[Review] The Temple of Elemental Evil

The Temple of Elemental Evil is a D&D based computer RPG created by Troika Games. It's created based of the pen and paper D&D adventure version. The game was published by Atari in 2003.

Even if you're into D&D games like Baldur's Gate, Neverinter Knights, or Pool of Radiance, there's a good chance you haven't played this game. It became super popular and isn't mentioned all too often. Why is that? Well, I'll get into that.

First, let me start with why this game is awesome. It features detailed 2D character models and very fluid animations. The maps and ambient effects are very well done.

It has by far, the best adaptation of the D&D ruleset and gameplay out of any D&D based game as of yet. If there ever was a game that truly emulated the pen and paper feeling, it's this game. The battle system is very in depth and allows very strategic gameplay.

So why isn't the game well known? Where do I start?

For starters, the level cap is 10. If you're used to building epic characters level 30+ and soloing dragons, then you're going to find it a little boring when the strongest spell you can cast is Cone of Cold.

There's basically no storyline. You get an opening quest depending on your alignment, then you walk around doing mini quests and exploring the temple. It's not story driven at all, just a dungeon crawler.

But all that's just nitpicky, it would be a great game if it ended there. But the biggest problem with the game is simply that you can't play it as it's intended. Really.

This game is so full of bugs it's damn near unplayable. In fact I would say that if you bought the game as is and installed it right now you wouldn't be able to play it at all. Trokia has released patches that fix the basic game functions, but you still get severe bugs like not being able to loot any corpses, losing money anytime you identify an item, quest and dialog breaks, feats just not working, and vanishing items.

Now, "most" of these bugs have been fixed by 3rd party patches. But the thing is, it take SO MUCH EFFORT figuring out which patches you specifically need to install. If you did something like logical like install all the official patches hoping it would fix the game, you just fucked up. The 3rd party patches only work on unpatched versions of the game. Or require patch 2. Or 1 and 3. It's a pain in the ass. And even after you get it working as best as possible, you'll still get hit in the face with bugs.

Someone really needs to use their interface and combat system to make new games.