I actually like them both fairly equally
From the point of view as a very gameplay focused gamer:

IWD's combat is more challenging and fun, but the generic characters aren't very exciting to use.

Torment's characters all have very unique equipment and abilities that make them interesting to use but the combat is easier, and in most cases completely avoidable if desired anyway.

So they kind of balance out for me

PS:T is better than BG at story, there is not nearly as much combat.

IWD places a lot more emphasis on combat than BG. After the umpteenth battle against overwhelming odds, though, IWD started to feel like a chore to me, to be honest. It's not a bad game by any means, the story is well presented and executed and the battles will test your mettle. If that is what you're looking for, you might want to give it a try. A word of advice: the game expects you to learn how to react to pretty diverse tactical situations, and you'd better learn fast or the game will chew you out.

To be frank, what interests me in an RPG is how you interact with your environment. In that regard, IWD is intentionally very limited, so in the end I'd choose BG oder IWD.

PS:T, IMO, has a pretty unique storyline, which I found a lot more involving than the one in BG I. All party members are developed characters (unlike the party members in an unmodded BG) who, however, won't just tell you their life stories and all their secrets just because you ask them. And how much you end up learning about yourself depends a lot on how much emphasis you place on INT, WIS and CHA. You have more freedom on how to interact with your environment.

Of course, the scenario in PS:T represents a huge change from standard fantasy scenarios. If you're willing to try something different that is, fundamentally, NOT about saving the world/nation/city/you-get-the-idea, you might want to give PS:T a try.

According to planetbaldursgate.com, PS:T is 60-80 hours long, and IWD1 is also 60-80 hours long.

However, they were only referring to the main campaign in IWD1. The "Heart of Winter' and 'Trials of the Luremaster' expansions surely add at least 20-25 more hours. Perhaps someone who has played the game can give a better estimate.

Compared to my playthrough of BG2, IWD definitely felt like a shorter game (though don't get me wrong, IWD still took me several months to get through as I wanted to do and see as much as I possibly could). I'm pretty slow with my games, and IWD took me about 5 months or so (factoring in me having a life outside of the game).

If you're really worried about IWD being too short, you needn't worry, as Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster easily add on more length to the game; HoW added on several weeks to my playthough, and I frankly gave up on Trials of the Luremaster after a few more weeks because I found it way too hard. :P

They're very different games -- Planescape: Torment's main focus is the story and how your decisions affect that story and the characters around you. It's one of the best (if not the best) story-based CRPG's out there, it's brilliantly written, but its combat and encounter design were clearly at the bottom of the priority list during development, as it has the least engaging combat of all the infinity engine games.

Icewind Dale is an old-school dungeon crawler and has, arguably, the best combat and encounter designs of all the infinity engine games. It also has some of the greatest locations, and although the story is not nearly as deep or personal as those of PS:T and BG/BG2, it is by no means bad! Black Isle did a great job at fleshing out the different locations and telling their history through dialog, books and other items that the player finds.

The Baldur's Gate series, with a great, deep, personal story and awesome combat encounters, takes the best of both worlds and that is probably why it's generally the most popular of the bunch. For what its worth, I have finished Icewind Dale (with HoW and TotLM) more times than any of the other IE games... Even though I consider the BG series to be my favorite among them.

Well it comes down to whether you want story or combat.

Icewind Dale has probably the best combat in the infinity engine games, the fact you build your own party means you can tailor them to your play style rather than the baldurs gate style where you have to babysit imoen because rather than being good at a few things, she's bloody useless at everything. It feels like it was designed as a combative game first and foremost and as such the story is pretty thin.

Planescape on the other hand is the most story driven game I've seen that wasn't a text adventure and its easily the best written one I've ever played. I'm not going to lie to you, you'll be reading a LOT but if you like weird twisted storytelling and bizarre & inventive characters then you'll be loving every word. The combat is a tad average, there's virtually no missile weapons for example so melee & magic are your only real tools. Thats not to say the combat is bad, its just a bit different than the other IE games.

The games are essentially the extremes of the scale that baldurs gate sits in the middle of but at least in the case of BG1 I felt it didn't really do either well enough

@ Aliasalpha

^ Imoen's only useless if you don't know how to use her, or simply neglect to do so. With 18 DEX, 16 CON, 17 INT, and 16 CHA, she's easily got way above average attributes that most mortals, even in the most risky adventuring profession, will never attain to. With those attributes, she's bound to become useful if you only explore what she can do, especially once you dual-class her to mage. I make three MP created (then put'em back to single player) player characters, then use an editor to change Minsc to a pally & Jehiera to a cleric/ranger (so I basically got a IWD-1 type of party in my BG1 play), but I always leave Imoen as she is, then dual-classing her to mage after 7 rogue levels.

