What are the best games like Planescape: Torment?
Finding games to compare to Planescape: Torment might be the tallest order in the planes. It isn’t just enough to be a party-based or top-down RPG. To be compared to Planescape you need to go a step further and share in some of the games, *ahem*, unique charms. Sarcastic floating skulls, talking boxes, and limitlessly strange writing follow in this list of spiritual successors to one of the greatest, and strangest, CRPGs of all time.
15. Divinity: Original Sin 2
Divinity: Original Sin 2 Gameplay
In Divinity: Original Sin 2 you create a player character from countless possibilities. Then, as you are drowning you hear a voice call you “Godwoken”. You awaken to find yourself washed ashore, with little in your inventory. A puzzle of fate ahead, you head deeper inland. Throughout the game, you can add up to three companions to your party.
You can choose between 14 classes, 5 races, 6 origins and 12 skill trees to make your own way in the world. Curse your foes or charge at them with the strength of a bull and brandish your octopus tentacles. Encounter strange beasts on the shorelines or outwit enemy spellcasters in ancient ruins. From the moment you find yourself in your humble beginnings, you’ll feel the call of destiny pulling you home. Be wary of meat golems, brave adventurer!
Unique Features of Divinity:
High Replayability
14 unique character classes (Very Customizable?)
Six different companions can be recruited into your party
The stunning graphics make it easy to dread the onslaught below.
"What lies ahead" is the driving question in any RPG. "What lurks Below" also works...
14. Tyranny
Tyranny Gameplay
In Tyranny you play as the Fatebinder, a high ranking official of the tyrannical Kyros. It is your mission to bring order or die. You will work with vying factions and fight warring dissidents. All the while you will uncover a vast and ancient world under the thumb of a ruthless dictator. The choices are yours, as are the consequences.
Tyranny was designed to emphasize the impact of player choices on story and gameplay. How you interact with factional members matters. Making a choice now means choices are made for you later with outcomes you can’t anticipate. These choices irrevocably alter your relationships with NPCs and the factions they represent. This, in turn, affects your character’s growth and future.
Unique Features of Tyranny:
Playing from the “Evil” side of things
Focus on Player Choice
Story-Based Character Creation
When you know the king, you can ambush anyone's camp without too many questions.
Strange, haunting landscapes surround you in this beautiful game. Rich & Imaginative level design will keep you hooked.
13. Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age: Origins Gameplay
Dragon Age: Origins was originally billed as a spiritual successor to another Infinity Engine game: Baldur’s Gate. It takes the party-focused mechanics and rich storytelling of its predecessors and runs away with them in a high fantasy setting. In Dragon Age: Origins you start with your character’s gripping personal origin and move on to dealing with the impending apocalypse. As the Warden, you and your party are what stand between Fereldan and destruction.
You will slay demons, explore dungeons and politic with the subjects of the realm. As the Warden, you are entrusted with many helms: investigator, warrior, diplomat, and savior. But remember, how you choose to solve the world’s problems is just as important as solving them. No one makes it alone and these decisions will make or break your party and the loyalty of the nobles who support you.
Unique Features of Dragon Age: Origins:
Unique Tactics Combat Command System
Third-Person/top down camera flexibility
Active Pause
Terrifying enemies await you in the dark of Feralden. Can you meet their challenge?
Unleash massive spells against armies of ususpecting enemies. Party Planning: Squishy characters in the back.
12. Titan Quest: Anniversary Edition
Titan Quest: Anniversery Edition Gameplay
Your heroic purpose in Titan Quest is to save the Gods of Olympus and the World they protect. Choose between martial disciplines and magic schools as you travel across antiquity to stop the release of the dreaded Titans. Your hunt will take you through the vibrant cities of ancient Greece, Egypt, and the Silk Road.
Hack and Slash your way through a gamut of randomly generated mobs with random loot. Terrify your foes with your awesome command over the earth or protect yourself and your village by focusing on defense. Combine mastery of both earth and defense to become an unstoppable Juggernaut. Destroy armies of monsters alone as they descend upon the Earth, knowing that only you can stop them.
