Planescape: Torment - Retrospective @ Eurogamer

Dhruin

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Eurogamer has a nice retrospective on Planescape: Torment. Here's a sample:
Planescape is the game most likely to be name-dropped by PC journalists, after Deus Ex. Planescape is the game that took the cigarette-end of the superb Baldur's Gate engine-based games and immolated their legacy in a ball of conspicuous failure, followed shortly by the apparent collapse of its publisher, Interplay. Planescape is a game that, shamefacedly, one of our writers gave 7/10 to, though his reasons were just. Planescape is the only game I've ever borrowed and not given back (I do hope they're not reading...)
Thanks, Alrik!
More information.
 
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Very good article. Then again, I'm biased, and generally approve of any praise PS:T is given. Without a doubt one of my all time favourite games, though it took me several runs through the game to realize just how comprehensive and amazing it is - among other things, you need to be a mage with very high stats to see the entire story behind Dak'kon (very interesting tale, by the way).

Speaking of which, I should replay PS:T sometime soon..
 
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They brought up stuff like it "needing to be fixed" and being incomplete being flaws of the game, but that was certainly never an impression I got when the game came out. Granted, I do feel it's not nearly as good from Curst and onwards, nearly every RPG I can think of have a down-period like that in the game.

But I always felt PS:T felt like a very complete game, no problems with bugs etc.
 
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I agree, Planescape is great.... even if I did enjoy BG & IWD just a bit more. :)
Eeew, don't know about IWD. I passed on that but I'm playing it now, and it's just battle after battle without even a real city to go to.
 
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Agreed on IWD. Bore fest story-wise. And despite the greatness of the engine, even battle (that are fairly repetitive in that game) become a chore after a while.
 
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I couldn't stand IWD either.

More polished than planescape, but so utterly lacking in anything else at all that I'm amazed anyone could prefer it to planescape.
 
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IWD lives or dies on your opinion of combat with the D&D / Infinity engine, IMO. I like it, but put it behind the BG games and PST in my IE game list.
 
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IWD lives or dies on your opinion of combat with the D&D / Infinity engine, IMO. I like it, but put it behind the BG games and PST in my IE game list.

Infinity engine combat is bad but I enjoyed IWD series. Anyway if you want great combat system you should play Temple of Elemental Evil.
 
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IWD lives or dies on your opinion of combat with the D&D / Infinity engine, IMO. I like it, but put it behind the BG games and PST in my IE game list.

I'd say IWD lives or dies on your ability to enjoy a game purely for the combat even if it has nothing else.
 
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Lots of varying opinions on the Engine. I liked them all, but that's not saying much. I'm easy to please ;)

Still with my opionion aside there aren't many games that still have a following like Baldur's Gate/IWD/Torment. Only a few old games come to mind like Wizards and Warriors and Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures.

I believe that just about everyone at the pocket plane group would disagree that the engine combat was bad.
 
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IWD was my favourite of all the IE games because the game was focussed and the story was compelling. It wasn't like any linear game I had played before - in fact it never occurred to me it was that type of game. The expansions were horrible though but they made up for it IWD2 - an equally great game.

PS:T I felt was really bogged down and BG was never that compelling but all the subplots were distracting. It was a lot more fun than Morrowind though and BG2 was quite a bit better.

Who owns IWD now? OE have suggested they bought the rights off Interplay but I've seen different from Atari since.
 
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I enjoyed them both - PST was fine if I was in a serious mood, but sometimes you want traditional high fantasy D&D and IWD did that better than any other IE game.
 
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Agreed on IWD. Bore fest story-wise. And despite the greatness of the engine, even battle (that are fairly repetitive in that game) become a chore after a while.

I wouldn't say the story is boring, but it's definitely not on the same level as PST. I enjoy things other than story though, especially combat when it came to the Infinity Engine games, and PST was pretty bad in that department.


I couldn't stand IWD either.

More polished than planescape, but so utterly lacking in anything else at all that I'm amazed anyone could prefer it to planescape.

I amazed that you've even played it, because it doesn't sound like you have...
 
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IMO, IWD has the best atmosphere and art direction of any of the IE games (even better than PST's), and is exactly how a 'low story' RPG should be- you aren't hit over the head with exposition every five minutes but it is there is you want to find it. PST has the best story, BG2 the best combat.
Who owns IWD now?
Atari. Baldur's Gate and Torment (minus the Planescape) are both owned by WOTC, though presumably any computer iteration of them would have to be from Atari in any case.
 
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PST = Best. BG2 = Almost the Best. BG = Good. IWD = Decent. IWD2 = Poor. For me.
 
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The writing style is too pseudo-intellectual and pompous for my taste.

Which is imho quite the opposite to the more recent "standard" in RPGs nowadays.

Not to mention Action-RPGs at all, which sometimes - or should I say "traditionally" ? - hardly have a story at all.

To me, the style used in PS:T is feeding me much better than the "standard food" given out with most RPGs.

But on the other hand, I'm not standard at all ...
 
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