I usually like to read a book while I have a cRPG going on (ie- reading Dracula now while playing BG1), but I didn't read any book while playing PS:T, b/c it's that heavy on the story.

I think BG1 only begins to 'lack' in story after you know it already. But when you get in the frame of mind that the PC & his companions don't know why he's a murder target, begin unraveling the mystery, and taking the time to think about everything you're seeing within the towns, cities and wilderness areas as it relates to the main plot, then the story comes out. This even despite it not being as text-heavy as BG2.

@ rampancy

Informative post for someone like me who hasn't played IWD-1, but is interested in doing so.

W/o giving away a spoiler, what made TotLM too hard? Was it a horde, or a big boss, or a combination of both? Or an awsome opposing adventuring party lead by an amazing bard or something! :OD

TotLM was designed to be hard and is a pure dungeon crawl with some rather diabolical puzzles and some very tough enemies.

To address the OP: I'd have a hard time choosing between the two games, and I've not even finished PS:T yet. But like rampancy, I love IWD. Although it's often described as a combat-focused dungeon crawl, there is a story in there as well, and it's actually not that bad. One of my favorite games.

DEFINITELY Planescape: Torment.

If you feel like a Dungeon Crawl, Neverwinter Nights has lots of addons, and Temple of Elemental Evil with Circle of 9 and patching is completely playable, and with a LOT more depth.

Do you prefer a combat focused dungeon crawl (choose IWD) or are you more interested in interesting story, atmosphere and involved quests (choose Planescape)?

The two games aren't really comparable. I.e. their focus is on really completely different things - what is the strength of the one is the weakness of the other, and vice versa. So given that you played Baldurs' Gate think about what you enjoyed more about that one - the text based part of the quests or the combat?

And keep in mind that PS:T is a LOT better at quests and interaction and multiple solutions than Baldur's Gate and that IWD is a lot better at the combat challenges you face than Baldur's Gate. Both have, IMO, much nicer graphics than Baldur's Gate, too - art style wise.

Personally I prefer PS:T, simple because I like reading, like involved stories, and much prefer the darker, more bizarre and "out there" atmosphere.

IWD does have some minor roleplaying elements. If you have certain characters or alignments in your party, encounters play out differently, sometimes with a bonus. However, the story never branches and you can't talk your way out of a battle. It's mainly for atmosphere.

PS:T's lack of ranged combat could be counted in its favor, since Infinity Engine pathfinding gave archers a huge advantage in many situations. PS:T puts more emphasis on characters' unique abilities.

honestly, I tried to play planescape a bunch of times.. I just cant get into it at all. It doesnt feel like dungeons and dragons to me. its more some odd ball, werid sci-fi world than dungeons and dragons.


does the game get better? judging from what people say about it i would hope. But for me i could never get past the first few hours with out saying,, this isnt the game for me. Ive tried loading it up 3-4 times and its always the same case.. i play a bit, cant get into the world and get bored..


Icewind dale on the other hand.. is a wonderfull game. Its much more of a dungeon stomp than a story based game, even though the story is really quiet good. Its just lacking the banter, and unique flavor of all the group memebers than can join you like baldures gate. But the nice thing is the game is muli-player.. If you have 4-6 friends you wanna play this with and RP.. the game experiance should be fantasic.. I did it once with BG and had a blast, But ice wind dale is suited for it as its completely lacking in joinable NPC's



Plane scape, and fallout are both 2 games no matter how many times i start them and want to love them.. after a few nights, i just cant play um. And its very odd too, as im a giant sci-fi fan so you would think this stuff is right up my ally.


Perhaps one day ill play PS and fallout all the way through, But i have other things on my list first... going through BG1 & 2 from start to finish on a bard.. and then playing IWD 1+2 again.. (though im not sure i ever even played 2.. its one of those games i thnk i loaded and ment to and something else sucked me in.

Freedom force, and theif deadly shadows, and the beloved dungeon keeper serries.. blasted games always suck me in from finishing other games.. all though this time its tropico 1, paradise island that has kept me stalled in BG this time..

ADD and great games suck... i have such a hard time getting to the end of any game i play.. its almost a curse

To be fair, that was kind of the point of Planescape, versus the more "mainstream" campaign worlds like Forgotten Realms.