Temple of Elemental Evil

According to Gogamer, this one is coming out soonish. I am thinking about pre-ordering it, but I want to be sure. Has anyone gotten preview and/or review code yet? If so, does it look good? I know we talked about this already, but I want the latest. How’s it shaping up?

It’s shaping up gold:

Atari’s newest Dungeons & Dragons-based game has just gone gold. Developed by Troika Games, The Temple of Elemental Evil is the first RPG to utilize the D&D 3.5-edition rules. The game is based on the pen-and-paper module of the same name based in Gary Gygax’s world of Greyhawk.

The game is scheduled to hit shelves Sept. 23. Watch for the review at that time.

http://www.gamespydaily.com/#PQN438983

You’ll be reading full reviews soon enough I guess.

That’s good news! Is there any cool swag that comes with preordering this one then?

I have been playing the Alpha and I love it. It is true turn-based, not turn-based masquerading as real time as BG and NWN did. Characters max at 10th level, and I have been able to play a single character through most of the way (thanks to save games and some conjured creatures), although you can have up to 5 player characters.

While you don’t need to know 3.5 rules, it doesn’t hurt. Troika has been faithful in recreating not only the Greyhawk module, but the 3.5 rules set. They were so adament about maintaining the Greyhawk mystique that Tim Cain, the lead designer on the game, contacted Gary Gygax several times to see if assumptions they made in certain encounters were valid and if Gygax approved.

This is at the top of my play list now that it is gold.

Thanks John. Let me ask you this: is the level 10 cap restrictive? Does it ever seem like it takes too long to level, or are there other valid ways to improve your character?

Also, when you say it is true turn-based, does that mean it takes forever to walk down a hall way, or does it only go turn-based during encounters?

Just today I spent far too long reading up on this game, including the over-the-top fan “uberfaq” ( http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ibnobody/ ).

There is really much to appeal to old school CRPG fans from the sound of it, and not just because its a faithful recreation of an old module. A few features in particular that have caught my attention:
-The branching storylines based off a general party alignment sounds like a great solution to controlling stupid dialog options (you inform the game what kind of party you are making up front, and you get a intro to the game geared to that alignment, and the story develops from there).

-As mentioned above, the combat is truly turn based, in the tradition of the old gold box games. I think this will really emphasize the tactical nature of DnD combat (esp. since they are apparently adding things like cover, attacks of opportunity, flanking, going prone, etc). I suppose if its done wrong, this might make the game inaccessible for the less hardcore gamer type, but it sounds great to me.

-I love how they let you reroll your character as much as you want, but they leave the reroll count on your character sheet as a mark of shame (or pride).

-Iron Man. Ahh, Iron Man. Iron Man. As someone who is a regular nethack player, and who played diablo 2 strictly hardcore on battle.net (until I lost my lvl 75 amazon to a network outage, that is), the Iron Man mode is nearly irresistible. No saves except when you quit, a character dies, they die and you have to raise them, your party dies, and you’re starting over. I know this appeals to a very small subset of gamers, but I love them for it. At the very least, as a challenge for replaying the game.

It’s really sounding pretty great.

No, turn-based only applies in combat when everyone rolls initiative. Even encumberance only applies then. And be careful if you move past an enemy on your turn because you are open for an attack of opportunity unless you can tumble to elude it.

As you level up, depending on level and class, you can get new feats, new spells, new abilities, increase attributes, etc. Again, all based on the 3.5 rules. As it stands, I was able to get 3 feats and 2 attribute upgrades within 10 levels. You also get skill points each level to increase skills. I have yet to try it, but you can make you own magic items!

you get a map

I’m disappointed that it’s not multplayer ala Baldur’s Gate…

I’m glad they spent the limited time they had for development (24 months) working solely on the singleplayer myself.

Having the ability to make your own magic items sounds like something with quite a bit of potential if they’ve done it well.

Woohoo! I cant wait for this one.

olaf

Am very much looking forward to it, but I don’t see much argument for preordering.

Its a really killer map

24 months isn’t really that limited.

I’m kinda disappointed as well, but the game should be a blast anyway.

— Alan

Multiplayer, Shmultiplayer. Woohoo focused SP development, I am pretty pumped, too. The multiplayer come in one of the first three expansions.

Who has time for long MP sessions? Ooops, forgot where I was for a second. :wink:

We played both Baldur’s Gate games on a LAN, over a number of weeks. It was one of the best multiplayer experiences I’ve ever had.

[quote=“Case”]

We played both Baldur’s Gate games on a LAN, over a number of weeks. It was one of the best multiplayer experiences I’ve ever had.[/quote]

Geez! I am having adolescent flashbacks. I found D&D. Loved it. Had no one to play with. SHowed it to my cousins in Ohio and Maine. They regaled me with all their exciting adventures with friends while I sat at home rolling up characters and sending them through homemade modules with lots of graph papered maps.

My apologies to the MP faithful. I am simply envious while I sit my single player corner. :)

Some buddies and I played through the actual module (1st edition style, as it was intended) about four years back. Party size of 5 or 6 and a more or less strict adherance to XP (this much for this monster, etc). We went from freshly rolled to 8th or 9th level (or equivalent, such as 4/4 multi-class) when we finally brought the house down. If the formula is similar it sounds like it fits.

I remember when cRPGs used to come standard with a map. Man, can they get any cheaper… I mean, not like cost of goods has gone up sharply or something. :P

  • Alan

True turn-based is this year’s It Girl for me. I’m really looking forward to this one.

Pausable real-time’s ok, but it just doesn’t have the same feel. My little guys don’t really need me that much. In turn-base they totally need me to do everything for them. They make me feel like the Big Cheese.