Mortismal Gaming has reviewed Planescape Torment EE:

Planescape: Torment EE - Review After 100%

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Thanks Redglyph!

Farflame spotted a new entry in the in Beamblog:

Ins and Outs of the Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition UI

While Beamdog QA team is busy with patching the Enhanced Editions, we sat down with the Art Team for an exclusive interview about developing the UI for Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition.

How did you come up with the PST:EE UI?

At the heart of it, we wanted PST:EE to have the spirit of the UI Planescape: Torment fans remember, only without nearly as many warts and blemishes.

Since we didn’t have the source assets for the original UI screens and the existing PST UI simply could not support being scaled up to fit current generation monitors, we decided the best option available for a widescreen release of PST was to rebuild it from scratch using similar texturing and sculpting techniques used at the time of the original game, and then re-render those images.
[...]

Gamezone has reviewed Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition:

Review: Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition is the ultimate version of a classic CRPG

A dream come true for established fans, and a look into the past for those who are curious.
Planescape Torment is one of PC Gaming’s most renowned treasures. It’s the kind of game that 90’s kids grew up playing, and despite the fact that it was not considered a widely acclaimed commercial success, its staying power over the last 18 years is unquestioned.  It goes without saying then that Planescape: Torment is quite a revered title, so making any changes to the formula would be considered sacrilege by any number of the fanbase’s dedicated faithful.

[...]

Verdict: 

Planescape Torment is a game of quirks, but one that is one of gaming's true treasures. Its world is one of a kind, and its characters ecstatic, but memorable. While it maintains certain genre tropes, Planescape Torment manages to circumvent their banality by leveraging the immortality themes of the narrative to connect the player to each character in a way that frankly hasn’t been seen since. 

If you haven’t played Planescape Torment, the Enhanced Edition is the best way to do so and a great excuse to add a fantastic game to your collection.

Score: 8.5/10

HardcoreGamer has reviewed Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition:

Review: Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition

When it was first released, the market wasn’t exactly kind to Black Isle Studios’ Planescape: Torment. A PC exclusive RPG, it used the Infinity Engine to create the experience in a time when the market was filled with all sorts of quality titles based on the same, making it seem like “another one of those.” Coming out right before 1999’s holiday season didn’t help. People likely to buy it for themselves were more concerned with affording gifts for others and the cover, featuring a blue guy with his skin falling off, didn’t exactly scream “holiday cheer.” The original release’s underwhelming performance is an abject shame, as the game itself was exemplary. Fortunately, it’s gained quite a following over the years, leading to Beamdog finally turning their remastering talents towards the title. With their solid work in updating the Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale titles, Planescape is in good hands.

[...]

Closing Comments:

Picked nits aside, there is no better time to explore the world of Planescape with this enhanced edition. The content of the game has aged extremely well, providing almost endless hours of top notch exploration, dialogue and story. Beamdog has done a great job with getting it running better on modern machines while not going overboard. It ran without a hitch on my humble, underpowered laptop. As a must play for returning fans and newcomers alike, there is no real reason to skip Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition. This is PC RPG gaming done right.

Score: 4.5/5

The Zero Review has checked out Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition:

What Can Change the Nature of a Timeless Classic?

Enhancements, remakes and remasters are an aspect of gaming that, to me, are simultaneously commonplace and incredibly peculiar. For some titles, I understand it. Age of Empires II isn’t a title as readily accessible as it once was – the original title not being available for digital purchase anywhere – and the constant stream of new content and features justifies it as a worthwhile update. For other games, I often question whether or not the update was necessary. Such is the case with Heroes of Might and Magic III¸ where not only is the original game available on GOG, but the improvements are so meager (not to mention that the original game has more content, since the HD version doesn’t include the two expansions), that the HD remake is almost entirely pointless. On paper, Planescape: Torment – Enhanced Edition seemingly avoids all of these pitfalls. How many new things can you add before the hardcore fans – particularly the ones who still have some baggage vis-à-vis Beamdog’s practices in the past – feel as if the essence of the game is gone? How much tinkering with the formula is too much tinkering? How do you make the game feel like a justifiable purchase and not something that is merely a lazy cash grab? The solution was seemingly to hire the original game’s lead designer, Chris Avellone, and have him spearhead the whole thing. That’s how you wind up with Planescape: Torment – Enhanced Edition, a game that doesn’t stray far from its core formula while offering just enough to be considered worthwhile.

[...]

It’s classic Planescape: Torment, just made better with a slew of improvements. It might not be worth it if you’ve already got a modded copy, but I would be remiss not to recommend this everyone else.

Thanks Farflame!

Today's the release day of Beamdogs's Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition:

The original Planescape: Torment was released in 1999 to widespread critical acclaim. It won RPG of the Year from multiple outlets for its unconventional story, characters, and amazing soundtrack. Since then, millions of Planescape: Torment fans have enjoyed exploring the strange and dangerous city of Sigil and surrounding planes through the Nameless One's eyes.

