The Temple of Elemental Evil

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 13, 2010

Well, GOG.COM is kinda fulfilling my dream scenarios on making old RPGs available, so I guess I’m finally forgiving them on the whole faking-their-own-death thing. This week seems to be about encouraging me to re-buy games I already own.

This week’s double-dose offering includes Betrayal in Antarna as a free addition to Betrayal at Krondor… I already own BaK 1 and 2, and was never really interested in the non-Feist sequel between them, but I have to admit that I’m tempted now.

The BIG news is that they’ve now released Troika’s The Temple of Elemental Evil. I bought this game a long time ago, at a big discount. I never could get it to work on my machine. A little bit of forum reading led me to believe that it was because of the copy protection. The first no-cd crack I tried to grab set off my anti-virus software’s alarms. The second one didn’t work. So I have never, ever played the game. And I keep hearing people praising it, and the dude who made Knights of the Chalice called it his inspiration for his game. I really want to play it.

So I guess now I can. Go me! Now, WHEN I am going to have a chance to play it is a whole ‘nother issue.

Hmm… I still have the pen & paper module this game was based on. Who knows how closely they correlate?

Filed Under: Deals, Retro - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Flux said,

The Temple of Elemental Evil can be a lot of fun, but its pretty much the definition of a flawed gem. The tactical combat is absolutely amazing, but you fight very similar battles often throughout the temple. The opening vignettes are a cool idea, but the initial town, Hommlet, is mediocre, at best. Its possible to skip, but there are a couple nice items (provided you’re lucky or know what you’re doing), plus enough experience to gain a level.

If you can manage to push through the rough/boring stuff, you’ll find a very nice dungeon crawl. Just try to keep that in mind while you play.
Fumarole said,

It may be a flawed gem, but with the Circle of 8 mod it stands among the best cRPGs out there.
Greg Tedder said,

I really enjoyed Betrayal in Antara when I was in college. I lost the game and never got to finish it. At the time I was in awe of the graphics, and I vaguely remember lock picking to be an interesting side note. 🙂
Morinar said,

My favorite thing about ToEE was the hardcore mode. I probably made half a dozen attempts (some of them spanning tens of hours) finish the game without dying. My final one ended when I thought it would be a good idea to look under the anvil of the blacksmith. After he turned on me, my ringer party member informed me he was the blacksmith’s son and they both proceeded to dominate me.

Like you, I was unable to get it to run recently, so I’m REALLY tempted to pick it up and make yet more attempts to finally finish my hardcore playthrough.
sascha/hdrs said,

Wow! Barely heard of this one before! Is that the Infinity Engine we see there? I’m just looking at the screenshot and I want to buy it … probably can’t resist too long! 😉
Rampant Coyote said,

Nope, not infinity engine – it’s got its own engine, and it is turn-based.
Void said,

ToEE is only what it should be with Circle of Eight content http://www.co8.org
WCG said,

ToEE has some of the best combat ever. It was great fun. However, it’s pretty much ALL combat. I would have preferred some story to it, or perhaps just better NPC interaction in the town.

Even great combat gets old after awhile, when there’s nothing else to the game.