Ok, so Planescape Torment is a fantastic game and I will try my best to sum it up without giving away too much of the story. It is a game set in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons universe of the Planes. The story is very well written and the lore of the universe is equally fantastic. So…. Planescape Torment is an epic and engrossing tale that takes place within the Planes part of the AD&D universe, hence the name Planescape. Torment is referring to the story about a man who has lost everything in life and now lays dead on a slab in the mortuary within Sigil. That is until he returns to life and discovers that he is not quite dead. He looks at his body and sees he is covered with scars and tattoos, only thing is, he has forgotten everything about himself, including his name. He henceforth is dubbed The Nameless One and so starts his journey through the world of Planescape Torment in order to discover what has happened to himself. Now if that doesn’t peak your interest, perhaps the rest of the world might. The Planes is one of the most interesting settings within AD&D, mostly because of how unusual and strange one plane can appear to the next. Yes, there is not one plane of existence but many, and throughout Planescape you will get to interact with a few of these planes. Most of the game centers around the city of Sigil which can be considered the center of the planes. It is governed by the Lady of Pain, an expressionless being who is considered to be a deity to the Hive Dwellers. (The people who reside in Sigil) The City of Sigil is also referred to the city of doors since making even a simple action can cause a magical doorway to open which can lead you to another part of the planes, and such doors do open. Also along The Nameless One’s journey, he meets a host of curious characters of various alignments classes and backgrounds who can join him on his journey. From a brash witty talking floating skull named Morte to a Githzerai who follows a strict code to conduct himself, you will have an assortment of characters with different personalities to keep conversations interesting. :-) The NPC’s too can have great personalities that really adds to the immersion of the world of the Planes. In the Planes, pretty much anything goes and just about anything can happen. The NPCs of Sigil reflect this way of life through their dialogue and actions. As most RPGs go, there are a large number of NPCs in Sigil who have problems and need someone to help them with their requests. Their requests can be quite odd at times but can reap great rewards. Some quests will only offer you a few items while others will give stat or magic bonuses or more! Random NPCs you meet might seem pointless if you wish to follow the story, but in Planescape, that is not the case. The NPC’s can offer you useful advice for advancing through your quest, helping you piece together parts of your past, make quicker advances for you through the game, etc… Talk to people… people!! :-) The combat is in the same style as Baldur’s Gate/Icewind Dale. Turns and actions are taken in real-time by your characters. However, as usual, combat can be paused allowing you to change the actions of your characters, whether it be attacking with a different weapon, selecting a spell to use, using an item or perhaps a special ability. The combat flows pretty well and is quite enjoyable. Additionally, the spells can have some pretty cool effects. The class system used in the game is a bit peculiar. At the outset of the game, you can’t pick the class of the Nameless One. He starts out as a fighter and will stay that way until you find a trainer throughout the game. So for the first few levels of advancement, you genereally level up as a fighter. But later on in the game, you can change classes by have a trainer teach you different skills of that class. The mage class is the only one that users may have difficulty with finding a trainer. The mage trainer is only available to talk to in the second half of the game, and if you’re not careful, he can be killed off during a quest. But believe me, even though the wait is a bit tedious, it is a lot of fun being a mage even if it took some time to get there. I can picture some users not enjoying this class system, but I thought it fit well with the story. Well, there is loads more to the world of Planscape Torment but I feel that talking about it more would only have me revealing too much about the game. Part of the fun of the game is discovering these curious tales and happenings for yourself, at least the first time. And unlike other reviews I have read, I don’t want to give too much of the game away. So buy the game, it is well worth it and you can spend many hours hooked on the world of Planescape. Enjoy! :-)
To start, I already own a CD copy of Age of Wonders that still works on Vista (Fortunately!) so I don't have a need to purchase it here. However, I enjoyed this game so much that I felt it necessary to write a review of it on GOG. I have poured countless hours, nights and days into this seemingly fantastic game. So here goes... The story of Age of Wonders is as follows: The Valley of Wonders is settled by a number of races but is almost wholly controlled by elves. All is peaceful and serene in the Valley of Wonders until one day Humans show up. (Damn Humans!) They enter the valley and wish to settle and claim the resources of everything therein. In doing so, a number of humans go on a rampage and defeat the elf kingdom present there and slay the king. However, the king has two children, Julian and Meandor. Princess Julia was raised as good child and joined a group