Castanova
Prophet
I've tried to play through Planescape before. It ended sometime around after I had explored all four quadrants of the Hive and was about to seek out Pherod. I just couldn't find the motivation to continue playing. Yesterday, I decided to give it another go. Come at it from the perspective that I KNOW it's going to be glorified interactive fiction. I KNOW it won't be any fun gameplay-wise. Just power through it. Today, I gave up. It ended sometime around after I had explored all four quadrants of the Hive and was about to seek out Pherod. I just couldn't find the motivation to continue playing.
Good lord is this game boring.
Every zone has like 20 named NPCs, 18-19 of which serve no gameplay purpose. Nonetheless, they have a name and all their dialog trees look exactly the same. You want to ask them questions. They agree. You ask them their name. They tell you. You ask them about themselves. They talk about themselves for about 2,000 words. Why do I care about you, NPC? Why do I care what you have to say? If you're lucky, after reading the 2,000 word monologue about their past, present, and future, they will conclude their tale by offering you the opportunity of the lifetime: to run a fed-ex quest for them. Oh, joy of joys.
So, you accept the quest. You run, and run, and run, and run. On the way, three-- no, make that six now--- "thugs" aggro you for no apparent reason. You can outrun them anyway so you ignore them. Sometimes they annoy you so much, you stop and kill them. Combat consists of clicking on them and waiting. So you click on them and wait. Thirty seconds later, they're dead and you're a copper bracelet richer. Oh, joy of joys.
Several minutes later, you have delivered your FedEx box to the recipient. But then you have to run back again to get your XP reward. Hello another fifteen thugs. Goodbye another five minutes of real life.
As a game, I see no redeeming value in this. None. It's atrocious. I can understand that people enjoy story but there's very little story here. There's only thousands upon thousands of words on the subject of random NPC backgrounds, their moods, their menstrual cycle, and so on. There is no motivation to read the words because they don't tie into the gameplay. They don't enlighten you about the world you're in-- hell, half the time the 2,000 words are about another dimension entirely. It feels like one giant study guide for some non-existent college exam on Planescape lore dressed up as a game.
I'm interested to know about my character and what his story is and what his past is. Why do I need to spend 10 hours reading monologues from 100 NPCs in order to progress my own story? Oh, that's right. Because MCA makes games, not novels. Lucky us.
Good lord is this game boring.
Every zone has like 20 named NPCs, 18-19 of which serve no gameplay purpose. Nonetheless, they have a name and all their dialog trees look exactly the same. You want to ask them questions. They agree. You ask them their name. They tell you. You ask them about themselves. They talk about themselves for about 2,000 words. Why do I care about you, NPC? Why do I care what you have to say? If you're lucky, after reading the 2,000 word monologue about their past, present, and future, they will conclude their tale by offering you the opportunity of the lifetime: to run a fed-ex quest for them. Oh, joy of joys.
So, you accept the quest. You run, and run, and run, and run. On the way, three-- no, make that six now--- "thugs" aggro you for no apparent reason. You can outrun them anyway so you ignore them. Sometimes they annoy you so much, you stop and kill them. Combat consists of clicking on them and waiting. So you click on them and wait. Thirty seconds later, they're dead and you're a copper bracelet richer. Oh, joy of joys.
Several minutes later, you have delivered your FedEx box to the recipient. But then you have to run back again to get your XP reward. Hello another fifteen thugs. Goodbye another five minutes of real life.
As a game, I see no redeeming value in this. None. It's atrocious. I can understand that people enjoy story but there's very little story here. There's only thousands upon thousands of words on the subject of random NPC backgrounds, their moods, their menstrual cycle, and so on. There is no motivation to read the words because they don't tie into the gameplay. They don't enlighten you about the world you're in-- hell, half the time the 2,000 words are about another dimension entirely. It feels like one giant study guide for some non-existent college exam on Planescape lore dressed up as a game.
I'm interested to know about my character and what his story is and what his past is. Why do I need to spend 10 hours reading monologues from 100 NPCs in order to progress my own story? Oh, that's right. Because MCA makes games, not novels. Lucky us.