Review Planescape: Torment Retrospective Review

[LusciousPear]

Torment is over. It cannot be "extended". I just want writing that good again.

 

[ChristofferC]

I thought I was alone in thinking that PS:T had good writing but that it wasn't a very good GAME and that is is pretty overrated. Guess I was wrong on that one.

 

[ChristofferC]

PS:T is one of the most overrated underrated games of all time.

But nothing beats BG&E in that department.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Most encounters in PS:T are just a matter of click = kill, and don't take much time.

Especially with animu spell animations and stuff like that. Also, I remember a lot of that. Zombies, wererats, cranium rats, demons, I don't remember what in planar prison, shadows, etc. etc. etc.
Also, most of them weren't click = kill - it's an AD&D based game, not Diablo.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

The best piece of art I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. I hesitate to even call it a video game, for fear of dumping it in with all those other... things. It can never get enough praise

Yes.

Anyway Awor, I can see what you mean. However, even at its worst the combat is only a tiny portion of PS:T. And it's not that bad, it's your run-of-the-mill Infinity filler combat.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Morte is annoying.

He is, if you're a stuck-up bitch.

 

[SCO]

Adventures and text adventures tend to not throw tons of trash combat at players.

Conveniently enough, neither did PST.

Unless you're one of those guys who grinded Undersigil for 10h then complained about all the unavoidable combat, right?

But that 50 level wizard with the 16 level fighter THAC0 bonus of a first level up man!

 

[Sceptic]

Also, I remember a lot of that. Zombies

Stopped reading right there. Obvious troll is obvious.

 

[Phelot]

It certainly wasn't perfect, but it showed that a game can have good writing and story and that a modern game (at the time) could still have detailed descriptions despite also having a graphical representation.

I know a lot of people like to cry about the piss poor combat (which wasn't nearly half as bad as everyone suddenly thinks it was) but try to realize that not every RPG has to fit your narrow definition of the term. You should at least be able to appreciate a game trying something different.

 

[Melcar]

Again? Fucking Christ.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

You should at least be able to appreciate a game trying something different.

I am not convinced. Somehow, I feel what you are secretly endorsing is "new." Agent of the Decline!

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

It certainly wasn't perfect, but it showed that a game can have good writing and story and that a modern game (at the time) could still have detailed descriptions despite also having a graphical representation.

9,6 means practically perfect. I hate inflated scores .

I know a lot of people like to cry about the piss poor combat (which wasn't nearly half as bad as everyone suddenly thinks it was) but try to realize that not every RPG has to fit your narrow definition of the term. You should at least be able to appreciate a game trying something different.

I'd appreciate it much more if it would be more bold in trying something different and would ditch the combat altogether. Or they would bother to make good combat if they think that combat is so important that it should be in their game.
Still, I don't think they had any self-awareness when it comes to it - the PST Trailer is full of trash combat and Chris Avellone wrote that if he would make the game again, he would add much more trash combat.

 

[Roguey]

Also, most of them weren't click = kill - it's an AD&D based game, not Diablo.

Spacebar, select all, click, spacebar, watch that god awful pathfinding go nuts.

Also, I remember a lot of that. Zombies

Stopped reading right there. Obvious troll is obvious.

He probably meant the skeletons in the mausoleum (not the mortuary). Plenty of 'em there.

PS:T would have been a pretty cool graphical IF with stats, shame it ended up being one of the harbingers of story-driven RPGs with bad combat systems and encounters.

 

[Sceptic]

PS:T would have been a pretty cool graphical IF with stats, shame it ended up being one of the harbingers of story-driven RPGs with bad combat systems and encounters.

PST is a cool whatever you want to call it, I honestly find the whole RPG/JPG/IF/graphical novel endless discussion to be pointless (genre classifications are there to simplify things, not to make them needlessly complicated). It is also not the harbinger of anything. Story-driven RPGs with bad combat systems and encounters have been around forever (FF7 says hi). PST was just one of the few ones where the combat and encounters, while poor, were not downright HORRIBLE (DAO sends its best), and where the story and writing bits are actually good. Blaming it for the following games that did both story AND combat wrong is like blaming Doom for being the harbinger of Fortress of Dr Radiaki and Operation Body Count. Or blaming Strife for introducing story in FPS and leading to Modern Warfare.

 

[Roguey]

Blaming it for the following games that did both story AND combat wrong is like blaming Doom for being the harbinger of Fortress of Dr Radiaki and Operation Body Count. Or blaming Strife for introducing story in FPS and leading to Modern Warfare.

I was thinking more of nearly every Black Isle and Obsidian game released since then when I said that.

 

[janjetina]

I was thinking more of nearly every Black Isle and Obsidian game released since then when I said that.

Which story driven game has Black Isle released after PS:T?

 

[Roguey]

Which story driven game has Black Isle released after PS:T?

The Icewind Dale games were linear story-driven hack and slash dungeon crawlers. They pulled the focus away from your characters and role-playing, but they were story-driven nonetheless.

 

[Phelot]

Which story driven game has Black Isle released after PS:T?

The Icewind Dale games were linear story-driven hack and slash dungeon crawlers. They pulled the focus away from your characters and role-playing, but they were story-driven nonetheless.

Wat.

The "story" was just a vague reason for your party to be hacking through massive hoards of enemies.