ToEE steam release (Troika version)

[Leesun]

Absolutely loved this when I was a child. I remember learning basic python to use with hexeditors and such to mod it. Apparently it will be released on Steam with bugfixes later this month. This is an old interview with Tim Cain who worked on it.

For people unfamiliar with Troika Games, they were a game developer who only created three games. Each game was rushed out due to time constraints, but all three are considered cult classics. The Temple of Elemental Evil, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

 

[osamaclees]

great game(s)
i still play toee and arcanum, never played bloodlines
got an arcanum game going at moment, elven supermodel, everything into cha and beauty and make everyone else do everything for me heh (shes still surprisingly useful in melee too somehow?), hilarious
still have my disc versions of both too

toee has been available on gog for ages (much prefer to steam) as arcanum has too
i play toee with the circle of eight mod pack, which fixes alot of the old bugs (and introduces some new ones!)
fighter+combat reflexes+longspear is still massively op heh (fighter/thief with the above is just straight unfair)

once did a party of 3 fighters fighter x/thief 1, 1 fighter2/cleric x (cleric for healing but more for crafting holy weapons), 1x fighter2/thief x, all with combat reflexes (except fighter2/thief x = ranged) and reach weapons. the most deadly attack was "end turn" lol

 

[Solarpower]

got an arcanum game going at moment, elven supermodel, everything into cha and beauty and make everyone else do everything for me heh

So... Did you charm Belle at Madam Lil's ?

 

[osamaclees]

So... Did you charm Belle at Madam Lil's ?

haha, no sir, no i didnt

 

[GrindFlayer]

I still have the ToEE box on my "game shelf", in the same stack with a dozen other classics.
That game got many things right. After playing most of the Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights series games, I was left with a feeling that if someone tweaked those games with a bit better turn-based mode, spell targeting and some other minor upgrades, it would be a perfect D&D CRPG experience.

ToEE did most of those things very well. It was buggy, though, as everyone familiar with it knows. While I didn't suffer from all of the issues I've read about, the most annoying thing was that it made my (already slow) computer freeze for several minutes per turn in large battles. I later played it through a few times on a much better system and with the bug fix patches. There were still some oddities and it didn't perform perfectly no matter what I did, but .. it's still one of my favourite D&D games ever.
Definitely going to check out the Steam version. Heard about it a short while ago, and was instantly in a better mood for the rest of the week.

 

[Speed]

I loved Temple Of Elemental Evil and it was on my top list for a long time.
I was able to finish bugged version and did not notice something game breaking, just corpses were not lootable, but you could come back and then it was possible.
Graphics style was great for me.
You could create custom party and it used dnd 3.5 (instead of simpler 2.0 known in BG 1-2 or Planescape Torment).

Here is a list of turn based rpgs that I liked too.
Maybe you will find something.

Knights Of The Chalice 2 (not well known, made by one man for 10 years, awesome turn based combat, impressive AI, dnd 3.5, but heavily modified, making it more advanced, custom party)
Pathfinder Kingmaker (optional turn based mode, dnd 3.5, but extended with pathfinder, so class building is more interesting, kingdom management)
Deadfire (optional turn based mode, pirate theme, own ships with upgrades and crew)
Original Sin 2 (from BG3 creators, turn based combat where rng has very little impact on your tactics)
Wizardry 8 (from Jagged Alliance 2 creators, first person view, custom party)
Jagged Alliance 2 (strategy similar to X-Com, but has strong enough rpg elements, modern theme, mercenaries have their noticeable personality, interact with each other, comment and may leave for various reasons, fully voiced with nice actors)
Cops 2170 (not well known, similar to Jagged Alliance, cyberpunk theme)
Wasteland 2 (post apo theme, not as good as Fallout 1-2, but allows to control party members during combat)
Solasta (not well known, dnd 5.0)
Thea The Awakening (not well known, strategy roguelike, rpg elements, slavic theme, stories with choose your own adventure system, survival with resources, card combat)

 

[kmoustakas]

I had actually bought ToEE back in the day but never actually played it. Too busy with neverwinter nights' mods back then

 

[Xgya]

ToEE and Pool of Radiance were some of my first D&D videogame experience.
One thing I really found amiss: the DDO version of ToEE did not let us do is have the priests actively work against one another. The videogame added a tidbit, and the tabletop version has whole sidequests related to doing that.
Probably wouldn't recommend to anyone not familiar with the old turn by turn games, because the gameplay is quite dated, even though it's still enjoyable.

