Thugs, mostly.  I was promptly ambushed by a bunch of jerks trying to shake me down, and after I wiped the road with their corpses, I decided that perhaps this wouldn’t be the best place to explore right now.  Instead, I took a southward turn that the game was sending me in anyway, and started to make my way to the Smouldering Corpse bar.

I guess this is as good a time as any to talk about the game’s classes.  PT is a little odd in the D&D Infinity Engine library in that it’s not quite as concerned about classes and combat.  I mean, they’re there, but they take a backseat to the adventure game aspect of it all.  Because of that, there are three loose classes — Fighter, Mage, Rogue — that you can assume based on your skills and attributes, but it’s also possible to switch between them.  I think you need to find a character to train you, too.  For the purpose of simplicity, I remain a Fighter, although I really wish I could be getting through more of these areas without having to duke it out.  With only 31 hit points and a 1-6 club in hand, I’m not exactly a powerhouse.

In every new area, I’m on the lookout for one key thing: named NPCs.  Each one usually has a pretty interesting backstory that plays out via dialogue choices, and several contain quests or XP boosts.  Plus, these strangers are excellent ways to get acquainted with the bizarre world of Sigil.

I meet a man who is mourning for the trees, and in retrospect, there is basically nothing green that’s growing anywhere around here.  It’s a run-down, almost hellish town, and I sympathize for him in exchange for 500 XP.  I also get accosted by a “damsel in distress” who I deduce is trying to lure me into a mugging.  I’m too smart for that, sister!

I then meet a Dabus (they’re like caretakers of the city) named Fell in a tattoo parlor.  In our weird conversation — he communicates with symbols — he tells me that “I cannot change the nature of a man.”  This right here is the central theme to the game, although it’s not going to be explained for a while.  In his back room are canvases of human skin with tattoos on them, which is par for the course when it comes to this city’s dark weirdness.

Speaking of weirdness, I finally make it to the Smouldering Bar.  It gets its name from Ignus, a wizard who’s constantly on fire and is just… floating there like the Human Torch.  His lover is hanging out nearby, but she’s long since resigned herself that he’s never going to be doused.  The game informs me that this guy is very dangerous to me, but I can’t remember why.

The tavern has several interesting NPCs to chat with, including a pair of fiends that Morte warns me about, although the most interesting of all is a strange warrior-mage dude named Dak’kon.  The writing in Planescape Torment is almost uniformly excellent, and I keep wanting to quote various bits of description and dialogue.  It’s like playing through a good book, digging for story and being rewarded with word paintings.  Dak’kon discusses the nature of Sigil, how the entire city is made up of locked doors, most of which can’t be seen or recognized as such, and only a few of which have keys that are known.  After philosophizing for a bit, Dak’kon is impressed enough with me that he wants to join my party.  Hey, the more the merrier!

An old guy named Ebb proves to be a good guide to the city itself, including its general layout, day/night schedule, and information on the Lady of Pain.  Turns out she likes to chuck people into mazes when they displease her, and I have a hunch that that might happen to me at some point.  I also find out that the barkeeper has my other eye, but he won’t give it back until I have 500 gold.  I only have half of that, so I’ll have to retrieve it later.

Read the whole Planescape Torment playthrough on the Nostalgia Lane page!

• Soldiers: Lots of killing/defense missions along with special weapons missions
• Explorers: Lots of map exploration, jumping puzzles, secret passageways
• Settlers: Lots of constructing structures along with and for the good of the game community
• Scientists: Lots of lore extracting and cataloguing

In a nice touch, Carbine said that players who group together can experience each other’s paths, and players with the same path can combine to make a mission more potent (or whatever, it’s not fully explained).

There’s very little about the path system that I don’t like, really.  It certainly will up the replayability and alt factor — all four paths seem interesting in some regard.  But the question that I (and probably most other WildStar fans) are asking is which path will be the first one I take.

Out of the four, explorer is probably least appealing.  I mean, I love poking around on maps and finding secret places, but I’m less-than-fond of jumping puzzles and platforming in MMOs.  Maybe it won’t be that bad, but it’s not a strong selling point.  Soldier is an adequate pick, although I feel like I’ll be doing enough killing in my normal missions, plus it’ll probably be an overwhelmingly popular pick.  Just my gut on that.

So that leaves builder and scientist.  Scientist might be a great first choice in that it’ll help me really get to know the game and its world on the first playthrough.  Sort of like a commentary track that unfolds along the way.  There’s a nice collection aspect to it that certainly appeals.

