Pop quiz hotshot: Three Bugbears have launched an attack against your party in a confined room, your thief is knocked unconscious and your barbarian is soaking up shots like an underground ooze and your wizard is down to her last spell. More of the creatures are approaching from a nearby tunnel and the bugbear leader has just gone wild with battle rage...things are getting hairy. So what ya gonna do hotshot? And the answer is, 'Well this being Temple Of Elemental Evil my good sir, i can bally well do quite a lot thank-you very much, now bugger off and let me play'. TOEE is all about the combat. As an rpg it has little to offer other than it's setting, as a turn based combat dungeon crawler it provides entertainment in spades. From the intial party creation the level of detail is apparent. There are a nice mixture of character classes and a huge number of skills and special feats to choose from alongside the many spells. Weapons too are expanded to an impressive armoury, and whilst a typical two handed sword may provide hefty damage, the more unsual length of spiked chain or ranseur have different benefits that may make choosing a weapon proficiency a harder choice than in other rpg's. The ruleset used in TOEE was a newer version than most other D&D games had used previously, and while at first glance it is overwhelming it does lead to a more tactical and enjoyable combat-intensive game. Tooltips provide a brief description of the different abilities, but it still takes a bit of patience and time to sift through all the data. The game itself is a visually pleasent isomentric world, filled with nicely animated monsters and special effects with an unsual electronic soundtrack rather than a typical fantasy fanfare. Depending on the alignment chosen, the reason for you party's adventure in the world of Greywolf could range from a missing persons case to wanton 'just for the hell of it' destruction. Choosing an alignment and watching a different opening cutscene and endgame scene is really about as rpg as TOEE gets. A few of the NPC's will appear in a different light depending on your alignment, but TOEE is all about busting dungeons wide open and tackling ever greater..and more numerous threats to your party. From lumbering and deadly giants to annoying ticks, the monster list in TOEE is fantastic and contains some classic D&D baddies like the giant gelatinous cube, which i don't think i had ever seen in a pc game before. Combined with the games difficulty...getting that first experience level can be a pain..and you will treat the new and oversized creatures you meet with caution until you know just what their strengths and weaknesses are. To deal with the enemies encountered on your quest the list of combat options is impressive. Do you fight defensively or charge into the fray for extra damage? Cast a spell or ready a counter spell? Move, run, trip an opponent, slice them open while they lie unconsious. The list goes on and the higher up the level ladder you climb the more feats and spells that become available to your characters..even crafting magical weapons or potions becomes an option. The curse of the Troika bugs is no longer an issue with TOEE, so if your a fan of deep and challenging turn based, squad level strategy then this game is a must. The original release contained a couple of towns, outdoor locations (and random encounter maps) and a starter dungeon as well as the Temple itself. The Circle Of Eight mod changes many things in the game and adds a heap of content, so if you do purchase the game make sure to grab their download.
The first installment of Altar's trilogy was a rather timid affair. Possibly afraid a couple of x-com fanboys dressed as sectoids would show up and attempt to mindprobe them with a homemade device built from a cereal box and toilet rolls, the resulting game was far too streamlined for it's own good. The sequel returns many of the elements that were missing from Aftermath and begins with the good old planet Earth seriously screwed up and its your job to unscrew it. To this end you can enlist the aid of earth's survivors by kicking mutant butt in any territory they call home or take what you need regardless of whose particular butt gets kicked and prepare yourself for a serious frowning and dip in diplomatic relations. The survivors are made up of three factions, rugged good looking humans, black eyed scary looking psychists and huge cyborgs who have lots of fun with their x-ray vision. Depending on your status with them you can request or be given an amount of each of their unique resource or man/she power. The bodies can be put into the field and the resources put to use creating bigger and louder weaponary, support items or armor. Base building is back in and no longer the pointless addition it was in Aftermath and as progress is made in the game a greater network of manufactories, military and research centres can be built. Each base varies in size which in turn limits the amount of buildings that can be placed and expanding into new territory opens up new base building opportunities. Taking a terrirtory is one of a number of missions that can be undertaken in the tactical side of the game, they usually all involve shooting anything that walks, floats or crawls and even a simple extraction mission has every chance of turning into a bloodbath. The missions all begin from a floating island which is home base of your squad, and via a shuttle that looks pretty much like a golf ball you