Herr Starr
Member
Planescape Torment had a lot of annoying filler combat between the actual content that we love the game for though, so that might not be saying a lot.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Torment: Tides of Numenera |OT| What Can Change The Nature of a Man?
- Thread starter valentine71
- Start date
Planescape Torment had a lot of annoying filler combat between the actual content that we love the game for though, so that might not be saying a lot.
decoyplatypus
Member
The
execution sidequest
I've come across one other quest that appeared time sensitive. I didn't rest during that one, though, so I'm not sure what kind of countdown you're looking at.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
I'm not a english native speaker, but I found some of the prose to be unfamiliar. A lot of it actually. But I don't think it's a bad thing. In fact, it humbles me. I feel I learning something new, but I am not sure if I understand the meaning of all of the colorful descriptions.
I've also never played such a story heavy game before. It's unusual for me, but I find it intriguing so far.
I've also never played such a story heavy game before. It's unusual for me, but I find it intriguing so far.
decoyplatypus
Member
Thanks. I suspected inactive companions weren't getting any XP. That's disappointing, particularly because I did a lot of Sagus Cliffs quests with characters I may drop, but oh well.
Moff
Member
apparently I missed
the execution quest
I talked to the guy right at the start, did I have to come back later to start the quest?
and what about the guy with the captured creature in the middle of the market? I never got a quest there either
I talked to the guy right at the start, did I have to come back later to start the quest?
and what about the guy with the captured creature in the middle of the market? I never got a quest there either
Don't feel bad! The game's text is definitely verbose, and (intentionally IMO) a bit long-winded. Props to playing such a game as a non-native speaker.
#sorrynotsorry
Member
They're using intentionally complicated and flowery language. It reads more like something that is trying to be artistic and deep than a normal story. I wouldn't worry. I guarantee you 95% of people would understand all the descriptions on the first read. I work with writing and reading in English every day as a core component of my job and I have to read some of the stuff multiple times.
It's certainly not a bad thing - i'm loving the game - but it might have been better had they toned it down.
#sorrynotsorry
Member
This is definitely a disappointing aspect of the game. I wish they wouldn't have done that.
Lister
Banned
In what ways?
bati
Member
I can see why they've done it but yeah, I think it will lead to metagaming in the future as people come up with different party comps and quest orders to acquire the right npcs asap.
Jag
Member
And I already did
I do not know if that is intentional on their part, but that is a pretty nice touch for that companion.
BouncyFrag
Member
How are the console versions?
Or someone mods the game.
Not even close. Several of the supplemental new World of Darkness settings and Eclipse Phase are far more interesting than Ravenloft IMO. Hell if you want gothic or medieval horror, Vampire the Dark Ages is the real setting to play in. I also dont see what Numenera is so deficient in. Planescape doesnt have an equal as a setting inculding its contemporaries.
I played for around 2 hours just now.
The good things are that I like the overall style, the writing, and the setting so far. And those might be the most important aspects of a Torment game. The stat system also seems interesting. Oh, and I have no technical issues at all (with 3 second load times and consistent 60 FPS).
I'm more ambivalent about the UI. Compared to Wasteland 2, it's an improvement, but some things are inexplicably clunky nonetheless, especially in combat. Also in the not-sure-yet category are some of the choices which feel forced this early in the game.
Finally, I find the graphics a tad disappointing. I fully realize this is a Kickstarter game, and what that means for budget, but I feel like e.g. PoE did a better job with the map background quality and its consistency. Also, the character animations in Torment are amateur to a level I didn't expect. None of this is a huge criterion, I just feel like they could have done a bit better.
Oh, and the same goes for the VA of some characters.
The good things are that I like the overall style, the writing, and the setting so far. And those might be the most important aspects of a Torment game. The stat system also seems interesting. Oh, and I have no technical issues at all (with 3 second load times and consistent 60 FPS).
I'm more ambivalent about the UI. Compared to Wasteland 2, it's an improvement, but some things are inexplicably clunky nonetheless, especially in combat. Also in the not-sure-yet category are some of the choices which feel forced this early in the game.
Finally, I find the graphics a tad disappointing. I fully realize this is a Kickstarter game, and what that means for budget, but I feel like e.g. PoE did a better job with the map background quality and its consistency. Also, the character animations in Torment are amateur to a level I didn't expect. None of this is a huge criterion, I just feel like they could have done a bit better.
Oh, and the same goes for the VA of some characters.
Sadly I primarily found it to be an example of a game not having the diversity of content to justify its playtime (not even by a long shot).
