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The Impact of Planescape Torment

Posted by Zonk on from the a-talking-skull-as-your-best-friend dept.

The ever interesting Escapist has a piece up examining just why Planescapes\ Torment is such a perennial favorite among gamers and designers alike. From the article: "The strangest, and one of the least successful RPGs from Black Isle (the company that brought you the Icewind Dale series), Planescape: Torment, which was released in 1999, took a risk by using the alternate Dungeons and Dragons campaign of Planescape, a not-really-fantasy, not-really-futuristic world that's mostly defined as unstable and bizarre. Strange and unruly dimensions intersect at the city of Sigil, where most of the game takes place, and your character, portentously called The Nameless One, wakes up in a mortuary with amnesia, a battered shell of a body that cannot die, and just one friend: a flying, talking skull. And the game gets stranger from there."

5 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Look at me, I'm on the internets! by Asmor · · Score: 4, Informative

    Planescape. Singular. If you get confused, look at the huge header on the link you posted, or even in the block of text you copy-pasted.

  2. Re:Ok, you got me on it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    http://static.thepiratebay.org/downloadtorrent/324 5869.torrent/Planescape_Torment_(Black_Isle_Studio s).3245869.TPB.torrent

  3. Re:Ok, you got me on it. by mbourgon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Alternatively, you _could_ go buy it. Best Buy still carries it, for $5. Comes bundled with another game, IIRC.

    --
    "Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
  4. Re:Atmospheric depth by BlackCobra43 · · Score: 2, Informative

    You could get through the original Fallout without a single fight, if youy used your Speech, Science and Sneak skills appropriately. The game eve nrewarded you for taking this approach - for instance, you gain a 6,000 exp bonus if you manage to make it to floor 4 of the Military Base without triggering the alarm.

    Fallout 2 comes close, as the final boss fight is mandatory - although you do not need to participate in the fight at all, since you could convince Sargeant Granite's squad to assist you.

    --
    I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
  5. Played it already? Try again...you're missing out by dtolman · · Score: 3, Informative
    One of the amazing things about this game is that it is so deep and complex, that you can play it again, make similiar choices, and because of that complexity uncover things you never did the first time.

    I played through it twice (a few years apart), and encountered characters, plots, and levels I never even saw in the first play through. My wife then played it, and uncovered yet again characters, plots and levels I had never encountered in both play throughs.

    Truely amazing game - memorable not just because of the depth, the supporting characters you could care (at least a little) about...but for being one of the few CRPG's where you can actually ROLE play, instead of hack/slash. Only games that I've played that have come close in the past few years are KOTOR I/II.