Planescape: Torment - What's in a Face?

I picked up the box solely because I saw the front and wanted to know what the game was. I bought the game because the description on the back made it sound like something I'd enjoy, but the picture was what got my attention.
 
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I always found that face very intriguing, although I agree that the whole design and coloring of the box is pretty terrible.

What made me not buy it at the time was that the world sounded so weird. At the time I was looking for pretty solid standard LOTR-esque fantasy. I admit even standard D&D monsters were too weird for me (blob monsters? Get off my lawn!), so the weirdness of the planescape settings turned me away from the game completely. That it was the D&D ruleset didn't help either, as that was my least favorite P&P ruleset.
 
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I didn't buy it then because everything looked far too morbide for my taste. This was not a game I wanted.

I much later bought the so-called "Memorial Edition" and haven't been regretting it since then - although I played the game only a few times, and that not even through.
 
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I just remember reaching for my wallet as soon as I saw "AD&D" on the front of the box and "Infinity Engine" on the back. :)
Quite the same for me. I think I was reading something of 'Baldur's Gate' and 'infinity engine'. Didn't know anything about the game, but I was looking for new rpg and for me BG had been a good deal. So I bought PsT second hand by chance. Not the worst decision in my gaming career, since then I think I've bought four or five different editions (Memorial Edition, English release, as single DVD-Release, as part of several bundles). But the cover art of the initial release was really ugly. Although I like the game, I would never use the box as decoration. It will be always hidden somewhere in the back. In that special case I prefer the Icewind Dale box over PsT's.
 
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I bought the Memorial Box (German only?), which has a very good box art IMHO (front, back --- edit: I still have the double sided poster, but not the five collectible cards).

But I also feel that the original box art fits very well to the game. I can't really understand how anybody (except moms buying it for their children) can be scared away by it.
 
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I wasn't a big fan of the box art, but I remember being more disappointed in the game itself. Got it for christmas - and I have this tradition of trying to get a good game to play during the holidays, and it usually works (SWTOR is going to be the one for this year).

It was AD&D, it was the Infinity Engine, and people were saying it was the best CRPG in several years.

When I discovered that I couldn't create my own character, and that it was basically an interactive novel with a crappy implementation of the rules - I couldn't go on. Didn't help that I don't like the Planescape setting and the needlessly obtuse writing either.

But I do understand that a lot of people weigh that kind of story, and the integration of "true" roleplaying in terms of C&C and stuff like abilities meaning a lot - higher than I do. I have friends who tell me I should play it for the story, it being so great.

But I haven't the stamina for all that reading. Besides, the "style" is not for me.
 
From all the comments I've read over the years, PS:T has always struck me as a game that most people either loved or were quite disappointed by. I think I'm one of the few that falls somewhere in-between.

I enjoyed it, and I played it to completion, but it was my least favorite out of all the Infinity Engine games, and it's the only one that I don't have a strong urge to replay.
 
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But I also feel that the original box art fits very well to the game. I can't really understand how anybody (except moms buying it for their children) can be scared away by it.

Scared away is the wrong term. I'd rather say it looks cheap. Like a cheap horror movie mask photoshopped in front of an artwork that is quite generic. imo orange - blue is also an awkward contrast.
 
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