Vault Dweller
Commissar, Red Star Studio
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2003
- Messages
- 28,044
I've been taking to a friend the other day and the subject of Planescape: Torment awesomeness came up. My friend didn't play it. I gave him THE speech. He asked me if the game was easy to get into, which forced me to resurrect my first impressions of the game, which, in turn, is why you are reading this rant now. Enjoy.
Fantasy RPGs usually suck because the "fantasy" aspect isn't overly fantastic. In fact, it's generic and fucking bland. Let's say you bought a new fantasy RPG and installed it. What do you have there? A young guy/gal in a small place forced to get the fuck out and explore the very predictable world and save it. When you see a town, you know pretty much what to expect. It's not a place of wonder and strange customs, it's a place to get quests and buy/sell shit. You can easily replace a town with 3-4 NPCs standing in the middle of fucking nowhere offering quests and shopping. In fact that's probably would be more interesting than a generic and boring as fuck fantasy town #3471.
Now, compare it to Planescape: Torment. You wake up in a mortuary. Dead. Yes, DEAD. A gravity defying skull starts chatting with you.
WHAT! THE! FUCK!
That alone throws you off. Suddenly, you realize that you are definitely not in the motherfucking Kansas anymore. The rules are completely different and you have no idea what they are. Where are the familar elves and orcs? Why the ancient evil (TM) isn't stirring? Where is a kind lord of the realm to send you on a mission of great importance (to kill some poor fuckers)?
You open the door. OMG! Zombies are everywhere! Ok, I know where this is going. Where is my trusty weapon... WAITAMINUTE! The zombies are not attacking. You can kill them, of course, but you can also walk around studying them and even get some unusual items from them. You finally manage to leave the mortuary. You are in a city, and what a city it is. It's a city of doors, filled with portals that can take you anywhere, assuming you have a key. You see a bar, a familiar place in this strange land. The first thing you see is a floating, burning, yet still alive body - a lovely conversation piece of decor. Some ugly looking demons are having a drink; they greet you as an old friend. Great, that's just fucking great. Wait, it gets better though. The bartender casually informs you that he still has your eye - my WHAT? - and if you have the money, you can have it back. You buy the eye, mostly because it's so different from the usual selection of RPG goodies, wondering what the fuck you should do with it. An insane option to rip out your existing eyeball and shove in the, uh, new one, that was floating in a jar like a pickled egg a minute ago, presents itself. You do it and memories start pouring in. At this point you are absolutely lost. You, the player, are a stranger in a strange fucking land, and that's the fucking beauty of it.
Your quest? To find out who you are. *sigh* What, you guys ran out of demons to kill and worlds to save?
Let's compare it to the recently released NWN2:
A young guy/gal in search of adventure living a small village - check. The village is attacked by monsters killing everything in sight - check. The monsters are after you, because you are - you better sit down - the chosen one and special in every possible way - check. You leave your village and fight your way through to a large town filled with thieves who steal shit and guards who, well, guard shit - check. You accidentally run into your enemies in every major dungeon, spoiling their plans - check. Instead of throwing everything they've got at you, they continue to underestimate you, until you level all the way up to the MegaUberPrestigeFighter, the Destroyer of Worlds and Crusher of Hopes - check.
Don't know about you, but I can hardly handle all the excitement.
What I'm trying to say is predictable fantasy is the biggest flaw of the so-called fantasy games and books. Give us something different, put us in a strange place with strange rules. Discovering these rules, understanding laws, habits, and customs of these places and its denizens is an important aspect of gameplay that shouldn't be discarded.
Fantasy RPGs usually suck because the "fantasy" aspect isn't overly fantastic. In fact, it's generic and fucking bland. Let's say you bought a new fantasy RPG and installed it. What do you have there? A young guy/gal in a small place forced to get the fuck out and explore the very predictable world and save it. When you see a town, you know pretty much what to expect. It's not a place of wonder and strange customs, it's a place to get quests and buy/sell shit. You can easily replace a town with 3-4 NPCs standing in the middle of fucking nowhere offering quests and shopping. In fact that's probably would be more interesting than a generic and boring as fuck fantasy town #3471.
Now, compare it to Planescape: Torment. You wake up in a mortuary. Dead. Yes, DEAD. A gravity defying skull starts chatting with you.
WHAT! THE! FUCK!
That alone throws you off. Suddenly, you realize that you are definitely not in the motherfucking Kansas anymore. The rules are completely different and you have no idea what they are. Where are the familar elves and orcs? Why the ancient evil (TM) isn't stirring? Where is a kind lord of the realm to send you on a mission of great importance (to kill some poor fuckers)?
You open the door. OMG! Zombies are everywhere! Ok, I know where this is going. Where is my trusty weapon... WAITAMINUTE! The zombies are not attacking. You can kill them, of course, but you can also walk around studying them and even get some unusual items from them. You finally manage to leave the mortuary. You are in a city, and what a city it is. It's a city of doors, filled with portals that can take you anywhere, assuming you have a key. You see a bar, a familiar place in this strange land. The first thing you see is a floating, burning, yet still alive body - a lovely conversation piece of decor. Some ugly looking demons are having a drink; they greet you as an old friend. Great, that's just fucking great. Wait, it gets better though. The bartender casually informs you that he still has your eye - my WHAT? - and if you have the money, you can have it back. You buy the eye, mostly because it's so different from the usual selection of RPG goodies, wondering what the fuck you should do with it. An insane option to rip out your existing eyeball and shove in the, uh, new one, that was floating in a jar like a pickled egg a minute ago, presents itself. You do it and memories start pouring in. At this point you are absolutely lost. You, the player, are a stranger in a strange fucking land, and that's the fucking beauty of it.
Your quest? To find out who you are. *sigh* What, you guys ran out of demons to kill and worlds to save?
Let's compare it to the recently released NWN2:
A young guy/gal in search of adventure living a small village - check. The village is attacked by monsters killing everything in sight - check. The monsters are after you, because you are - you better sit down - the chosen one and special in every possible way - check. You leave your village and fight your way through to a large town filled with thieves who steal shit and guards who, well, guard shit - check. You accidentally run into your enemies in every major dungeon, spoiling their plans - check. Instead of throwing everything they've got at you, they continue to underestimate you, until you level all the way up to the MegaUberPrestigeFighter, the Destroyer of Worlds and Crusher of Hopes - check.
Don't know about you, but I can hardly handle all the excitement.
What I'm trying to say is predictable fantasy is the biggest flaw of the so-called fantasy games and books. Give us something different, put us in a strange place with strange rules. Discovering these rules, understanding laws, habits, and customs of these places and its denizens is an important aspect of gameplay that shouldn't be discarded.