Temple of Elemental Evil Impressions

Penny Arcade has put together some first impressions of Troika’s Temple of Elemental Evil in which they provide some positive comments about the gameplay but also claim that the game came out too early and wasn’t quite “done”. Check it out:

The game came out early as you might recall, which I thought was a boon. You’ll note that no-one ever celebrates an early pregnancy, and there’s a reason for that – human beings need to “bake” for a set period of time, upon completion of which they can be considered “done.” The Temple Of Elemental Evil is not what I would consider “done.” It is, however, very cool, which is what makes discussing it complex.

Let me begin by saying that this is the most accurate representation of the modern Dungeons and Dragons combat system in existence. Neverwinter Nights is great and all, I’m on record as holding that position. But without going into too much detail – trust me, it is not possible to establish in this space the comparative complexity of the systems – allow me to compare Neverwinter’s system to Temple’s annoying, imitative kid brother. They each made choices about how to manifest Dungeons and Dragons, BioWare made the choices that would be right for most people, and Troika let the source material make the decisions. There’s no other way to put it.