Larian Studios Forums General Chat RPG Chat Bought Temple of Elemental Evil

I loved the frogs. They're so cute. Were the frogs in the original PnP module, or were they added in homage to Monte Cook's "Return to..." module?

The great thing about the frogs in Monte's doohickey is that they set the players up. They beat up some frogs and think they're hot stuff. They wander into the courtyard feeling cocky, out comes Big U and... blamo! eyes melt... skin explodes... it's just a hoot.

Anywayses, I finished the game last night in lieu of sleep. Great game. The combat mechanics are very well done, and unlike Pool of Radiance 2, you don't watch zombies walk for 30 minutes before your next opportunity to expose the flawed random number generator by missing yet again. I don't really care how authentic it is, nor do I care about turn-based vs. real-time. All I care about is whether I'm having fun, ya know? And I did. The model animation is really good and fun to just watch.

My only complaints are with the interface. Picking specific objects on the playing surface is difficult, and the lack of configurable gamma and mouse speed made the game physically uncomfortable to play for a 30-something guy who's spent too many years coding. There are pathing issues and the mouse feels like it's being polled for updates so it's sluggish. But I'm sure they're patching all that stuff up right this second.

Also, does it seem to anyone else that the radial menu takes more screen space and is more difficult to read and navigate than a standard menu would be? The words are at an angle, the pie-slice menu items are different sizes on either end making it annoying to have to think about the route your mouse is taking. It's not that it's impossible to use, just that it puts your attention on the interface rather than on playing, while offering no benefits in exchange. I don't like to think about the interface. My hands' muscle-memory should take over after a few hours of playing.