boring ....

do you really like this game?
i'm kinda bored - it took about 3 days to complete this game
and the only thing i can say - very little challenge ...

1. quests are easy, they don't even require thinking, only run and talk
(and hope to have the right stats)
btw - running all over the map is REALLY annoying ...

2. fights are stupid (AI is a joke) and all of them can be done exactly
in the same way... and i had NO overpowered characters
(4 standard + 1 sorcerer with normal stats), NO created wondrous items,
NOTHING special - just the stuff i've found and bought...
(in the game i had gipsy, fighter and sorceress from the planes in my group,
but not at the same time)

3. i needed just 6(7) spells: magic missile, acid arrow, web, fireball, charm
monster, cloudkill + teleport to shorten the time to get home...
(btw - i killed all the guys in temple, all the plane guardians and zyg...whatever)

is it all?
i don't know - i just expected more ...
it looks like it's some kind of "diablo-cover", but without the atmosphere
(i would say - diablo background-music is much better, it makes this creepy feeling)

summary:
i'm not impressed (c) gharbad the weak [diablo]

glen

 

Well, it's not a tough game, though I have to object to any assertion that it's a cover of diablo, which it's nothing like, IMO. I mean, it uses the D&D rules really faithfully and is basically a port of an old D&D module from the days of yore, so I don't see where diablo comes in at all.

But other than that, if you're disappointed because of a lack of challenge, there are ways to make it harder. You can do ironman, for one. You can also do a solo game with no NPCs. And last of all, you can try Liv's mod, which makes things much tougher, especially with respect to AI.

Where I do agree with you is the quests in the original. They're attrocious. I do only the ones that have an item at the end or that open up a new area to clear, and they get tiresome by themselves. Again, Liv's mod has made some major progress in this area. She's added many neat quests, some of her own creation, that are complex and require really creative thinking. From your comments, it sounds like this would be right up your alley.

 

hi all.

i do actually see some similarities, but i try to explain some things first.
i strated with d&d and ad&d about 13 years ago and in the meantime
played rolemaster, shadowrun, ars magica, vampire, ... etc etc etc
and the one thing i'm quite sure about is - system doesn't matter.
what i'm looking for, is a roleplaying atmosphere or feeleing or however
you call that thing...

when i'm mastering my p&p rpgs, there is (in >90% of all cases) about
4-5 ways to solve any problem, that i prepare and maybe some i even
didn't think about.

the challenge i meant is to find an interesting way to solve the problem
and it is not in this game (maybe its better with mods, i don't know)

next point is AI - in p&p i CAN'T say: if you shoot one guard of ten, nobody's
going to attack or just search for you. in this game it is more than usual.
if an eye of the deep (exeptional intelligence) is alone against many (6)
enemies and have area-affecting spells (and they are nasty, cause my
resistance was quite low) - why it attack me with melee????
there is a lot of such things, that would never happen in a normal p&p game.

another point is - movement. of course i know, some creatures are slow, but if
i'm fighting 20 of earth thingies and every one of them needs a minute to get
to my group or to attack me, it's more than annoying. or six screen changes to
get to the second temple level ...

light and darkness are the other point ... and so on ....

what i'm trying to say is - there are tooo many things, that (imho) are killing
the roleplaying atmosphere in this game and on the other hand - there is too
little challenge (and i don't mean easy monsters - i still mean dumb scheme:
go - kill - take - identify - sell/use or - take - bring - give - get reward)...

back to diablo: in that way is this game exactly the same, but more annoying.
and i saw many things, that reminded me at diablo (head on the floor in
hedrack's room is maybe the most evident). btw - the other game from troika,
bloodlines is much more inspiring ...

respectfully,
glen

 

One thing that I would love is to be able to bash open chests, but also have the chance of damaging the lock so it won't open even with lockpicks.

 

I would agree the game isn't that hard and probably very easy for long time ,experienced game players. If you play by the book, no cheats,etc, I think the game is fairly challenging. If your using a walkthru and already know what's ahead, then I guess it would be boring. Try Livonya's mods or find another game that's not so boring.

 

Straight out of the box, the game is too easy, too buggy, and starts with deadly dull quests. All of the IE games (IWD, IWDII, BG, BG2, Planescape) were better from a CRPG point of view. BG2:SOA is (imo) the best AD&D style CRPG out there once you factor in the incredible work done by the modding community, though Morrowind (post-mods) probably takes the title of best fantasy CRPG.

That said, ToEE is a great D&D 3.5 character building and combat simulator, something that kept me coming back for a quick hack. Now that the modding community is finally starting to produce content for the game, I think it has fantastic potential. The patches and (even more) Co8 fixes have made the game really playable, Liv has added some quests that have real roleplaying possibilities and solid writing, and more is coming out every week.

So, yup, I like the game.

 

Troika should have worked harder, I agree, but then again not all Game programmers etc. play D&D most probably just read trough the module to get the NPC stats, some dialougue and the monsters..of course some of the creatures do not look like their Monster Manual counterparts(leucrottas are silver??) but the game is extremely well done in forms of animation and custumizabilty. So yes the music is Dull the quests are annoying but all in all its a decent game that kept me playing for a couple of months. :clap: :clap: :lalala: :lalala:

 

Plus, it's hard to say what would have been fixed/added/completed/improved/etc. had Troika simply been given more time by Atari. (those chumps!) :doublethu

 

What colour are they suposed to be?

 

...badger-colored.

I think they're damn close, myself:

 

OMG UHF!! I love that movie!!