VonDondu
Exalted
Member
Registered: Mar
2001
Location: USA
Posts: 457 |
I realize
that I'm going a little off-topic, but since this forum has
very little activity, I hope no one minds if I contribute to
it.
Koveras, I'm not sure exactly what you mean when
you say that Torment is harder than BG, but I think I
disagree. I assume that you mean it's hard to find things and
it's tough to keep from getting killed. But the game leaves
clues all over the place to nudge you in the right direction,
and aside from street thugs, nobody's trying to kill you while
you go about your business. And even if your characters do get
killed, it's no big deal. IMO, that makes it easier than BG.
If you're like I was when I started playing Torment,
you're probably used to thinking that all the characters you
meet will try to kill you and you're used to solving problems
by killing things. You might also feel that death is something
to avoided at all costs. Such is the level of most
role-playing games. But Torment doesn't work that way. Aside
from the fact that the Nameless One gets right back up if he's
killed, which turns the normal equation on its head, you make
the most progress and get the most experience by
talking to people and growing in wisdom, not by killing
people. Strange, isn't it? 
For example,
if you had murdered everyone in the Mortuary (which would be
like opening fire in a mortician's office in real life), you
would have missed out on numerous clues and gotten hardly any
experience points at all. But if you talk to the right
characters and do the right things in the Mortuary, you can
level up once or twice, with practically no danger at all. I
don't remember BG being that easy. Not to mention that
some of things you can do in the Mortuary are actually pretty
funny. I don't know why the manual and the in-game dialogue
make the Mortuary out to be so dangerous. That's one reason
why I'm glad I didn't read the manual. Yes, a mortuary is
creepy by its very nature, and you want to avoid the ordinary
Dustmen so they won't call the guards (they might think you're
an intruder or a rival faction member), but Dustmen and
zombies aren't out to kill anybody, and you don't need to be
afraid of them. Besides, there are at least five people in the
Mortuary you should talk to. If you get scared, just relax and
put it all in perspective. When you see Dustmen on the street
or in a bar, they won't try to harm you; they're just ordinary
people who lovingly care for the dead and want to help the
living prepare for their mortality. In fact, you might even
want to join their faction. (It would feel kind of weird if
you had just massacred a whole bunch of them.)
If you
do find yourself in a life-threatening situation, you can run
away or talk your way out of it nearly every time. Or you can
let your enemies kill the Nameless One and you'll be safe and
sound, back in the loving care of the Mortuary. There are only about
four situations in the entire game where you have no choice
but to fight. In fact, the next time I play, I'm going to see
how low I can keep the body count. In all seriousness, one
thing that Torment taught me is to have more respect for life
in role-playing games. Now I don't WANT to kill everything in
my path. I'd rather see what happens when my characters rely
on their wisdom and their "will", which is emphasized more
than anything else in Torment, or else just mellow out and
enjoy the scenery and the dialogue. Being in Sigil is just
like being in a real city, and you can enjoy yourself if you
want to. You don't have to feel like you're on the run or in a
race against time. That makes it a LOT different from BG.
I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but the first
time I played Torment, I spent a lot of effort beefing up my
characters (they were the baddest characters you ever saw)
because I
kept expecting the encounters to become more and more
dangerous just like they do in every other RPG. But by the
time I finished the game, I felt that all of my worrying had
been unnecessary. You can beef up your characters all you want
if that's what turns you on. You'll get your chance to meet
"bosses" who are as big and bad as Sarevok. You can fight them
if you'd like, and if you do, you're in for a treat. But I
hope you won't be disappointed to find that you don't
have to fight them. In fact, sometimes it's even better
NOT to. To me, that's not a drawback at all. It makes the game
more interesting. I suppose it is more challenging in a way,
though, since it requires you to think things through instead
of hacking and slashing. But keep in mind that Torment is
about making choices. The Nameless One has just begun a new
incarnation, and it's up to you to decide what sort of path
he'll take. I've never played another game that had so many
different possibilities.
At this point in the game, if
you're worried about thugs chasing you, be sure you have the
option "Always Run" enabled. You can also keep one of your
party members close to the area exit if you think you're in
danger. I know it's a cheesy tactic, but if one party member
makes it to the exit, he or she can pull your whole party out
of a mess. It's not like BG, where YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY
BEFORE VENTURING FORTH. If you want to make a
stand, Morte has 75% resistance to damage and a fairly low AC,
so despite his protests, he can do a lot more fighting than
you might think. In fact, at the medium difficulty setting or
below, he can probably do ALL of the fighting for you early in
the game while the Nameless One, uh, keeps an eye on his back
(the back of his skull, that it). Also remember that if
the Nameless One dies, he's fully healed. You can
exploit that. Think of the advantages.
SPOILER
Not even the Alley of Dangerous Angles is very
dangerous if you play it the right way. Pay attention to what
happens when some of the thugs chase you across the map. Then
leave the area and try it again. Learn from it and exploit it.
Last edited by
VonDondu on 11-11-2002 at 07:29 AM
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PS:T goes out of
print
11-07-2002 10:35 AM
)
While that doesn't
materially affect the game in any way, it does make for a
general sense of disorientation. Which, frankly, I like.
