually enhanced the D&D feel of the game, almost like it was the DM himself voicing the many NPCs from across the dining room table.

PLAYABILITY - 7
This, in my opinion, is the best replica of table-top D&D I've played on a computer since the old gold box games. Yes, the Baldurs Gate and Neverwinter Nights series are both great, but in terms of hard-core, by the book D&D, ToEE's got turn-based combat and those other two don't. Well, they almost don't. The computer DOES figure everything out according to the rules and puts turns in the right order, but it's all happening in real time, and that cuts down (to a certain degree) on the strategy involved in your typical D&D battle. ToEE's turn based fighting keeps that traditional strategy alive and well. The order in which the turns will take place is displayed well in advance to allow for planning, and plan you must. Some of the encounters in the game can be quite challenging, so you'll need to take full advantage of your resources to come out on top. I always found myself looking forward to the next brawl - they're handled really well, and the bestiary is extensive enough to keep you wondering. The radial menus that spring from each character are convenient and effective - they allow access to skills, items, spells, and attacks all without having to leave the main game screen. This makes combat a cinch. In addition to the faithfully translated battle system, ToEE also allows opportunities for roleplaying and out-of-battle skill use. This type of gameplay is essential in an RPG, and I feel the game could've used even more - it's what keeps things interesting when you're NOT imploding goblin skulls. Another thing that keeps this game interesting (but in a more nerve-scraping way) are the bugs and pathfinding problems. I patched my version of the game before playing, and didn't notice most of the horrors mentioned in early reviews of the game, but it still wasn't 100%. I was unable to complete certain quests, and sometimes spells or items wouldn't work properly. The issues with pathfinding are perhaps the most frustrating and lethal - tell your party to simply walk to the end of the hallway, and watch as one member decides to take a detour through that door and into an ogre-infested hell hole. Hope you saved like 5 seconds ago. Don't get me wrong, the game is fun, but sometimes it has a "shaky" feeling to it, like you just can't trust it all the way.

SUMMARY
Yeah, the game's got it's technical issues, but I feel that it's strengths overshadow it's weaknesses. The graphics are beautiful. There are numerous opportunities for creative battle strategy. There's plenty to explore and side quests that need a-solvin' (even if some of them are of the Fed-ex fetch and deliver variety), and the Temple itself is a classic dungeon crawl done in fine fashion. This is D&D done right for the PC, and should be a model for future games to improve upon, minus the buggy programming. Open-ended and extremely enjoyable. Highly recommended for fans of D&D and non-linear RPGs in general.

OVERALL - 8 out of 10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/08/07