Torment and Arcanum

K

Karkow

Still Mildly Glowing
Hey

I just got both Planescape:Torment and Arcanum …finally!

I’m really eager to play both, but I want to concentrate on one at a time.
So. Which one should I play first? Which one have you enjoyed the most?
 
Of those two, I like Arcanum best. Hell, I like Arcanum even more than I like Fallout. It has a great story, it offers you complete freedom and a humongous world to explore (the city of Tarant alone is bigger than all the cities and slums of Fallout 1 put together), the best damn character development I have ever seen (although some will say the exact opposite thing) and virtually unlimited possibilities (magic/technology). Great atmosphere (kind of Victorian), best soundtrack ever, but it does have its flaws as well: most of the npc's are crap and combat isn't very good, I suppose, very repetitive (but only when you use a melee character, methinks, technologically inclined characters can be very creative: poison, grenades, electricity, guns... + there is of course magic and boomerangs and chakrams and... ). Oh, and combat can be put to turn based, which is nice. Oh and you can travel by boat and train, you can take the subway in Tarant, there's lots of references to Fallout which will make you smile and *rant, rant, rant*

One more thing about Arcanum: there is an evil path that is much harder to play but does give you a different game experience. Worth trying it (second time through).

Planescape: Torment has a good story and a whacky world. Lots of reading to do, though, and the combat wasn't my thing at all. Nah, didn't like it, not really. Didn't finish it either, to be honest.

PLAY ARCANUM FIRST! ARCANUM RULEZ! (be sure to patch it, though, patch 1074)
 
arcanum is imho idd better, the story is deep and welltold, unfortunately the fights are not up to par, although it remains fun
 
I totally concur with Alec on this one. Although I regard Fallout to be generally better than Arcanum (having all its splendor and slightly less flaws) I must say that Arcanum was the best cRPG I've played bar Fallout, and with it I found my love for steampunk. I think the soundtrack isn't that good though, and I missed the fallout-style perks and advancement - but then again, these are balanced by the special character biographies and countless ways to advance your character as you swing on the magic-tech axis. And the world... It's humongous. The quests - copious. The paths possible are a many great combination, depending on whether you're magic/tech, good/evil, dwarf/elf , even half ogre.

Soon you'll be cursing it for stealing so much of your free time.
 
I'd play Torment before Arcanum. Torment has a great story and is undoubtedly the best of the IE games, but it is pretty linear and shorter than Arcanum. If you play it first I think you'll be much more appreciative of the open-endedness of Arcanum and much more likely to forgive it's flawed combat system.
 
Torment all the way. I personally think it's the best game I've ever played, with the possible exception of Fallout.
It's story is unique an absolutely brilliant, the dialogue goes very deep and is emotional at times. The world draws you in like no other, and the characters are absolutely brilliant. The story keeps surprising you, and new things keep popping up.
In short: it's brilliant. It's much better than Arcanum, mainly because Arcanum was buggy (even with the latest patches it just blinks out of the game) and the combat system sucked an incredible amount of ass. The freedom in Arcanum and the open-endedness is good, but it doesn't come close to beating Torment's story and in-depth dialogue.
 
Try to find the Planescape fan-made fixes, they give a much better gaming experience, i can`t find a link right now but i`ll try to find it later.

Arcanum also has a good fan-made patch, that improves many things, but it seems that it makes the game harder, so you better wait a while before trying it.
 
humm....well, thanks to all of you, I'll ponder for a while, look at both games then make my decision...
 
Briosafreak said:
Arcanum also has a good fan-made patch, that improves many things, but it seems that it makes the game harder, so you better wait a while before trying it.
Click to expand...

You mean the Chris Beddoes Car Mod (which fixes some game problems and does indeed make the game harder (encumbrance, jeez!)? Or is there another patch than the 1074 patch? :scratch:
 
I really like arcanum but it has one big flaw: dungeon suck, the tileset suck and the design suck. The out doors environment is great but once you step into the dwarf mine mhe.
 
Arcanum is one of my favorite games of all time! You can't go wrong with that game! Togar Bumpweed was the destroyer of all civilization! No one in the whole world stands anymore in my game! :P

Mohrg :twisted:
 
Planescape Torment has the best RPG plot I've ever had the joy of playing. Arcanum is pretty good also, but it does drag a bit, unlike Planescape, but you should always save the best fo the last, so play Arcanum first.
 
alec said:
You mean the Chris Beddoes Car Mod (which fixes some game problems and does indeed make the game harder (encumbrance, jeez!)? Or is there another patch than the 1074 patch? :scratch:
Click to expand...

Yeah the patch made by the nice Chrisbeddoes that is normally hanging at the RPGCodex. I wanted to post a link for it but i lost it, together with the PS:T one :?
 
I enjoyed both of them though I prefer Planescape Torment. The relations with all the guilds and the characters are still some of my favorites. Arcanum is fun though I found guns useless the first time I played (I'll have to retry it sometime). Unforunately, I have difficulty replaying both games. Something about having to play the beginning again that I just dread :(.
 
Tough call, i abseloutely love both on the same level that i love fallout. Arcanum is a compelling game with the best character development EVER, and is set in an extremly well thought out world. I personally felt at home there (Im english) as it felt like i was going back to my victorian roots :).

But really, play planescape!

It is more of an experience then a game, but bare in mind, to get the most out of it u MUST have an open mind to new ideas and possibilitys, otherwise it will end up as just another RPG. The characters are the best i have ever seen in a game.
 
I absolutely hated the dwarven mines in Arcanum. In fact, I hate all the dungeons in that game. Some of them had shortcuts, but not all of them. Aside from that and the crappy combat (which ruined replayability for me as well), it was a great game.
 
I recommend Torment. Despite the somewhat shitty engine and combat system, it's still one of the greatest RPG's ever. It was conceived as more of an adventure game than a traditional RPG, but that doesn't detract from the experience one bit. Once you start playing it, it totally absorbs you and you simply have to see how the story evolves. If only combat wasn't so lame.

As for Arcanum, I personally find that it utterly sucks. Seriously, that game is below mediocre in every aspect other than the cool setting and gameplay that vaguely resembles Fallout. By the time I got to the Isle of Despair (and you have to give me credit for enduring the torment of the dwarven mines) I got so bored I simply stopped playing.
 
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