Posted July 24, 2013
... but it's impossible for me not to love it.
True, my kind of game is far from being the Infinity Engine Dungeons & Dragons CRPGs. I'm more inclined towards Point and Click Adventure Games, basic Adventure games (back in my day the likes of Zelda, Soul Reaver, Beyond Good & Evil, Indigo Prophecy, and so on, were considered "adventure" -- or "action-adventure" -- and not "action", as it seems to be the case, these days), hack-and-slash "CRPGs" like Diablo or the great Nox; that is, cool stories and backgrounds, but with accessible, immediately intuitive gameplay mechanics -- something I find D&D/IE CRPGs not to have, they're all very cerebral and strategic, gameplay-wise.
But when it comes to this particular game... oh, my god! I do suck at it, I die a whole lot, since, obviously, I don't know how to properly create a character suitable to a D&D game, but there's just so much in there to be experienced, lived and absorbed, dying the times I do never really gets frustrating (clever auto saves do help, though). I've been playing it for thirteen to fifteen hours and I guess I'm just at the beginning, which is more than fine, since I want to spend weeks, months, if possible, living in this detailed, amazingly written and built world of the Planes, working out just who the hell am I, what did I do before these lives I'm living now (and I'm betting it will not end that well, keeping with the tragedy and despair the game has been throwing at me right from the start, all sprinkled with clever doses of humor and funny characters and dialogue).
Unfortunately, I never had the chance to play it before. I remember some nerdy friends of mine playing it back in 1999/2000, but apparently they didn't think I was "nerd" or "geek" enough to play the game ("oh, it's that guy that likes Nox, that simplistic game trying to pass as an RPG! He won't be able to enjoy Planescape, just send him on his way."), and piracy was never much of an option, to me. That, and the fact the game was super hard to find -- in a year I could no longer find it on retail anymore -- made me postpone it indefinitely. Now that GOG is giving us the chance to buy these games, added to the fact I now have my job and my own money, it is time for me to try it.
And, let's just say this: as bad as I am at playing it, it truly is an unforgettable experience. This game is a piece of art, indeed. It's literature and it's music and it's a cinematic experience all rolled into one brilliant product that is a joy to play. I'm only playing it now, but, hey, better late than never, right?
True, my kind of game is far from being the Infinity Engine Dungeons & Dragons CRPGs. I'm more inclined towards Point and Click Adventure Games, basic Adventure games (back in my day the likes of Zelda, Soul Reaver, Beyond Good & Evil, Indigo Prophecy, and so on, were considered "adventure" -- or "action-adventure" -- and not "action", as it seems to be the case, these days), hack-and-slash "CRPGs" like Diablo or the great Nox; that is, cool stories and backgrounds, but with accessible, immediately intuitive gameplay mechanics -- something I find D&D/IE CRPGs not to have, they're all very cerebral and strategic, gameplay-wise.
But when it comes to this particular game... oh, my god! I do suck at it, I die a whole lot, since, obviously, I don't know how to properly create a character suitable to a D&D game, but there's just so much in there to be experienced, lived and absorbed, dying the times I do never really gets frustrating (clever auto saves do help, though). I've been playing it for thirteen to fifteen hours and I guess I'm just at the beginning, which is more than fine, since I want to spend weeks, months, if possible, living in this detailed, amazingly written and built world of the Planes, working out just who the hell am I, what did I do before these lives I'm living now (and I'm betting it will not end that well, keeping with the tragedy and despair the game has been throwing at me right from the start, all sprinkled with clever doses of humor and funny characters and dialogue).
Unfortunately, I never had the chance to play it before. I remember some nerdy friends of mine playing it back in 1999/2000, but apparently they didn't think I was "nerd" or "geek" enough to play the game ("oh, it's that guy that likes Nox, that simplistic game trying to pass as an RPG! He won't be able to enjoy Planescape, just send him on his way."), and piracy was never much of an option, to me. That, and the fact the game was super hard to find -- in a year I could no longer find it on retail anymore -- made me postpone it indefinitely. Now that GOG is giving us the chance to buy these games, added to the fact I now have my job and my own money, it is time for me to try it.
And, let's just say this: as bad as I am at playing it, it truly is an unforgettable experience. This game is a piece of art, indeed. It's literature and it's music and it's a cinematic experience all rolled into one brilliant product that is a joy to play. I'm only playing it now, but, hey, better late than never, right?
Post edited July 24, 2013 by groze