Settler is calling to me strongly, however.  I’m really attracted to the idea of molding bits of the game world and learning how to make useful stuff (like motorcycles), plus if this path ties into the housing system like Carbine hinted, then I’m so there.

I’ll have to chew on it for a while.  Right now I’m leaning toward settler, but we have some time before that decision will need to be made.  What will you pick?

Two topics in 30 minutes or your next podcast is free. You know you would listen to all this if it just wasn’t so… long!

Listen to episode 62 here!

With the Dustman mortuary behind me, I tottered out onto the streets of Sigil, the main city for the game.  Sigil is reportedly the center of all the planes, kind of a hub station ruled over by a very scary lady.  It’s not that colorful either; PT specializes in drab grays and rusty metal, which continues to give me that Fallout vibe.

I chatted up a harlot for some direction and continued to piece together clues where to find this Pharod guy.  Next stop was a house where a surly man and his anxious wife tasked me with releasing the guy from a Dustman contract to use his body after he dies.  No problem, says I.  My wisdom score is now 19 and my intelligence is 18, meaning that if there’s a peaceful way through a scenario, I’m able to take it.  It also unlocks a lot of easy experience boosts through conversation trees.

The contract quest is pretty simple.  I popped over to a nearby Dustman bar and chatted up the named NPCs.  There’s a bit of XP to be made in this, such as chatting with an old lady who’s starting to doubt the Dustman philosophy (that life is “false life” and death is “true life”).  I also talked circles around an ambitious go-getter who had the contract, and he eventually gave it back to me.  Nevertheless to say, the contract signer was quite grateful and he became about the 10th person to tell me where Pharod is.  That guy does not keep a low profile.

Another Dustman at the bar gave me a quest to investigate a disturbance at the nearby mausoleum (this area’s big on the death theme, I guess).  I pop over there and Bob’s your uncle, it’s crawling with skeletons.  What’s new, really?  An agitated spirit says that there’s another intruder doing hokey stuff and he begs for me to deal with it.  No problem, says I.  I do ghostbusting with an iron crowbar.  The mausoleum looked more like the innards of an H.R. Giger painting than a traditional crypt, which is one of the reasons why this game is so engrossing.  Even standard places really aren’t that standard.

In my previous playthrough way back when, I used a walkthrough that helped me get through the game with minimal combat.  That’s roughly what I’m going for this time, although without the walkthrough, I’m finding that I get into more scraps than expected.  I had to fight my way through the place, netting a bit of XP in the process.  I found a back room where the necromancer was — twist! — waiting for me because he needs some of my blood to become an immortal lich.  Good for him, but bad for him too.  It took a few deaths (when you die in this game, you just respawn at the mortuary) to take him and his skeleton crew down, but down they went and into my pockets his goodies went.

Next time: Pharod, come out and playyyyayyyy!

Catch up on the entire Planescape Torment playthrough on the Nostalgia Lane page!

This happened with SWTOR — the Imperial Agent’s story and class was so good that it made subsequent picks seem like pale imitations.  And now I’m encountering that with Guild Wars 2.  I love my Engineer something fierce, and I think it’s spoiled me because I have been bouncing between potential alts like a drunken monkey on free banana night.

The Warrior is too dull for me.  The Elementalist remains untouched.  The Necromancer feels incomplete and underpowered compared to other classes.  The Mesmer is interesting but there’s something a little off with her too.  The Thief is too roguey for my tastes.  The Guardian is too melee-centric and overplayed.  The Ranger is too safe and standard, reminding me of WoW’s Hunter.

For weeks now I’ve been ping-ponging back and forth between my Mesmer and Necro, trying so very hard to come to peace with them as they develop.  It’s just not happening, and I’ve grown frustrated with them.

Fortunately, the other day I decided to give the Ranger an honest try and think I’ve found my solution.  It may not feel as unique as the Mesmer/Necro, but this right here feels like a better fit for me.  I love ranged damage and pet classes, and the sheer variety of weapons and options could make this an interesting prospect for the long haul.  I even splurged on a couple of Super Adventure Box skins for my longbow and shortbow, so now I’ve put my virtual money where my mouth is.

I’m hoping it’ll stick.  It would be nice to have a fun alt to go through all of this content again with, and I think that there’s enough options with the Ranger to make the journey varied and challenging.

“Bear approves of you!  I can feel her little tail wagging in my heart!”

