Planescape: Torment - Retrospective Review

[HiddenX]

Phantomatica has reviewed the old classic Planescape: Torment:

Torment Revisited

If you’re anything like me, the Early Access release of Torment: Tides of Numenera got your blood boiling, and the game’s full release can’t come quickly enough. Seeing as we’re nearly two decades out from the release of the original Torment, widely considered among the best RPGs of all time–if not the best–the time seems right to journey back to Sigil to live out another brutal immortality. And so that’s precisely what I did.

I’m firmly in the pro-Torment camp. I played it first in middle school, and years later it was my first purchase from GOG after my glorious return from the console wastes to the lush jungles of PC gaming. I can’t think of a more literary RPG, a game that so elegantly weaves the cosmic and the personal into a dense, philosophical yarn. It’s hardly an exaggeration to say that the game turned BioWare’s robust Infinity Engine into a machine for living literature.

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More information.

 

[Damian]

If torment isnt a case where gaming is art I dont know what is.

 

[joxer]

You've just pinpointed the reason some people adore Bach and some can't understand it so are getting their daily fix on Bieber.

 

[Sacred_Path]

am I missing something or isn't there a review in there

 

[JDR13]

It reads more like a fanboy blog than a review.

widely considered among the best RPGs of all time–if not the best

A good dose of hyperbole there. PS:T is a great game, but it's not even the best Infinity Engine title imo.

 

[joxer]

Yea, but... That's your O.
You're the minority. IMO.

 

[Archangel]

I am like this guy, I got hyped by release of TToN EA and installed and modded my PST from GoG. As I finished Xcom 2 I am now really enjoying playing PST once more after so many years have passed. The game is even better than I remember (I just wish I didn't set the game to run on 1080p when modding, everything is too tiny )

 

[duerer]

Hmm, let me a bit of a party crasher here.
I always thought that PS:T is one of the most overrated cRPGs out there.

Yes, the story was good,
yes, the production values are all right,
yes, there were a few innovations,
yes, I like it weird,
... but for me (and for many others), the game just don't click.
I guess there was a reason why the game was a retail failure when it came out

I really like the novelization of the script though, it is among my fondest fantasy reading experiences.

 

[Archangel]

I am even enjoying the fighting so far (lvl 6-7 still), it is fast and you cannot rest anywhere.
Also spellcasting is cool when the game pauses itself and waits until your spell is cast and its effects seen (not to mention casting effects are much better than in BG and IWD games).

 

[JDR13]

I found the combat overall to be one of the weakest aspects of PS:T. It doesn't have the enemy variety of Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, and the loot was nowhere near as diverse.

 

[Archangel]

Yea it does not but it is fast and happens rare enough that I enjoy it when it does happen.

 

[GothicGothicness]

Combat in PS:T was horrible, some quests were also horrible. Nestor's fork come to mind. But it also has some of the most unique and fantastic moments in gaming... so I can forgive the flaws....

 

[Archangel]

Combat in PS:T was horrible, some quests were also horrible. Nestor's fork come to mind. But it also has some of the most unique and fantastic moments in gaming… so I can forgive the flaws….

I noticed a lot of the quests are just fetch quests, only difference is that sometimes you need to find the people to fetch from yourself.
But in that roaming you find many interesting characters that no other game since had.

I am hoping TToN manages to give us a similar experience.

 

[JDR13]

some quests were also horrible. Nestor's fork come to mind.

Is that the area with all the rats? I remember a quest/area where you fought wave upon wave of rats, and it was really tedious.

 

[Archangel]

Is that the area with all the rats? I remember a quest/area where you fought wave upon wave of rats, and it was really tedious.

No, that is a bit later area. Also pretty optional I think.

 

[Moriendor]

Hmm, let me a bit of a party crasher here.
I always thought that PS:T is one of the most overrated cRPGs out there.

Yes, the story was good,
yes, the production values are all right,
yes, there were a few innovations,
yes, I like it weird,
… but for me (and for many others), the game just don't click.
I guess there was a reason why the game was a retail failure when it came out

I really like the novelization of the script though, it is among my fondest fantasy reading experiences.

