Garod_T's forum posts

Avatar image for Garod_T
Garod_T

25

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

1

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 0

#1 Garod_T
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts
[QUOTE="Sentinel112"] I appreciate clarifying your point of view. But in the end you state it yourself: the reasons listed above are all subjective. Planescape Torment tried to do a parody on the rpg genre: turning established gameplay elements on their heads. That is what parodies do. That is what I was expecting. No name protagonist. Rats being dangerous enemies in packs. JRPG spell effects. Dieing and reviving. Practically no item customization. Since most rpg's are plagued by fetch quests, Planescape Torment implemented a superlong fetch quest to become a mage. PST is the Monthy Python of the RPG genre. Although it is not as satisfying as it's movie counterpart. The problem is, if you turn all gameplay elements upside down, their is a great risk that it will hurt the gameplay. I could totally mock Rome: Total War and make a parody game of it, but chances are pretty high that if you value the product as a game itself, it will fail immensely. There is a reason why Rome:Total War is so successful. They have got a good recipe for the gameplay. Of course it can still be tuned to make the overall experience better. But not holding to that recipe and you start from scratch again. That is what happens in PST. There isn't much you can do in PST. You are more or less railroaded throughout the entire campaign (with a small degree of freedom in Sigil). The combat is limited. Since there is practically no item customization, there is a huge aspect of strategy that fades away. Spells are limited. Some boss fights are even unbalanced. Combat can actually be entirely avoided by just running through drab areas and areas and more areas. The rest of the gameplay is just coded "if statements". I don't play games for their stories. I honestly could care less about them. It is foolish to hope to gain some intellectual stimulation out of them. At this moment I am reading Mein Kampf and a Treatise of Electricity and Magnetism. Those books are enlightening. Not PST. You figure out from the start that the main character had done horrible deeds in the past. They literally spoil everything in their first cutscene. Then you are set on a journey in a game which does not take itself too serious being a parody and all. The only thing you don't know at the start is what the exact cause was to the partial amnesia, the main char suffers from. Which is then later explained by Ravel. Maybe that was a high point for some. In the end I don't think there is that much meat to the story. I was literally bored throughout the entire game. Practically non of the npc's could grip me. I hate it how they force you all this juvenile dialogue down your troat. The less NPC's speak, the better. In my case, it was just a boring slog. The equivalent of doing a factory job. I am still wondering what I got out of the game. No enjoyment at least. Only time wasted. And frustration. Mostly frustration because of all the disappointment I had after being hyped up due to all fans that deify it like it is the golden grail of gaming.

Youch, that's a painfull worldview you have that there is nothing intellectually stimulating in game stories. Do you hold the same true for stories in general or even Art, since Games in a sense are Art? Consider Impressionism Monet or Debussy and what people thought about them in their time or the Brothers Grimmm and many more. Games are art, you can't deny it, it is or at least was an expression of it's creator and calling it otherwise without knowing the intention of the creator is ignorant at best. In the gaming Industry PST was a change from the norm if you are reffering to PST in that sense I don't disagree with you when you refference Monty Python. Although Monty Python wasn't just a "parody" it's surreal comedy combined with sarcasm and a healthy dose of social critizism was in fact highly intelectual and I dare say "enlightening". But I digress.... PST's goal was simple, it wanted to entertain by providing an engaging story with interesting and multilayered characters much like any fantasy book. It wasn't writen to be enlightening or worldchanging but to relieve the bordom and tediousness of normal everyday life. Comparing Rome Total War to PST is just too absurd though since the games are to vastly different to draw a comparisson. Asside from that don't forget that there is a 5 year difference between the making of each game which in the gaming industry at that time is a major difference (windows 98 vs Windows XP).. Although if you want to measure the success of both games I venture to say that PST has a larger following than Rome Total War. In the end I believe you only get out of something as much as you are wiling to put into it. Perhaps you weren't willing to look deep enough into PST or it simply didn't interest you and your taste lies elswhere. Perhaps it is as you say that you are intellectually gifted, since many intellectually gifted people are socially stunted due to their difficulty to relate to ordinary people and thus have issues with the emotional side of things and that is why you didn't relate to the characters.
Avatar image for Garod_T
Garod_T

25

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

1

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 0

#2 Garod_T
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts
I guess one other thing to say is, if you compare it to modern games, there are no fetch quests, no filler content. But you are right, I guess the best thing about Torment was the interaction between the companions. p.s. I'm still waiting on a reply Sentinel? Would be a shame to make such a comment and then not follow up yourself with an explanation after "demanding" a reason from me.
Avatar image for Garod_T
Garod_T

25

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

1

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 0

#3 Garod_T
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts
So Sentiel, you never explained your point of view? If you\ve played the game I'd like to hear your comments on it, or rather give me an example of a game with a better storyline and elaborate why you think that one is better? I've been playing games for the better part of 25-30 years (started with a VC20, Atari, Commodore 64, Amiga etc etc) so have played my fair share of games. For some reason Torment has always retained my interest, I'm actually playing it again just right now and it's just great like the other umpteen times I've played it.
Avatar image for Garod_T
Garod_T

25

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

1

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 0

#4 Garod_T
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts
[QUOTE="Sentinel112"] Care to explain why you think Torment has the best story ever? I'd like to hear your reasoning. Keep in mind I am probably the guy who is the least impressed with practically anything. I am over critical. But that is the price I pay (among many other things) being highly gifted. I know one thing: gameplay wise PST was a big fat ZERO. It seems some people do not know what constitutes a good game in the first place. A glaring example is Dear Esther. I hear people claiming it is such a wonderful game while I am scratching my head; wondering; where exactly is the gameplay in all of this?

It's hard to define Sentinel, I guess it's something personal, it's like some people like fantasy books others like SF books, some like Jordan others Feist and each one will tell you that theirs is the best. For me it's a game I played when it just came out and I was a young and it had a profound impact on my gaming experience. I've played PST over the years again and again and I love it each time. Call it nostalgia? Fact though is that I'm not alone in that, if you read many of the comments on PST and ask allot of the folks they will say the same. I guess that means they have similar tastes than mine and the story the game told all gripped them and didn't let them go. I loved the characters and the dialogue between them, they were each very individual, distinct and I loved reading about each and every one of them to find out who they are. Now you might say that's not part of the story, but for me it is. Also I really enjoyed the concept of the story that you are waking up on a slab in the mortuary, and didn't know who you were. Along the way you learned good and bad things about you which gave you a rough idea of your history. Finding out your history in that world and the impact you've had on it was great. The relationship you had with Ravel was really interesting. The whole game had this blurry sense of good and bad and when you got to know more for example about Ravel your perception on her changed. I'm not quite sure what your beef is with the gameplay, I'm not sure how old you are, but if you played this game when it came out asside from some glitches in it, it was a very solid game. Would like to hear your oppinion on why you thought it was so horrible? but then again if you are a bit younger than me and have grown up with a next gen of games I can understand that statement. I guess it's one of the reasons why I want to see it overhauled so badly.
Avatar image for Garod_T
Garod_T

25

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

1

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 0

#5 Garod_T
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts
I still think that Planescape lends itself more for an overhaul because of the elements it contains. The party characters where honestly better in Torment than they were in BG and the theme lends itself really nicely for a follow up as a mature title. Story wise I still think Torment is the best game ever made by far hands down and by a longshot. If they do use kickstart I am 100% sure to donate to that one. Just wish I had the big amounts to spend to get the nice perks :) but a 25 or 50 won't break the bank. I honestly didn't care all that much for Ice Wind Dale, the story I thought was thin. BG thieves were indeed way overpowered. I remember running arround in multiplayer where you could do combat with one another and with 3x backstab single shot kill basically anything. So if they iron that out it might turn into a more fun game.
Avatar image for Garod_T
Garod_T

25

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

1

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 0

#6 Garod_T
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts

So I was browsing through some of the pages and I read that there was going to be an overhaul of Baldurs Gate ( Baldurs Gate III). It seems that they are also doing a Torment Overhaul. Which one would you like to see first? Link to Torment Overhaul http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Overhaul-Games-Want-Do-PlaneScape-Torment-HD-Remake-40797.html

Avatar image for Garod_T
Garod_T

25

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

1

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 0

#7 Garod_T
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts

I had been waiting for this game since I heard about it roughly 2 years ago. I played the weekend beta of the templars last weekend and I have to say I was very dissapointed. The controlls are not intuitive and look completly out of place. The world design also isn't the greatest. If I compare it to other mmorpg's like LOTRO it just seems completly unfinished, unrefined and dull. The designers were talking about making it look and feel like you were at those places in reality but it just falls really short. The dialogue in the game was ok but nothing spectacular. Unfortunately also the fighting is silly, especially the shotgun for example which sends little pixles out in a spray is not something I had expected from a game released in these times. Creating your own character was also a letdown, there were too few choices to really make an individual character and the faces you could make all looked bland and forgettable.

I was really wanting and hoping this to be a great game, and was looking forward to another game where you didn't have "classes" and had more choice yourself on what you wanted. (loved the old Ultima Online way of using skills where you got better the more you used it and you had).

All in all I was very dissapointed with what I've seen so far from the Secret World, I guess I'll keep waiting for something better....