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Discover an incredibly rich story and a unique setting unlike anything else in fantasy. Defeat strange and alien creatures, engage in rich dialogue, and explore the dark and dangerous Planescape setting in this 50+ hour RPG classic.

This is Planescape: Torment like you’ve never seen before.

Story

"What can change the nature of a man?"

You are the Nameless One, a hulking figure covered in scars and tattoos collected over the course of countless lives—none of which you can remember, but are now coming back to haunt you. You are prodded awake by Morte, a floating skull and keeper of secrets, to embark on an adventure taking The Nameless One from the dirty streets of Sigil into the mysterious Outer Planes and even into the depths of Hell itself.

Portals riddle the planar metropolis of Sigil, providing access to anywhere in existence, but only if you have the proper key. Known as the "City of Doors," Sigil is a neutral ground where demons, devas, and races from across the multiverse gather under the watchful shadow of the Lady of Pain, the city's enigmatic ruler. This is a place where the word is mightier than the sword, where thought defines reality, and belief has the power to reshape worlds.

In your search for answers, you'll find companions matching the bizarre nature of the planes: a chaste succubus who can kill with a kiss, a confused crossbow-wielding cube, a suit of armor animated by a spirit demanding JUSTICE, and more. With these companions and others at The Nameless One’s side, you will explore worlds in search of answers, all to discover that some destinies cannot be escaped and some memories cost more than an even an immortal can bear.

Features

• Enhanced Planescape: Chris Avellone, Lead Designer on Planescape Torment, has partnered with Beamdog to curate gameplay updates, bug fixes, and enhancements to best capture his original vision for the game.
• The Planes Await: Planescape is a setting you've never experienced before, filled with strange magics, strange adversaries, and Dungeons & Dragons locations from across the multiverse.
• Conversations to Remember: Encounter personable items, philosophic undead, and rat hiveminds while walking the planes with the strangest collection of allies ever seen in an RPG.
• Pick Your Path: Character creation is just the beginning. The Nameless One can change his class, alignment, and even gain new abilities based on your choices.
• Remastered Music: The full Planescape: Torment soundtrack has been remastered in-game to add more depth to Sigil and the multiverse.
• 4K Interface: Sigil has never looked this good! The interface of Planescape: Torment has been rebuilt in high definition with tons of new convenience features.
• A Planescape For Today: The Enhanced Edition includes modern features such as tab highlighting, area zooming, combat log, quickloot, and more!
  Play It Your Way: Enable Enhanced Edition features as you desire or turn them off to experience Planescape: Torment in its original glory.
• Cast Comprehend Languages: Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition is available in English, French, Polish, German, and Korean. Note: Korean translations are text only with voice-overs played in English.

We have received 4 keys from Beamdog for Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition that we would like to give away to our visitors.

Here are da rulez:

1. You need to be registered on RPGWatch before April 1st
2. You need to have at least posted once on the forums of RPGWatch
3. If your account matches the first two requirements then you need to add a reply to this news post/thread stating that you want a key
4. The winners of a key from the interview (JDR13, Maylander, Pessimeister, HellRazor and Acleasius) are excluded of winning a key again

We will announce the winner on Friday the 14th of April, untill we do, you can still participate.

With the help of some of our members we have asked Beamdog a couple of questions about the Enhanced Edition of Planescape: Torment that is scheduled to be released tomorrow.

JDR13: I read that the EE version will include some content that was dropped/cut from the original release of PS:T. How much did you guys have to improvise to finish the restored content? Was there significant debate over the things you chose to restore?

Alex: Chris Avellone requested to personally proofread all of the text from the original game in order to make some grammar and style corrections. Other than the adjustments that Chris made, there are no other content changes or additions in PST:EE. Instead, we focused on making the game run properly on modern devices, recreating the user interface in native 4K, adding Steam Achievements and introducing a number of quality of life improvement such as zooming, object highlighting, journal searching, quickloot, combat log etc.

Maylander: Were you nervous about changing anything in Planescape: Torment? I know you already worked on Baldur's Gate, which has a bigger audience, but Planescape: Torment leans more heavily on its writing and overall tone. It carries the game to a much greater extent.

Alex: As the Project Lead, I defined the vision of PST:EE long before production and development started. The goal of the Enhanced Edition was to deliver the canon Planescape Torment experience to modern devices, without altering any narrative or gameplay aspects of the original. Therefore, you won't see any new companions, quests, areas, races, classes, kits, items or spells in PST:EE.

