16 réponses à ce sujet

[Thibbledorf26]

I had been trying to find this game for  a long time, because it was hyped as a heavy roleplaying game with real dialogue options. I took the plunge recently and purchased it off Ebay. I am about 6-7 hours in, and it is not living up to my expectations. The roleplaying and dialogue is excellent, but there are several things bugging me:

-people said it is possible to avoid 99% of combat encounters in the game, but there are many random enemies who attack you on sight without initiating dialogue, like bandits.

-the interface is strange and hard to use, lack of travel via world map makes travelling a bit difficult in Sigil. I don't know why they removed the useful quickbar at the bottom of the screen that was there in other IE games. I have to right click, then click on dialogue, then click on morte to talk to him.

-It seems difficult to customize your pc in terms of what kind of weapon you use, class etc. and it is hard to find a variety of items. Training in a new class seems bothersome.  I roleplayed a high int wis con pc, with not much dexterity. I still have no armour besides a +1 ring I found by talking to the insane surgeon lady in the Buried village. My ac is 9. and I get slaughtered in combat. I can't find any armour. The merchant square in sigil had weapons and strange items, but no armour.

The roleplaying is great, but I am missing the ease-of-use and pacing of BG2. Any suggestions about how I can get more out of the game? It is very good but it is also bewildering.

[FalloutBoy]

Thibbledorf26 wrote...
I had been trying to find this game for  a long time, because it was hyped as a heavy roleplaying game with real dialogue options. I took the plunge recently and purchased it off Ebay. I am about 6-7 hours in, and it is not living up to my expectations. The roleplaying and dialogue is excellent, but there are several things bugging me:

First off, the greatness of this game will not be seen 6-7 hours into it. Try to forget whatever you heard about the game and just play it. Don't let whatever hype you have heard ruin the experience.

When I think of PST I do not think "heavy roleplaying with lots of options". It is an interesting story, like a Shakespearean tragedy. The setting and characters and some game mechanics are very unlike any other game. The way the story unfolds makes you want to keep playing, much the same way watching Lost makes you want to keep watching (no haters please, try to focus).

-people said it is possible to avoid 99% of combat encounters in the game, but there are many random enemies who attack you on sight without initiating dialogue, like bandits.

There is a lot of combat in that game that cannot be avoided. You were given wrong info about that too. If you are looking for low combat options in an RPG, I suggest Fallout 1.

-It seems difficult to customize your pc in terms of what kind of weapon you use, class etc. and it is hard to find a variety of items. Training in a new class seems bothersome.  I roleplayed a high int wis con pc, with not much dexterity. I still have no armour besides a +1 ring I found by talking to the insane surgeon lady in the Buried village. My ac is 9. and I get slaughtered in combat. I can't find any armour. The merchant square in sigil had weapons and strange items, but no armour.

There isn't much in the way of armor, per se, but you can buy tatoos that increase your AC. If you are getting beaten in combat, you likely you went somewhere where you shouldn't go yet. The game is not easy. You have to be careful.

The roleplaying is great, but I am missing the ease-of-use and pacing of BG2. Any suggestions about how I can get more out of the game? It is very good but it is also bewildering.

Keep playing. Try to stop comparing it to BG2 and try to forget whatever (incorrect apparently) info you have been told about it. It is a very long game with lots of text. You aren't going to be able to speed through it without missing much of what makes it great.

Modifié par FalloutBoy, 31 décembre 2009 - 02:26 .

[Beerfish]

Whoever told you you could play the game 99% without combat were wrong, same with customization. Great game, one of my favs but it's much like other rpgs in a lot of ways and weaker in some.

[Fleapants]

Bear with the clumsy decade-old interface and enjoy the story. Try to get into the philsophy and what's really being said between the lines; take your time to explore as much of the dialogue and especially your companions as much as possible.

[Default137]

Use your companions for fights, they each have something that makes them super powerful in most of the encounters, Morte for example only has an AC of 2, which when you eventually get him his Litany of Curses, turns him into a nearly unkillable tank.



