Planescape: Torment - Review / Retrospective @ Ye Old Entertainment

Ye Old Entertainment reviews Planescape: Torment.

Planescape Torment review: the GOAT of RPGs? Does it compare with Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale

Planescape Torment juggles with some of humanities biggest questions, especially those that revolve around transcendence and spiritual rebirth. As a story telling piece it is a masterpiece. But is it the greatest video game of all time? Even the best RPG of all time? How does it compare to some other D&D titles like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale?

I might have not been crazy about planescape torment OST, but I'll leave a link here for you to check it out. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…

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Does it compare with Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale? I'd say that depends on what you like. For me, no. I liked PS:T a lot, but liked the BG and IWD games even more.

It goes without saying that the writing is fantastic, but I've always been a setting and gameplay over story guy.

Great game indeed, yet the best of all time? Nope, not for me. It might squeak in for my top ten of all time, more likely top twenty.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Does it compare with Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale? I'd say that depends on what you like. For me, no. I liked PS:T a lot, but liked the BG and IWD games even more.

It goes without saying that the writing is fantastic, but I've always been a setting and gameplay over story guy.

I'm kinda with you here. It was a great story but BG2 and ID were more fun as *games* imo. Still I'm glad I had the experience of… well, experiencing it. It was a REALLY good story.

For me, BG1+2 and PST are on par. I enjoyed them immensely, but for different reasons each. To make information complete, IWD1+2 were not as good in my eyes. That was probably besause after experiencing BG I missed character personalities too much.

I thought Planescape Torment was more an interactive novel than a RPG. It was a unique setting but I ultimately grew pretty bored with it.

If I were only to judge from my first playthrough, Planescape: Torment would have been my favorite, I remember being blown away at the end of the game by the story. But I've only replayed Torment once, Baldur's Gate 2 I've replayed 3 times, and I will replay it again with the EE at some point, so from my current perspective, Baldur's Gate 2 is better than Torment.

I recently replayed it. It's still great, but there's no doubt the gameplay and such is considerably smoother in Baldur's Gate. Still, I do love the overall setting and atmosphere, and the Deionarra song gets me every time.

Overall, it's somehow behind BG2 for me, but on par with or ahead of pretty much every other isometric RPG.

Wow, definitely not my goat, so you can have it. As a reader, I found P:T pretty dull. It is good writing for a game, but not good writing compared to a decent novel. Unfortunately games are made to be played; ie an active participant. There is way too much, standing around doing nothing but clicking for the next info dump. Planescape was the first interactive novel based in a fantasy universe. My 2¢ at least.

Skyrim is my GOAT, but it has many faults for those who don't love the particular Bethesda format.

Not considering PST being RPG, because it has lots of text is not very fair. Is Skyrim not RPG, because it has barebone player stats? Other than that, matter of taste anyway.

I wouldn't call it an interactive novel. There's plenty of action too. It's just that the action isn't very good compared to the other Infinity Engine games.