Recent reviews by Tohabath

I was worried this game would be "too political" or "too edgy" for my tastes, but after playing I consider it to be an all-time favorite. The writing relies heavily on irony for humor, but it gets away with this by knowing how to read the room. Despite there being a strong focus on politics, the game is very quick to shoot down a "one size fits all" mentality, though it does so without compromising sincerity. For me, the way its more intense themes are handled matches the mandate to "bring comfort to the comfortless, and discomfort to the comfortable".

It does deal with some very serious stuff, and I'll admit some fans seem keen to find blood on everyone's hands and the devil under their shirts at times. But in the right group, it makes for great discussion, as each situation is always both better and worse than what you're seeing. I could easily recommend this game being used for classes in universities, for how well it provokes thought without being too nihilistic.

The gameplay is very elegant- I've actually emulated some of its systems in my own games, because they're easy to understand and implement while still being very fun in practice. If you've never made an RPG but want to, studying this game wouldn't be a bad place to start, in my opinion.

This is a very adult game, and not in a "scare the children away" kind of way. I'd check out a few clips before deciding whether to try it out, but again, this game won me over when I thought it wasn't for me, so take it as you will. The presentation is phenomenal, with gorgeous art and an incredible soundtrack, so even if the game isn't for you, I'd recommend investigating both.

I would pay $60 for an offline version of this game. Phenomenal solo experience, but not easy to recommend as an MMO.

All-time favorite, and my intro to western RPGs. Highly recommend, though I would say to get Ultimate Edition on sale.

Buy the game so that you can officially claim ownership, then pir**e the DS version and emulate that instead. Game suffers from serious stability issues, becomes jittery overtime, likely to crash. Might be that it's picky about graphics cards, which if so is extraordinarily odd.

A lot of changes have been made to the game since I last played it. I was seriously considering leaving a negative review, but seeing all the new options given won me over (and winning my first run didn't hurt, either). An absolute blast, if you love sweating over some nail-biting RNG and a little bit of pre-planning.

Some context may help a little, here: I've just barely finished the game for the first time. Before, I played and finished Dragon Age: Origins, and Baldur's Gate (1). Games I've at least tried include Fallout (1), Icewind Dale, and Baldur's Gate 2 (I still plan to finish BG2, I consider it next on the list).

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Planescape: Torment is a game worth playing all the way through at least once. While there are many great games using the Infinity Engine, Torment in its own way feels like the definitive Infinity Engine experience. Playing it for the first time after Baldur's Gate felt like stepping from childhood into adulthood- not in the cynical sense, but in a more enriching, eye-opening sort of way. The presentation is phenomenal, from the cutscenes, to the visuals, to the music, to the voice-acting - even the "beasts" section in the journal gives cool renders for every character and creature you come across in the game. There's simply nothing else like it.

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The gameplay has aged well in some ways, but not others. I think the best advice I can give in that regard is to think of the game as less of an RPG, and more as a Sierra-style point-and-click that has... overgrown itself.

Softlocking is something that most audiences I know don't appreciate in any game- even ones that pride themselves on use of inductive reasoning. For the uninitiated, imagine you are in a room that has a key, and a door. You walk through the door, into a second room. The door locks behind you, but there is another door in the room. It, too, is locked. It's then that you realize you were meant to bring the key into this room, but since the first door wasn't locked before, you had no reason to assume you would be prevented from coming back for the key.

This type of thing happens periodically in Torment- in fact, this is probably the first game I've thoroughly referenced a guide over, and for that reason alone I almost considered giving up, even though I had almost reached the end.

A lot of time in Torment is meant to be spent puzzling out sidequests; there aren't many locations to explore, but the ones given are very detailed, with many NPCs whose torments you are meant to somehow resolve. The given clues for these tend to be vague- again, like something you would expect in a point-and-click adventure game. You are also never told when a dialogue option involves a skillcheck (by which I refer to instances where the game checks for passive statistics to decide what you are capable of in a conversation), which can make the confusion all the more frustrating. If you know to dump all your points into intelligence and wisdom at the start of the game, you might have a smoother experience than I did, as during my playthrough I started out average in everything.

Even then, pretty much every quest I came across was more of a puzzle with one real solution and a lot of ways to mess things up, rather than an opportunity for the player to exercise their agency, which in my opinion ought to take priority in a story-based role-playing game. But this might be more of a me-problem, and this isn't to say I dislike point-and-click adventures. I just feel like I was misled in terms of what to expect.

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My final negative point goes to the Infinity Engine itself. The developers did some incredible work for the engine's constraints- it really feels pushed to its limits- but there are many instances where it feels like it's trying to connect gears that are already turning; if something happening in the background isn't calculated right (proximity, flags, combat variables, etc.), you can practically see the domino effect. It's also worth mentioning that, like with every other game made in this engine, crashes are fairly frequent (though it's so easy to restart, the crashes aren't much of an issue). Honestly, I would love for this game to be remade in either whatever engine was used to make Dragon Age: Origins, or in whatever engine was used to make Baldur's Gate 3 (which I have not played yet, but have seen a lot of footage of). Again, what's here is wonderful, but the bugs seem to come in swarms.

The combat is pretty good- the spell effects in particular are amazing- but it's rare to see it at its best, and I mostly blame this on the engine.

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Overall, I would recommend this as a unique piece of gaming history. I especially recommend playing other games made in the Infinity Engine first, as the transition from those to this one made the experience all the more special to me (and it helped to get used to the controls and mechanics in those first), but you're in for a real treat either way.

It's worth playing at least once. Made me realize how much I miss the more cinematic kind of games that held a stronger presence when consoles were more mainstream. There is one part that feels slightly on the nose, but the overall experience is great. Just be aware of the tags.

Wonderful game.

Ignore the degenerates in this section. This application hosts beautifully rendered wallpapers, from landscapes to the abstract, and there are enough quality-of-life features to justify the price-tag.

Bear in mind, I'm one of those people who doesn't show icons on their desktop, reserving those for the file explorer. However, as many of us spend most of our lives on computers nowadays, it only makes sense to put in the time to make the experience as enjoyable as possible. There may be some tweaking you'll have to do to get the most out of it, but after using this for almost a month, I'm happy with the investment so far.

Just finished the game! It's very short, but the concepts introduced are satisfying to play around with. A full-priced, game-length version of this project would likely be worth the effort, but a spectacular glimpse is more worthwhile than a monotonous lifetime in entertainment. Only complaint I have would be that the controls take some time adjusting to, but past the tutorial the space becomes simple to navigate. The UI is especially thoughtful, in ways you'd have to see firsthand to understand. Good stuff.