So I had to give this new version a try. I didn't play it long enough
for me to count it in our end-of-the-month 'What Have You Been
Playing' thread, but it was long enough for me to decide that it had
been... well, long enough.

The TL;DR is that I wasn't much of a fan of the game when it released
back in 2003, and I'm not much of a fan of this new 'revised' version.

To be honest, I'm not actually sure /what/ got revised. It's still
buggy, it still doesn't play well with 'modern' high resolution
screens, and its interface still sucks. I alt-tabbed away from the
game at one point, and when I came back, the map was black and
featureless. An NPC got stuck in one of its pre-scripted actions.
Melf's Acid Arrow doesn't work. If this is the fixed version, the
original must have been truly awful (I played it back in the day, but
it's been so long ago I can't remember).

But really, it's the game itself that's the problem. It isn't fun. The overbearing fog-of-war that makes it impossible to see more than 5m
ahead of you (or even closer; at times my characters were standing
right next to a building and couldn't see it!). The slow, dull combat.
The awful 'control wheel' interface where every action requires three
or four fiddly mouse clicks. The game uses D&D 3.5E rules too, which
by itself isn't a deal-killer, but combined with everything else? It
just made the game all the more unenjoyable for me.

I wandered through the hamlet of Hommlett, then did the inevitable and
tiresome battles of the moathouse, and that was enough for me. The
game makes no effort to make me want to play it; it doesn't have any
engaging characters, the questing isn't interesting, the loot is
boring, and everything moves at a god-awfully slow slog. It really
feels as if the mere fact that this was "The Temple of Elemental Evil"
in video-game format was supposed to be enough to make me want to
play.

Well, it wasn't enough back in 2003, and it certainly isn't enough in
2026. I gave up on it after (checks Steam) 2.3 hours, and I doubt I'll
be returning anytime soon. Maybe in another 23 years? We'll see if my
opinion on the game has softened in 2049!





--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 1/18/2026 2:09 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

So I had to give this new version a try. I didn't play it long enough
for me to count it in our end-of-the-month 'What Have You Been
Playing' thread, but it was long enough for me to decide that it had
been... well, long enough.

The TL;DR is that I wasn't much of a fan of the game when it released
back in 2003, and I'm not much of a fan of this new 'revised' version.

To be honest, I'm not actually sure /what/ got revised. It's still
buggy, it still doesn't play well with 'modern' high resolution
screens, and its interface still sucks. I alt-tabbed away from the
game at one point, and when I came back, the map was black and
featureless. An NPC got stuck in one of its pre-scripted actions.
Melf's Acid Arrow doesn't work. If this is the fixed version, the
original must have been truly awful (I played it back in the day, but
it's been so long ago I can't remember).

The original was a AWFUL <censored> mess. I bought it, could NOT get it
to run to save my life. So I took it back to the store I bought it from
(this being back when dinosaurs still lived and one bought computer
games from physical stores) to get a refund. They wouldn't give me one.
So I asked if they had a trash can. The woman behind the counter said
yes and held it up to show me. When I cocked my arm back to throw the
game in it said something like "ALL RIGHT! ALL RIGHT!" and processed my refund. As I recall I wasn't the only one who had problems with it,
even in those almost pre-internet days word got around VERY quickly that
it was a hot mess of garbage.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 18 Jan 2026 21:35:51 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

On 1/18/2026 2:09 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

To be honest, I'm not actually sure /what/ got revised. It's still
buggy, it still doesn't play well with 'modern' high resolution
screens, and its interface still sucks. I alt-tabbed away from the
game at one point, and when I came back, the map was black and
featureless. An NPC got stuck in one of its pre-scripted actions.
Melf's Acid Arrow doesn't work. If this is the fixed version, the
original must have been truly awful (I played it back in the day, but
it's been so long ago I can't remember).

The original was a AWFUL <censored> mess. I bought it, could NOT get it
to run to save my life. So I took it back to the store I bought it from >(this being back when dinosaurs still lived and one bought computer
games from physical stores) to get a refund. They wouldn't give me one.
So I asked if they had a trash can. The woman behind the counter said
yes and held it up to show me. When I cocked my arm back to throw the
game in it said something like "ALL RIGHT! ALL RIGHT!" and processed my >refund. As I recall I wasn't the only one who had problems with it,
even in those almost pre-internet days word got around VERY quickly that
it was a hot mess of garbage.

Like I said, I can't remember how bad the game was in terms of
bugginess back in 2003. It doesn't stick out as being that bad for me,
but maybe I applied some patches first, or got lucky, or just don't
remember.

But I've similar memories of yours regarding another D&D CRPG of that
era that was also a buggy mess: "Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth
Drannor" (2001). It wasn't a particularly good game; it was extremely combat-heavy, as I remember, taking notes from "Diablo" in its focus
if not its actual mechanics. But like "Temple of Elemental Evil", it
was also quite buggy too... and worse, those bugs could do more than
just fuck up your gameplay. Due to a bad install/uninstall routine, it
could potentially erase some core files of your Windows install,
rendering your PC unbootable.*

As I recall, I pretty much purchased these games back-to-back** and
together they pretty much killed my (already-fading) love of top-down
CRPGs. Meanwhile, first-person CRPG games like "Gothic" and "Deus Ex"
and "Knights of the Old Republic" were providing great experiences.


----
* well, unbootable for the PC hoi polloi. Most people here probably
could have fixed it ;-)
** I vaguely recall that -disappointed with POR:RMD-- I purchased TOEE
in hopes it would provide the D&D experience I wanted but didn't get
from the first game. It may have been a few months between the two
purchases, but it was pretty close.



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)