So, is Planescape: Torment the best RPG I've played? Uhh, I'm in no position to answer such a question, so let's strike that and ask instead whether Planescape: Torment "better" than the Baldur's Gate games? Actually, I don't think I'm in any sort of position to answer that either. How disappointing!

Enough of my toying with you, gentle reader! As you've probably surmised, this post is a testament to my inability to control the urge to post about something I'm excited about, even if I have nothing original or interesting to say. That's right, it's one of those meta-posts, posts about posting, which have taken up a good portion of my blog thus far. Let me quell your growing outrage by attempting to get to the point, albeit briefly - the game so far has been rather enjoyable, but I must say that I don't see why some regard this to be miles above Baldur's Gate; I find the gameplay to be rather similar. My guess is that it probably has to do with the different dialogue paths, which I haven't explored (like I said, I'm playing good now, but later I'll go on the path of pure evil). The most obvious difference is the amount of dialouge in P:T is easily two-fold, and one spends a lot more time reading than fighting. Does that sound like your kind of thing? I usually find myself preferring dialogue over combat, but I can't say that I'm floored over P:T's approach compared to either BG game - I thought BG struck a pretty good balance between dialogue and combat (but, then again, my previous RPG outing was Diablo, so my view may have been a little tainted..!).


The dialogue is usually well-written, and there's lots of it!


Combat takes a back seat, but if you're itching for a fight, you can cause all kinds of commotion

Indeed, the amount of dialogue involved can be overwhelming at times, but I for one relish it, even though it means that one tends to pay attention to incongruities in dialogue options that one might otherwise leave alone. For instance, there is a character you can talk to, whom you've never met before, but there is immediately a dialogue option asking whether they'd like to join your group of heroic travellers. Given the otherwise high standard of dialogue and story, such things tend to stick out a bit more than they would in other games. Then again, maybe I'm turning into a pedant where instead I should take Frank Zappa's advice: "Shut up 'n play yer RPG" (as the reader can no doubt tell, at this point I am totally insane. But Zappa would've wanted it that way. Did the man not say, way back in 1967, "Freak out!").