can send an away team to any hotspot you wish. Missions are won, loot is collected for research or use in the field and the experience of your squad increases, turning what was once a bunch of knock kneed rookies into a bunch of class-based killers and support guys. Sound good? Well it is, at first. The start of this game is easily four or five star material. An attempt to make a game with more personality is evident from the beginning as several of your crew and each of the faction leaders introduce themselves with a lengthy monologue. The graphics on the tactical map and squad portraits are more fleshed out and robust than previous and help give the game a bit more character. With the ability to research, expand and build up a kick ass squad, use each of the factions to your own advantage and as with this type of game the added bonus of uncovering the alien plot and new technologies; this is the kind of stuff that should keep me up till dawn. The game lacks too many finishing touches. Its as if Altar laid the foundations for a great game then headed off for a liquid lunch from which they never returned. There are no surprises, no twists, not enough layers to both the strategic map or tactical missions. Altar could have done so much more. Hotspots appear on the map so frequently that it does not take all that long before a sense of deja-vu descends as you fight in all too familar locations. And you fight the same drab looking aliens and mutants again and again. Questionable A.I tactics, hostile units swarm toward your squad, and line of sight issues, aliens suddenly appearing almost next to your team, doesn't help the constant grind. Neither does the lack of command options with your units resulting in the need to babysit them at every encounter and hitting the pause button every half a second. You only have to play the game for a few hours and i guarantee you will have a bucketful of good ideas that you will wish had been incorporated into the game. Blasting aliens is fun. Developing new weapons and a creating a varied team of warriors is fun. Aftershock is a fun game until it gets tired of showing you new things and requires too many hours of completing tactical missions before the story/research hits its next trigger. More events, maps, tactical options, creatively designed aliens and greater faction diplomacy would have made for a much greater game.
Beyond Divinity could have been a contender. The premise was excellent, an rpg odd couple trapped together and fighting for their freedom in a world a long way away from lush green fields and hobbit holes. Whilst i enjoyed the game it stumbles too many times for me to reconmmend without reservation. 'Cos what might be right for me, just might not be right for some. The game is spilt into several acts and the game starts with that happy old chestnut of a plot device..the prison breakout. In gameplay terms this is the games opening dungeon crawl and boy is it bad. One of my issues with Divine Divinity was that some of the crypts and dungeons were just plain tedious and unfortunately that is still the case. There are no multi coloured crystal caverns in this prison, or genies with strange questions, no bubbling life chambers or a shrine to a dead wife. It may not be fair to compare Beyond to Baldur's Gate 2, but for a game that wants to desperately shake it's action rpg tag and tell a story then creating an atmospheric backdrop for your questing characters and side quests that add depth to it's characters and story is what i want to see. Not level after level of rooms and corridors that all look the same Its gameplay like this that does not take long at all to drag my idiot smile into a grumpy frown. And then their is Beyond Divinity's difficulty. It's hard. A challenging rpg is great. Boss fights, tough loot filled locations, tricky side quests. That first spider fight in TOEE. But at the games beginning, Beyond is difficult in an unfair way. As a player you have two characters with no equipment, no stock of health potions or skills to fall back on; yet you run into guards that can demolish a full red health in a few swings. And there are a lot of guards. Having to deal with a combat situation by running around Benny Hill style with a hoarde of bad guys in pursuit or enter combat and hope the game scores enough 'hits' to let you win is just bad gameplay. And it ain't much fun either. However once you gain access to your first Battleground you can at least even the odds. The battlegrounds are a central hub of merchants, who will buy all that scrap metal stored in your backpack and sell you everything and anything you may want. You can unlock one battleground per act and not only are they a one stop shop but a place to recieve random quests. The greedy merchants want stuff, you know the kind of dark eldrich items one can only find at the bottom level of a dungeon say. What this amounts to is more rough and ready dungeon crawling, where the goal really is to grind out a level or two and grab more loot to sell. In small doses this is actually pretty fun, but given the strength of your opposition in the 'main' world, the need to keep returning can start to feel disruptive and more like the designers wanted to pad their game out. One of the biggest changes from the original is the character leveling system. Larian Studios obviously wanted to build on what was successful and enjoyable. There are more skills and abilities to spend those character points on this time