Planescape Torment

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Ok, so I'm about to start Planescape: Torment for like the 3rd time. I"ve never actually gotten past maybe the midpoint of the game. I really like the setting and the characters but is it just me or is it a little too heavy on the dialogue? I mean I don't mind solving little quests that just involve talking but I feel like I'm a psycho-therapist listening to someone rant about their problems. Does anyone else feel this way?
 
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No, I loved all the depth the dialogue permitted. It was SO different from the KILL everything mentality. I liked how non-violent solutions were worth FAR more XP than the easier, kill and loot option!!
 
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I agree. There is this wonderful invention called ummm... ah, yes, BOOK, that's much better suited for throwing insane amounts of letters at people :biggrin: . What pissed me off more than the dialogue though was that every setting was described in detail. WTF? It's a video game. You know... "video" as in the Latin word... "videre = to see sth., to look at sth." so why the hell was every setting described in detail if it could have been shown? That got on my nerves big time after a while...

Regarding dialogue, I don't really remember how "bad" it was in PS:T but I just recently finally played and finished KotOR for the first time. Seriously, I felt like a babysitter after a little while. The only thing that was missing was a pop-up dialogue like "Carth: 'Yo, I need to pee... be back in a minute. Please wait for me right here.' "
I seem to remember that BG, BG II and PS:T had similarly intrusive characters. The basic idea might have been good, i.e. to have some interaction between the characters in your party but the execution was rather poor IMHO, especially because if you got tired of the NPCs and decided to get witty or tell them to STFU then you got dark points in KotOR (not sure about how being "evil" was handled in PS:T but telling party members to STFU certainly shouldn't have been treated as an "evil" deed in any of those games).
 
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You were annoyed by the dialogue and characters in Torment?!? I loved those aspects of the game, and put up with the mediocre combat to enjoy them. In fact the dialogues with the characters, specifically talking to your party members to uncover their past was easily my favourite part of the game. Of any game!

On a slight tangent, does anyone else see some strong parallels between the excellent game Torment and the excellent film Momento? Even beyond the whole amnesia schtick, the whole betrayal/truth/motive themes are very strong in both.
 
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Heh. I remember that back when it came out, I wouldn't even try to get into it. Every review I read, mostly in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg, was so positive I couldn't bear it. Dunno why exactly, various reasons I guess. They praised the "original" character interaction, which was heavily inspired by J-RPGs like Final Fantasy. They praised the text, which should better be put in a book, because I wanted to play a game, not read a game. They praised the Infinity Engine - I hated the infinity engine, because to me it meant recyled RPG and D&D. I didn't like D&D, because I was jealous that they got so much of it and I got so little RoA.

Soooo.. in a nutshell, I was a bit biased against it. However, a year later or so I changed my mind. I let go of prejudice, I freed my mind and prepared for the experience. Because that's what you have to do when you play a game like PS:T - accept what is offered, how it is offered and enjoy it as it is. Relax and take your time to read, don't rush. Absorb everything. If you don't, if you play it like any other game, you wouldn't enjoy it I guess. Well, I did, then.

Off-Topic: To anyone who liked PS:T for its story and story telling, do try Dreamfall. Ideally you'll have played the prequel The Longest Journey before that, but it's a bit dated and relatively hard to get into (I played it with a walkthrough,
just to experience the story before delving into Dreamfall). The story is just so incredibly amazing and emotional.
 
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Thanks Arhu - I was going to try Dreamfall, but I played a ton of Adventure games following Fahrenheit and got a bit burned (considering my last adventure before that was Journeyman Project for Mac in ~'93) ... but I've heard good stuff, so I might do it after things slow a bit after the first of the year.
 
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You'll be in for a treat. :) A warning though. Like PS:T, which was mostly story with some added combat, Dreamfall is also mostly story with simple diversions.
 
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Arhu, after checking out the game and reading the forums about the MAJOR install bug, I think I'll have to give it a miss. I won't regedit my system just to install a game.
 
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Ah, that would be a real pity.. But if you have 7GB free on Drive C, there isn't even an install bug. :)
 
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I don't!! I only have 4 GB free as my C drive is a small Windows System drive and my D and E drives are quite large.
 
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I loved Torments long dialouges and description, it really made the world more real and alive for me, and the the characters more than stats and killmachines.

And I wouldn't call most RPG's on PC for Video-games. I remember that was a word usually used for games on consoles plugged into a TV, not the PC-games.

I don't!! I only have 4 GB free as my C drive is a small Windows System drive and my D and E drives are quite large.

I have the same setup, makes me hate all the games and progs that force install anything at all into c:\, but makes the windows startup super-fast.
 
