Posted September 20, 2012
GOG loves D&D! Here's why:
<i>While our [url=http://www.gog.com/en/promo/hasbro_stacking_promo]Diamonds of D&D promo is in the works we--the GOG.com staff-- would like to share some very personal memories with you. Today we're recalling the brutal, unforgiving, nasty, sadist of a game. The most difficult title in the whole batch of our D&D games. The gaming equivalent of Bane to us, Batmen and Batwomen RPG gamers: The Temple of Elemental Evil.
Playing it, I constantly felt like there was some ultimate evil force on the other side of the screen, hell-bent on breaking my morals and destroying me completely. The Temple of Elemental Evil--such an appropriate name. It's as if the creators wanted to avoid any resentments from the players. "Why the hell are you crying? We warned you what you're up against. It's in the frickin' title!". Personally, I imagine this game levitating three feet over its bed, spinning its head and vomiting greenish goo.
--G-Doc, the GOG.com clickity-click guy
The Temple of Elemental Evil made me weep like a little girl--it is one of the most brutal and unforgiving games you will ever play. Especially in the Iron Mode--only one save on exit, and when you die the save's deleted. I've heard stories of demigods who soloed the game in Iron Mode. Wow! I, however, failed miserably at that. I remember rolling perfect stats for my character for an hour and then dying 5 minutes in the game. That was quite fortunate, actually --only an hour lost. The lucky ones die first. Today when I play most of the RPGs I can just straight up charge at ANY party and not give a crap. In Temple of Elemental Evil, each new enemy (and there were exactly "a lot" of them) was a possible game-ender if you weren't careful. If you think, you have a badass character, if you think you have a winning strategy, if you think you have enough power to "i'll just walk in there", then Temple of Elemental Evil is going to prove you wrong. All it takes is one Giant Gelatinous Cube.
--MDyzzle, the GOG.com "do this" man
I've been playing D&D games since AD&D was the thing to buy. Nothing quite matches the brutality and the difficulty of a well-run version of the classic module "Temple of Elemental Evil." Of course, when the game was released on PC, I had to pick it up. One hour after installing it, I had the perfect character. Three hours later, he was dead. So I rolled up a new one, and tried again. The blunt force trauma that is the Temple of Elemental Evil seemed to have survived the transition to the new ruleset--and to a PC game--unscathed. I was hooked.
This is an unpopular favorite, I suppose, from the series of games we have on sale this week, but The Temple of Elemental Evil is probably the one that I enjoyed the most. The combat, the monsters, the traps: it's all the same as the module I remember running back when I was in school. The only concession to making the game easier Hommlet, was the bolted-on village above the Temple, which would let you level up a bit before confronting the horrors within. In later years, the amazing community that has created and continued to maintain the Co8 mod for ToEE has made the game even better, fixing bugs and even adding enthralling new content to the game. You may not be familiar with this title, or maybe you've heard reviews about the less than polished nature of the initial release of the game back in 2003, so let me make this simple for you: Get this game. If you like RPGs where your life is Hobbesian in nature ("poor, nasty, brutish, and short"), this game will challenge you, and if you just like a good dungeon romp, well, dial down the difficulty a little and get plundering. If you like a game where your options for modding are nearly limitless, this is a great choice. Roll the dice, drop into the dungeon--and good luck. You probably won't make it back in once piece.
--The Enigmatic T, the GOG.com [information classified]
So, there you have it. Personal stories of our Stockholm Syndrome cases related to The Temple of Elemental Evil. Care to share one of yours?
With [i]The Temple of Elemental Evil our GOG loves D&D series comes to an end. The previous entries, along with some great user-submitted stories (thank you!), can be found here:
GOG loves D&D: The Baldur's Gate series
GOG loves D&D: Planescape: Torment
GOG loves D&D: Icewind Dale series
GOG loves D&D: Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone
GOG loves D&D: Neverwinter Nights
[/i]
<i>While our [url=http://www.gog.com/en/promo/hasbro_stacking_promo]Diamonds of D&D promo is in the works we--the GOG.com staff-- would like to share some very personal memories with you. Today we're recalling the brutal, unforgiving, nasty, sadist of a game. The most difficult title in the whole batch of our D&D games. The gaming equivalent of Bane to us, Batmen and Batwomen RPG gamers: The Temple of Elemental Evil.
Playing it, I constantly felt like there was some ultimate evil force on the other side of the screen, hell-bent on breaking my morals and destroying me completely. The Temple of Elemental Evil--such an appropriate name. It's as if the creators wanted to avoid any resentments from the players. "Why the hell are you crying? We warned you what you're up against. It's in the frickin' title!". Personally, I imagine this game levitating three feet over its bed, spinning its head and vomiting greenish goo.
--G-Doc, the GOG.com clickity-click guy
The Temple of Elemental Evil made me weep like a little girl--it is one of the most brutal and unforgiving games you will ever play. Especially in the Iron Mode--only one save on exit, and when you die the save's deleted. I've heard stories of demigods who soloed the game in Iron Mode. Wow! I, however, failed miserably at that. I remember rolling perfect stats for my character for an hour and then dying 5 minutes in the game. That was quite fortunate, actually --only an hour lost. The lucky ones die first. Today when I play most of the RPGs I can just straight up charge at ANY party and not give a crap. In Temple of Elemental Evil, each new enemy (and there were exactly "a lot" of them) was a possible game-ender if you weren't careful. If you think, you have a badass character, if you think you have a winning strategy, if you think you have enough power to "i'll just walk in there", then Temple of Elemental Evil is going to prove you wrong. All it takes is one Giant Gelatinous Cube.
--MDyzzle, the GOG.com "do this" man
I've been playing D&D games since AD&D was the thing to buy. Nothing quite matches the brutality and the difficulty of a well-run version of the classic module "Temple of Elemental Evil." Of course, when the game was released on PC, I had to pick it up. One hour after installing it, I had the perfect character. Three hours later, he was dead. So I rolled up a new one, and tried again. The blunt force trauma that is the Temple of Elemental Evil seemed to have survived the transition to the new ruleset--and to a PC game--unscathed. I was hooked.
This is an unpopular favorite, I suppose, from the series of games we have on sale this week, but The Temple of Elemental Evil is probably the one that I enjoyed the most. The combat, the monsters, the traps: it's all the same as the module I remember running back when I was in school. The only concession to making the game easier Hommlet, was the bolted-on village above the Temple, which would let you level up a bit before confronting the horrors within. In later years, the amazing community that has created and continued to maintain the Co8 mod for ToEE has made the game even better, fixing bugs and even adding enthralling new content to the game. You may not be familiar with this title, or maybe you've heard reviews about the less than polished nature of the initial release of the game back in 2003, so let me make this simple for you: Get this game. If you like RPGs where your life is Hobbesian in nature ("poor, nasty, brutish, and short"), this game will challenge you, and if you just like a good dungeon romp, well, dial down the difficulty a little and get plundering. If you like a game where your options for modding are nearly limitless, this is a great choice. Roll the dice, drop into the dungeon--and good luck. You probably won't make it back in once piece.
--The Enigmatic T, the GOG.com [information classified]
So, there you have it. Personal stories of our Stockholm Syndrome cases related to The Temple of Elemental Evil. Care to share one of yours?
With [i]The Temple of Elemental Evil our GOG loves D&D series comes to an end. The previous entries, along with some great user-submitted stories (thank you!), can be found here:
GOG loves D&D: The Baldur's Gate series
GOG loves D&D: Planescape: Torment
GOG loves D&D: Icewind Dale series
GOG loves D&D: Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone
GOG loves D&D: Neverwinter Nights
[/i]
