WarGamer: ToEE is a must-have
WarGamer: ToEE is a must-have
Review - posted by Vault Dweller on Wed 7 April 2004, 15:41:07
Tags: Temple of Elemental Evil; Troika GamesWarGamer posted a 6-page long review of Temple of Elemental Evil. There is no score, just an opinion, which is the best way to go about reviewing games. Of course, some opinions are less intelligent then others, so readers discretion is strongly advised.
Unlike other recent releases of the Dungeons & Dragons gaming system, The Temple of Elemental Evil feels truly turn-based. Perhaps the most difficult problem I had with the game was caused by my difficulty in adjusting to this turn-based nature. Just like the pen and paper game, when combat starts everyone rolls for initiative. A high dexterity modifies the die roll (calculated by the computer) which typically, though not always, means that those with the highest dexterity move first. Of all the classes, rogues have the skills most dependent on dexterity. However, they are not the best front-line fighters. They have a backstabbing ability which makes them ideal for sneaking around and hitting an opponent from behind, and their high dexterity also makes them a good choice to stand off and fire missile weapons instead of drawing a sword.
When combat begins, my instinct is to move my fighters into a kind of blocking position to protect the weaker party members. So I often find that I try to click on a fighter to attempt to move him only to discover that my rogue had already won the initiative roll. So I just ordered my rogue to walk up beside the fighter, who was often in the lead to begin with. There is no "undo" feature in The Temple of Elemental Evil, and the result is that I often placed my rogue in needless danger, squandered a round of combat moving her when she could have fired her crossbow, and was generally frustrated by my own thick-headedness.
After a few days of play I trained myself to stop doing this, but initially it was very frustrating. Even after extensive amounts of play I still sometimes found myself fighting the instinct to move my fighters first. Once combat was underway, it was easy enough to follow the flow. But that first move when combat begins is tricky, and when combat begins players would do well to take a deep breath and look over the screen before taking any kind of action. TB combat claims another victim. Here is another interesting quote for you: Combat is divided into rounds of six seconds each.. Right on.
Unlike other recent releases of the Dungeons & Dragons gaming system, The Temple of Elemental Evil feels truly turn-based. Perhaps the most difficult problem I had with the game was caused by my difficulty in adjusting to this turn-based nature. Just like the pen and paper game, when combat starts everyone rolls for initiative. A high dexterity modifies the die roll (calculated by the computer) which typically, though not always, means that those with the highest dexterity move first. Of all the classes, rogues have the skills most dependent on dexterity. However, they are not the best front-line fighters. They have a backstabbing ability which makes them ideal for sneaking around and hitting an opponent from behind, and their high dexterity also makes them a good choice to stand off and fire missile weapons instead of drawing a sword.
When combat begins, my instinct is to move my fighters into a kind of blocking position to protect the weaker party members. So I often find that I try to click on a fighter to attempt to move him only to discover that my rogue had already won the initiative roll. So I just ordered my rogue to walk up beside the fighter, who was often in the lead to begin with. There is no "undo" feature in The Temple of Elemental Evil, and the result is that I often placed my rogue in needless danger, squandered a round of combat moving her when she could have fired her crossbow, and was generally frustrated by my own thick-headedness.
After a few days of play I trained myself to stop doing this, but initially it was very frustrating. Even after extensive amounts of play I still sometimes found myself fighting the instinct to move my fighters first. Once combat was underway, it was easy enough to follow the flow. But that first move when combat begins is tricky, and when combat begins players would do well to take a deep breath and look over the screen before taking any kind of action.