around, although it can be a bit of a jumble sale as you sort the useful from the useless. Some of the skills just seem weak and no matter how many points you plow into them they never become something you can rely on. Take the summoning dolls; for a time you can add a third fighter to your party and with experience you can improve their stats, yet they stubbornly refuse to be anything other than a bit rubbish. The freedom to choose the skill direction of your character is also whipped from your hands by the need to find masters who will train you in the appropriate skill. These guys are scattered in the main world and hang out at battlegrounds and its a change i really don't like. Adding restrictions on a game that previously had none is just annoying. On the tail-end of that game change another which i think is just cheap, for a price you can redistribute your stat points and create another build during the game. You can do this as often as you can afford it. Some players will enjoy being able to check out different types and correct mistakes, theres just something about it i don't like. The games plot is really pretty good, but it does take a long old time to come downstairs and join the party. Given that the game is split into acts, the pacing should have been much tighter. It will take a fair few gaming hours to see the plot develop into something worth paying attention to. And then there is the voice acting. One of the most vocal and important characters of the game is the deathknight. The guy who hired not one, but two voice actors for the character needs to be kindly lead away from a career in casting. Preferably to the moon. In the cut-scenes the deathknight kinda sounds like an old surfer dude who smokes way too much. In the game however that voice becomes something of a cross between Fozzy Bear and Yoda with a head cold. Its horrible and across the board the voice acting is pretty awful. It really lets down the work Larian Studios put in to creating all the npc's. Beyond Divinity is an uneven game without a doubt. Above ground the detail and exploration is still fun and the soundtrack is simply fantastic. The game contains a lot of humor, some of it works and some of it falls flat, but i appreciate the effort. And when i compare it to Divine Divinity, it certainly lacks the solid workmanship of that title and it has some of old issues and some brand new ones for me to chew on and grumble over. Yet i prefer Beyond Divinity. I prefer the story, the side quests and the setting. Hopefully all the bugs have been patched for GOG's version, and i really would suggest tracking down a demo before parting with your ten bucks; if i knew for a fact this version was bug free and it cost six bucks i would rate 5 stars.
For some the Action Rpg is a guilty pleasure or just plain wrong, for others Diablo is the greatest rpg of all time. Regardless of where you stand there is a lot to be said for booting up a game for an hour or so and turning a gameworld of beasties and bandits into so much graphical mush before wandering off with a contented smile on your face. Divine Divinity follows the template laid down by Blizzard almost to the letter. Choose an avatar and like Monty Burns slowly climbing that ladder of advancement, build your stats, pick spells/abilities and stick anything in your backpack that isn't nailed down or made of stone. It's a proven recipe for a successful game and Larian Studios kept a firm focus on exactly that although they did tinker enough with the formula so as to leave there sticky fingerprint on the genre. The game begins with the player character awaking in a small village, home to an unstable mage and a convenient starter dungeon. Once the dungeon is conquered the game opens up and with a couple of side quests plus the main quest in hand and a pair of teleportation stones in your back pocket you are free to explore the world of Rivellon. The side quests are plentiful and are the usual assortment of fetch and kill, although some do stand out and you will stumble across various storylines if you take the time to read the text or listen to certain characters. Where Divinity really shines however is how they implemented character progression. The handful of stat points you recieve every level are painless enough to dish out; want to wield a six foot battle axe? need to start building your strength then, just found a new spell but can't read? intelligence then. Weapons, armor and magical items generally have some minimum stat requirement and the chances are you will find a killer item long before you can actually use it, but at least it gives you a good idea of which particular stats you need to start raising. The character skills however are a different matter, they are all so useful. Want to add some fire damage to your attack? a nice buff spell? see further? make your own potions..the list goes on and really gives the player a wide list of upgrade options. The game map too is an excellent tool for checking out quest locations, where you haven't explored and you can even add your own notes to it. Divine Divinity is a nice, detailed world, the graphics have aged but still have their charm and the music is excellent, as good as some of the best soundtracks rpg's have to offer. If you have an appetite for action rpg's, you will enjoy this, the game lets you kill stuff, loot and level up in a big wide world that looks pleasent enough and sounds great. Just don't forget to pick up your teleportation stone...