2nd September 2004, 12:09 PM
Quote:Yeah because... because that's never been done before....
Never read Hercules, eh?
Didn't say it was totally new, but that it was more unique than most in that most typical of PC storylines. And plus over the course of the two games and two expansions you put many, many hours into the game so the second game has little trace of the "started knowing nothing" part left... after all, you start off with a significant amount of power in that game. And even more so in the expansion.
Quote:What does Torment do?
I've described it before, for DJ, a month or two ago I think... it's really hard to describe Torment without using spoilers and I REALLY wouldn't want to spoil it because discovering the story and the world is the best part of the game. But a few points.
-The most de-emphasized combat I know of in any normal RPG I've played. You'll spend far more time wandering around talking to people or wandering around than you will fighting. And the fighting really isn't that tough... especially when you add the main characters' special abilities into the picture (I won't say what it is unless you want to know, though).
-There is more text reading than anything out there -- but in the context of PC adventure/RPG styling so you choose what to say, so you aren't just doing nothing.
-Conversations are greatly affected by character stats. Have low Intelligence or Wisdom and you just plain won't see some of the conversation options that smarter characters can choose. And I don't just mean 'convince me' stuff. In this game, it's more about 'explain more of this to me' stuff... a smarter character will get SIGNIFICANTLY more story than one who isn't as smart. Yes, often as a result of the more complex conversation options you'll get options that let you avoid violence, but the fact that it gets you more detail about the story is almost as important as the less violent result.
-A unique world. Torment is set in PlaneScape, which was probably D&D's most inventive world. There are no Dwarves or Elves in this game. Yup! None, as far as I know. Certainly none in your party. See, Planescape is a different kind of D&D setting. It's set in a city called Sigil, which is in a special place outside of the planes. Planes include the planes of hell, heaven, middle ones, the Material Planes (where places like Faerun (Forgotten Realms) are), etc... and Sigil is somehow outside of that and in a special place where there are many portals to other planes but it's not really in one.
What that means for gameplay is a quite different playable character list. You've got more things connected to the "heaven/hell" planes -- not demons, but half-demon people, beings from other planes, people with special powers... none of the characters are just normal humans.
Oh yeah, it also means that you spend the first half of the game in that city. This part of the game is also relatively non-linear... all you really know is that you have to keep doing sidequests to progress to figure out what to do next, eventually. Halfway through the game changes into a much more linear style. At this point the frequency of combat also increases noticably...
It also zooms in the Baldur's Gate engine so that the characters are larger on the screen. It means you can't see as far and combat gets simpler, but I think it's a fine bargain to get great character art. But honestly, while the graphics are fine they aren't the star of the game... the conversations are.
Quote:It's still lame...
I disagree. I don't want people in a fantasy world speaking like people today! Now in a modern-day game it'd be bad, but this is fantasy... it might be a bit overdone, but only a bit. Certainly not an issue I'd complain about.
Quote:You got NES Zelda for the GBA?
Well I didn't have it for anything else, so yes...