🚀 go-pugleaf

On Tue, 21 Mar 2017 12:17:30 -0700, Justisaur <just...@gmail.com>
wrote:


>I've had my eye on this for some time, but unlike almost everyone else I 
>didn't like PST at all.  Which seems sad to me as by all accounts being 
>a huge D&D player & lover of RPGs I should've loved it.   I tried 3 
>times but just couldn't ever finish it.  I like Mort.  That's about it. 
>It just seemed too much like reading a disjointed book with a really 
>clunky interface.  I found the combat to be horrifically bad, and I just 
>need some decent combat.

I totally understand where you come from. Planescape: Torment is an
incredibly slow burner, and the first quarter - maybe even the first
half of the game - isn't much fun. It doesn't help that it drops you
in this strange world where everybody is using fantastical slang (the
"Cant") all the time, nor that the game seems to lack an antagonist
and gives you little direction. Instead, you are seemingly dumped into
a wide-open world with little idea where to go; your first few
missions seem more like side-quest adventures and are completely
unfulfilling. The combat is a bore and the loot you get in the slums
is unexciting trash. The first few NPC companions you pick up (Mort
excluded) are also the least interesting as well.

The game does pick up, but it's only far into the game that it really
starts to become interesting (it left "tedious bore" once I met
Fall-from-Grace, the "lawful good" succubus (!), became "really
interesting" after I met  Ravel Puzzlewell the witch in her swamp
shack, and "damn good" by the ending. But it's really hard to get over
that initial hump - it is the reasons I haven't re-played the game
very often, even though I know it becomes much better later on - and I
am sure that many players gave up on the game long before they got to
the good parts. 

It's also why I am holding off on Numenera; doubtlessly the world is
fascinating and well-detailed, the characters deep and the story
thought-provoking, but I suspect it is also a huge time-sink with
lack-luster combat and worry that its intial part will be more
tiresome grind - even if it is necessary to the development of the
story - than I want to invest in right now. 

(It also doesn't help that it uses a top-down "isometric" viewpoint; I
used to be a huge fan of that but ever since Gothic I've come more to
appreciate the first- or over-the-shoulder third-person viewpoint
since it gives me a better feel for the world; top-down views,
although arguably better for managing groups of adventurers, feel too
detatched and clinical).