Old Man Mordaith has reviewed the Enhanced Edition of Planescape: Torment:

City of Doors

Making a Name for Yourself

The Nameless One, Good ol’ TNO, is the predetermined protagonist of Planescape: Torment. And I bet he is really wishing I wasn’t behind the wheel right now. I will blame most of my errors on the pain medication I’ve been on from my recent dental issues (I guess Morte wanted an upgrade on his chompers.) I do have hazy memories of hacking my way through the Mortuary, leaving a trail of Dustmen behind me – and, I should add, those bastards should be grateful that I helped them shuffle off this existence of suffering.

After a rocky start, a few deaths, and my eventual freedom from the grand deader processing centre of the Hive, I found myself facing a newly enhanced version of a classic and wondered where it would take me.

[...]

Into the Abyss

Very few would argue against the claim that Planescape: Torment was a landmark game for the industry. It changed how we looked at not only Roleplaying games, but video games as a whole. The idea your character could die and it was no biggie was mind blowing, and the discovery that there were fates worse than death in a video game was profound. Touching such a sacred part of our beloved history is always a risk, and Beamdog has caught flak for things before. But trust me when I say, the enhanced edition isn’t just a nice edition, it’s essential.

It takes a classic game and makes it playable again. While not a remake or remastering by any stretch of the imagination, the game looks great and plays well. People thinking this will be on par with game standards of today are going to be disappointed, but Beamdog meets them halfway. This version of the game adds several missing things, now considered quality of life standards, that allows the game itself to be experienced flawlessly. The most important aspect is it is blessedly playable now.

The idea of playing for 8 hours straight with no problems still makes me giddy. The people at Beamdog have taken a timeless classic, and restored it to be enjoyed for a new generation of gamer. So, I need to get back to hauling TNO and friends around the Cage, with the knowledge the game will not implode on me… Unless it is the story result of my own in-game shenanigans.

Final Score: A well deserved 9/10.

Farflame spotted this Chris Avellone interview on Beamblog:

Planescape: Torment may have been released nearly two decades ago, but its status as a beloved genre classic remains untouched largely due to its amazing setting and unique story.

Chris Avellone, Lead Designer on Planescape: Torment, went on from PST to work on many other popular titles, including Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Wasteland 2, and Prey. Now he’s returned to his roots to help Beamdog bring Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition to life. 

We’re glad Chris has found time to share insights about the original game and PST:EE.

Warning: Interview contains spoilers.

1. What was your involvement in Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition? Was an enhanced edition something you always wanted to do?

CA - A lot of people have mentioned Torment to me over the years, and the chance to do an updated version of it was appealing – not to change the core content, but with the goal of re-introducing  a new generation to the RPG and allow them easier access to playing it without having to jump through hoops to make it happen.

While I love the original game deeply, I recognize that both interface design and tech across platforms have come a long way since ’99. I believe the Torment experience can be kept while taking advantage of the technical achievements over the past 15+ years, so when Beamdog contacted me to gauge my interest, I told them I was absolutely interested… especially if they allowed me a chance to do a real grammar fix of the discrepancies in the original, of which there were many (we weren’t able to hire an editor, who could have helped back then, so I am happy to have a chance to do it now).

Before anyone thinks editing was a lot of changes to the text, it was more along the lines of fixing basic errors, establishing naming consistency and formatting consistency, and elements that were never intended to make it into the final product (narrative bugs).

[...]

The Enhanced Edition of Planescape: Torment will be available on April 11:

About The Game

"What can change the nature of a man?"

You are the Nameless One, a hulking figure covered in scars and tattoos collected over the course of countless lives—none of which you can remember, but are now coming back to haunt you. You are prodded awake by Morte, a floating skull and keeper of secrets, to embark on an adventure taking the Nameless One from the dirty streets of Sigil into the mysterious Outer Planes and even into the depths of Hell itself.

Discover an incredibly rich story and a unique setting unlike anything else in fantasy. Defeat strange and alien creatures, engage in rich dialogue, and explore the dark and dangerous Planescape setting in this 50+ hour RPG classic.

Millions of Planescape: Torment fans have enjoyed the strange and dangerous city of Sigil and surrounding planes through the Nameless One's eyes. Now it’s your turn. This is Planescape: Torment like you’ve never seen before.

Enhanced Edition - Key Features:

• Enhanced Planescape: Chris Avellone, Lead Designer on Planescape Torment, has partnered with Beamdog to curate gameplay updates, bug fixes, and enhancements to best capture his original vision for the game.
• Remastered Music: The full Planescape: Torment soundtrack has been remastered in-game to add more depth to Sigil and the multiverse.
• 4K Interface: Sigil has never looked this good! The interface of Planescape: Torment has been rebuilt in high definition with tons of new convenience features.
• A Planescape For Today: The Enhanced Edition includes modern features such as tab highlighting, area zooming, combat log, quickloot, and more!

A countdown timer on a planescape.com website. It appears Beamdog is behind it.

When purchasing the domain https://t.co/XKTTw6vn5Z the sales person was so right about how great of a travel site it could be.

— Trent Oster (@TrentOster) March 25, 2017