Interview With Team Behind Planescape Vengeance

Humby writes "The BG2 Add-on CZ site has posted an interview with a member of the team behind the Planescape: Vengeance conversion for the Planescape: Torment Role-Playing Game. This is going to be an all new Planescapes game made using the original."

Nice!

[SmallFurryCreature]

Planescape Torment remains to me one the finest RPG's I ever played and one of the best computer games around. Sadly I am one of the few who bought it when it came out and there is little chance of an official sequel. It is still popular on bittorrent sites but of course that is only extra proof to game studios that there is no money in a sequel.

However I am a bit worried about them using the PT engine to create their addon. PT did have a problem and that was the engine. It had a rather limited resolution and it does hurt. Yes the game was very very nice but nowadays we expect better pictures.

Good luck to them although I do have my doubts, any team that can lose so much work due to a simple HD failure might not have what it takes to truly make an RPG. An RPG is not like a Quake map or even a total conversion. It needs story telling but also needs various threads of stories to work together. Can someone who can't make a succesfull backup strategie really be counted on making a social RPG (lots of decisions affecting lots of things) work?

I hope so but won't get my hopes up.

I am also kinda puzzled why they are not using a more modern engine. To me Planescape was the story and the fact you could talk your way out of most scraps coupled with the detailed NPC's who were more then just an extra set of weapons on legs. The art was far less important since it was so low res anyway, couldn't they be done in the Neverwinter engine?

What I'd rather see ...

[dougmc]

I bought PST, still have it, but never got too far into it. I certainly liked the story behind the game, but I got it at about the same time as I got BG2, and it was painful going back to the old graphics resolution. (BG2, on the other hand, kept me riveted for a long time.)

I'd like to see somebody re-release PST with the original content, but a new engine. Not that I'm expecting y'all to do that, just wishing out loud :)

(And no, I don't really want a NWN version. I was as amazed as anybody by NWN's graphics, but I really really hated how you didn't have a party anymore. It was you, and usually a henchman who you didn't completely control. I want a party! I want fighters, mages, a cleric or two and a thief! (Though two jedi, a soldier and a scoundrel did make a nice subsitute in a recent game ...) Of course, if you can give me a party AND NWN-ish graphics, that would be nice ... though I really did dislike NWN's radial button thingee.)

I'd really like to be excited about this

[drinkypoo]

But what we have is someone talking about a game that might have been if the team wasn't too incompetent to make sure they had backups, and a manga-esque pencil sketch of a character with big eyes. There's a lot of commentary about what might be, but right now they have essentially nothing. I'd be happy to see a demo when they have one, but until then I have a hard time getting excited about some speculation.

The engine

[travail_jgd]

I'd rather see them use the Icewind Dale 2 engine. Not only is it the final incarnation of the Infinity Engine (with the latest features), it also supports D&D 3rd edition rules. A lot of P:T's clunkiness involved in levelling and skills would be handled much more gracefully.

Still, I am _very_ much looking forward to see what the team produces.