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reliving the past-TOEE
All this talk of great old RPG's and such, and my silly atempts to replay games I have already played I decieded to play one I hadnt. I picked of TOEE off GOG (I'm almost sure I already bought it someplace else, but I cant find it). So after about 4 hours my first thoughts.. warning, not all good. keep in mind I havent played this one.
The game looks well done, even for an older game (yes its not that old, but still it looks pretty good). The interface is a bit clunky, but so far no real gripes. Character creation was indepth and really brouhgt me back to those old Pen and Paper games, kudos on that! I liked the dice roll system, you could really tweak if you wanted or do as I did, just hit random till i got a few numbers I liked and used them. My characters are not the "hand picked" numbers most used, I think only one has an 18 base. I think in all my charceters created i reroled maybe 30 total times. I see I could pick and chose where numbers whent also, but I put them in where they rolled, prefect characters is not something I like, seems like a trainer to me when you do that, i want my characters to not hit every time... and hooo boy they whiff like they are blindfolded right now. I am sure it took an hour plus to create them.
The first town was a bit of a disapointement, lots of exploring for no reason. I never liked that in old console games, and not a fan of it in PC ones either. A town with 3 people that give you something to do, and 10 that just talk for no real reason. I know its to make it more imersive, but..eh.. dont care for it. Once I established I needed to get rid of some bandits I was instatly telported to that area.. not to sure about that , but travle and raondom combat while fun at start of a game, it gets tediuos later, so maybe its ok.
Fighitng... The turn based fighting feels good, I like it, and it works well. I feel in control and right at home from my old pen and Paper days. And my one true gripe about random number games rears its head in my first battle. The large toads, they owned my little party, my main tank was inside a toad so quick i thouhgt I blinked and missed it. Thankfully the game auto saved at the begining of the zone. I had forgot I need to save non stop.. im not sure I like that again. Saving every battel just seems ..... wrong.... my skill should carry me, not my ability to hit save. But old RPG's required this, so why not this one. My second attempt went better, I killed 3 frogs and had my caster out of spells and my tanks with low HP's. My camp icon was yellow, so what to do? Save and move ahead, die.. load save, and try again and die.. 5 more times all death... OK time to rest. camp, attacked, camp attacked, save and camp, attacked, save and camp attacked... WTH!!!!! how can i get some spells and Hp's back? My random generator must just be punishing me... save and try 10 more times, each time my camp is disrupted and cant get any spell or HP back... so I press ahead. The bandits own me, I try this 5-6 time and my tfurstration level is maxed.. I start 100% over. Saveing again. Im fighitng and saveing, but again, i can either let my tanks eat it and save spells, or use spells os tanks dont eat so much dmag.. but I CANY GET A CAMP to work... im attacked every time. I have to fight about 6 encounters with no rest and so far I have not succeded. Did i build the wrong party, did I have to just ahve 18's across the board on stats? What Am i doing wrong?
IM taking a break and writing this. I have a Pally ( he hits good when not in frog belly) a monk- this may have been a bad choice she is just cooling mobs off, as she misses about 8 out of 10 swings, just fanning them. My rogue is ok, he is doing more dmag then my monk. My cleric is also doing more dmg than my monk (dex is important for monks still isnt it?) and my sorc is ... well underwhelming.. i know they do 1D4 dmg.. but geez i think i have shot MM about 20 times and had a 1dmg 15 of them...
this random number stuff is killing me, i know there is no other way to do it.. but this game sure seems brutal with it. So far I see why you guys like it, overall other than my suckage at teh start I cant see much wrong with it. I like how it looks, the combat is nice... I just gotta figure out how to beat a few mobs without blowing my wad.
Comments
The only real memories I have of this game is the gay romance from Bertram. It formed the basis of my famous Gay Characters in Videogames article. I don't remember it being a very good game otherwise, despite the turn-based combat. Seems like I remember reading somewhere that it had a troubled development cycle.
If you just want to go old school but in a new interface...Been trying out Knights of the Chalice on a recommendation. I downloaded the demo. You notice the foregrounding of the stats and tactics right away, though you'll either love or hate the look (at least it's not anime). It's a beast, too. Second wipe already...! Not quite sure if you get to create a party or not; I'm assuming the demo is pretty limited.