On most of my playthroughs, my Nameless One just kind of sits back and blows stuff up with spells, between what Dakkon teaches you if you go through the 9 Circles, and just off what you find on the ground, you should be able to destroy everything and anything with very little thought, especially with Morte taking most of the hits.



And the reason the interface is crap is because it was the first Infinty Ward game, it was the one all the others learned from the mistakes of in terms of interface, graphics, and all that other jazz, so some of that stuff is not very well put together.

[FalloutBoy]

Default137 wrote...

And the reason the interface is crap is because it was the first Infinty Ward game, it was the one all the others learned from the mistakes of in terms of interface, graphics, and all that other jazz, so some of that stuff is not very well put together.

Heh. I assume you meant to say Infinity Engine, big difference.  BG was the first. PST was second and was made by a different studio. They made a lot of changes. The devs have said one of the bad things about the game was that it was heavily focused on reading text, and the interface was not well suited for that.

[Althernai]

Thibbledorf26 wrote...

-people said it is possible to avoid 99% of combat encounters in the game, but there are many random enemies who attack you on sight without initiating dialogue, like bandits.

I think you misinterpreted. The claim about pacifism in PS:T is that it is possible to get through the game without killing more than 5 creatures (or something like that; it's been years since I've discussed this). This doesn't mean most people would want to play this way (since you'd need to avoid some quests altogether and do a whole lot of running and hiding in others), but it's theoretically possible.

-the interface is strange and hard to use, lack of travel via world map makes travelling a bit difficult in Sigil. I don't know why they removed the useful quickbar at the bottom of the screen that was there in other IE games. I have to right click, then click on dialogue, then click on morte to talk to him.

It's probably the worst of the Infinity Engine games as far as stuff like that goes -- the focus was very much on story rather than interface or combat.

-It seems difficult to customize your pc in terms of what kind of weapon you use, class etc. and it is hard to find a variety of items. Training in a new class seems bothersome.  I roleplayed a high int wis con pc, with not much dexterity. I still have no armour besides a +1 ring I found by talking to the insane surgeon lady in the Buried village. My ac is 9. and I get slaughtered in combat. I can't find any armour. The merchant square in sigil had weapons and strange items, but no armour.

The Nameless One doesn't wear armor -- look for tattoos which can serve more or less the same purpose. In any case, the combat in this game is not meaningful (you can get slaughtered as much as you want and still win eventually).

The roleplaying is great, but I am missing the ease-of-use and pacing of BG2. Any suggestions about how I can get more out of the game? It is very good but it is also bewildering.

It gets more interesting about 10 hours into the story, once you start to figure out what is going on.

[schalafi]

I suggest you get a walkthrough if you're having real problems. gamefaqs has some good ones.

http://www.gamefaqs....ile/187975/7964

Modifié par schalafi, 01 janvier 2010 - 12:01 .

[Xiphias]

Thibbledorf26 wrote...
I took the plunge recently and purchased it off Ebay.

So the recent re-release wasn't worldwide then?

[Thibbledorf26]

Xiphias wrote...

Thibbledorf26 wrote...
I took the plunge recently and purchased it off Ebay.

So the recent re-release wasn't worldwide then?

Nope. Not in Australia, anyhow. The seller was from Sweden, so perhaps the re-release was in Europe.

Modifié par Thibbledorf26, 01 janvier 2010 - 03:40 .

[Thibbledorf26]

Played the game some more, tried to come to terms with the pc being set pc with limited customization, and am enjoying it more. Got Dakkon as a companion, bought a +2 ac tattoo, got some proficiencies in fists (and a nice magic punch dagger), and things are going better. The storyline is quite interesting.

[schalafi]

The relationship between your pc and Dakkon is one of the most interesting stories in the game, imo. He was my favorite of all the companions, Anna being the second fav, but you can revive a special bond between you and Dakkon if you don't skip dialogue there. : )

[aries1001]

The best thing about PS: Torments is that dying is really meaningfull is this game, When you die, you just end up in at the starting place, the Mortuary. Having a high wis int con character means that you get to see more and more of your background story every time you die. It also means being able to get more tattoos, e.g. higher armor class for the Nameless One.



