I'll start off by saying 'hi' to everyone.
I'm just starting to try and write reviews, so any criticism is welcome - or just a discussion of the game itself. And thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this, I appreciate it.
Planescape: Torment
Planescape was released around the time when Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Fallout were popular amongst the role playing crowd, and a while before MMO's began toswamp the market. In a lot of ways, it plays in a way typical to a mid 1990's RPG. Planescape is dense, deep, far from intuitive, text-heavy, non-linear to a degree, and viewed from a typical top down perspective. A bit of nostalgia has grown over it, especially after the recent popularity of more simplified and popular games like Oblivion or World of Warcraft.
I decided to go back in time, while I had no Internet, and gave it a go. I made it through about two-thirds of the game before losing interest. Afterwards, I never really regained the desire to play it again.
The player is in control of the Nameless One, an immortal man who has been losing his memories each time he 'dies'. The game starts with the Nameless One waking on a mortuary slab. When the player takes control, the Nameless One has no recollection of how he got there, and has no company or clues besides a talking skull called Morte and a slightly cryptic tatoo on his back. From here, the game sets out on a long journey through the city of Sigil in an effort to find old memories and bring a conclusion to the Nameless One's immortal life. The settings are morbid and grimy, and definitely give the atmosphere a downtrodden and gritty feel.
Obviously, the graphics are dated, but that's pretty much a given. It's in the generic 640 by 480, which gives it that classic grainy, zoomed in texture. They're good enough to convey the image the developers were trying to make, and some of the art is pretty creative, so I didn't feel that the dated graphics were a big deal. The old graphics may be jarring for anyone who has only played games in bump-mapped, well textured environments, however.
Planescape is not an easy game to get into, especially for people who haven't learnt the rules of Dungeons and Dragons (2nd edition). I'd go so far as to say that anyone new to Dungeons and Dragons couldn't really enjoy the game without some sort of explanation of the rules. Not that I didn't have a couple of problems with the complete lack of user friendliness. Very rarely does the game help out with even the most basic tasks. It took me about fifteen minutes to learn how to converse with a party member, as I shuffled through a whole series of obscure icons. Still, this is fairly typical of older RPG's, especially given the audience I suspect it was being made for.
The text is detailed and well-written, for the most part. There's a great database of NPC's that is both descriptive and interesting. Many important characters have quite detailed conversation trees. There are a variety of different playable characters, that all feel like they have quite distinct personalities.
The themes that Planescape presents, revolving around death and immortality, are done in a more mature way than most other games I can think of ? and no, that doesn't really say very much.
Unfortunately, it also feels like verbal diarrhea at times. There were several points where I simply couldn't be bothered reading the endless, long winded diatribes that every single NPC needed to give. I didn't care about the paragraph long description of some guy standing on a street corner or of a random wandering zombie, and neither did I need to have a long conversation with a merchant who doesn't, in fact, sell or otherwise do anything useful within the game. I honestly think Planescape would have benefited greatly from cutting out a lot of redundant text.
Non-linearity was a big selling point. Planescape is about as non-linear as a game like this can get, without losing hold of the story altogether. On the flipside, that non-linearity, combined with the stodgy, uninformative gameplay style, creates a little confusion. Still, I could choose to be good or evil, a spellcaster or a fighter, and I could choose how the game would end ? though only if I knew how to go about doing so.
Planescape is an example of a great RPG, and at the same time shows deep flaws. It's only fun if you can get into it. And for a D&D newbie, that means several hours of learning before you can even begin to get some enjoyment out of it. Even then, it shows traces of the elitist mindset of hardcore PC role playing, consistently refusing to give out information. Planescape definitely appeals to the patient, hardcore gamer.
Despite what some RPG enthusiasts would like, I honestly think that developers have moved beyond this type of game, at least a little. Sure, a game like Oblivion is too shallow, and WoW is little more than an endless social grind quest, but those games are still, to me, more fun than Planescape was. Sure, games don't necessarily need to offer instantaneous gratification, but Planescape pushes this way too far in the other direction.