 

[J1NG]

If you want to play the old Troika ToEE game and got it on DVD or GOG don't grab the base CO8 mod, go for the Temple+ mod.

I am unsure if going with the Temple+ mod is better for the new Steam release version however since they likely made the necessary updates to permit it to run natively with modern resolutions. if it can't, then go with Temple+. It provides extra options that the CO8 mod alone doesn't offer.

J1NG

 

[Qrvar]

TOEE is the GOAT. Crippled, limping, slightly deformed GOAT It's what got me into D&D in the first place, probably the best 3.5e to computer game conversion and the best / most accurate D&D rules to computer game conversion before Baldur's Gate 3.

I've played the game too many times back in the day to really care about the re-release, but I'm curious to see how much of the fan fixes they include. If it's just stability fixes, I don't think I could play the game again without all the additional spells, feats, magic item systems and locations that the fans have added over the years.

 

[Lacci]

Cool. I never heard of it to be honest.
But I´ve been recently playing the gold box classics again, so I will definitely check this out. Thanks for the info.

 

[paddymaxson]

Nice, I'm a big fan of things Tim's worked on in general but never played this, and I'm always up for going back to something I missed at the time and finding out that it actually IS that good so I guess I'll have to add it to my list.

 

[Jeeboheebo]

Hell's yeah, loved all their games. And yeah, they were all really buggy when released. I doubt the old magic is still there, kinda like Gold Box D&D-games, warm memories but the reality when you start playing them in 2025 could be pretty harsh. Best Gold Box games were the Buck Rogers games, D&D rules in space.
I'd sure give it a try if I was a new player though.

 

[paddymaxson]

Hell's yeah, loved all their games. And yeah, they were all really buggy when released. I doubt the old magic is still there, kinda like Gold Box D&D-games, warm memories but the reality when you start playing them in 2025 could be pretty harsh. Best Gold Box games were the Buck Rogers games, D&D rules in space.
I'd sure give it a try if I was a new player though.

Sometimes the old jank surprises me and is incredibly gripping even thought it hasn't "held up" (I didn't own a computer until 2001 and due to lack of funds didn't really play any games beyond counter strike until a fair few years after that), like getting hella lost and discovering things in Arx Fatalis or basically all of Morrowind. It continues to amaze me how GOOD some games I missed out on as a child/young adult are in spite of the fact they play like they were designed for a person with 6 fingers on each hand.

 

[Jeeboheebo]

I started playing videogames with Mattel Intellivision in the early 80's, moved to Spectrum 48k and then to PC. From really simple games with great ideas to complex, massive games with great ideas. I loved the Mattel D&D-games, little that they actually had to do with D&D.

Gold Box games and Bard's Tale, Ultima-series etc were really magical for me, immersive and epic, unlike anything before. They hold such a special place in my memories that I dare not to try them again. But if I were a new player I'd sure give them a go.

ToEE and Arcanum are great, I might try them again someday since they belong to post-fallout era when good games were plenty, my memories of that age are still fairly fresh and realistic.

 

[Greyhawk5]

I played that at release, it was a buggy mess as I recall.

 

[Qrvar]

I played that at release, it was a buggy mess as I recall.

Classic story: rushed by publisher, unfinished features, and barebones later areas. Still a lot more "polished" than Arcanum or VTMB on release, if you can call it that.

 

[Solarpower]

Classic story: rushed by publisher, unfinished features, and barebones later areas. Still a lot more "polished" than Arcanum or VTMB on release, if you can call it that.

As far as I remember, they've released a demo version of ToEE that actually contained [almost] all the content of the game but most of it were "locked". People found a way to unlock it and played the full game for free. Which is what forced the studio to release the game in a hurry, ahead of schedule.

 

[Qrvar]

As far as I remember, they've released a demo version of ToEE that actually contained [almost] all the content of the game but most of it were "locked". People found a way to unlock it and played the full game for free. Which is what forced the studio to release the game in a hurry, ahead of schedule.

Not a story I've heard, but wow, that sucks. I've generally heard it said that it was Atari's fault.

Probably a bad decision too, may have sold better if they got a chance to finish the dang game, despite the demo.

 

[vellrad]

Steam is late as usual.
It's been on gog for at least 4 years