One of my party members has a speech bubble over their portrait and they keep saying they want to talk to me but I can't find any unique conversation options to talk about. Is there some special way to trigger these conversations?
EDIT: It went away when I did a zone transition, must have been a bug or something.
EDIT: It went away when I did a zone transition, must have been a bug or something.
DiscoJer
Member
There is a literary tradition of sorts to use unusual, more poetic language for far future fantasy stories. Arguably started by Clark Ashton Smith and popularized by Jack Vance in his Dying Earth stories and later Gary Gygax who imitated Vance
Judging by the related text and the nature of the character, it's 100% intentional.
Does anyone find the ear-splitting crunch-woosh noise that plays whenever you start a conversation extremely annoying? Why in the hell is it so loud?
I turned down sound effects to make that noise play at a tolerable level, but now I can barely hear any other sound effects.
I hope they either patch that or someone can mod it out.
I turned down sound effects to make that noise play at a tolerable level, but now I can barely hear any other sound effects.
I hope they either patch that or someone can mod it out.
macfoshizzle
Member
Can anyone who played Pillars tell me which one is better? I'm trying to decide to get Pillars of Eternity or this.
Lancelot
Member
Two distinct RPG types. You prefer to read more or combat more?
Back in the day:
Icewind Dale if you like combat, Torment if you like interesting quests.
The more things change 😄
Fantastapotamus
Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
So I've been playing for maybe 2 hours so far, which means I mostly run around the city looking at everything and talking to everyone.
So far I like a lot of what this game is doing. One thing that seems odd to me is though are the exp. I gain around 2 exp for discoveries etc which seems extremely inconsequential seeing how I already need 180 for the next level. I'm not saying the game should shower you in levels and experience it just feels like they are just there to give me the feeling that I have accomplished something when the real accomplishment should be the conversation and world building that just happened. It's like climbing Mount Everest and getting a cookie at the top. Sure, I'll take it but if you wanted to reward me this seems a little weak.
Not really a problem though since I would be okay if I got no xp from that, more of an observation.
Not really sure what to think of the pool system, I'm not the biggest fan so far but I'm also not sure how I would replace it.
I'm also not really sure about my character story either. The set-up is amazing but the early parts worry me a little. I loved that in Planescape nobody really gave a shit about what I was because in the twisted world of PS:T a dude who regularly comes back to life probably isn't out of the ordinary. Yup, here I am again, a quasi immortal being and my floating skull buddy. Move along, nothing to see. Not really certain I like how so many people already tell me how special and magical and powerful I am. Then again, I'm only 2 hours in, so it would be unfair to judge the game after basically nothing happened.
To be fair you do also read a lot in Pillars. It's not like that game is just a series of battles. Though combat obviously plays a much larger part than in Torment.
So far I like a lot of what this game is doing. One thing that seems odd to me is though are the exp. I gain around 2 exp for discoveries etc which seems extremely inconsequential seeing how I already need 180 for the next level. I'm not saying the game should shower you in levels and experience it just feels like they are just there to give me the feeling that I have accomplished something when the real accomplishment should be the conversation and world building that just happened. It's like climbing Mount Everest and getting a cookie at the top. Sure, I'll take it but if you wanted to reward me this seems a little weak.
Not really a problem though since I would be okay if I got no xp from that, more of an observation.
Not really sure what to think of the pool system, I'm not the biggest fan so far but I'm also not sure how I would replace it.
I'm also not really sure about my character story either. The set-up is amazing but the early parts worry me a little. I loved that in Planescape nobody really gave a shit about what I was because in the twisted world of PS:T a dude who regularly comes back to life probably isn't out of the ordinary. Yup, here I am again, a quasi immortal being and my floating skull buddy. Move along, nothing to see. Not really certain I like how so many people already tell me how special and magical and powerful I am. Then again, I'm only 2 hours in, so it would be unfair to judge the game after basically nothing happened.
To be fair you do also read a lot in Pillars. It's not like that game is just a series of battles. Though combat obviously plays a much larger part than in Torment.
Get Pillars if, for no other reason, it always makes sense to buy a game that's been patched, supported, re-balanced than one straight out of the box. Just my two cents.
Jag
Member
I've played through Pillars twice, not sure I will even finish this one. I've always liked my RPGs more combat heavy though.
SlasherJPC
Banned
PS4 version stutters from time to time and loading is hit or miss. Though nothing tok crazy. Text is very readable in font size and they even offer a size bigger. Im sure PC is the way to go but Im alright with this so far.