I wonder if the publisher would consider sending us a review copy?
Wel I kinda like the graphics and the combat it very true to D&D as far as I can tell, but I am not joking one bit when I i say th camp icon is yellow (caution you could be attacked) i camped about 20 times in a row and only 1 was not attacked. And if you have 14 hp's and you are down 7, that is -7-camp days! 7 chances to be attacked, really makes this game brutal (IMHO) i havent seen any bugs yet, but i havent seen much if it to be truthfull. As i hve played almost all the old RPG's I am quite enjoying discovering one I havent... if the game was playing a bit nicer with me. I honestly think is a bit to harsh a starter areas.. but I did do some reading, i maybe jumpinginot the first dungeon to soon, I need to complete some the town quests first i guess. I WILL be playing more... as its peaked my interest.
I gave up, did some reading and they want you to do the fetch crap all over the town to gain a level before any exploring. Something i cant stand, busy work for no real reason, i can see the reason people like this game as there is alot to like, but its way too unforgiving at the start for me, unless you want to run a crapload of tedious fetch quests. 10 + hours and i bet i fouhgt the same 10 mobs 40 times... and saved a couple hundred. To bad it did look fun in combat... to bad i gotta spend 5-6 hours doing boing crap to get to it.
Hey, Clok, don't give up that easily. It ain't that bad of a game, just a slow start.
Pretty quickly you'll get a golden skull, and from then on it's a smooth ride (almost too easy). Just make sure to hit on the sailor. ;)
I may go back to it.. but right now I enjoyed the character creation, and the first few fights.. the 100 save/loads not so much, the 50 townpeople where 10 have quests and the rest are "filler", not so much, the hook old man up with old woman, not so much. The town layout so I have to take specif paths to get places..what town has that? evenr heard of an ally?
I fired up Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes a STEAM $9 game.. its fairly pretty graphics wise, the combat is all turned based. Its a parody on RPG's so to speak, no LOL jokes, but a snicker here and there.. and it really rubs the huge annoying "sameness" of most games in.. Our hero is a wimp.. Some UBER hero goes along to help him and spew "helpfull dialog" you rescue several females.. all with skimpy clothing and lots fo jokes about it. The thief is ... over the the top thief, he has an annoying habit of moving a few squares from battel if he is hit to hard. You rescue a dainty fairy who is far meaner then anybody in the party.. if she gets hit hard by a mob she will complaine you didnt protect her and open a can of whoop a$$ on the closest party member (yes doing dmage to them).
They use lots of strange mobs.. sabertooth rabbits (Vieled MP reference, but Im sure you all knew that) and other things like that.
overall its leaning towards easy as far as RPG playing goes, but for $10 I will say Im enjoying it alot.. the people who made it think they are a bit more funny then they are.. and some dialogs go on way to long. but the core game play is solid enouhg, if a bit easy. I have heard its a bit short.. I think put about 6 hours in so far. so... but for now its a gerat "fix" for that RPG itch.
That does sound interesting, though I have to admit that I *hate* people who think they're funnier than they are. Al Lowe was worried to death about that as you recall from my interview with him; it's so hard for them to know if a joke will work.
That does sound interesting, though I have to admit that I *hate* people who think they're funnier than they are. Al Lowe was worried to death about that as you recall from my interview with him; it's so hard for them to know if a joke will work.
Let me rephrase that, I would hate for somebody not to try the game becuase of that. I think maybe I should have said something like: The humour is fairly hit and miss and some jokes fall so flat you need a spatula to pick um up, most will make you think 'hehe its true" and a few will make you smirk. I guess I kinda thouhgt it should be a bit more funny. Make no mistake you will "get" most of it.. Monty Python refrences (sabertooth Bunnies... not Vorpal, but close) etc.. Some excellent shots at Asain RPG's (mushroom monsters!) the WIMP hero...
I guess i figured with the slight jabs at RPG's the solid but not very taxing combat, and good enough graphics... its worth it. Honestly my biggest gripe might be the amount of text to read (especially in the tutorial level at start) with the range of "funny" sometimes it gets a bit boring.