Temple of Elemental Evil

‘Where are the damn half-ogres!?’ cries Logan Booker.

Raincoats of Protection on -– the flood of Dungeons and Dragons-based computer RPGs has begun. While we were still nursing our lightly pulped expectations of the Neverwinter Nights expansion Shadows of Undrentide, Troika Games has come in swinging with Temple of Elemental Evil (ToEE), based on an actual pen-and-paper D&D adventure.

With a tight, dedicated, 18-month development cycle and the promise of a rule-set as faithful to D&D as possible, the temptation to hack into Troika and download the source code had been hard to resist.
Well, the wait’s over.

Troika has a wildly successful, if short, track record. The game studio ravaged the scene a few years back with its outstanding Arcanum, which was not only an engrossing and epic playing experience, but also, in our opinion, the best RPG released to date. That’s why it was a little underwhelming to play ToEE, expecting the same standard of greatness found in Troika’s previous title.

ToEE is based in the world of Greyhawk, where most typical D&D games are played out. The focus is on a town called Hommlet, and an evil temple on its outskirts, located in the dry, mountainous terrain of Flanaess. For reasons unknown, monsters have started congregating at this temple, and it’s up to you and your party of five to role-play events to their dangerous, and fun, conclusion.

The story is driven via the many NPCs you’ll meet during your adventures. They’re responsible for assigning quests, imparting information, and on occasion, joining your group.

The tasks you’ll receive all contribute to your experience and reputation, and if it wasn’t for the abysmal voice acting and the fact the quests are boringly delivered in the American ‘whinge’ dialect, you might be inspired to complete them. ToEE definitely has its character and quest highlights as you fight to do the right thing (or wrong thing), but an RPG needs to rely on its story almost religiously to push play onwards.

ToEE instead puts all its dragons in its combat system, ripped almost verbatim from the D&D 3.5 Edition pen-and-paper rule-set. This is both a delightful development and a blow to the nads. Seeing the effort Troika has put into the transition deserves a congratulatory slap on the back. Everything you could possibly want to do by 3.5 Edition standards is there, right down to manually breaking free from holding spells (like Web), setting combat stances, going on delay and casting defensively. Spells and combat effects, along with character and monster animation, are first-class. Cloth modelling is also especially nice visually.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the other pen-and-paper rules, ToEE falls a little short. While playing, it’s hard not to feel that too much emphasis has gone into perfecting combat, which has benefited from the attention at the expense of the rest of the game. Fighting in ToEE is extremely tactical –- which translates to ‘slow’ in many gamers’ books – and those familiar with Fallout’s turn-based combat should be prepared for a slightly less engaging but more complex experience. It should also be noted that the maximum level for characters is 10, limiting the player to 5th-level spells. Multiplayer is also absent, and considering D&D is at its core an MP game, it’s quite an oversight no matter how intentional.

Temple of Elemental Evil is a solid effort by Troika, and credit is due when it comes to the pen-and-paper combat system and D&D feel. Troika however probably could have done the game more justice with extra development time.