I don't know, I bought BG1 the minute it came out and I liked the way you could define your character with hair color, voices, portraits, allignment. Even the beginning was quite nice (even if it was predictable). But somehow BG1 felt empty. Often you walked over silly plains fighting silly creatures, over and over again and the story only kicked in now and again which was a shame.
The fact is BG1 was pretty much lifeless even with other PCs in your party.

And when I was finally through the game the ending was a real dissapointment for me.
It was then that I decided to wait a couple of years before buying such a realtime RPG again. So when Planescape was about to come out I thought I'd leave it were it was.
I thought it would likely take a couple more years before this type of game got somewhat amusing. Until I saw the actual game and was sold in 5 minutes (yes even in the rather "dull" beginning) I was overwhelmed by the details, which would only get better as the game progressed.

Now before you think I don't like BG, I do.
I like BG2, it was a lot better then BG1, in fact this was the more or less the way how it should have been to start with.
Characters were pretty good, although sometimes they were done talking quite fast, which was a shame, since BG2 does have a lot of potential. I for one liked the Underdark the first time I went through the game, because of the lie, betray and schemes you have to pull of. This rather reminded me of the things you had to pull of in Planescape.
Although I have to admit, the Underdark in BG2 isn't as interesting the second time as the first time. Since you don't really have option to be sly, dumb or just plain lucky.
You have to follow an exact path or else no go back to the surface.

Oh well, all in all BG2 wasn't a dissapointment unlike it's predecessor

Compared to the BG series, I think Torment is a lot better CRPG. The interaction with the party members that was nonexistent in BG, a great (and intriguing, I might add) story, the sounds & graphics and all the rest - Imho, a better RPG experience altogether.
Torment, however, is a game you play a few times, and then there's really nothing more to see.
I got tired of Torment faster than I did with BG and BG2 (although I got pretty fed up with waltzing through infinite hordes of kobolds in BG1).

They're still not quite like pen-and-paper RPGs, in my opinion (ahhh, the good old days) :)



[This message has been edited by Seric Exz (edited March 17, 2001).]

All 3 games rock. BG 1 had a really great and mysterious story which I loved. But you are right. There where so many pointless battles with lame enemies that fell like flies. It would have been better with fewer battles with more challenging and detailed villains. And of course some point in the battle other than "gimme yer gold".
BG 2 is like BG 1 but much better. Unfurtunely it has so many annoying details like extremely many level-drainers, enemies that turn up with no warning and all those stupid bugs. But the best IS Torment. The NPCs has faboulous characther and personlity. Unfurtunely there are so many dialoges where you will miss a quest if you don't say the magic word. The thing that irritates me about torment is tactics. In BG1 there where 2 main tactics: melee or ranged.In BG 2 you had to think much more.
But Planescape!!!

Hey, just a quick note I agree with the 'love all three games'. I found they all appealed to me for different reasons. PT the most intriguing story (have you downloaded the book that someone made from the dialogue (I think its on this site somewhere), BG2 best character interactions and greatest character flexability, BG1 best for just plain adventuring. Overall BG1 is still my favourite (maybe because it was the first). Probably though, its because I have no real desire to play PT through again (the story was great but...) and BG2 is too restrictive in too many ways.

You might be interested in a similar topic I posted on the BG2 forum:
http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/Forum2/HTML/001760.html

Ok 2 last things.

I agree with the PT thing. If you've played it a couple of times you know the story to well and the replayability is rather low.

On the book, is it any good?
I've bought the original book of PT and it was a VERY big disapointment. It has some nice things in it... but somehow the computer game seemed to have more story dialogue then the book did... how's that for an irony?

Well the book is better than the two crap "novels" Athans wrote for Baldurs' Gate 1 and 2. But that's about it... Since there's so little Planescape fiction out there, it's better than nothing I guess.
I have no idea where the people who wrote the story in the game are hiding. They should be making books!

[This message has been edited by Taluntain (edited March 19, 2001).]

I played PT long ago. Some time ago I finished BG2 too. Twice. And can't make myself to play it again.
But I'm playing PT again.
I don't know why, just like it...

Books and novels? They are written just to earn money. Besides it's free, you can find many FAQ and walkthru's better than those crap.