|
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil
By JR Rodriguez IV
I WAS first introduced into the role-playing world around 1980, during which time we used pencils, paper, 6 different shapes of dice, and all the imagination we had. I've always believed that the greatest thing that ever happened to games was the home pc. Imagine during the 1980's when we had no choice but to wait till weekends to find friends who were willing to play a particular game, and if you didn't have gaming friends your luck was literally out.
Greyhawk is a world created by Gary Gygax, who is also the creator of Dungeons and Dragons. The Temple of Elemental Evil is one of the most successful adventures plotted within the world of Greyhawk. When Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was released, two other successful worlds were created, the world of Dragon Lance and the Forgotten Realms.
The beauty of Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil is that it was able to capture the feel of the original pencil and paper version of the game. Temple of Elemental Evil was created by a team who once played the original D&D game, and after adding the new 3.5 version of the rules, the results are a very impressive rendition that makes you feel you're really part of the game. All the original NPCs appear with the backgrounds and personalities of their original design included. The team added some new quests for NPCs mentioned in the module but weren't given much importance in the pencil and paper version.
You create a party of five 1st-level adventurers using the core D&D classes, including the various assortments of skills, feats and abilities. Skills add character to the game, giving your adventurer a feel that he's really playing his role to the hilt. If you're a diehard D&D gamer, you can turn on Ironmade mode, which limits you to roll just once per character, and you'll have only one save slot, so if the character dies, that's it.
Solving quests--in fact, the availability of quests--will depend on your party's alignment. Around a dozen NPCs can join your party, plus Druids and Rangers can have multiple animal companions, although keeping animals alive will be very difficult later in the game when they uncontrollably attack your enemies and get killed easily. NPCs uncontrollably pick up items that unnecessarily force them to become encumbered, slowing down the whole party.
Staying within the original story of the module may make you feel the limits of the game, and your characters have an advancement maximum to only level 10, but on the upside it opens possibilities for future modules using the same characters.
Game play uses the original tactical turn-based system of D&D, and Temple of Elemental Evil uses that system in full detail. Attacks of opportunity are not possible, special combat attacks--rarely included in computer versions like grappling, tripping--are included. A proposed Area of Effect outline seen when casting a spell facilitates precise targeting.
Despite the fantastic designing of this game, it does have its share of bugs. Poor path finding awaits the weary traveler and characters barely move a few inches before they get stuck or wander off aimlessly. Exploring closed places like buildings is difficult and almost impossible at times.
Some buttons don't work properly, but I'm sure future patches can fix this problem. The engine can get lagged and sluggish especially when you have over a dozen characters battling it out onscreen. Spell effects slow the system down even more. The game needs a beefed up monster machine to work properly, but I'm not definite whether or not the machines existing these days are powerful enough for this game. Thieves move too slow in stealth mode, dialogue can be delivered out of order, journal entries are sometimes duplicated, and you can expect broken quests.
It's definitely the game for diehard D&D fans, but RPG fans the world over can enjoy a classic game that survived for almost 30 years and is still considered one of the best ever made.
Minimum system requirements: P3-700, 512mb RAM, 1.2gb HDD, 32mb 3D Video Card Hardware questions, e-mail me at: labworkscomputers@yahoo.com
(December 17, 2003 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[ return
to top ]
[ home
]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
|
