I can't get in to Planescape Torment

Wolfpup

Wolfpup

CAGiversary!
I bought it years ago, and finally started it today...and I just can't get into it.

It DOES seem to be really, really well written. But the interface is kind of clunky, and I have to admit, I'm not real patient for it. I kind of like games being more streamlined (obviously I'm not into PC-style adventure games!)

Anyone have any thoughts on it? If nothing else, it does seem pretty darned unique, right from the start.
 
I've had the same problem with Baldur's Gate 2- I bought the collection from EB a few years ago because everyone told me how great it was. I can't seem to make it out of the first area...
 
It very dated now. I know what you mean by it being unaproachable. The story is great from what I remember when playing it the first time, but the last time I tried playing it, it just seemed so old.
I keep hoping they will fix it up a bit and puit it on one disc for a reissue.
 
How long have you put into it? It really gets better as you go along. If you do some quests around the hive, get through Pharod's quest, and still can't get into it; you probably won't enjoy it. It is boring until you get out of the mortuary. I recommend playing (mostly) as a lawful mage with high Intelligence and wisdom as you'll get some badass spells and the best dialogue options and stuff.

Pro's:
Storyline, characters, atmosphere, cool spells, major plot twists, Getting most experience through things other than combat.

Con's:
Non interactive combat system, lots of reading, slower pace, combat not central to game (con for some), dated graphics, if your character has limited Intelligence and Wisdom you'll miss a lot of cool stuff, and other goodies are limited to lawful characters. if you can’t get into the story the game will suck.

Also: Make sure you get Dak’kon in the burning corpse bar. He’s the most badass party member you’ll find and a major part of the story. Also, almost all of your party members can be upgraded through dialogue if your character is smart enough.
 
It actually took me a lot of starts and stops over the years to finish it, but it is definitely the best written game I've ever played, by a long shot.

It's not like you have awful taste if you can't get into it now :) ...the interface and presentation are really dated these days, but try and give it a couple of hours to get into the flow of the game, to see if the characters and world hook you.

It's by far the least combat-oriented D&D game so really the interface isn't a huge deal. Make sure your Wisdom and Intelligence are off the charts, though, you'll miss a big chunk of the story if the Nameless One is too dumb to figure it out.
 
Thanks for all the feedback! I have to admit I think combat not being central to it is a drawback for me, as what I've played seems a bit too adventure-gamey for me.

I ended up putting tons of points into Wisdom since it said you get more experience (I thought that meant through combat, but I guess not). I think I have 19 now. Average on everything else so far.

Not that it's fair to complain, but this looks much worse than I remember Balder's Gate 1 looking, but then it's been quite a while since I played that. (I remember Balder's Gate really looking great).

I'm torn about whether or not to continue it. I know it really is something special, but it's just not quite for me (and shallow though it is to say, if it had better graphics I'd be more inclined to go along with it). On the plus side, my current system finally runs the Infinity Engine smoothly :D

I had to set my character to "always run" just to have him move at a decent clip.

If I quit, this will be my second game I've given up on this week (finally quit playing Diablo II). Maybe if they merged the combat from Diablo II and the writing and story from Planescape...
 
I bought it about 5 months ago and played it. I really got into it and I loved it. Honestly with any old games I suggest playing for atleast 5 hours before you stop playing and try to play in large blocks of time as opposed to casually. But I understand what you meant exactly, I have the same problem with a whole score of games.
 
IMO, it's held up really well... but it wasn't for everyone even when it was released, so of course it's not going to be for everyone now.

It's alot more story oriented, as someone wrote earlier. I loved the game.
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']Not that it's fair to complain, but this looks much worse than I remember Balder's Gate 1 looking, but then it's been quite a while since I played that. (I remember Balder's Gate really looking great).[/QUOTE]Actually, I've played Planescape Torment, Fallout, and Baldur's Gate within the last couple years (BG more recently), and BG looks TERRIBLE. Planescape Torment looked as good as Fallout, which I thought still looked pretty good. I thought BG would look similar to Fallout, so I'm trying to figure out if there's something up with my resolution settings or I'm not used to the interface... cuz it was incredibly ugly to me.

