So, after more than a decade after this game was released, I finally got around to finishing this game. Just some background, I've pretty much played every modern Bioware rpg out there (yes, I know Planescape wasn't made by Bioware :P). When I say modern though, I mean the games that were released post-infinity engine. That is, NWN, KoToR, Dragon Age, etc.

This was the first game I ever played using the infinity engine, with the AD&D ruleset. I used to play AD&D back when I was in high school though, so luckily the stats weren't quite as alien to me as it would be for a total newbie. So all that being said, here are my thoughts:

This game's story and conclusion were awesome, and I loved the way you could resolve the final battle without any combat whatsoever. In fact, I pretty much dumped points into the big three stats (Wisdom, Int & Chr) at the expense of everything else.

In terms of narrative and dialogue, I have no complaints.

Unfortunately, the combat leaves something to be desired (or maybe it's just the way I played). I ended up leveling Fighter 7/ Mage(everything else). I thought that would be a good combo, but as it turns out.. mage just didn't seem to have as much of an impact as I would have liked it too. Alot of enemies resisted spells, or just did way too much damage upfront. Getting Dak'kon to tank wasn't the easiest thing either, especially when there were a lot of enemies.

I also ended up making a lot of first timer mistakes, ie. I accidently went into the Curst underground before doing any of the quests in the city and ended up missing a chunk of content. By the end of the game, I was basically just trying to run past all of the mobs so I can continue the story. That's really the saving grace of this game; the story. I wanted to see what happened next so badly that I sort of ignored how bad I was doing in the battles. I missed out on recruiting Nordrom and ended up having to kill Vaihlor when I got to the pillar of skulls.. so obviously this was not an optimized playthrough.. but I guess that's why it's called 'roleplay' :p

Now I wouldn't say the story in this game is any better or worse than something like Dragon Age: Origins in terms of dialogue and narrative. Where it does shine though, is originality. TNO is definitely one of the most unique protagonists out there, and the way his story progresses isn't anything I've ever seen in other games.

So.. that being said. Verdict:

Story: 10
Gameplay: uuuu... anyone wanna recommend a setup to make TNO more badass ;)

Cheers