Unique Features of Titan Quest:
By choosing two of eight masteries (Storm, Earth, Dream, Warfare, Spirit, Defense, Nature, Runes, Hunting, Rogue) you can customize your character into one of 36 distinct classes.
Enjoy cooperative multiplayer for up to 6 players
See the world through the lens of Greek mythology
Your ship has arrived: A heroic twist on a classic trope.
Protect your people and devestate your enemies. Save your village, save the world!
11. Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
Icewind Dale Enhanced Ediiton Gameplay
Stand proudly at the Spine of the World, for you are alive. You and your party of up to five are entrusted to find the cause of the disappearances in Kuldahar. In this infinity engine game, you control up to six characters in a classic D&D campaign. Focusing more on gameplay than story, this game is less story focused than Planescape. Sling spells and arrows, swing swords and axes, let the battle be joined!
In the savage frontier and the unclaimed north, you will face warring tribes and disciplined warbands. Be warned: Frost giants may cause avalanches, orcish armies may move across the wastes, and, evil will lie. Any can be dealt with using the appropriate application of arcana (fireball). And while town might never be too far, there’s no telling how well stocked the stores are this winter.
Unique Features of Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition:
Create and control up to six adventurers for your party
Choose between turn-based gameplay and real-time strategy
Cast over different 200 spells
Fight complex enemies with sophisticated tactics in challenging environments!
Explore haunting sets as you unravel the mystery of your dread foe.
10. The Bard’s Tale
The Bard's Tale Gameplay
The Bard’s Tale is more of an action RPG than any game on this list. It breaks from RPG tradition by focusing on a character that is neither noble nor heroic. The player uses sword, sorcery, and wits to achieve personal glory.
Regardless of whether you choose to be nice or naughty in dialogue, the narrator hates you and you probably deserve it. The world is full of dancing corpses, fire-breathing rats, and singing goblins. Cults conspire to end the world and you stand in the way, where you may promptly choose to move aside. The Bard’s Tale takes fantasy heroics and turns them on their head in this raucous success.
Unique Features of The Bard’s Tale:
Explore a comedic fantasy landscape
Join and fight in a cult against other cults
Face-off against dozens of unique enemies
Bardic Socials: A central theme in the game explores bars and what happens in them.
Our hero in dire straits, standing for a standoff.
9. The Age of Decadence
The Age of Decadence Gameplay
The Age of Decadence offers a very different sort of RPG than those listed so far. There are many character options, each of which leads to a very different playthrough. The plot is nonlinear, favoring player choice and the consequences of decision making. Combat is turn-based and deeply tactical. The world is rich with opposing factions and the tangled intrigues they weave.
A hammer can knock ‘um over and an Axe will split their shield. You can melt down anything you don’t need to fuel your own alchemical experiments. Friends and foes can be made or lost in an instant, all it takes is a few words. If there is one thing the Age of Decadence has over other RPGs in its class it is depth.
Unique Features of the Age of Decadence:
A no-class skill system
Dynamic storytelling
23 different skills
Conflict Resolution can be hit or miss, but the story always develops.
Factional conflicts are essential to this game. Can you navigate the backstabbing and ambition?
8. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Gameplay
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is the terrifying adaptation of the short story of the same name by Harlan Ellison. In this bleak post-apocalyptic future, you control one of five remaining humans held captive by the mysterious and terrible AM supercomputer. The player uses a cursor to identify objects. These objects can then be composed into sentences which can be used as commands. You must explore this harrowing world in this interesting twist on a choose your own adventure story.
Your party stands before a monolithic message of hate. You are reminded of how much you are hated shortly before your overlord demands more of you. Different characters offer different perspectives, each its own harrowing window into the human psyche. Engage with madness and fear as you struggle to comprehend your prison and be free of your captor.
