🚀 go-pugleaf

I've only played a few hours of this but thought it was worth giving a a 
first impressions so here goes.

If you've not heard of it before it's touted as the spiritual successor 
to Planescape:Torment which has both its plus and minus points. The 
positives are that you're trying to recreate one of the most famous and 
loved RPG's of all time and the minuses are exactly the same. This comes 
through in the reviews where the critics tend to be very positive but 
the users are somewhat of a mixed bag. Personally I think it should be 
considered as a game in its own right and not marked down because its 
not PS:T.

So what's it all about? The setting is one based on a futuristic 
sci-fi/fantasy world, based on an existing table top RPG, and is 
suitably weird enough to make it somewhat different from you standard 
RPG. You play the role of an outcast which is a discarded body from a 
god reborn. The story, well so far anyway, is based around you and 
that's something I very much like. To many RPG's revolve around your 
part as a heroic supporting role of the bigger story but here it 
revolves around you.

It also plays out very differently in that its very much focused on the 
story and not combat. This is something I like as I'm very much into the 
experience and not the 'stats' of how to create the ultimate character 
that once you've got half way through the game can solve any problem 
through might. What that does mean is that there's lot's of reading and 
speech trees. This I feel could be a big stumbling block for a lot of 
players.

Obviously having only played a few hours I can't really say that much 
about the quests/interactions but so far they do have that ambiguity and 
intrigue that I very much enjoy. It's yet to be seen just how much these 
interactions have later but at least they do seem to give you the option 
of role-playing a character that isn't the nice guy, or gal.

There are of course companions but I've yet to really form an opinion on 
how fleshed out these are but trying to beat Mort is a tough act to follow.

The nuts and bolts. The character building seems to be very much pared 
down compared to many with only three stats (might, speed and intellect) 
and three classes - warrior, rouge and mage but by different names. You 
then have both skills and abilities and although I've not had that much 
chance to play with them the range of seems more limited than normal and 
when advancing you only get to add a single 'thing'. As for the lack of 
combat this suits me as I prefer playing a character and not a walking 
stats board.

Two interesting mechanisms are use of you stats in tasks and alignment. 
The former allows you to spend points of your abilities to improve your 
chances at tasks and these can then be replenished through consumable 
items or resting. The alignment mechanism is based around coloured tides 
and they way you interact will raise a dominate tide which then changes 
how people interact with you. I do like this idea as in many RPG's your 
alignment is basically meaningless.

Overall I'm very much enjoying the game and if you enjoyed PS:T you 
should enjoy this one.