I don't like Planescape Torment. Is there something wrong with me?

[Piglet's Ghost]

I don't know why I've never played this before. I never had much interest in it I guess, but after almost a decade of hearing about PST's greatness I decided to fire it up (I got it off gametap).

The words dull and cliché come to mind when looking at the environment. Junk, blood, zombies, and more junk. Don't use too much of your imagination guys. Was it necessary to put all this crap on the screen so you can't tell what anything is? It's not just the environment that's bad, the UI and menu screens are worse. I try to avoid changing weapons and reading letters because I don't want to wrestle with the disgusting inventory system. Unfortunately, this leaves me with no safe zone, since in addition to the UI the levels were also designed by monkeys. Trying to navigate Sigil is about as fun as driving my head through a wall.

Yes, I know graphics and UI aren't what makes RPGs, but they sure help. What makes RPGs is the story, characters, the hero's struggle, and the choices. I heard about how Torment had all these great characters in this intelligent storyline containing an absurd amount of choices the player can make. Well, the floating skull has personality for all of about five seconds in the very beginning. The only thing that seperates him from the rest of the walking information kiosks is that he calls you chief. What about the other characters? I'm not seeing any kind of individuality. They might as well be Bethesda NPCs, albeit with simpler names.

Conversations, the "selling point" of PST, turn out to be the same old dialog tree fishing with the same old questions. It doesn't seem like you can act in any way other than how the computer wants you to. In fact, quite a few times I've been given an entire paragraph of information to respond with, and it's the only option. At least the other Infinity games gave you superficial choices.

I almost forgot to mention my thoughts on the story. I will as soon as I find one. No one seems to care about anything, and the game certainly isn't trying to make me care about it either.

I must be missing something.

 

[DeepO]

Based on some of the content of your post, my answer to your question would be yes.

 

[Gorath]

Welcome to our forum!

PS:T also didn´t grab me. I played it for an afternoon and never returned.

Did you play it with the resolution mod? Maybe things get better in high-res.

 

[Prime Junta]

PS:T has lots of things wrong with it, in particular the gameplay sucks like a tornado and the character classes are unbalanced to the point of unplayability, but... lack of imagination? Lack of story? Boring characters? Yeah, there's definitely something wrong with you.

 

[Konjad]

PS:T has lots of things wrong with it, in particular the gameplay sucks like a tornado and the character classes are unbalanced to the point of unplayability, but... lack of imagination? Lack of story? Boring characters? Yeah, there's definitely something wrong with you.

I agree. Something is definitely wrong

Piglet's Ghost, how long did you play? I also found the game kinda sucks at the beginning, but after 3-4 hours of play I loved that game. Maybe it's same with you? Perhaps you should just play more to "feel" the game?

 

[GothicGothicness]

The gameplay and UI sucks, I agree 100%, and if you don't like to read tons of text, instead of playing a game, do not bother. But if you do enjoy to read the story is full of exciting twists and turns and interesting characters. I do think you did not play long enough to discover it yet.

 

[Maylander]

Hey, and welcome to the forums!

Here's the way I see it, PS:T has the best writing in any RPG:
- Some of the characters later on, such as Raven, are amazing.
- The story, when you get the hang of it, is also rock solid.
- There are loads of quests with meaningful choices, instead of just good/bad.
- Quite a few bizarre and original locations.

However, other than that, BG2 is superior in pretty much every way. The gameplay, interface, graphics, sound quality etc is all better in BG2, which is why I hold it as my fav. RPG instead of PS:T, despite PS:T having better writing.

 

[purpleblob]

Nothing wrong with you. I also dislike PS:T. Too much texts. By the end of first few days, I just selected random options because I got so sick of reading. Not much combat at all either.

And I agree with Maylander about BG2. Perhaps one of the reasons I don't find PS:T that great is because I've played it AFTER playing BG2.

 

[Konjad]

And I agree with Maylander about BG2. Perhaps one of the reasons I don't find PS:T that great is because I've played it AFTER playing BG2.

It's not that, I played it after BG2 and I think PST is much better.
But Gothicness is right - if you don't like to read - don't play. Because most important part of the game are dialogues.

 

[kalniel]

Yes the beginning sucks. You have to use your imagination and try and empathise with the characters, once you do that and get further into the game it picks up, and you can forgive what in today's age must seem terrible graphics and UI.

 

[txa1265]

Personally I wouldn't say that any part of PS:T 'sucks' ... but then perhaps I have played too many games for which 'suck' is a fitting description ...

But I got no flavor from your post about what you *do* like ... I mean if you have been playing Dragon Quest VIII and Final Fantasy games for ages and heard you should try PS:T ... perhaps you just aren't ready for the whole style ... I dunno.

 

[Dhruin]

You're more than entitled to dislike PS:T but little you said jibes with reality, so I can only assume you've barely started. Yes, sometimes you might have only one choice in dialogue but replay it or try it with different characters / stats / choices and you'll see it's much more complex than any other Infinity game.

