What I think is one of the worst things in this game, if you put aside all bugs (that i haven't seen except one or two CTDs) and things left out, is that down in the Temple, the wizards/sorcerers use the same damn portrait as my sorcerer! (You know, the one with the glowing eyes that labyrinthian(I think) uses as avatar.) This has made me not want to use one of the only good portraits for sorcerors (OK wizards are better, bur sorcerers are cooler). It's very good that every NPC has a portrait, otherwise the TB combat would be messy, but I don't like them choosing one of the PC portraits. What other things do you think are bad in the game?
I didn't like how small it was, I mean, basically you've got nothing more than two towns (both with remarkably few quests) and a huge dungeon to hack yourself through. I know that this is perfectly in order with the original campaign the game was based upon, it's just that I have this thing with big worldmaps to explore.
The towns were definently too few, but that's the module, but I can't stand Nulb (that I think is the more intresting) with the damn frogs quacking in the background. It's real since it's in a swamp, but it's the same sound every three seconds!
What bothers me about portraits is that there're so very few to choose from. As for the length of the game I agree. It's extremely short, there are very few quests and the only thing which makes them take you some time is that you sometimes have to repeat the same dialog lines for the game to take notice of your actions. I realize this game was supposed to be Dungeon Crawling Adventure but I simply dislike pure hack&slash. Still it's way more entertaining than lousy Icewind Dale.
Well, the lack of interesting side quests is probably my biggest beef with the game. The Hommlet ones in particular, seem like they just want to make you run around as much as possible, and most are rather simple uninteresting plots. And the rewards are pathetic too. Maybe a thousand XP and some money is good at first, but laughable in the long run. The only quests that I like were the temple ones and the one where you had to find out who the spy in Hommlet was. I honestly don't understand what happened. Arcanum had very engaging quests, surely Troika couldn't have been that bad all along.
Bad things in TOEE? Bugbears. Voices were terrible. Pathfinding was atrocious. Most of the advanced combat options weren't necessary. AI wasn't very good. Bugbears. Too short. Vignettes were great in concept, terrible in implementation. Many rules were botched. Overly simplistic side-quests. There's no option to see previously played movies except the introductory scene (at least in my version). The follower's loot scheme. Not enough areas. Bugbears. Very few portraits. Merely adequate music. The lack of a more effective use of 'creative license'.
You pronounced the dreaded, unholy word!! Aaaaugh!! Seriously, though, the same type of creature placed nearly everywhere gets tiresome. It might just be a cheap tactic to appreciate the appearance of new creatures tenfold, though, but it gets frustrating to fight the same type of monster over and over and over.
I agree 100%, but did you see the owlbear in the temple? It was amazingly well done. (maybe I just like owlbears)