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PS:T had me caring for the characters, one of the few games that ever had that effect on me. Otherwise I'm perfectly aware of the fact that I'm looking at moving pixels. But I had to slow down my usual gaming speed to really get absorbed in all the text. I was fine with it the moment I decided to look upon the game as a truly interactive novel, instead of the more action and combat oriented BG series for example. I recognize that the middle part of the game can be somewhat of a flat point, because of all the errands to run and factions to explore in the same areas. Get through that part and the action picks up again, in a later part even to somewhat absurd levels. I like the analogy with psychotherapy because it is exactly discovering the narrative of the protoganist and NPC's and their fate that glued me to the screen. (I work as a (neuro)psychologist and one of the things I like about that job is how you get to listen to people while they are dealing with their life. So maybe I'm not the right person to ask :) How often does a game deliver NPC's who easily could be the protagonist in their own game? On a side note: does anybody know if Planescape:Vengeance ever came to fruition? I followed that project for some time and then lost track of it, and Google does not help me find it again.
 
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I actually quit playing PS:T for the opposite reason. I ran into a part with a lot of combat, which I thought was fairly pointless in a game where you didn't die, and just stopped playing it. I really liked the story and the characters but after reaching that combat heavy area I had no motivation to continue.
 
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@ Arhu

Personally I liked The longest Journey significantly more. Perhaps it was playing
it at the time that it first got out. Perhaps it was because the "diversions" as you
put it in Dreamfall were very badly implemented gameplay feaures that actually
got in the way of the Typically (continuing in LJ's standard's) Good Story.

And for PS:T well, wasnt dialogue actually at the core of the gameplay ?
(It gave you the basic moral choises to develop Nameless and uncover the story)
Combat as a former poster said looked like it was mostly thrown in as an
afterthought. The excellent characters and Dialogues/roleplaying options are
actually the reason PS pops into my mind when I hear PCRPG (That and Arcanum
I guess, sorry havent played Fallout... ;) ).
 
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Fallout is one of the best RPG's ever made. If you can find it, buy it; it is worth it!! :)
 
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Thanks Corwin, I know.

I have a friend of mine that only needs to hear "Fallout"
to go on a gushing rant :)

I missed out on it when it originally came out due to my
PC having died at that period (Couldnt afford one for quite
some time afterwards).

I always mean to get the time to try it out... Well since I'm
waiting for G3 to be patched perhaps now is the time...
After I manage to pull myself away from aimlessly fiddling with
it to finish my second time through ToEE first that is...
 
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I heavily dislike Torment. Sure, great story and characters and setting and all, but there was far too much combat at all points in the game. And combat showed the worst signs of the Infinity engine.

The other thing that put me off, is the fact that towards the end part of the game, there was this feel that the game was unfinished (including the quite open ending that should have included the "To be continued" sight).
 
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Well, after a few hours of giving PS:T a 4th try...I found out what my problem was. I was jumping into it like it was going to be Baldur's Gate in a Planescape setting. I just had to slow my gaming down and think of it more as an advenutre/RPG hybrid than some Black Isle combat intensive RPG. I think it's the setting and the feelings of abandonment and chaos that make the story so rich. I am enjoying it more this time so hopefully I can make it to the end...even though it's hard to avoid reading someone talk about the ending any time this game is brought up in a forum. I've forgotten it(them) for now so no spoilers!!!
 
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I totally agree with slam23 there. Thus far, Planescape:Torment has been the only game that's had me care for its characters and got me glued to the screen because of its intricate story and incredible atmosphere (and believe me, I've played hundreds of games to date). It's t3h ultimate PC game for me, even better than Mafia.

I've pondered replaying it several times, but it was such a cathartic experience for me that I fear I would ruin the whole enjoyment if I played it for the second time. I mean, come on, I know how it ends, which nearly made me cry, for I got so used to and grew so fond of "living my life" as The Nameless One. And as the ending cinematic rolled before my eyes I had to face the inevitable: leaving him behind, forever, knowing there's never gonna be a sequel. As a matter of fact, it's better this way, however much I long to linger in that universe again.
 
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@r3dshift
I did replay it (3 times) and it was kind of a mixed blessing. The first time I played it through without using any kind of walkthrough and naturally the first time being naieve about the whole thing is the best. The second time I played with a walkthrough and I was amazed at what I missed the first time (and I'm no slouch when it comes to being thorough), it was somewhat like "unlocking extra content". I also build my character up to a level 42 mage (investing heavily in int and wis), just to see how it would balance or not (it did actually, anything above level 30 does give you some advantages in terms of spell slots but you won't be god) and also to see some of the high level spells I didn't get around to the first time. I wouldn't have wanted to miss that second time. But I can relate to the idea that you savor the one time if it was that good. The third time was a bit of a mistake, it was a couple of years later, my girlfriend who didn't finish it the first time wanted to play it through and I thought the experience would be kind of new again for me also. Did not happen, I remembered all of it while playing. I also wanted to try out an evil path to see how that would work but couldn't go through with it, I was such a wimp, I could not get myself to hurt the feelings of my beloved NPC's! I still finished the game and it was kind of nice but nothing beat that first time! Ahhh, memory lane........
 
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