Review ToEE makes GameZone gah gah

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Temple of Elemental Evil

<A href="http://www.gamezone.com/">GameZone</a> has gotten up <A href="http://www.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r21412.htm">their review</a> of <a href="http://www.greyhawkgame.com">Temple of Elemental Evil</a>, scoring it a <b>8.4/10</b>. They gave it high marks for <i>Gameplay</i> with the low mark for <i>Sound</i>. Here's a clip:
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<blockquote>Another nice touch is the game has multiple starting points and there is no set ending. You can pursue whatever course you wish, and the game?s outcome evolves from decisions you make along the way. This, of course, really adds to the replayability factor. Some of the found loot, such as keys, are communal property and all characters have access to them. If you lose an adventurer along the way, you don?t have to worry about losing valuable assets such as keys.
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Other features of the game include dozens of skills and class abilities, more than 50 feats, and a book full of spells, and more than 100 different monsters to battle. There are two difficulty levels - normal and ironman.</blockquote>
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Yeah, it's fairly sparce on content there.
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Spotted this on <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</a>.
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[Major_Blackhart]

what review, or who said it was sparse on content?

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

The review is fairly sparce on content.

 

[EEVIAC]

Difficulty: Hard
This is a very challenging game, full of quest and battles and you must consider so much when leveling your characters. Hard may be a bit misleading, but prepare for a strong challenge when tackling this game.

There's a big difference between a developer making a game difficult and a gamer making a game difficult. I reloaded lots in ToEE but most of those reloads were my fault. A change in tactics could mean the difference between two "Cure Medium Wounds" at the end of a large battle, and total defeat.

If anything, I think some of the devices in ToEE make it a little easy, like the area of attack indicator for Fireball. Rather than just having one circle that you can micro-adjust to hit every single enemy in the room, I would have liked one slightly smaller circle that indicates definite area of effect, with a thin, not wholly defined rim around that which could indicate random splash damage. It would add more risk in casting fireball - do you take out six enemies safely, or do you risk hitting your front line...

 

[Walks with the Snails]

If anything, I think some of the devices in ToEE make it a little easy, like the area of attack indicator for Fireball. Rather than just having one circle that you can micro-adjust to hit every single enemy in the room, I would have liked one slightly smaller circle that indicates definite area of effect, with a thin, not wholly defined rim around that which could indicate random splash damage. It would add more risk in casting fireball - do you take out six enemies safely, or do you risk hitting your front line...

I liked the certainty myself. That's more or less how I played in PnP with minis; you'd just draw the area of effect with your marker. The only time uncertainty came into play was trying to predict the volume of something like a fireball in a tight space. You'd take a stab at it, then the DM would whip out the calculator with an evil grin and find out just how far 33,000 cubic feet will go. It would have been nice if they had implemented that, but to be fair I don't know of any other games that have, either.

I think having some kind of certainty makes sense from a role-playing standpoint. You'd expect a mage with 18+ intelligence would have a strong enough grasp of geometry and spatial relations to be able to make accurate estimates for simple area of effects, even if you can't. It would make sense for a dim-witted sorcerer or cleric with a poor spellcraft skill to make a few miscalculations, though.

 

[EEVIAC]

I think having some kind of certainty makes sense from a role-playing standpoint. You'd expect a mage with 18+ intelligence would have a strong enough grasp of geometry and spatial relations to be able to make accurate estimates for simple area of effects, even if you can't. It would make sense for a dim-witted sorcerer or cleric with a poor spellcraft skill to make a few miscalculations, though.

You've convinced me. Although I was thinking more about the unpredictability of fire, and perhaps the accuracy of Fireball getting better with experience, that can still be explained by a smart magic practitioner, projecting a very precise, concentrated ball of fire to fill a certain volume.