There are many parallels drawn to Planescape: Torment. I can see where those are coming from, but I disagree. Expect nothing like P:T (which was a great game, too) except that it's text heavy as well. Even more text-heavy. The plot and the setting is innovative and but different from P:T, party interaction is not half as complex or deep, the way the text and the dialogs are presented is something completely new. Same goes for the attributes. Pros: - Innovative and for the most parts well executed skill and dialog mechanics, for example how you can influence a dialog's outcome - Deep lore and complex dialog trees, which – combined with the broad variety of attributes – encourages multiple playthroughs - Great writing - An interesting world you move in - Nice arts and moody soundtrack - A nice and unconventional story with some twists. Not as deep or as stunning as P:T I'ld say, but it keeps you going. Cons: - All the walking is a bit tiresome in the end - Sometimes you have to move through too many loading screens (especially a balcony which becomes important later in the game) - Encourages save scumming. I'ld have preferred fixed thresholds. If you're good with hand eye coordination, you're just pointlessly frustrated if screw up a shot. And if you just suck with that coordination, you'll just re-load until it finally works out, breaking the immersion. - Unforseeable dead-ends are possible. Not like "entering a dungeon without a sword" but more like "being out of money in the wrong moment".
An ambitious game. It comes with a thoughtful, deep, and philsophical story, atmospheric graphic and sound, and a okay-ish gameplay. While the primary focus of this game is not on being scary, it's still quite creepy. Clearly recommanded for everybody who seeks more than just a possibility to kill time!
The game start intriguing, but soon it become slow and more and more cliché. The ending is just as generic and stupid at it possibly could be. (I know there's an alternative ending, but I doubt it's more satifying). The puzzles involve lots of backtracking and are incredible obscure. The interface, especially for dialogs, becomes a nuissance fast, since you'll end up with unskippable repeated dialogs over and over again. Even the presentation of the events is cringeworthy. (Slight spoilers following:) A monster-spider that is not capable of climing over a close edge, an old military who loses a fight because it starts in a cutscene where he suddenly does not pay attention anymore for the opponent who is shouting that he'll gonna kill him, a weird multidimensional space that drives people mad except the hero, because he says: "No, I have to stay clear!" – well, what a brillant idea! Besides the somewhat clunky start nothing was enjoyable in this game. I don't get the average rating. Must be insane amount of nostalgia.
For all the positive aspects, read the other reviews. Most of it is true. But nevertheless, the difficulty renders this game almost unplayable. Very early in the game you will find yourself surrounded by areas you can't conquer, or, if you are lucky, only with heavy losses. So you might want to try different approaches, or rewind one wrong click that cost you the combat, but this game forces you to play on iron mode. You can't even restart the whole mission. So in the beginning it's really hard work to capture 2 or maybe 3 areas... if you did EVERYTHING right and had the luck on your side. And after, maybe after 10 turns, the enemy just crushes you. At least that happend to me. It's feel quite dull. In the early game your options are limited, you heavy depend on luck, and you won't even have a chance to retry. On "Beginner" difficulty. Due to that, not really recommended.
The main game is a good, though not overwhelming classic RPG with a great character and skilling system but an average story and quite a clunky crafting system. You might play it, it's fun, but you might skip it aswell if you're short on time. BUT! There is no excuse for not playing the expansion Mask of the Betrayer. The story is awesome, the atmosphere excels most RPGs I've played in my long gaming history, the voice acting is pristine, the encounters are varied and interesting. Additional to that you have real choices with serious consequences to ake, which not only lead to a different party and a different outcome, but also to different combat styles. Mask of the Betrayer has been often compared to Planescape: Torment, and while that might be wrong in many aspects, it will leave you stunned in just the same way.
I have to agree with Gregsylvanias comment - for the most time it's not a game but a pain in the a**: - The puzzles are ridiculous, consisting of pixel hunting, try-and-error, flavored with time limits later on. - Not enough, there are dead ends where you simply lack the health or the items (!) to continue. - The controls, especially for the inventory and the fights, are terribly clunky. This makes the try-and-error sessions mentioned above even more annoying. - The special effects resemble a b-movie from the 60ies. It's an old game, alright, but even with pixel-art from this time it would look more believable and not as awkward as it actually does. - The story is stupid, forced and illocial for the most part. Okay, here's the good part: - When you discover Harvest the first time or watch the very last scenes, the story has it's moments. So, after you've been warned, you still might consider to get a walkthrough and give this game a try - but you should be willing to deal with lot's of clumsiness and frustration.