Ask people who have finished what PS:T is about and then ask them what BG2 is about.

No imagination? Can't understand that at all.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

I just loved PS:T because of the long texts ... But I don't like the graphics in it, at all. They're too dark and often too morbide to my taste.

But I think I'm sick anyway in that I prefer light, bright colours in any fantasy game.

 

[blatantninja]

I'm probably going to give it a whirl after I'm done with my current BG2 run. After hearing so much, and being such a fan of infinity game, I figure I should.

I'm not sure if I will like all the reading or not. I remember when Siege of Avalon came out and it was tagged "Played any good books lately?" I thought the idea was great, but when I played it, I just couldn't get into it. Maybe I've just gotten used to less text to read. I find in BG2, when there are long things to read (like the descriptions on items or the various books), I just have no interest. Even the books that tell you how to do something (like the rituals for honoring the sun god), I just skim them enough to do whatever I need to do.

Maybe I'll enjoy reading more when it's more of a focus of the game, maybe not.

 

[kalniel]

I think you will - the text is better than just reading the generic lore books of BG2.

 

[magerette]

I'm replaying it at the moment and it does indeed have a lot of text and a lot of (manual, i.e., not cinematic) character interaction. If you're used to games that go to a cutscene with cinematic dialogue every time a plot point is made, you may find this a bit cumbersome at first, sort of like the difference between an automatic transmission on a sedan compared to a stick on a sportscar. You get a lot more control and involvement in the driving experience with the latter, but if all you want is transportation (going from point a to point b as easily as possible) then maybe you might prefer the automatic methods that are common in more recent games.

@ blatantninja--I think you might enjoy this game--it's nothing if not party-oriented, and one of the few games where I actively enjoy the NPC's and their relationships--that is, I wouldn't want to roll my own party in PS:T or go solo. You'd just miss too much on your own.

 

[Piglet's Ghost]

Don't misunderstand, I love reading. My favorite part of the game has been the little descriptions they've given everything. What's keeping me at bay is that I just cannot seem to empathize with any of the characters and the lack of any real choices, not to mention all the information dispensing.

Maybe the beginning is just a bad start and I need to give it more time. In that case any idea where I should stick my stats?



Just for the record, I do play JRPGs, but I also play CRPGs. Arcanum and Icewind Dale are probably my favorites. Just for comparison, when you start Arcanum, you're introduced to a fairly generic plot. However, Virgil is a quirky character and Joachim is interesting just by his note ("Oh, I dispached of these fellows easily and left their bodies here to rot. Meet me in Tarant!"). At the crash site there's Behringo's wily spirit trying to pit you up against the old wizard. In Shrouded Hills the Constable will take care of things "uh... tomorrow" while the Doc is a no-nonsense cowboy. Rizzette is Rizzette. Jongle has his magic vs technology problem. This is all in the first two hours of playing.

It also is worth mentioning that Troika doesn't overload you with information about Tarant vs Cumbria, the dwarves, or any other huge plot points. It gets you into the game and interested in the world, and then lets you discover things.

 

[magerette]

Stat-wise, Wisdom is your most important option.It determines how much experience you get from quests, how many memories you can retreive and many of your dialogue choices. Since some haven't played yet:

Spoiler

If you are making a mage, WIS(18) is followed by Intelligence(18). Charisma shouldn't be ignored, but Wis & Int will get you most dialogue options with a CHA of 12-14. If you're making a Fighter, WIS(18),INT(15) STR(9), CON(9) and DEX(11) are all important and CHA of 13 at least--there are some options for raising it later. Str and Con are less important as this is not a combat heavy game, and you'll usually have at least two excellent fighters in your party to front for you.

You'll be a fighter at first regardless, but IMO the mage option is a lot of fun if you like spellcasters. Thief is supposed to be the least interesting choice, but it can be done.

In the early game, talk to every zombie, talk to Mort and have him read your scars out loud to you, and try to understand that you can't die permanently, and every time you "die" and are reborn, you lose part of yourself, your past and your identity. There's a plot here equal to Arcanum's(also one of my favorite games as well), honest.

 

[Konjad]

Well, actually I think you should set stats like that: INT 18 WIS 18 CHA 12 STR 9 DEX 9 and CON 9, no matter what class u are playing. I always loved to play mage because of great spells effects (some spells even have their own cutscenes) and it's best choice in that game, I think. You can join good fighters (Vhailor, Dak'kon) anyway, Anna is a good thief and so on - no matter what class will you choose, you'll have all classes in team anyway And you can change your class in game, so if you won't like being mage it's not a problem to change your class. There are not much fights like in another games, so you don't really need STR, DEX or CON.

 

[Prime Junta]

@ blatantninja--I think you might enjoy this game--it's nothing if not party-oriented, and one of the few games where I actively enjoy the NPC's and their relationships--that is, I wouldn't want to roll my own party in PS:T or go solo. You'd just miss too much on your own.

Yup. I think I'm still in love with Fall-from-Grace. Don't tell my wife.