of good elves who wished to befriend the Humans and other races in order to live in harmony. But her brother, Prince Meandor was still vengeful about the destruction of his father and his kingdom. So he goes and joins the Cult of Storms, a group of dark elves with the vow to eradicate all things human. That starts the story of the game. In the campaign portion of the game, you can choose to play for Good or Evil (Julia or Meandor) which follows two different paths so you never play the same level twice as the different factions. But the story campaign isn't (In my opinion) where the heart of the game lies. Don't get me wrong, the campaign is great, but I just have had more fun choosing a random scenario, picking a race and trying to wipe everything out. Sounds simple right? It is, but fortunately there is a fair amount more to it.... You can pick a scenario(map) from a list of a number of pre-created ones. More than that, you can make your own maps with the build in editor… and who doesn’t love map editors, am I right? :-) After selecting a map you can go on to choose which races you would like to be present in the game (Out of the races available for that map) and select the number of human players and the AI difficulty level. Increasing the difficulty level does actually make the AI a bit smarter. At the lower levels, the AI may flat out ignore you, but at the higher difficulty levels, they will make an effort to build up a decent sized force and take out your cities. After choosing the difficulty level, you can go on to select whether the game will be played as Turn-Based (Where each player makes a move on their turn) or Simultaneous (Where each player makes their move during the same turn). Once that is selected, you go on to select whether or not you would like your Leader present in game. The Leader they are talking about is you. If selected, a unit will be placed in the game for you to control that acts as the sovereign of your kingdom. If he/she dies, you lose. However, the same applies to the other players if you kill their leader. The great thing about adding your leader to the game is that you can create him/her from the start, assigning his various attributes, special abilities and spell spheres. As your leader progresses in the game, he/she will gain experience which in turn allows you to either raise your attributes, add more special abilities or increase your spell-casting power. The special abilities that you can add to your leader range from causing fright on enemies once struck by the leaders attack to being able to conjure up flames each turn. But a great ability to increase is your spell power as it allows you to have more mana and, in turn, cast more powerful spells more often. Your spells that you can cast are based upon which spheres of magic you wish to use during your game. The spheres are pretty typical ones you can imagine; fire, earth, wind, water, etc… Choosing one stops you from being able to choose its opposite however, so choose wisely. If however, you do not select a leader for your game, that doesn’t mean you can’t use magic. You can still recruit heroes that appear randomly during the game which level up in the same way your leader does. Spells are researched based upon control of mana-nodes which are either sphere specific or just generic. The gameplay itself is made up of you building armies and moving them around on the map and proceeding to attack your enemies. When you have your stack of units attack another, the game shifts to a close up view of the battlefield where the combat takes place. This area is represented by the several hexagon tiles surrounding the area of attack and all the units that lied therein. So for example, if you attacked a 1 hexagon city in the game and had units in all the hexes surrounding it, all those units immediately around the area of attack would be present on the battlefield. So you must think of the placement of your stacked armies prior to battle. The battle itself is composed of sequential turns where you must just wipe out the enemy. If you are allied with another kingdom (Yes, there is some diplomacy in the game too, :-) ) and they have units next to the area of attack, they will assist you in defeating the enemy, provided they are at war with the enemy also. There are a number of different races to choose from and play against in the game that all fall under 3 different alignments; Good, Neutral and Evil. Good and Evil will almost always want to kill each other while Neutral can go either way. (Obviously) The end result of the scenario constitutes whether you have completely conquered your enemies or if Allied Victory is selected, if you and your allies enemies are defeated. The scenarios themselves can take a short of long time to complete depending on their size, the AI difficulty and your play style. There have been times where I have spent several hours on one map and didn’t stop at any point during that time. :D All in all, Age of Wonders is a fantastic game with a lot to do, especially for a somewhat dated game. Sure the two sequels have better artwork and sound as well as some new features, but that does not mean that the first should be avoided in the least! It is even somewhat different in gameplay than the sequels. Age of Wonders has its own particular charm, art style and music. It has an awesome and active fan community who are almost always pumping out maps, and I am sure it will please many of those who buy it here. There are probably a number of good features I have forgotten to mention but I guess it would be more interesting for others to see them for themselves. Have fun! :-)
