elemental evil

After the disappointing Lionheart more and more brainspace is being dedicated to absorbing information about The Temple of Elemental Evil, which should be released September 23rd. At this point internal hype is not a powerful enough phrase to describe my feelings towards it. Seeing the game walkthrough video that I got on this month's PC Gamer DVD made me see the fucking truth. This game will begin a new legacy of D&D-based games and leave the badly aging Infinity Engine in its wake. It successfully utilizes the updated Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition Rules (don't get me started on that fiasco), has excellent graphics with fluid character and monster animations, and a very forgiving combat engine that integrates the true feel of D&D turn-based combat. There is also a real emphasis on scale in this game when it comes to monsters. I remember when I first fought the Frost Giants in Icewind Dale it really gave the impression of an epic skirmish. After seeing some of the battles in the walkthrough video this game will not disappoint in this respect.

The radial interface shown in some of the screens seems to take a cue from Neverwinter Nights and even Planescape: Torment. I'm not sure yet if I like the idea of being limited to a five character party, but then again when I played the old Infinity Engine games I tended to multi-class anyway, requiring only 4 or 5 party members. You can check out some impressions of the game here and here. From what I've read and seen up to this point, The Temple of Elemental Evil will be a must-have for any serious roleplayer.