Probably for the RPGer only

Overview: The Temple of Elemental Evil (ToEE) is an RPG game that uses turn-based strategy rules during combat. It has an isometric point of view which lets you stride part of maps that have exit areas which can lead you to other maps. The maps make a composite landscape which ends up being a large part of an overall fictional world set.

If you've played Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, this type of game will have a very familiar feel to it. It even uses the Dungeon and Dragon's rule set.

Just like Baldur's Gate, et al., you can have a small party run with through the adventure. Some of which you can make by yourself at the beginning of the game, and some that you can meet up with at later points. It has a nice immersive experience, as most role-playing games do, due to its flexibility in things like which people you can choose for you party and how good or evil do you want to be.

Story: The story actually starts out very intriguing. The reason that I use "actually" is because it does not end that way. At some point it looses focus, and then just seems to wander aimlessly. After a while, you just go out and find things to punch, pretty much. This feeling is equally supported by the side quests. The first quests start out very good, but then decline into the mode of "I really don't want to do it, but maybe something good will happen." Unfortunately, that good happens in meager amounts.

In fact some quests have odd repercussions. I played a Paladin, and I fell out of favor at least twice. One time because I got in a drinking contest. The second was because I talked to an innkeeper outside. Oooh, that is bad. I'm ashamed ... those dirty innkeepers.

The story itself hinders around an old evil rising. Then switches up using multiple gods who pop in and out. Then you go fight the big bad. Then you find the big bad and fight her because ... well, you get the picture. Not really, me neither.

I think the last weakness of the story is the lack of good interaction with NPCs. Usually, in RPG world, there are bevies of people that you can talk to who kind of spice things up. Here, sometimes talking to chickens is more appealing. I mean that literally. At least the chickens make funny noises, not repetitive nonsense.

So, the story although starting off promising, does not come through in the end. In an RPG, you can't really get away with this. Some other genres, possibly, but not here.

Game Play: The game play in contrast is quite decent. You move around the town in real time with battles turning into turn based strategy. In a way it's like a mix of Baldur's gate and the Betrayal series. In this game, it works well. The fights are very fun and it let's you enjoy the lack of plot.

They also use a very good method of allowing you to exit a map on almost any edge, so your not forced to go through the streets of a town hoping for (or dredging through to) an exit.

You go around the town with a party which you can swap out the lead, etc. The devising of this party was very flexible. You can start out choosing some premade characters, make you own (up to a certain amount) and you can find people (NPC's) along the way who can help you under various conditions. Since you can be good, bad or neutral this variety helps much. And, the limiting of the self-created members keeps you from making a supergroup (Ted Nugent wasn't available), which keeps the fighting somewhat challenging.

There are a couple of bugs which can take away from the overall good play. Some crashable parts exist. These aren't killers, but there are other problems like incredibly slow combat (in spots.) This shouldn't have been a problem since I was way above all specs with my PC. So, it's hard to say what made the difference. It changed from turn-based to turn and wait based.

Audio-Visual: I'd like to say something terribly interesting about this, but does AV usually have a big impact on you? When was the last time you said, "The story stinks and the gameplay is terrible but the graphics really saved the day"? However, I've played many games where the sounds and sights have been laughable but the game was really fun overall. AV seems to get too much weight in most reviews. Oops, someone has just knocked over my podium. Back to the review. (Although feel free to email me with your opinion.)

Now that I have my say, the graphics were pretty good. They used a top down approach which did give you much in the way as far as looking around things, but the colors and depictions were vivid and well chosen that it still gave a very good 3 dimensional feel. Overall, for this type of game, I thought it excelled. The artists did a good job.

The sound on the whole was well done but nothing that pops out at you. The voiceovers were fine. A little over the top but what do you expect from an RPG where you fight with gods. The background music played pretty well and did not interfere with play. In fact, it had some nice pieces, I thought. The sound effects, very standard. Again, not bad. In fact, standard today is of good quality.

Other Stuff and Final Say: Whew! Glad I got through that section. There's not much "other stuff" to report other than they had a weird way of weighing things. Some robes weighed 5 pounds. Those are heavy robes in my book. At first, I thought that maybe they are just using a different system of measure, but if you compare them to weapons, they seem rather unbalanced. Not necessarily important, but funny. So, watch how you pack things up if you go thereļ

The final analysis is a little less harsh than the review. That is because its initial story, breadth and combat carry it enough to warrant that I recommend it to some people. That would be the Role Playing Gamers. This has enough to keep you people of this community out there satisfied because the above mentioned good parts mixed with so much flexibility in party and in individual group members, I 'm sure you'll have at least some fun with this. I usually like the RPGs, myself, and I did enjoy the game. However, some of you non-RPGers won't get as much of this, and may not last until the last battle. So, good for RPGers and turned based strategists, bad for action and FPSers.