Classic D&D RPGs are well loved by fans, and two of the most loved are Planescape Torment and Icewind Dale. These classics helped define how RPGs should be and how narrative should be handled in games. Now Beamdog has brought these classics to modern systems and the result is interesting.
Icewind Dale is a game that will confuse you if you are not familiar with the source material. Sadly I did not know this and had to consult others in order to understand what was going on. I wish it was easier to understand but overall I managed. The games are based on a book series by R.A. Salvatore, which was the sequel to a previous book series. As such, you can see where players might be confused without knowing this. What was even harder to get into were the controls, because sadly they did not translate that well from PC to console. The UI has been overhauled and that is great, but I still had trouble learning how to maneuver everyone as well as how to attack and how to handle skills. This all took longer than expected and I fumbled more than once. In addition, the text was small and hard to read and even after changing the font, I still had some trouble reading it.
The game itself is indeed a great RPG and the quests are iconic, and I do feel if the optimization was better this would be a must play game for consoles. The ,music was done by Jeremy Soulle and is rather well done, and the plot is very engaging and the characters are strong. There is definitely something engaging here you play, but there is still the problem of needing a lot of background information in order to understand what you are doing. Icewind Dale is a game all about combat however, so that should keep people occupied once they get the grasp of the controls. Another issue however, is that the battle system has aged poorly and is devoid of charm, so I do not feel it is a title worth going back to on console though. This wouldn’t be as bad mind you, if the game was not so fighting heavy as I will contrast with another game in a moment.
Now Planescape Torment on the other hand, has had a wonderful conversion to console. This is more of a narrative focused game, but it is fully self contained and requires only minimal knowledge of overall D&D lore, as much is explained in game. The game feels very responsive here, and a variety of options present themselves right away. It was easy to switch between characters, use items and interact with others, so I felt a large relief.
This game tells the story of the Nameless One, who awakens in a mortuary and must go on a quest with far ranging implications all the while wondering what is it that can change the nature of a man. The quests are very engaging and have numerous ways of accomplishing them, and the text is much better here and could easily be read, both on TV and in the Switch’s handheld mode. Combat was much easier to figure out than Icewind Dale, and overall it feels more care went into this port. I do not blame the developers there, as Planescape Torment is one of the greatest games of all time, and has aged very well.
This is a game where you make choices, and there are a lot of them to be made. In the very beginning dungeon, there are numerous ways the scenario can play out, and that is just the start of the game. There are moral decisions to make and characters that can be interacted with in different ways, and each way you do so will affect how the story progresses. The morality system in this game was a big influence on later titles like Fable, and your alignment does matter.
Planescape Torment is less about battles than narrative, but the combat that is here, is handled well as I said. Perhaps it is because the fighting is secondary here, that the combat feels better than in Icewind Dale. Though the combat handles very similarly, there are differences and this form of battles as well as the narrative focus of the game translated far better to consoles, and the visual style in general helps the transition.It should be noted that Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment were in development at the same time, and so may have been a tale in contrasting design philosophies. I liked the various control options presented, and the way you can select and build your characters. This may not be an open world game like Skyrim, but years from now, it will have aged far better than Skyrim. The UI is perfect here, and there has been some minor graphical changes to improve things.
Icewind Dale is a game I would personally avoid, but will definitely appeal to certain gamers. but Planescape Torment alone is worth the price of admission. Considering how things are however, I can imagien that one of the games will appeal to certain gamers and the other to a different set of gamers. It is worth checking this out.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
images taken from Microsoft.com