Planescape Torment: Am I doing something wrong?

[Continuity]

I'm hearing a lot of excuses for the game like "You're not giving it a fair chance", "You're expecting modern inventory management out of a very old game", "You don't

I'm hearing a lot of excuses for the game like "You're not giving it a fair chance", "You're expecting modern inventory management out of a very old game", "You don't understand the D&D system, so..."
I quite frankly don't accept these kind of excuses. Maybe the game was great for its time, but if people are genuinely having a very hard time putting up with the game, that simply means that like Deus Ex or Half-Life, it hasn't aged particularly well for every audience. Not many first-time gamers today would really like to try out Deus Ex's RPG system.

I think I, too, am going to be giving up this game. Maybe I'll watch an LP that goes through the big events, but I've had a lot of the same complaints about inventory management and incomprehensible combat.

Well you dOnt have to accept the excuses, after all its only you that's missing out, makes no difference to me if you play them or not and to be Frank if you're going to whine about it I'd rather you didn't play them.

Plus not every game needs to be suitable for a first time gamer. That's like saying les miserables is a rubbish novel because 7th graders struggle to read it.

 

[Katana314]

Well you dOnt have to accept the excuses, after all its only you that's missing out, makes no difference to me if you play them or not and to be Frank if you're going to whine about it I'd rather you didn't play them.

Plus not every game needs to be suitable for a first time gamer. That's like saying les miserables is a rubbish novel because 7th graders struggle to read it.

GODDAMN, why do people express their OPINIONS on a FORUM?
I'm expressing the same frustrations as the OP, and you target me specifically? The whole thread is about finding P:T difficult. Don't be difficult yourself.

PS. I'm not a first-time gamer. I've beaten plenty of RPGs like Chrono Trigger, FF7, Mass Effect, Oblivion, etc.

 

[Continuity]

PS. I'm not a first-time gamer. I've beaten plenty of RPGs like Chrono Trigger, FF7, Mass Effect, Oblivion, etc.

You specifically said "Not many first-time gamers today would really like to try out Deus Ex's RPG system.", I was responding to that comment when I said what I did about first time gamers.

And I only picked your post to reply to because its at the bottom of the thread and I was posting from an Iphone, so convenience rly.

Perhaps you can see my perspective though, it gets annoy after a while when threads keep coming up about old classic games being difficult to get into... thats just the price of entry I'm afraid.

 

[Nenad]

Heh, Zhukov, I also didn't like Torments' gameplay...

And it didn't get better for me... it got worse, nearly made me stop playing the game near the end, had to use a trainer. But I did learn from it, and here's my advice... buy all the potions you can. Who needs money anyway?

While I did notice some flaws with it, the great story made me completely numb to all downsides of the game. [small]Still my number one story in any media.[/small]

Its not for everyone and its not the best game ever but if it was a novel it would be a classic it just had the misfortune to be a game instead and therefore hampered by its gameplay

And now it is a novel! [http://www.amazon.com/Planescape-Torment-Ray-Vallese/dp/0786915277] Wait... novels? [http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html]

To the pile of praise that PS:T gets I would like to add this: It's the most philosophical game I played. Reading the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon was as interesting as reading about Kants' philosophy.

This is a personal preference, but I think that stories are the most important part of any medium (you know how they say TV, books, games etc. are storytelling mediums) and as such gameplay in games should complement the story. Yup, there was not much combat in Torment, but that's because the story was like that. The game didn't need any more or any less combat because all the combat made sense story-wise.

 

[Hyper-space]

I wish there was some version, where the combat was simply DONE WITH, as in, not there so i could enjoy the story and characters.

Does anyone know of any mods for this kind of stuff? i am thinking of trying to find cheats for the game and just put god-mode so i can focus on what makes this game good.

 

[EvilPicnic]

If you dont mind a restart, pile your character points into intel and wisdom rather than strengh or dexterity then you can talk your way out of the fights 9/10 times and just enjoy the story. Also if you have a high constituation your health regenerates so you wont need healing items so much

Yup: the complete opposite of your standard crpg stat dump. It's one of those games where it's actually better to avoid the fights where possible, and and certain story options are only available if your Wis/Int is high enough.

Also, if you do find yourself fighting. Make liberal use of 'pause'. It's a game adapted from turn-based d&d rules, you're not expected to always fight the battles in real-time.

But don't you just love the death mechanic? That you character did actually die, and is now revived. I still think that's just brilliant, and is something modern games can learn from.

As for the inventory: it's a place where the game shows it's age. Other rpgs from the same time such as Baldur's Gate are the same.

Stick with it: combat gets more complicated and rewarding when you have a full party with access to mages and other options etc., but it's the story that is the backbone of PS:T and it does pay off.

 

[Shilkanni]

The gameplay is fucking excruciating.

It feels like I'm trying to play Fallout: Terrible Interface Edition.

I feel like Fallout 1 also fits this description, I have been playing it recently and it feels like so much work to do even the most basic things (especially moving and combat).