I can agree with that. I never managed to finish the game. My main complaints would be the very slow start of the game where you had to run very boring fedex errands for way too long before anything more exciting happened and the long texts actually got on my nerves after a while.

It wore me down and tired me out. I'm generally not a big fan of reading walls of texts off a screen. It was simply too much in PS:T. And I don't mean the dialogues. I mean the descriptive texts that served as an introduction to every scene "you enter a candle-lit room with bones strewn across the floor... blahblahblah...". The nice thing about video games is that you can actually see stuff so when we entered a room with candles and bones... well, WTF was that text for??

I also thought that the general quest design was lacking. No real excitement anywhere. Too little real mystery, no tangible threats (being in God mode per the story didn't help) and no drama, no foreshadowing, no real progression towards a climactic conclusion.
I guess it was simply too flat and unexciting... a.k.a boring... after the novelty of the setting and the characters (esp. Morte and that Grace chick) wore off.

 

[Sacred_Path]

PS:T is an interesting beast.

Back when it was released I thought its gameplay was lacking too much. If it was released today I'd find it pretentious. But from the viewpoint of nostalgia, set against the conventions of the time when it was released, it's one pretty cool achievement.

 

[Asdraguuhl]

I also thought that the general quest design was lacking. No real excitement anywhere. Too little real mystery, no tangible threats (being in God mode per the story didn't help) and no drama, no foreshadowing, no real progression towards a climactic conclusion.

My experience was the exact opposite.

I found the mystery of the Nameless one's condition very interesting and I enjoyed how the game progressed towards the conclusion at the end. Then again, I like it where you are deliberately kept in the dark at first and that little by little the story unravels (no pun intended ) and things are explained (satisfactorily) at the end. In that regard, I had a similar experience with Mask of the Betrayer.

PS:T is without a doubt one of my absolute best RPG experiences.

 

[Archangel]

I can agree with that. I never managed to finish the game. My main complaints would be the very slow start of the game where you had to run very boring fedex errands for way too long before anything more exciting happened and the long texts actually got on my nerves after a while.

It wore me down and tired me out. I'm generally not a big fan of reading walls of texts off a screen. It was simply too much in PS:T. And I don't mean the dialogues. I mean the descriptive texts that served as an introduction to every scene "you enter a candle-lit room with bones strewn across the floor… blahblahblah…". The nice thing about video games is that you can actually see stuff so when we entered a room with candles and bones… well, WTF was that text for??

I also thought that the general quest design was lacking. No real excitement anywhere. Too little real mystery, no tangible threats (being in God mode per the story didn't help) and no drama, no foreshadowing, no real progression towards a climactic conclusion.
I guess it was simply too flat and unexciting… a.k.a boring… after the novelty of the setting and the characters (esp. Morte and that Grace chick) wore off.

OK we understand, you don't like reading. And since you don't like that you missed the foreshadowing and interesting mystery so it all seemed not interesting.

 

[lackblogger]

My experience was the exact opposite.

I found the mystery of the Nameless one's condition very interesting and I enjoyed how the game progressed towards the conclusion at the end. Then again, I like it where you are deliberately kept in the dark at first and that little by little the story unravels (no pun intended ) and things are explained (satisfactorily) at the end. In that regard, I had a similar experience with Mask of the Betrayer.

PS:T is without a doubt one of my absolute best RPG experiences.

I agree PS:T is one of the best cRPG experiences a player can have, and this is mainly due to the central plot-line, original (in PC gaming) environment, wonderful assortment of characters. In terms of its standard as a game though, it's quite lacking. I've never had any impulse to replay the game.

Replayability isn't a factor in deciding if a game is worth playing, some people will never replay any game, and for such people my words are more meaningless, but where's the game in PS:T? The combat is unpleasant, there are few traditional puzzles and the alternative dialogue options still lead to you discovering the same plot-line conclusions. Like the main character, the replayability depends on your ability to completely forget all the contents of the game, which is marred by the content being so excellently memorable.

So I'd call it one of the best experiences you can have in PC gaming, but it's not a game I'd take to a desert island.