~ NPC skill trainer in GW2

Let’s get started with this game, though!  Planescape Torment is one of my favorite computer RPGs of all time. I’ve only played it through all the way once (back in 2002 or so), but it was absolutely captivating.  It opened my eyes to the fact that there were D&D settings that weren’t Forgotten Realms or Dark Sun, and although I haven’t seen any Planescape stuff since, this remains my favorite campaign.  It’s a bizarre fantasy setting that’s full of twists on standard tropes, a grungy run-down world, secrets and portals, and, y’know, floating talking skull heads.

One of the things that I loved about PT is that you could play it much like an adventure game with very little combat (I think that if you play your cards right, you only *have* to fight twice in the entire game).  With that in mind and with the resolve to not rely on walkthroughs for this series, I rolled up my Nameless One with as high wisdom and intelligence as possible so as to open as many memories, dialogue options, and adventure options.

The story starts with your character — a scarred, twisted hulk of a man — waking up in a mortuary with no recollection of who he is save for a cryptic tattoo on his body.  I’m instantly joined by Morte, the aforementioned floating skull, who becomes my first companion.  This unusual opening coupled with the odd dialogue (Planescape has a lot of localized slang that you have to get used to) draws me right into the setting.  There’s some voiced dialogue by NPCs, although it’s not fully voiced (I think the guy who does Homer Simpson’s voice does one of your companions later on).

I love Morte.  You wouldn’t think a floating skull could be that interesting, but he’s always got something funny to say and an interesting perspective on the situation.  For example, I start out in a room full of dead bodies and shambling zombies (who aren’t the enemy, but just workers).  Morte begs me not to slice up the female zombies, since he thinks he might have a shot with them.  How would that work, skull?  Actually… I don’t want to know.

Even with so much death around, the mortuary is pretty peaceful.  It helps that you’re not being attacked unless you attack first.  Pretty soon I bumped into Dhall, a “Dustman” who is more fascinated than angry with me.  There are great descriptions of the people and objects in the text window, and the whole setup reminds me of a nice hybrid of Baldur’s Gate and Fallout.  Sometimes getting those little text snippets can be really immersive, because it asks your imagination to join in.

Between Dhall and Morte, I’m given the rough basics of what’s going on.  Apparently I’m an immortal guy who can’t die forever, but loses his memories each time I’m put down.  Morte’s been my companion for a while, Dhall has encountered me fairly often, and the tattoo on my back tells me to read a journal (which I’ve lost) and find a guy named Pharod.  A little later I find out that my final purpose might well be to get rid of my immortality, although how to do that might be a problem.  That’s a good start.

Escaping the mortuary is the primary goal, but there’s a lot to be discovered if you’re patient and explore carefully.  Many of the zombies have secrets (“many things have secrets” is the game’s motto, I swear), and there are a few advantages that can be gained if you take the time to do a couple side quests.  Before I left, I got stitched up by a Tiefling, took apart a number of skeletons for runes, talked with a ghost who claimed to be my long-lost lover (not having memories, I had to take her word at that), and evaded a number of Dustmen who wanted to kill me all over again.  The place is just three levels, although I remember it taking a long time to escape when I first played it.  This time around it was about 45 minutes or so, and I got a level out of it.

I’m playing the game on the default settings, which means an absurdly low resolution.  I know that there are mods to allow more standard resolution, so I’m going to have to look into those.  I’m a little tired of only seeing 1% of the map at any given time.

In the case of the Secret World, one thing that’s always impressed me is how much extra art goes into the quests.  By this I mean all of the specially made art assets that appear in addition to the voiced dialogue and quest text.  TSW throws tons of this stuff at you, from maps to photographs to diaries in foreign languages, and just about all of it is uniquely done.  Different photos tend to have different borders, the fonts and backgrounds to all of these printed documents are across an entire spectrum, and even some of the actual art (as in paintings, wall markings, and so on) have far more detail than the quest requires.

Why I love this is that these fantastic details seriously aid in immersion.  Maybe players don’t really notice them, but they go a long way to breaking out of the boring quest text and provide something with substance.  It plays to the game’s adventure genre roots, particularly when an adventure game would let you take a close-up look at an essential clue or object.

When I think about how many of these specially made art assets I’ve encountered in TSW thus far, I’m kind of in awe of whoever at Funcom had to handle all of this.  Particularly when it wasn’t a copy-and-paste scenario.  But kudos to them because I, at least, really appreciate the extra effort.  It’s the little details that can make a game fantastic, I think.