Unique Features of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream:
Control five different characters
Explore an iconic post-apocalyptic landscape
Choose your own adventure
Experience one of the most chilling introductions in videogame and literary history. Know real hatred.
Decisions matter: I would have tried to talk to it first. Probably why I haven't survived the apocolypse.
7. Wasteland 2
Wasteland 2 Gameplay
Wasteland 2 is a turn-based tactical RPG set in post-apocalyptic 2102. It draws you in with an intriguing story and realistic atmosphere. This is a world in which traveling a few miles is a dangerous proposition, between the weather and the others who wander. Find your friends, recruit allies and make your way through the treacherous wastes.
Fight as one of the Rangers, the self-styled defenders of what was once Arizona and California. You will find yourself face to face with vicious marauders, fierce wildlife, and sinister A.I. For every fight you get into there is a fight for your reputation. Navigating personal relationships in Wasteland 2 is the only thing more dangerous than the land.
Unique Features of Wasteland 2:
Explore the postnuclear southwest
Run & Gun against marauders, monsters, and machines
Control a party of up to 7 characters
The harsh environments of the Southwestern U.S haven't gotten more hospitible since the calamity.
This is a game where knowing how to talk is more important than knowing how to shoot and is just as rewarding.
6. Icewind Dale II
Icewind Dale II Enhanced Edition Gameplay
Return to Ten Towns in this sequel to the classic D&D CRPG. War threatens the region and the town of Targos have hired mercenaries to defend them from the siege. Icewind Dale II is remarkable for its departures from previous infinity engine games. Icewind Dale II focuses on combat over story. The game works from a heavily modified set of 3rd edition D&D rules, greatly expanding character options over its predecessors.
Ten Towns is at the center of an unlikely war. It is as though every monster in the world wants to get a cut of the action. Vicious goblins, insidious Yuan-ti, and zealous cultists conspire to create a malicious circle closing around civilization. Do whatever you must: Hide in the shadows, cleave foe limb from limb, call upon the powers of your gods or weave terrible magic. The choice is yours. Remember, the fate of Ten Towns and perhaps the world rests in your hands. Will you answer the call to arms?
Unique Features of Icewind Dale II:
Choose from 11 distinct classes
Play through 6 chapters
Play on over 30 unique maps
Oh look, an abandoned airship! The genre-bending found in D&D is one of it's most charming qualities.
Nefarious Foes: Yuan-ti are opponents of devastating cunning and they aren’t alone. Many of the monsters in IWD use unique tactics that reflect their values.
5. Shadowrun: Dragonfall
Shadowrun Dragonfall Gameplay
Shadowrun’s Dragonfall campaign has finally been released as a standalone game. The original Shadowrun was so inspirational to Planescape: Torment that the beginning of PS: T is an homage to it. It is fitting then the new Shadowrun is so reminiscent of both classic games. You begin the game as a Shadowrunner in Berlin and are immediately plunged into a compelling world of intrigue and subterfuge.
The world of Shadowrun is a world where technowizard Elves and full-metal Orks fight to the death over data. You will struggle with stark moral dilemmas as the world crashes around you. Just hoping that you and your parties skills are enough to get you through the night. In this sprawling cyberscape, even the most skilled hackers can die on the job without warning. As a Shadowrunner on the fringes of society, when isn’t your life in danger?
Unique Features of Shadowrun: Dragonfall:
A Branching, dynamic Narrative with personal sidequests
A party of up to 4 unique shadowrunners, each designed to contrast one another.
A futuristic, magical setting in Germany.
The Dialogue is nuanced and believable, with each character adding many layers of depth to the story.
Gameplay is tactical and deep, with many solutions for most situations.
4. Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition
Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition Gameplay
The Time of Troubles has come to an end, but its impact will be felt for decades to come. In Baldur’s Gate, you play the orphaned ward of a sage who is suddenly thrust into the world of an adventurer. The world is recovering from the cataclysmic fall and rise of the gods and the realms are in upheaval. It is a time for greatness to be met.
