There are a few games I can't believe haven't been recommended yet:

Knights of the Old Republic 2: This has been refered to as PS:T set in the Star Wars universe. The game itself is buggy, and you will have to get some community patches, but the story line and characters are absolutley amazing.

Vampire: The Masquerarde: Bloodlines: Once again, you will need community patches to get it to even work, but as a piece of story telling, this is another excellent RPG.

NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer: This is another game that gets mentioned alot in PS:T discussions, though to be honest I have never played it as I have never really been able to get on with /the NWN2 engine in general, and just find it frustrating.

I was coming back to this thread initially to report that I still have hardly been able to play any games since completing PS:T and then Primordia (short, but very enjoyable, especially the Torment references). I still despair and feel jaded towards other games.

However, I am always happy to find more recommendations. Bloodlines is not on GOG so I doubt I'll play it until it becomes part of the collection here.

Mask of the Betrayer might be a good choice for me though. It's by Obsidian, and I enjoyed NWN2 when I played it many years ago, but never got around to the expansions. So my thanks to you, Andy, for reminding me of it!

I recently finished BG1 and 2, and felt much the same as you describe. Mixed sensations of joy at the happy ending (for my character), and sadness that I'd never get to play him again. I played a few games which weren't focussed on a story at all (roguelikes, multiplayer matches, whatever interests you), and then moved on to various "lesser" RPGs after a few days, when I felt able. To be precise, I moved on to Fallout 1, since GOG gave it away at that point. I've since been given all the dnd games as a Christmas present on request, but haven't yet dared to play PS:T

If you're looking for a point and click adventure, I recently played Book of Unwritten Tales. It was...surprisingly good, and very funny. If you're looking for something with a somewhat lighter mood, then you might want to consider trying it. Doubly so if you enjoy books by people like Terry Pratchett, as the humour is in that style. The plot is cliched, but intentionally so and lampshades the fact.

I sincerely hope you do get around to PS:T, when you're emotionally ready for it.

Book of Unwritten Tales was very good, being a Terry Pratchett fan myself I enjoyed the humor a lot, the devs must have drawn some influence from that world. There's a true sequel being worked on at the moment, if I recall correctly. Critter Chronicles just wasn't close to the same experience. These I played pre-Torment.

Surprisingly, what's kept me gaming lately has been the Deponia series. Absurd-hilarity of a Terry Gilliam and Mel Brooks sort in a way. Some of the best puzzles in a P&C, with a quick, smart interface. The game's humor is very smartly self-aware, while still having some twists and turns in the plot and an emotional story-line. I think it's that last part there that did it for me, that got me hooked into it, that made it feel like a fresh experience. I haven't been able to get that experience since I finished PS:T. The game was light enough at first to draw me in, and then hooked me with emotional attachments, and dark humor.

Being a P&C fan myself (grew up playing them, still my favorite genre today), I've been meaning to play the Deponia trilogy for quite some time, have them all wishlisted here on GOG, and your mini-review just enticed my curiosity further.

Now, I just need to wait for more... economically stable days. :-\

Oh, I definitely intend to. It's just that having just played one of the few games with a really good story, it seemed silly to squash in another immediately after it.

I do that all the time, it is called life! :D

To answer the thread's title.

Pick up a book and write down the date you finished the game, and know that you will never play one better.

I dunno, I hear that Mask of the Betrayer is actually pretty good; not sure if it qualifies as better, but my only exposure to it thus far is the excellent LP/critical analysis of it on the Something Awful LP archives.

I almost have the same games in mind. Althought I would recommend them in this order:
NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer
Knights of the Old Republic 2
Vampire: The Masquerade
And Deus Ex (if you like conspiracy-spying-scifi games)

edit: Also NWN2 and NWN2 Storm of Zehir and KOTOR 1 (if you like to complete the series).
And Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption.
And The longest journey + Dreamfall (if you like adventures).
I haven't played Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale but from what I hear they have the same background as PS:T
so they must be a good choice.

If you are up for RPG experience with PS: T vibe - I'll second KotOR 2: The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (it picks up where the original game left but tells a different story).
If you are up for twisted, weird, crazy things - try The Cat Lady, Sanitarium and Deadly Premonition.

After 15 years from its release, I finished my first play-through last night...

I feel blessed I played it only now, when life has put its fingerprint on me with so many ups and downs...
Would I had played it back then, it most probably would have failed a victim to my youth ignorance.

Played it a few hours per day, after work and when I got time a bit more in the week-ends - it took me one month to complete it. This emotional impact PS:T had on me as a game, nay, as a book, during this month - comes close to the sum of almost all the games I have played to this day, but on a way more deeper scale.

At times, I would go to the bathroom, and when I would look in the mirror I would see past torments trying to find their ways out through every single inch of my soul... and I simply felt like Nameless, for the lack of better words to describe it.

I need a break in my life from many things, because PS:T opened my eyes to things I would have never thought could lie deep within me.

I have come to appreciate the little good things I have done in my life, and ponder on the wrongs I did / have been done to me through different eyes...

I am scared to play another game. I can only hope that there are more of them out there that could move me the way PS:T did.

Thank you PS:T for providing a meaning to mend old scars on my soul.

It's really so amazing how powerful an impact PS:T has had on most who have played it; certainly life-changing. I still find new ways that it affects me, and in some respects, matured me. Still every day, I find myself going back Sigil on the planes, even if briefly, even if it's just a short, savored reminiscence.

It is a really good idea to play through Primordia immediately after PS:T, as Groze recommended. The gameplay and story, while deep, are shallow compared to Torment, and the adventure is also quite short in comparison as well. However, the atmosphere, characters, and story are richly and deeply inspired by Torment. Also, it fits very well with your emotional mood, like wandering through a serene, dark hollow after a painful, exhausting battle, it'll help you reflect on your experiences more and hopefully highlight some you hadn't realized you'd had. And in the healing process, Primordia will even elicit more than a few carefully placed and paced somber chuckles from you.

Unfortunately, I still haven't found a game that holds onto me, embraces me, tortures me and coddles me, makes me feel blessed and cursed, but never lets me go the way Torment has. I finished all three of the Deponia games, and they were able to connect with me emotionally while being a much lighter atmosphere, but still appeasing the thinking me, the philosophical me. And the humor is quite dark, while still being quirky. I found myself getting very emotionally attached to the characters, and the ending shares a lot with the ending of Planescape: Torment.

If you are having a very hard time finding a game to make you feel engaged, I would suggest Deponia. The others here have listed a great number of recommendations as well, and all of them have much merit. We're here for you, night and day. I'm so glad that I get to and have gotten to talk to these people that have also shared in the most moving digital experience created yet.

vulchor,

I know it has been a while, but I have an answer for you:

Q: What can change the nature of a man?
A: Planescape Torment can.



My regards.

Having finished Planescape for the first time in October 2013, I can vouch for the fact that this feeling of "emptiness" never quite goes away. It truly is a phenomenal and perhaps one of a kind experience.

That said, I think the suggestion to try KotoR2 and Mask of the Betrayer is an excellent one. I myself haven't played either of those two games and, having read this thread, am thinking about visiting them at the earliest opportunity. I've heard great things about both!