I had always got the impression that it was all about the setting/story/dialogue in Planescape so I don't think you're doing anything wrong.

 

[Keava]

Keep in mind P:T sold terribly in it's time. Only few years later it became a cult classic, and like with every cult classic it's not for everyone. If your RPG gaming started just in last years or with jRPGs, then yeah, you're in for a disappointing experience.

The reason why it is often regarded as best/one of best RPG videogames is because of how it showed the unique setting of Planescape (discontinued by WotC several years ago), the plot and the characters with their personalities..and of course the music. It never was supposed to be genre-changing game, it was supposed to be heavily story oriented classic RPG and it achieved that goal in 101%.

 

[Tallim]

Heh, Zhukov, I also didn't like Torments' gameplay...

And it didn't get better for me... it got worse, nearly made me stop playing the game near the end, had to use a trainer. But I did learn from it, and here's my advice... buy all the potions you can. Who needs money anyway?

While I did notice some flaws with it, the great story made me completely numb to all downsides of the game. [small]Still my number one story in any media.[/small]

Its not for everyone and its not the best game ever but if it was a novel it would be a classic it just had the misfortune to be a game instead and therefore hampered by its gameplay

And now it is a novel! [http://www.amazon.com/Planescape-Torment-Ray-Vallese/dp/0786915277] Wait... novels? [http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html]

To the pile of praise that PS:T gets I would like to add this: It's the most philosophical game I played. Reading the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon was as interesting as reading about Kants' philosophy.

This is a personal preference, but I think that stories are the most important part of any medium (you know how they say TV, books, games etc. are storytelling mediums) and as such gameplay in games should complement the story. Yup, there was not much combat in Torment, but that's because the story was like that. The game didn't need any more or any less combat because all the combat made sense story-wise.

For those novels, and this might benefit some people, the second link is the fan made novel which is 99% just the dialogue from the game word for word with some flavour text for setting the scene and important actions added in. It's very good because it IS Planescape.

The "official" novel is absolute rubbish, don't go near it.

 

[Weaver]

Being a 12 year old PC RPG there are a few things you absolutely need to expect:
1) The game will be hard.
2) the UI will be old.
3) The game will be complicated and require a lot of management.
4) You must read (and if possible, memorize) the manual.

If you can't deal with these 4 things you will not enjoy the game.

 

[ResonanceGames]

Before it came out, Feargus and the rest of Black Isle were promoting it as primarily an adventure game with some combat, while Icewind Dale was a combat game with a little bit of story, and Baldur's Gate was somewhere in the middle.

It's perfectly possible to enjoy all those games immensely if you go into them with that in mind. Play Torment on the easiest difficulty and avoid combat when possible. That's really how the game is meant to be played, but I think they were afraid of alienating the (then) large mass of dungeon-crawler-Might-and-Magic types, so they arbitrarily threw in more fighting than the game really needed.

 

[octafish]

If you are fighting a lot, then yes, you are playing Torment wrong.

 

[mrhateful]

I don't know if this has been said, but Torment has some of the best/funniest spells ever made.. some of the high level spells will show a video of all kinds of randomness happening its really a treat to watch once you get them..


Also Torment for me was tedious for about 15 hours then it became some of the best RPG experience I've ever had.

PS: yes wheel menu and no combat log is the worst crap ever, but its a small price to pay.

Because it creates utterly needless fiddling when using the inventory.

For example, just say I have two characters with full inventories and I want to take an item from one character and give equip it to another (a common situation). The process would go as follows:
1) Select receiving character.
2) Get receiving character to drop item.
3) Select giving character.
4) Move desired item from giving character to receiving character.
5) Select receiving character.
6) Equip desired item.
7) Retrieve dropped item.

For comparison, here is how would I do the same thing in Dragon Age's nice shared inventory:
1) Select receiving character.
2) Double-click desired item.
3) Done.

where is the realism in that? DND has always been that each character carried his own items.

 

[Irridium]

Planescape: Torment's gameplay is based on an older, shittier version of the D&D ruleset. Which at the time was the best they had. Yes it sucks, but its there because at the time it was the best. Not the greatest answer or excuse, but there it is.

I'd say stick with it, simply because the story more than makes up for it. Unless you can somehow find a mod that changes the combat for the better. I've searched, but couldn't find anything.

 

[Irridium]

Planescape: Torment's gameplay is based on an older, shittier version of the D&D ruleset. Which at the time was the best they had. Yes it sucks, but its there because at the time it was the best. Not the greatest answer or excuse, but there it is.

I'd say stick with it, simply because the story more than makes up for it. Unless you can somehow find a mod that changes the combat for the better. I've searched, but couldn't find anything.

It's not about the version of the d&d ruleset being bad, it's just how they implemented it into the game.

2nd edition was the shit, btw.

Oh. Well I'll take your word for it then. All I know about D&D rulesets are from what people say about 'em on the internet. Majority seems to love 3.5, and hardly anyone mentions the other sets.