Hurl dozens of spells at countless foes. Rush headlong into the fray, crushing hosts of enemies beneath your might. Use your powers and devoted allies to heal the land or conquer it. Or strike it alone, without another soul to tell you how to live your life in this vast world. Be wary of goblins, wolfweres and anyone you meet on the roads outside of town.
Unique Feature of Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition:
Play through hundreds of hours of adventure
Enjoy an updated, augmented and polished re-release of this classic game
Choose up to five companions from 25 characters with unique backstories and personalities
Beautifully crafted maps and brilliant dialogue make this amongst the most immersive RPGs to date. It really pulls you in.
Complex and challenging encounters will have the unworthy reloading again and again.
3. Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition
Baldur's Gate II Enhanced Edition Gameplay
Enjoy this epic sagas riveting conclusion in Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition. Your party awakens far from where you left off in Baldur’s Gate. You embark on a noble quest that embroils you in a host of factional conflicts. Left with no good options and much that needs to be done, you once again gather allies and strength to heed the call of adventure.
Become even more powerful than in the first game, with hundreds of new spells available and higher levels to reach. As you explore dungeons you will uncover magical items of unbelievable potency and gain experiences few could dream of. Clerics will become avatars, barbarians will level cities and wizards will come to master time itself. Power awaits those willing to take it. What will you use it for?
Unique Features of Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition:
Gain experience up to level 20.
Play with up to 5 other players or player characters
Set your PCs AI for when you can’t control them
Find places of unimaginable power as you delve deeper into a conflict of cosmic concern.
Solve complex puzzles and uncover mystery after mystery. Baldur's Gate II has a satisfying blend of slashing and thinking.
2. Pillars of Eternity: 1 & 2
Pillars of Eternity Gameplay
Pillars of Eternity 2 Gameplay
In Pillars of Eternity, you are a Watcher and can see past lives and interact with souls. Your world is in danger as more and more children are hollowborn. It is up to you and your companions to find out why you are and how you can save the children. Pillars of Eternity 2 is the much-awaited sequel which releases in May 2018.
You can recruit up to 8 fellow adventurers with rich backstories, or pay to design your own. Your style can be versatile, as there is no XP for killing monsters. This makes nonviolent options just as valid and rewarding. This de-emphasis on combat allows you to make the story decisions you’d like rather than the ones the developers wanted to make for you. Stealth past the bad guy or try your hand at charming them, you aren’t restricted to mindless hack and slash in Pillars of Eternity.
Unique Features of Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2:
You can travel with 5 companions at once
There are 11 player classes to choose from
Upgrade and Maintain an in-game Stronghold
Exploring the terrain makes you nervous, and rightly so.
Combat somehow seems more fun in the long awaited sequal. They've streamlned and expanded your options without losing anything.
1. Torment: Tides of Numenera
Torment: Tides of Numenera Gameplay
There is no game more like Planescape: Torment than Torment: Tides of Numenera. A story-focused game with a deeply introspective narrative, Torment keeps its predecessors promise that a game can be great with combat on the backburner. All in a dark, medieval future of earth called “The Ninth World”. You are the Last Castoff, an abandoned husk of a body-hopping power, and you have no memory of what came before.
Torment allows you to pick one of three base classes, each with further specialization. The games’ morality system is a proprietary one in which you are classified by how you inspire those around you. Your Tides, as they are called, will affect how others interact with you and the dialogue tree options available. Each tide is represented by a color and how you manipulate your tides shapes your legacy. As you craft an identity for yourself the world responds, and not always in foreseeable ways.
Unique Features of Torment: Tides of Numenera:
Tides morality system
Beautifully Rendered Backgrounds
Dense, character-driven story
At its heart, Torment is a game about character. As such the most important part of the game happens here, on your character screen.
The biggest strength of this beautiful game is dialogue and story. It is inviting and vital, capturing the immersive, literary feel of Planescape.
You may be interested in these articles:
