Planescape: Torment has arrived on GoG

Meh. Still not buying from them again.

Without a doubt, one of the best, if not THE best RPG, of all time.

@GiantGamer One of the best RPGs ever, story wise.

The quick synopsis is you are an immortal. Every time you die, you are reborn, but are reborn as a blank slate.

You start the game with no memories, no companions. You don't know who, where, or what you are. The thing is... people know who you are. Or what you were to them.

To say much more would be ruining it, but it's a great game. Worth the $10 easily.

Isn't this that classic game that's so amazing?
Might grab it

@GiantGamer One of the best written RPGs ever, both in terms of storyline and dialogue.

@GiantGamer
And you call yourself a "GiantGamer"?

@Zelyre

Definitely one of the best games produced: up there with Beyond Good & Evil, Psychonauts, etc. However, I think that for people who do not have any connection to the game, they will be oversold by us fans, and they should just give it a miss unless they just missed PS:T out of some freak accident and are familiar with the other Black Isle RPGs.

Nowadays, instant-respawn is a given. Someone not familiar with Torment is not going to understand how utterly mindblowing it was to play a game where *you couldn't die* (and neither could your companions, really). I literally was telling a friend about it during a recent replay attempt and her response to how you couldn't die was "oh! It's like World of Warcraft!" (headdesk)

The dated graphics are messy (the hi-res mods by gibberlings 3 helps), but again, in a world of cutscenes, are people picking up a 10-year-old game going to be excited by the novel of words crammed into it? People are just going to click through it and not be particularly excited.

It's sad, but I think if you missed Planescape the first time around, you've missed the boat, and coming back to it (especially with the likes of us talking up what an amazing game it is, how well-written it is, how groundbreaking it was) a decade after the fact is not going to pack the same punch.

I agree with Mighty Ponygirl.

Fabulous game that was incredible for its time. But one must take it in context. If you missed it, to play it now will not exude the same feelings that it did in those of us who did play it in its time. (Or shortly thereafter.)

Planescape: Torment is probably my favorite video game of all time. If you haven't played it then you owe it to yourself to give it a try. $10 is a steal.

This is supposed to be an RPG?
I can't even customize my character's hair and skin color.
Almost none of the dialog is voiced I might as well read a book.
Where the hell is the online co-op?
I have to play an ugly male?
Three classes and one race lol.
Where the hell is the "Pharod" I've been looking for two freaking hours how do I turn the quest compass on?
No swords no bows no armor nothing.
I got one NPC that frikkin KISSES enemies to attack them AND SHE ALWAYS MISSES.

RPGs have clearly moved on.

Yes! I actually have the game on some old CDs, but when I wanted to play this a few months ago I discovered that one of the CDs didn't work anymore. Now, problem solved.

@Mighty Ponygirl
I'm not sure I agree with that... after all, PS:T isn't famous because of the graphics or the instant-respawn. It's the narrative, its underlying themes and characters that really shine and I can't think any RPGs since then accomplished that, mostly because no one really tried.

OMFG! MY LIFE IS COMPLETE!

@Mighty Ponygirl I was thinking that, and it makes me sad.

Hardcore gamers in the late 90's, early 2000's were different beasts than they are now.

I was balls out excited to replay FO2 recently, but found it incredibly difficult to readjust to the dated graphics. Unlike something like X-Com, they just didn't age well.

Since there is a widescreen/resolution patch that works, maybe we could label this as:

PLANESCAPE TORMENT HD

That would at least help with the "dated" graphics. The immense amount of text, however? Sadly, you're right. The story is immense, the characters all flawed and well fleshed out, and the plot does not revolve around some world changing cataclysmic event. But the player does have to take all of it in paragraph at a time with no spoken dialogue.

I guess a modern day gamer would sum it up as: TLDR.

I have to admit that the game has gotten pretty dated, particularly with the fixed resolution, but I still have such super fond memories of this. I've been playing Dragon Age lately, and interacting with my companions reminds me of Torment so much.

I want this on steam. I like all my digital content from one giant valve

@howmuchIcarrot

I just want to niggle a little bit -- the underlying story definitely holds up, but will gamers today have the patience to read it? There aren't any real cutscenes to speak of, and only the tiniest bit of voice acting.

And yes -- the instant respawn was one of the groundbreaking things. Chris Avelonne gave a talk at Framework '09 where he detailed all of the things that bothered him about RPGs. Everything from too many swords and elfs (and sexed up succubii) all the way down to breaking up immersive gameplay by forcing someone to reload just because they died. Torment was a blow-by-blow rebuke of those things. We have lost to the memory hole what an obnoxious thing it was to have to reload because you died, because the breakthrough that Torment offered was so quickly adopted as an industry standard for RPGs. [If you want to watch his talk, go to youtube and look up Chris Avellone Design Akido and look for 6/11]

@Mighty Ponygirl
I tried game a few years ago to see this classic that everyone holds in such high regard. I gave it a solid 10 minutes but couldn't get over the graphics. I guess sometimes its just impossible to see something old the way people saw it at the time. I feel the same way about the movie Jaws. Great tension, ruined by a shark that looks hilariously fake by today's standards.

I haven't tried it with the graphics mod, anyone have any insights? Just before I lost my CD's, tried playing it again but the resolution was so brutal on my monitor that I just couldn't tolerate it.

Looking forward to playing it again, but only if the widescreen/graphics mod works with this version of the game.

And a game where you can play as an intelligent/charismatic character and finish it in a completely satisfying way makes this a game for the ages. How many games do you play where you're supposed to use stealth or figure out puzzles the whole way through, only to finish with a cliche run and gun ending or some lame boss battle?

Planescape was the first and only game I can recall that no matter what style of character you chose to play, the game was still satisfying, and the ending sequence still allowed you to play the same character you developed regardless.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod!

I have heard nothing but great things about this...
bout time I played...

Awesome news! I love PT, can't wait to see what else GOG has in store.

I keep hearing about how amazing this game is, particularly the writing, and I'm eager to try it. Unfortunately, the Windows partition on my MacBook hasn't been working properly in over a year. Is there a Mac version of this game?

Updated my journal.

@Mighty Ponygirl If you're having a hard time getting into PS:T and it sounds like a game that interests you, you should probably learn to chill the heck out

@Mighty Ponygirl Who are these "gamers today" that you speak of as if they are one mass?

Gamers IN THE DAY PS:T CAME OUT were not all well read, lit snobs. I can't tell you how many people didn't play role playing games at all because there may be some reading involved.

On the other hand, many gamers today would be more than happy to read dialogue instead of having it spoken.... if the dialogue is worth it.

God? Is that you?