The best thing about PS: Torment is that every crpg cliché has been topsey-turveyed that is turned upside down, rats are now very dangerous foes and enemies, dying doesn't force you to reload, and you'll need to talk and read your way through most of the game...



As for the re-release for this game on DVD, I think it was only re-released in Europe.

[Vaeliorin]

schalafi wrote...

The relationship between your pc and Dakkon is one of the most interesting stories in the game, imo. He was my favorite of all the companions, Anna being the second fav, but you can revive a special bond between you and Dakkon if you don't skip dialogue there. : )

Dak'kon is my favorite NPC ever.  The interaction between TNO and Dak'kon is great.

Honestly, PS:T has some of the best NPCs ever.

[Thibbledorf26]

I'm having a technical problem. Every time I cast certain spells the game freezes for a while and glitches. If In don't run it in compatibility windows xp, squares appear over the screen as well. Have looked for solutions, but they don't work. Turning on graphical features in the video options menu doesnt fix it, such as sprite mirroring. I cannot reduce the 3d acceleration of my chip, it won't allow it. It is marring the experience of the game somewhat.

[Thibbledorf26]

I just finished the game. Wow. It was an excellent game with the most authentic role-playing I have seen. Role-playing, story and dialogue are the most important parts of an RPG game for me, and this game has it in abundance. There are choices that influence alignment, many ability checks in conversation, and very enjoyable conversations. This game had full companion banter and conversation, and had done it better than any other game to date. Companions interject in conversations, talk to each other, and you can also talk to them. Each companion has extensive dialogue trees, and by learning more about them and conversing with them skillfully, you unlokc new dialogue trees, experience and abilities. I was astonished to how well this was implemented several times, one notable example being when I talked to a companion about Morte, revealing more information about him. Confronting Morte with this new information earned me new dialogue options. Every attribute has an impact on gameplay, even a fighter can use int, wis and cha. This allows you to roleplay any kind of Nameless One.

There are flaws, though. The system was designed for dialogue, and thus is unwieldy in combat. But combat is inevitable in some areas that feature mobs of enemies that you cannot talk to, therefore you are forced to deal with the weird combat system. Although the cities are superb, some dungeons are badly designed, mostly consisting of getting swarmed by large numbers of enemies of the same type, although the boss fights are better. They should have gone all the way with the role-playing focus and reduced the combat to a bare minimum, or made more effort with the combat design.

It would be nice if the game had more customization, but being focused on a set character, that is inevitable. It seems like some options are a bit overpowered. Although this doesn't matter too much in a game that focuses on character growth, not being able to access the most awesome equipment if one is not lawful good is a bit of a bummer, and some character building choices are clearly superior to others.

There were a lot of bugs in the game, a huge amount. Even with the official patch, items would dissapear for no reason, quests would be closed off because of faulty scripts, and there were major graphical bugs involving spell use which took a while to learn how to fix. There was also massive slowdown in some areas, with signs of lag and memory leakage. This tended to spring up after playing for a long time, in some cases whenever I scrolled the screen it would take two seconds of freezing for the game to respond. The game works perfectly fast when this bug does not rear its ugly head, and my computer is relatively new, so definitely should have no problems with the game. They said the patch fixed the lag issue, but it did not completely fix it. I realize there is a community patch which is said to be very, very, good, but I always play a game pure my first time and there should not be this many bugs.

I realized that, even though dialogue, story and role-playing are the most important things in an RPG, they are not enough. Convenient interface, smooth gameplay and level design does have a huge impact, since it is a game being played and not a book being read. Planescape's torments flaws are minor compared to its brilliance, the journey left me revitalized as a fantasy-fan and avid reader and lover or stories. 'Wow' is the best word to describe my feelings after seeing the credits roll. It does not dethrone BG2 for me as the no.1 RPG, but is a very, very close second.

Modifié par Thibbledorf26, 08 janvier 2010 - 03:26 .

[Shotinthedark99]

I got that same feeling from KOTOR II right up until the unfinished ending. My fingers are crossed for Alpha Protocol and Fallout: New Vegas.