I didn't really get into Planescape Torment. I think I might have gone through it rather quickly and ended up at a point where I was majorly weak and lost track of what was going on. Of course, it's been a couple years since I've played it and I can't remember anything about the game or its story now, so I'm probably going to have to start it over. From what I played, I definitely much prefer Fallout.
 
Now I'm curious to pull out my copy of Baldur's Gate again! I thought it looked WAY better than Fallout, and better than Planescape, but I wonder if I'm just not remembering it right?

Planescape looks kind of washed out and drab to me, while Baldur's Gate I remember looking more detailed and high-resolution looking.

I just started Hitman 2 that I got free bundled with a piece of hardware a while back. I was expecting to love it, but I'm really hating it. The A.I. seems cheap and arbitrary (sometimes they're set off by nothing, other times they ignore you shooting someone right next to them, etc.). I hate the limited saves too.I'm going to keep playing it a bit, but I'll probably quit soon.

Guess I'm finally tearing through my gigantic back log! :D
 
Alot of older games haven't held up well at all, to be honest. PC / PS1/ N64 / 3D Saturn stuff really got hit the worst.

I find alot of older PC games, espically FPS's, completely unplayable these days.

Hitman 2 is painful to play now that better stealth games have come along. It was pretty awesome for its time, though.
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']Now I'm curious to pull out my copy of Baldur's Gate again! I thought it looked WAY better than Fallout, and better than Planescape, but I wonder if I'm just not remembering it right?[/QUOTE]I wouldn't be surprised if I messed up the resolution settings. Also, I felt the interface for Baldur's Gate was really ugly/clunky (huge text box, giant toolbars), so that could have thrown me off too.
[quote name='Roufuss']Alot of older games haven't held up well at all, to be honest. PC / PS1/ N64 / 3D Saturn stuff really got hit the worst.

I find alot of older PC games, espically FPS's, completely unplayable these days.[/QUOTE]I think these RPGs hold up pretty well graphically, since they're not using much 3D. My bf got into Fallout pretty easily last year and didn't once complain about the graphics.
 
I actually prefer planescape and fallout to a lot of the stuff out there. The fallouts particulary are still some of the most open ended gameplay you can get. Planescape was set in an incredibily different world and the storyline was incredible. While I understand about dated interface, there's something simpler about the bg/planescape/fallout setups. I don't want to have to go trigger happy, I want to be able to play my character.
 
[quote name='judyjudyjudy']
I think these RPGs hold up pretty well graphically, since they're not using much 3D. My bf got into Fallout pretty easily last year and didn't once complain about the graphics.[/QUOTE]

Oh yeah, definitely. I meant more along the lines of the early 3D stuff... blech.
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']Thanks for all the feedback! I have to admit I think combat not being central to it is a drawback for me, as what I've played seems a bit too adventure-gamey for me.

I ended up putting tons of points into Wisdom since it said you get more experience (I thought that meant through combat, but I guess not). I think I have 19 now. Average on everything else so far.

Not that it's fair to complain, but this looks much worse than I remember Balder's Gate 1 looking, but then it's been quite a while since I played that. (I remember Balder's Gate really looking great).

I'm torn about whether or not to continue it. I know it really is something special, but it's just not quite for me (and shallow though it is to say, if it had better graphics I'd be more inclined to go along with it). On the plus side, my current system finally runs the Infinity Engine smoothly :D

I had to set my character to "always run" just to have him move at a decent clip.

If I quit, this will be my second game I've given up on this week (finally quit playing Diablo II). Maybe if they merged the combat from Diablo II and the writing and story from Planescape...[/quote]

Baldurs gate one looked much worse than I remembered it looking when I fired it up again a few years ago.

I never got out of the morgue in Planescape. Maybe I should pop it in again.
 
For anyone that thinks the BG 1 graphics are too dated, try playing it using the BG 2 engine-looks much better!

http://www.pocketplane.net/tutu

"BG1Tutu is a project which brings the content from Baldur's Gate (or Tales of the Sword Coast) into the Baldur's Gate II engine. This allows BG1 to enjoy all the benefits of BG2 such as higher resolution, new races, classes and kits, dual-wielding, and much more! "

You have to have BG 2 for it to work obviously. There's other mods on the site, for example if you want to keep the BG 1 interface and still have the BG 2 graphical engine.

