DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED EITHER GAME.

Let's see if I missed any.

- In both games, the player character has a great power which can be used however the player desires.

- This power/curse is related to the protagonist missing their soul in both games.

- In both games, the initial, main goal is to find out the source of your power/curse and perhaps cure it.

- In both games, becoming one with your soul fixes everything, although this alone isn't the cure the world needs in Mask of the Betrayer.

- Kaelyn the Dove and her resemblance to Fall-From-Grace. Both have some similar personality traits although both are opposites; one a succubus, one a half-celestial.

- A character that serves as an anchor to evil; the talking book in Planescape, and One-of-Many in Mask of the Betrayer.

- One-of-Many seems to be a twist on Planescape's "Many-as-One" although the similarities stop at the name, sort of like Akachi the Betrayer and Trias the Betrayer.

- In both games, the player encounters a night hag that was imprisoned within a maze by the "local authorities."

- The Wall of the Faithless is reminiscent of the Pillar of Skulls from Planescape: Torment.

I must be missing some.

I have just installed both games. Haven't played either before. Does it mean I should play Planescape first?

Nah, they are very different between themselves.

The main reason behind the story references is the fact of the writers on both of them (and that is good, because Mask of the betrayer is truly good, in difference to the original campaign and the other expansion).

By the way, both games have very different mechanics, Planescape is in the D&D 2nd edition (yet, don't care too much) meanwhile the nwn2 is in the 3.5 edition plus the expansion ins the epic setting.

Thanks, I will play NWN 2 first as I played a bunch of NWN premium modules earlier in the year so moving to 3.5 shouldn't be too difficult.

Uh oh. I guess my spoiler warning in the thread title isn't enough. At least I was vague.

Play whichever you like. NWN 2 is a natural evolution from NWN 1. Improved in almost every regard, although 1 actually has more weapon categories (not that this is a drastic benefit or anything). Mask of the Betrayer is a direct continuation of the base game, so play it after, importing your character to it. The story is almost entirely separate though.

Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir are the best campaigns included with the game I think, although the base game and Mysteries of Westgate are very good too, both better than any module I've played.

I already know the general story and background of Planescape Torment. I didn't read the list at all, it was just the title that caught my eye as these two games are on my next to play list.

Sometimes I wish I could experience these games for the first time again. Good luck with Planescape: Torment, you're going to need it since it's a crashfest. We really need an Enhanced Edition, or better yet a community made remake for NWN 2 just like Baldur's Gate Reloaded and Icewind Dale NWN 2. If someone made that I'd take two weeks off to play it!

Thanks for all your insight on these games. One thing that has annoyed me about NWN 2 OC is that I've found out there is only 1 item with permanent haste and it is incompatible to the fighter character i'm using.

Was the original Planescape a crashfest on XP or is it the GOG release?

I've decided I have put these games on hold for long enough and will try to play BG and icewind Dale in the coming months as well.
How does BG Reloaded stack up against the original and the Enhanced Edition? And what are your thoughts of Icewind Dale NWN 2 compared to the original?

I tried to get into planescape but I couldn't. Now I'm going to finish NWN expansions and wait until that sword coast legends release and see what it's about. But I agree if planescape had a EE I'd try it again.

Sorry for the late response. IWD - NWN 2 is 100% faithful to the original, even using the original "cutscenes" and music and voice clips. Maps are the same but 3D, and you get NWN 2's gameplay which in my opinion is a huge improvement (as is 3D immersion).

Baldur's Gate Reloaded is also supposed to be 100% faithful but I haven't played it yet.

I never could understand all the hate against the OC of NWN2. I thought it was a very good D&D campaign, sure a lot of cliché, but overall the story is solid fantasy with a lot of good content, nice twists, great gameplay features that are well embedded in the plot itself. It lacks the depth and moral stand of things like MotB (which to me wasn't *all* that great) or Torment (which was awesome), but I don't think a story necessarily needs to be like that, it can have a lesser scope or more straightforward themes, as long as it's properly well written. And NWN2's OC definitely was.

My big, big, big, BIG issue with the OC was the fact that all the Toolset was modeled only for the campaign (and the campaign was too simple), meanwhile Bioware's NWN1 the Toolset was very universal and the OC was only a simple example of how to use it (And there were many things not used in the OC but left for the community) and this hit in the community for developing new adventures at the beginning, plus the cliches in the history as you already stated, the fact Bishop and Casamivr didn't kill between themselves (meanwhile Viconia and Keldorn will do it years before ) or even Casamivir OK status with a demon's dealer were example of poor improvements in narrative, the gnome was a bad copy of Deekin (come on, both of them are Bards!) which was a so-so copy of a BG2 character. and the endings (though the evil ending of the first expansion is the most WTH one)

Worse, the interesting plots (like the Sorceress and wizard NPC conflicts) were cutted and never released.
And the githyanki defeat was poor in my opinion (yeah, I understand, you will never kill a important Faerun character in a videogame like the Lich Queen, yet they come and leave too suddenly). In conclusion, NWN1 OC and NWN2 history are bad because they are inferior to those already told in the BG series (Note 1), the big (and unexpected) surprise was the Mask of the betrayer which broken this "standard". However, for NWN1 Bioware didn't tried to sold the history but the Toolset, meanwhile NWN2 tried to sold the history with a poor and complex toolset for the community.

Note 1: Ok, BG2 Throne of Bhaal can be seen as simplistic however was told years before than NWN2. A good point for the NWN's games: you don't start the campaign killing rats.