The Temple of Elemental Evil

This ain't no Baldur's Gate Original Saga, but if you have played that 100+ times and you need more D&D , this might be for you. I've been sitting on this for a while until it was able to run on newer Windows versions. There's no depth to the role-play, but it's been fun to use the feats and skills introduced in third edition rules, and having a horde of characters in your party at the same time is a hoot!

The Temple of Elemental Evil is an older game with all of the wonderful D&D 3.0 structure. It hearkens back to the World of Greyhawk as it takes place in that setting.

So this came out during a period where I really wasn't gaming so I scooped it up as soon as I saw it on GoG. I figured I would like it since I loved Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. After two 5 hour sessions filled with frustration I decided to write this review. I know this is a combat heavy game but how is sitting around for 15 minutes while your party of 8 fights a group of 11 - 12 enemies and both sides spend the entire time MISSING each other supposed to be fun. I know it's supposed to be tactical but the best laid plans just fall apart when you attempt to take out a specific target and everything goes south because your rogue, ranger, and fighter all miss their attacks which results in the target running off and alerting 6 more of his friends. I think I reached a breaking point yesterday and was just saving after EVERY kill and reloading after every miss streak. Don't get me wrong the game is quite fun but seriously, saving after every kill because both sides will spend the next 15 minutes missing each other only to result in a long hit/crit streak from the enemies resulting in the death 1 or 2 of your PCs is pretty lame. I do intend to play this game to completion but this just brings back bad memories of Fallout 2 (which I loved) and saving after every rad scorpion kill.

I'm sure this is a great game, but beware, in my experience it does NOT run under virtualization.

I liked this game for several reasons; One is that it is faithful to the source material. A lot of effort went into making this game like the original tabletop module for D&D. I also like that it's turn based and uses the D&D 3.3 rule set. Because of this, things like initiative become relevant again (unlike with Baldur's gate, NWN and others). You can also see the outline of the area of effect for spells you want to cast before you actually commit to casting them. This is important. In games like BG or NWN or even Icewind Dale, you have to eyeball it and it doesn't always work out for you. The only thing I did not like is that once you've completed the Temple and defeated Zuggtmoy, that's it! I really wish there was more. <sigh> Oh well.