Planescape: Torment (1999)

Its about time.

Not bothering to make ISOs, just installing from discs - four CDs, not DVDs! While that's cooking, I can check out this relic from the past, an Instruction Manual. Before I can even finish reading that this game is the first Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game set in the TSR Planescape campaign setting, it auto plays an ad for Icewind Dale, then tells me its done installing and offers to start the game. I hoped I could grind through all the CDs, installing all content to the hard drive, and be able to put away the discs for good, but now it seems there will be disc swapping later.

I'm impressed, the videos are actually playing. They look horribly dated, but not bad. Because of the game's advanced age, I can easily alt+tab out to process a screen shot at any time.

640x480. That's the default. Is there any way to increase? Where's the option menu - I guess it wasn't standard yet. Time to go back to the manual. I'm in no hurry to play. I know that getting through technical difficulties of a new game can easily mean I won't play any time soon, so no need to get excited. Also, there's only one first time, so let's get it right.

Reading the forward, its full of marketing copy - I've already bought the game, thank you, spare me. Starting a New Life. How quaint, I get to pick from the old classics, Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma. I'll go with my usual bent, high mental (15 on I, W, Chr), low physical (10 S, D, C).

I got a little excited when an NPC started talking to me (with in game voice), but it quickly turned into all text. So far, I'm liking the background music. Exploring the UI, there's a lot to it, I wonder if there are keyboard shortcuts or if I'm stuck using the mouse. I can already see the world map, at least locally, even though I'm just starting out (which is spoilerific - isn't my character supposed to have lost his memory?).

I find options, turn up the brightness a little. I'm getting used to the UI fairly quickly, trying out movement and combat. It seems to come fairly easily, more like something I remember than I have to learn (feels like Fallout). I get a key but can't open the door. Is it a bug? Is my experience with this game already over!? Off to the internet, and to my embarrassment I learn there are two other doors in the room I haven't tried yet. Sometimes I lean on the crutch of the internet a little too readily.

Found an NPC to talk to, with a large conversation tree. I try and traverse every branch. I know I'm doing well because I keep hearing "updated my journal". I wonder if there are conversation branches that terminate conversations, or even the ability to talk to that NPC any more.

I'm starting to get a glimpse of why this game is considered so great. The writing is decent, and it keeps layering on the intrigue. I love history, and backstory, and it looks like there's plenty more to come.

The journal feature is a nice convenience. No need to take notes, or flip back through conversation logs.

Not just the UI, but some of this background music very much reminds me of Fallout (current background music sounds like The Hub, if I remember correctly). Of course, they were both made by the same people (Black Isle) but its interesting to note what's in common.

Not only does this game seem to have a sense of humor, but an enjoyably twisted one. I wonder if the same people not only implemented Fallout and Planescape, but actually wrote the content.

I find the tomb of Deionarra. The random voice work in this game is a little jarring. At least its not bad voice work, its just sparse and unexpected almost every time it happens.

Now I'm starting to game the game. I get into a street fight, and hide in a building until I heal. Can I do this indefinitely to farm experience points? Should I?

Later that night... I can't load my saves. Try a few things, searching online... try emptying cache. The directory "C:\Program Files (x86)\Black Isle\Torment\cache" contains five *.bif, move dir to cache_deleted. Attempt to load... failed. I should be more clear explaining the problem - its not that the saves don't load, its that they immediately crash after moving to and loading the next area. Searching for 'planescape crashes when loading'. There's a lot of people using mods, but I am not. Found an interesting thread at: "http://www.gog.com/forum/planescape_torment/random_crashes/page1". Trying the first suggestion, to run in compatibility mode Win XP SP2. Before, it would crash right after exiting an area, this time it exits the area, and goes to the loading screen for the next area... and it works!

It seems like every old PC game comes with a free tech puzzle for you to solve. Another common thing about these old classics are the mod communities that arise around them. It looks like there's a lot out there, with graphic and other enhancements created over the years. But I want to play the original the way it was, for the first time at least. And I want to avoid spoilers.

Stopping here, and consolidating all game notes into the next post.