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

Wow, that's really offensive to the PST.

Here's a good comparison of PST and DA (COULD BE A SPOILER): http://i55.tinypic.com/25stp40.jpg

Ha Ha.. wrong Dragon Age. I was comparing it to Origins, not DA2 (which was inferior).

Note that I also said that PST was a lot more original than the standard run of the mill "save the world" plot that most Bioware games have.

In terms of dialogue and narrative, the two games aren't that far apart in terms of quality. So I stand by my assessment.

Dramatically late to the party, but if you want to go with a more "powerful" TNO to feel less ineffective in the lategame battles, I highly recommend mainlining fighter all the way through, or (if you are ok with sprinting away from enemies after you attack, and dodging around pillars to reactivate stealth mode for another backstab) thief all the way. Mage is likely the most thematic fit, and well in line with the (quite sensible) stat allocation of maxing wis/int first, but the spells become less impactful as the game goes on (especially when a lategame fighter could be hitting for 30+ damage per hit, twice per round, and only missing on a 1).

If you choose to try again as a fighter, I'd recommend starting with an 18 in wisdom and a 17 in strength. That way, as soon as you can afford a +2 strength tattoo from Fell, it will boost you to 19 strength and the massively inflated combat efficacy that brings. You'll still be a glass cannon for a bit, but at least you will hit true instead of standing around ineffectually, and end fights before they get too nasty. You can be putting the rest of your level-up points into int/wis as before, or pumping con for epic regeneration (25 con is just SILLY), or whatever else floats your boat, but I would recommend leaving str untouched until the specialization bonuses at 7 and 12 get you naturally to 19. Also - Charisma can be useful in a few key points, but for the majority of circumstances, wisdom and/or int can work just as well if not better. For those cases where you want high Cha, you can use consumable items to pump it temporarily before talking to someone - you can buy mints in the Festhall that cast friends, or you can ask Dak'kon to make you a mage for a moment and cast it on yourself. It's my #1 vote for a dump stat for TNO, and it makes sense - you're a big, horribly scarred brute of an immortal, having a charisma of 20 feels off to me.

Totally agree on that one, just have the mage in the party cast friends to artificially raise your charisma when you need it. I have played it through a couple of times now and personally found the mage to be the most challenging and rewarding. Takes a lot of grinding to get yourself to be able to use level 9 spells but worth it for the fantastic cinematic spells you get in levels 8 and 9.

*SPOILER* As a mage im pretty sure you can still use one of the best wepons in the game: celestial fire, however obtaining celestial host spell and killing Trias always knocked me off my good/lawful status :\

Despite the fact that PST used AD&D rules and was built on the infinity engine, I personally felt it was a completely different genre of game to all of the Bioware games. While they are all dungeon crawler RPGs I felt that planescape torment could of quite easily been a point and click adventure.