I wish someone would do the same for PS:T!

Have fun!
 
[quote name='coltyhuxx']Baldurs gate one looked much worse than I remembered it looking when I fired it up again a few years ago.

I never got out of the morgue in Planescape. Maybe I should pop it in again.[/QUOTE]


I got to the town right outside the morgue, and messed around with it for a while.
 
I tried PS:T once and didn't really get into it either.

Then, I brought it with me on a family trip and got so into it that I beat the game in a couple of days. I think the key to "getting into it" is progressing the main story. If you can get a "glimpse" of the real game you'll likely be hooked! If you find yourself bored or not knowing what to try, try talking to a lot of people and just going through all the dialogue options. Not only will you read some cool and well-written stuff, but you'll get experience, abilities, or hints as to what you're supposed to be doing.

IMO the combat doesn't really get any good until you get to become a Mage :) I'm probably a bit biased but the hand-to-hand combat didn't do too much for me.

As far as the graphics, I didn't really enjoy them at first but they grew on me. The animations and such are very well done and it feels much more personal than something like Baldur's Gate or Diablo where you don't really get a sense of connection to yourself or your party. Here, they start to feel like real people after a while (at least, to me they did).

Just try giving it a little bit more time! The Mortuary was one of the boringest and confusingest parts of the game for me, but after that it really does get good! Like no other game you'll ever play :)

-GF
 
The combat in Planescape was a disappointment after Fallout. The hack 'n slash battles seem clunky and random compared to the awesome tactical brutality in Fallout (nothing better than destroying someone's eyes with a well placed shot).

The game's depth works against it, since I almost felt there was so many quests to do, I was overwhelmed. One thing that really surprised me was that I didn't care for the setting. The world seems so uniformly unpleasant and depressing, I felt no motivation in acting like a evil bastard or a do-gooder hero. What was the point?
 
[quote name='salmonaxxx']The combat in Planescape was a disappointment after Fallout. The hack 'n slash battles seem clunky and random compared to the awesome tactical brutality in Fallout (nothing better than destroying someone's eyes with a well placed shot).

The game's depth works against it, since I almost felt there was so many quests to do, I was overwhelmed. One thing that really surprised me was that I didn't care for the setting. The world seems so uniformly unpleasant and depressing, I felt no motivation in acting like a evil bastard or a do-gooder hero. What was the point?[/QUOTE]

I know what you mean about the setting. I like that it's kind of fresh, but I'm rarely in to depressing settings (excluding stuff like Bioshock and System Shock of course!)

One of the MANY reasons I'm excited about Mass Effect is just that it's finally a sci-fi setting. I can't really remember a science fiction themed RPG aside from Fallout or Shadowrun on the Genesis, and even those are a VERY different thing from Mass Effect's setting.
 
Fallout 1 & 2, System Shock 1 & 2, Baldur Gates 1 & 2, Thief 1 & 2, Deus Ex, and Planescape Torment are all PC classics I think everyone should play at least once (looks like I need to rebuy these games, need to relive those memories).

Anybody psyched up for BioShock?
 
[quote name='Kyo']Fallout 1 & 2, System Shock 1 & 2, Baldur Gates 1 & 2, Thief 1 & 2, Deus Ex, and Planescape Torment are all PC classics I think everyone should play at least once (looks like I need to rebuy these games, need to relive those memories).

Anybody psyched up for BioShock?[/QUOTE]

BioShock is my most anticipated game for this year, or really any year since Deus Ex 2 came out. It's one of those games that's why I play games.

Regarding the other games you listed, for me I'd put System Shock 2 and Deus Ex in there (never had a chance to play the original), but I have to admit I didn't like Fallout or Thief 1 that much. I played them WAY after they came out though, so that may have hurt them for me. I still like Thief WAY better than Metal Gear Solid 3 though (ugh that game stunk IMO) .
 
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