I'm just starting to try and write reviews, so any criticism is welcome - or just a discussion of the game itself. And thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this, I appreciate it.
Planescape: Torment
Planescape was released around the time when Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Fallout were popular amongst the role playing crowd, and a while before MMO's began toswamp the market. In a lot of ways, it plays in a way typical to a mid 1990's RPG. Planescape is dense, deep, far from intuitive, text-heavy, non-linear to a degree, and viewed from a typical top down perspective. A bit of nostalgia has grown over it, especially after the recent popularity of more simplified and popular games like Oblivion or World of Warcraft.
I decided to go back in time, while I had no Internet, and gave it a go. I made it through about two-thirds of the game before losing interest. Afterwards, I never really regained the desire to play it again.
The player is in control of the Nameless One, an immortal man who has been losing his memories each time he 'dies'. The game starts with the Nameless One waking on a mortuary slab. When the player takes control, the Nameless One has no recollection of how he got there, and has no company or clues besides a talking skull called Morte and a slightly cryptic tatoo on his back. From here, the game sets out on a long journey through the city of Sigil in an effort to find old memories and bring a conclusion to the Nameless One's immortal life. The settings are morbid and grimy, and definitely give the atmosphere a downtrodden and gritty feel.
Obviously, the graphics are dated, but that's pretty much a given. It's in the generic 640 by 480, which gives it that classic grainy, zoomed in texture. They're good enough to convey the image the developers were trying to make, and some of the art is pretty creative, so I didn't feel that the dated graphics were a big deal. The old graphics may be jarring for anyone who has only played games in bump-mapped, well textured environments, however.
Planescape is not an easy game to get into, especially for people who haven't learnt the rules of Dungeons and Dragons (2nd edition). I'd go so far as to say that anyone new to Dungeons and Dragons couldn't really enjoy the game without some sort of explanation of the rules. Not that I didn't have a couple of problems with the complete lack of user friendliness. Very rarely does the game help out with even the most basic tasks. It took me about fifteen minutes to learn how to converse with a party member, as I shuffled through a whole series of obscure icons. Still, this is fairly typical of older RPG's, especially given the audience I suspect it was being made for.
The text is detailed and well-written, for the most part. There's a great database of NPC's that is both descriptive and interesting. Many important characters have quite detailed conversation trees. There are a variety of different playable characters, that all feel like they have quite distinct personalities.
The themes that Planescape presents, revolving around death and immortality, are done in a more mature way than most other games I can think of ? and no, that doesn't really say very much.
Unfortunately, it also feels like verbal diarrhea at times. There were several points where I simply couldn't be bothered reading the endless, long winded diatribes that every single NPC needed to give. I didn't care about the paragraph long description of some guy standing on a street corner or of a random wandering zombie, and neither did I need to have a long conversation with a merchant who doesn't, in fact, sell or otherwise do anything useful within the game. I honestly think Planescape would have benefited greatly from cutting out a lot of redundant text.
Non-linearity was a big selling point. Planescape is about as non-linear as a game like this can get, without losing hold of the story altogether. On the flipside, that non-linearity, combined with the stodgy, uninformative gameplay style, creates a little confusion. Still, I could choose to be good or evil, a spellcaster or a fighter, and I could choose how the game would end ? though only if I knew how to go about doing so.
Planescape is an example of a great RPG, and at the same time shows deep flaws. It's only fun if you can get into it. And for a D&D newbie, that means several hours of learning before you can even begin to get some enjoyment out of it. Even then, it shows traces of the elitist mindset of hardcore PC role playing, consistently refusing to give out information. Planescape definitely appeals to the patient, hardcore gamer.
Despite what some RPG enthusiasts would like, I honestly think that developers have moved beyond this type of game, at least a little. Sure, a game like Oblivion is too shallow, and WoW is little more than an endless social grind quest, but those games are still, to me, more fun than Planescape was. Sure, games don't necessarily need to offer instantaneous gratification, but Planescape pushes this way too far in the other direction.
.