Note: This is a review of the original version of the game. Planescape: Torment is a heavily story-focused RPG. It's got a weird yet fascinating world to explore, a great story, excellent writing (in most places), and some of the best pre-rendered graphics you'll find in a game. The world, characters, and story are where the game excels. It's a truly alien world, but the game is excellent at giving you just enough exposition to fill you in, without it really feeling like an exposition dump. Throughout the game, you'll also find allies to recruit, and each companion has their own backstory and unique abilities; I found myself really becoming attached to the characters and their quirks as the adventure went on. The main quest is generally linear, but has a lot of reactivity. Many quests have multiple solutions, and the choices available to you often depend on your character build, or even on other quests you have and have not done. It would definitely be worth replaying the game with a different character build or with different companions. There are also a lot of optional quests to seek out, and it's very rewarding to do; in addition to earning experience points and unique items, the optional quests really provide a lot of information on the world and characters of Planescape. Built on the same engine used for Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, P:T plays similarly. Exploration and combat are both in real-time, though you can pause combat at any time to use items, cast spells, or give orders. It is here where Planescape: Torment suffers a bit. Unlike with BG and ID, there is little in the way of tactics, and most battles end up with a bunch of people massed in the middle of the screen; total chaos. Even so, the combat is not horrible, and it's worth putting up with it to play the game. Highly recommended!
There really isn't another game like Diablo. Sure, there are a lot of "Diablo clones," but these games are actually clones of Diablo II and play nothing like the first Diablo game. In comparison to Diablo II and its many clones, Diablo is much slower and more deliberate, and sometimes feels like playing a survival horror game. Powerful loot is very rare, and you'll probably be using much of the same equipment for much of the game. Finally, there really is no concept of a "character build," because of how rare powerful equipment is and due to the lack of any kind of "skill tree." Like the classic roguelikes, you just have to roll with what you find. The game excels in atmosphere, and no game in the sub-genre has topped it in this area. The graphics are simple but still look good today. The star of the show, however, is the audio. The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic and chilling, and the sound effects are memorable and unique. At only 10 hours to complete the game with a single character, it's definitely worth a play to check it out. Highly recommended!
Icewind Dale is an absolutely fantastic RPG, but you need to know what it is before going in. The game is extremely linear, with you going from one dungeon to the next while operating out of a hub area. It can also be a very difficult game, unless you know how Advanced Dungeons & Dragons works. Finally, although the writing is excellent, the plot isn't very exciting. --- If you are fine with all that, this game will give you tons of enjoyment. It has some of the greatest dungeon gameplay in any RPG out there. The dungeons range from tiny linear caves to massive nonlinear complexes with multiple goals to accomplish in any order. Every encounter is hand placed (outside of the random battles you can encounter when resting), and there are great, thrilling battles with clever enemy placement all throughout the game. One complaint I had with Baldur's Gate is that several of the tougher encounters seemed like you were meant to stumble upon them, die, reload, and then prepare based on what you learned while dying. In contrast, I felt that Icewind Dale was balanced enough that you can really react to the flow of battle as it occurs; it feels very satisfying to turn around what seems like a hopeless battle into a win through careful use of abilities and spells. Special mention must be made of the overall atmosphere of the game. The graphics, sound, and wonderful soundtrack all come together to make you feel like you are truly adventuring in the snowy north. It is probably one of the most atmospheric games out there. --- Playing on "Normal" difficulty, the game and its two expansion packs took just over 60 hours to complete, and I loved every minute. Highly recommended!
I am reviewing the original version of Baldur's Gate w/ Tales of the Sword Coast expansion here, which is included as a bonus game if you purchase the Enhanced Edition (I've yet to play the EE). Baldur's Gate is an excellent "traditional" style party-based RPG full of exploration, party building, and questing, based on the venerable Advanced Dungeons & Dragon rules. The twist back when BG1 was first released was that the combat was in real-time, instead of turn-based as in previous games based on AD&D. BG1 also had exceptional graphics when it was released, which was of course a selling point back then. How about now? It's fantastic. I have always preferred turn-based combat, and so I have had trouble getting into BG1 over the years. However, it finally clicked on my latest attempt (started last year), and I found myself getting addicted to the game. It contains a truly massive world to explore, full of hidden quests, characters, and equipment; thrilling combat that can sometimes become a bit frustrating but allows for tactics that would simply not have been possible in the classic AD&D Gold Box games; and a fun story that keeps you interested over the 70 hours or so it will take to complete the game. So, why not five stars? There are a couple things bringing the experience down. First is the inconsistent writing. Dialog related to the main story is all written quite well, but the dialog in the optional content is just awful. More importantly, some of the mandatory "boss" encounters can be a massive increase in difficulty if you haven't prepared ahead of time... which is impossible on your first playthrough, so you'll probably have to die and reload a few times to figure out what to do. On the other hand, the game is so open-ended and massive that you can always choose to put a difficult encounter aside and go explore or do some quests elsewhere. All in all, BG1 completely deserves its status as a classic of the genre!
The game is extremely picky about your hardware, and if you are unlucky enough to not have the right mixture of hardware, the game will error out while loading. My system: Intel dual core 1.6 ghz integrated intel graphics 945 2 GB RAM Win XP Not an amazing system, but more than enough to run this game. If you've got a similar system, think carefully before purchasing!
The firs thing that should strike you about these games is how well they have aged. The interface is friendly (there is no better automap out there), the graphics are colorful and charming, and the soundtracks are very evocative. The game are addictive like all great games are- you want to keep playing just to explore that one last piece missing on your map, but doing so leads to another area and before you know it hours have passed. Don't let the age of these games fool you!