This game feels surprisingly close to the tabletop system (spoiler which I also backed, but haven't played since my group hasn't been interested). The XP system is a bit different and the tides stuff isn't part of it but it REALLY feels like a table top game in quite a few ways. The long bouts of exposition, and backstories for lots of random NPCs really make it feel like a real place. It's like an idealized version of an RPG town when your DM is an author with tons of free time.
Pretty big spoiler about that character:
For me, she came back in the last act of the game as an adult, it was really touching. I completed her "quest" or whatever by talking to someone in one of the slums in the Bloom
macfoshizzle
Member
Wait. So are you saying this game has more reading than Pillars? I thought Pillars is known to be heavy on reading?
CrichtonKicks
Member
Then stick to discussing your own opinions instead of saying dumb arbitrary things like nobody will regard PoE as a classic. That just invites a stream of people responding to the contrary.
Way, way more reading in Numenara.
Pillars has a word count of about 700k I think, before the expansion. This is at about 1.2 million.
More_Badass
Member
Talking and reading is in Torment what fighting is in Pillars.
Admittedly isn't Pillars a bit closer to the Baldur's Gate side of things? Granted I guess you could go Icewind Dale and just make a party of generics, and admittedly I didn't play that much since I heard how it was more "combat focused" and didn't really care to play versus the more story focused games.
Both have a lot of reading, but in Torment* navigating dialogue trees is the primary form of gameplay. You have to pay attention and put together pieces of information you hear from various places. In Pillars, the primary gameplay form is fighting your way through dungeons and wilderness areas; talking matters and you can make choices that change who you fight and/or cause you fight more or less, but it always comes down to combat in the end.
Torment also has a more fantastical, surreal, "anything can happen" tone, whereas Pillars has standard high fantasy trappings but is actually fairly grounded, falling somewhere between typical D&D and The Witcher.
*Haven't aaaaactually played Tides yet but from everything I've heard it is very much like Planescape in that respect.
loganclaws
Plane Escape Torment
Still no fix on the laggy and freezing dialog?
bonesmccoy
Banned
More and better reading.
Crimsonsky
Member
Also anything you don't understand, that you might think is important you could post here for clarification. A lot of it is intentionally verbose and not necessarily for the betterment of the story or experience as a whole.
#sorrynotsorry
Member
Ok I seriously need help. How do I dismiss a party member? And if I do, how do you get them back? I have a full party but I want to recruit a different one. I can't because it's full as far as I can tell.
Pat Rothfuss wrote a companion for the game? That's pretty cool.
#sorrynotsorry
Member
I tried to play Torment first, for about 3-4 hours and was having a pretty poor time. It's very verbose, I wasn't engaged by the world and it's not combat focused at all, and what little combat/mechanics there was just irritated me more than excited me. I started playing Pillars today and got immediately hooked. It was much more what I was looking for. More adventure + combat and less just sit and read NPC dialog for large stretches of time. Ended up playing that game for something like 6 hours straight and can't wait to get back to it.
I don't want to crap on Pillars cause I'm sure it would get more interesting if I stuck with it and met more of the characters and stuff, but honestly if you're just getting one, I can already tell you that Pillars is a much more balanced gameplay experience. I'm mad at myself that I waited 2 years to play it.
If you initiate dialog with any character there should be an option to dismiss them.
Fatalmephisto
Member
Has anyone here really spoke to
? for some reason, she's an odd ball of a young child but yet she's interesting on how she speaks and of course other elements that I will say here for Spoiler reasons.
Rhin
SpiceMelange
Member
Don't be. The game you're playing now is very different from the one at launch. It got like 10+ polishing and rebalancing patches
The Illiterati
Member
I love that I've played ten hours, advanced the main story quest once, and have six rotating party members. I've done a ton of quests. I have yet to fight beyond the tutorial in your mind. This is a great tribute to PS:T.
Man, I hope I don't NEED to get through Crisises in the future (or that they get easier later on) because I've died at each one beyond the very first. Which works OK without my other characters dying admittedly, but god damn.
Might also have just messed my character up period for combat, or not really know what to do best for combat.
Might also have just messed my character up period for combat, or not really know what to do best for combat.
For me, so far there's been conversation choices that you can choose which prevent combat from occurring. Of course this means that you have to go with a choice which you may or may not agree with for your character/situation, etc. or if there are stats preventing as such. Regardless, I've been able to avoid combat making these choices; not sure if there are 100 % mandatory fights later on. I'm about 5.5 hours in doing various side quests and enjoying the game quite a bit.