Planescape: Torment - Retrospective @ Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Kieron Gillen has a posted a retrospective piece on PS:T at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, originally written for PC Gamer. The intro warns of spoilers but none of them are very revealing. I love this bit:

Don’t underestimate text as a tool for creating emotion. It’s brutally efficient. The effort to create a cutscene which shows a Demon destroying all reality is months of work. The effort to write it? Hey – I’ve just done it. And while it doesn’t have the immediate impact, the fact that Text allows you to throw dozens of these sensations at the player all adds up: every few minutes a line of text or a concept hits you like a nail gun through the heart. With 800,000 words of script, Planescape often feels like the world’s biggest choose-your-own-adventure book.

More information.

(yawn)…yet another Torment retrospective waxing on and on about how it was the greatest game ever. Please make it stop.

Why? It was!!

The gameplay was rather slow, but the writing by Chris Avellone was simply amazing. Overall, I like BG2 better, but there's no denying that PS:T had some of the best writing I've ever seen in a game. I replayed it recently, and enjoyed it a lot.

Originally Posted by elkston
(yawn)…yet another Torment retrospective waxing on and on about how it was the greatest game ever. Please make it stop.

I think that in the current market we need to be reminded of the value of excellent writing in games more than ever.

I can't deny that PS:T had great writing, and indeed it seemed to have (I never completed it). But I must admit it did nothing for me as a game, because it was an interactive book.

Incidentally, it was a book in much the same way Bioshock was a movie.

Maybe there's a pattern here that I should consider.

Note that I don't think Torment is a bad game, and I'm not saying it was compromised in any way. I respect it for what it was, and I recognize that it was great if you like that sort of thing.

Originally Posted by txa1265
I think that in the current market we need to be reminded of the value of excellent writing in games more than ever.

It just wasn't my kind of story. Waay too "Emo" and reflective. I also did not care for the setting at all. I gave it a fair shot — I played all the way to "Curst" (the desert place).

It wasn't bad, and there were some decent moments, but in the end I just cant hold it up on a pedeastal like many do.

(…on the other hand, I adore BG2 !!!)

Originally Posted by elkston
(…on the other hand, I adore BG2 !!!)

I agree - and while I love PS:T it isn't in my 'top fave' list, whereas BG2 is. I just like any chance classic RPG's get in the 'sun'.

At first, I didn't want to buy PS:T at all, because I just don't like the setting too much.

However, what I'd really like to see is an C-RPG with a similar depth - only within a "real" fantasy setting !

See, I felt the opposite. I enjoyed BG2 but it rarely met my expectations (partly my fault, to be sure). PS:T continually amazed me and the setting is extraordinary. I can't really understand why someone would want a "real" fantasy setting (mundane) compared to a real flight of fantasy but each to his own, I guess.

Originally Posted by elkston
[Planescape: Torment] just wasn't my kind of story.
…
(…on the other hand, I adore BG2 !!!)

These things are very subjective, I feel the same but inverse. I hate the way BG 2 completely disregards any events that may have taken place in BG 1 and sticks the player with Jar Jar Minsc and little miss PMS Jaheria from the outset.

Jaheria: "On woe! Khalid is dead!"
Me: "Umm… yeah I killed him in BG 1. Come to think of it I killed you too… and Minsc. And what the hell are you doing here Imoen?! I told you to take a hike on day one. Where's Monty and Xzar?"
Jaheria: "Even though I'm torn with grief I find myself strangely attracted to you."
Me: "Oh God give me patience…"

Originally Posted by MudsAnimalFriend
These things are very subjective, I feel the same but inverse. I hate the way BG 2 completely disregards any events that may have taken place in BG 1 and sticks the player with Jar Jar Minsc and little miss PMS Jaheria from the outset.

Jaheria: "On woe! Khalid is dead!"
Me: "Umm… yeah I killed him in BG 1. Come to think of it I killed you too… and Minsc. And what the hell are you doing here Imoen?! I told you to take a hike on day one. Where's Monty and Xzar?"
Jaheria: "Even though I'm torn with grief I find myself strangely attracted to you."
Me: "Oh God give me patience…"

Well see, I never played BG1 so the continuity between the stories was never an issue with me. I was never big into the romance stuff anyway and there was plenty more about BG2 that made it great despite the sophomoric love talk.