It's the first CRPG to be set in Greyhawk, and takes advantage of possibly the most recognized adventure in D&D history. It has been lovingly recreated from the orignal module, and utilizes the the D&D 3.5 edition rules.
In the least this product will draw attention to the Greyhawk campaign setting from all the NWN and BG series gamers who are so used to the Forgotten Realms.
For me the game will be a welcome addition to my computer game collection and a great resource for me to draw upon for my upcoming campaign in wich I intend to convert and run the original super modules. I'll start with TOEE, then move into Scourge of the Slave Lords, and end with The queen of Spiders.
So what do you other hawkers think of the upcoming game? Is it worth your time, or are you going to let it collect dust at your local software dealer?
LOL, let's just hope it's well developed, so the bug patches will be kept to a minimum. Novalogic's Delta Force Land Warrior had somewhere around seven or eight patches. But I guess some of those were necessary because of online cheating. But it was mostly bad development.
Speaking of that, will this Greyhawk product offer online and LAN multi-player?
The developers are avid D&D fans, and really wanted to capture both the feel of pen & paper D&D and the feel of the original Temple of Elemental Evil module.
Gary Gygax made himself available to the devs if they had any questions, and they utilized him as a resource.
I think if it brings some attention to Greyhawk, it will be awesome....I'll be buying it, and I long for the day when a new Greyhawk Campaign Setting harback is released.
Originally posted by Mumakil
Gary Gygax made himself available to the devs if they had any questions, and they utilized him as a resource.
Bleh, that's a drawback as far as I'm concerned.
Originally posted by Mumakil
I think if it brings some attention to Greyhawk, it will be awesome....I'll be buying it, and I long for the day when a new Greyhawk Campaign Setting harback is released.
Amen! I'm still using the old World of Greyhawk boxed set for my Greyhawk setting, actually playing in someone elses game using that setting right now. A new one would be nice but I'm sure it will incorporate the Living Greyhawk stuff. The original was more open ended and an extremely volatile place.
I did get to see the game in action as someone at my work reviewed it for the company I work for. It is awesome looking and I can't wait to get to play it myself.
Originally posted by Gnarley_Woodsman
It's the first CRPG to be set in Greyhawk, and takes advantage of possibly the most recognized adventure in D&D history. It has been lovingly recreated from the orignal module, and utilizes the the D&D 3.5 edition rules.?
Set in Greyhawk?
Sure.
Lovingly Recreated?
Remains to be seen. I'll withhold judgement until I play it.
A lot of people said similar things about Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil before it came out. When I finally saw that adventure, I was seriously underwhelmed. It has several minor, but important (IMO) continuity and storyline errors that ruined it for me.
We won't even get into how much 'loving recreation' has gone into the recent novels set in classic greyhawk adventure locales...
:D
As far as the CRPG is concerned. Tim Cain the Troika lead is an old school D&D, 1e module enthuiast and player. To get the feel for the events of the module he and the staff at Troika played the original module through in 3e rules. Tim's goal was to try to bring the module to life, and keep it as close to the printed module as possible. Some things had to be changed to fit in the 3.5 rules set and for balance of play, but otherwise if there are 6 gnolls in room in the PnP mmodule , then you'll encounter 6 Gnolls in the CRPG.
I'm enthusiastic about the game, but I remeber being burned by Pools of Radience2 and Neverwinternights....so I am wary. But according to the reports of someone whot got his copy yesterday, the game play is great. All that leaves is the feel that the game gives us for the module.
I'll tell you what I think in a couple of days.
Originally posted by chatdemon
A lot of people said similar things about Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil before it came out. When I finally saw that adventure, I was seriously underwhelmed. It has several minor, but important (IMO) continuity and storyline errors that ruined it for me.
Although I'm not 100% ofay with the history of ToEE, I've read through the RttToEE module several times over and although initially impressed, after six months of gaming I realized how flawed the module was as a module.
Having said that, the continuity and storyline 'errors', I feel were more Monte being brave (or stupid) enough to make a hard decision one way or another on several topics which hardcore GH fans had been debating for years. I don't perceive making such calls an error, in terms of storyline, but I'd concede that he might've made an error of judgement in making such calls and in what direction he went with those calls.
However, that's really not a quality judgement of his work, but rather a bias towards one side of the argument as to what calls were made and whether they were the 'right' ones.
In that vein, many hardcore fans of GH are going to be upset at the decisions which have been made in this game as well, like the very strong hint that the circle of eight were involved in Emridy Meadows and that Fragarach is indeed CG and Thrommel is not an actual paladin but rather, a paladin lord (a mere title rather than a class or anything denoting actual ability).
I'll be honest with you, there are some bugs to work out. The first patch will probably clear them up. Its small things nothing to write home about IMO.
If you're willing to just sit back and enjoy the game and not analize every piece of minutae then you'll probably enjoy it too.
Originally posted by Gnarley_Woodsman
I'll be honest with you, there are some bugs to work out. The first patch will probably clear them up. Its small things nothing to write home about IMO.
Small things?
From all that is being said over on the Atari forums, it sounds like the game has major, and fundemental, flaws.
In fact, many people can't even get past the installation process... not to mention the constant crashes, inability to complete minor missions, inability to dump certain characters as well as dozens of bugs and issues with the interface.
Considering the game only had about six months of development, and NO beta testing, I'm not surprised. I'll still pick this game up, for curiosities sake, but not until it's in the bargain bin...
I have come to know you as an independant thinker. As such you typically rely on your own assesment of any particular situation. The same applies here.
I admit if you go to those boards it'll scare your pants off. They make it sound like doom has come to man.
I decided to see for myself, and I haven't had a problem with it yet. The game play is smooth, the graphics are terrific. the locations are faithfully recreated. The monsters are awesome. I could go on and on.
If you are looking to play a Greyhawk based video game like I am, and thats what you wanted out of it then you won't be disappointed. I mean the chronometer uses the Greyhawk calendar. Planting 5, Waterday, 579CY....it's teriffic!
Most of the major complaints are centered around installation issues and user dissatisfaction. I had no problems with the install, andas far as the rest I say see for yourself. Download the Demo. Spend no money, and play it for six hours.
), especially since there is no demo (in fact, that was one of the issues people had with the game... unless there is new information I'm not aware of...).And although I would get a buzz out of such small things as the date being registered using the GH calander (no, really, I'm not being sarcastic, I get a buzz out of stuff like that), the issues that I've seen addressed, and I'm not talking about the insane ramblings of wankers who blather first and think (maybe) later, but rather addressed intelligently and quite coherently by numerous posters, are issues that would detract SO much from the game that I'd find it unplayable.
I cite Icewind Dale II as an example. I *loved* that it was so close, even if not entirely faithful, to 3rd ed. however the gameplay, by which I mean the plot, story, and interaction, was so atrocious and completely lame that I simply couldn't finish it due to shear boredom (and when I wasn't bored, I was ****** off). I think that the gameplay, by which I mean the interface issues, in ToEE would do much the same for me. They would detract from the experience enough that I would cease playing it at some point.
Since I know this about myself, I'd rather not spend the money on a game I may not, or may, end up liking.
If there is a demo, however, I will check it out and make up my own mind. I think there are a lot of people like me who are reserving judgement and aren't willing to fork over money until they see for themselves what the game is like. If Troika don't put out a demo, I can see this game becoming a big flop for them due simply to this factor.
LINK
It takes about 90 minutes with a high speed connection.
Let me know what you think. I'd put more faith in your assesment than the over zealous irrational spam from the TOEE boards.
Bleh, not that I could run the damn thing right now anyway. Gotta wait till I can upgrade this hunk of junk.