here's my assessment after playing
a diablo 2 100% (once)
b planescape torment 75%
c NWN two acts
d beyond divinity Act 1 only
Hero-Mage Luck: 76, unused 4 skillpoints, 16 attribute points
DK-Warrior unused: 8 skillpoints, 16 attribute points
thx to the luck have gotten loads of cool stuff including orange weapons with three chram slots and lucky cap/skull reward - luck +12.
#1 Planescape 97.5
easily the best rpg ever made
#2 tie between diablo 2 (90) and beyond divinity (89)
a polish/finish - diablo 2 was much more polished
b gameplay - was excellent in both though liked the playability of beyond divinity a little more. in particular, loved absolutely the concept of being able to get back skillpoints
c stories/quests were less congruent in diablo 2 and the action was a little too repetitive. which haven't felt so far in BD (perhaps 'cos of level 6 sharpen skill)
main knocks on diablo 2: repetitive quests, skill points - v.hard irreversible decisions.
main knocks on BD - a lack of polish, not enough juice in the quests (and random battlefield quests should NEVER be repeated across acts - didn't i kill the freakin hellkin in act 1 - who the heck is this hellkin ? his twin freakin brother)
#4 NWN
this game's single player sucked. never played multiplayer (couldn't care less)
in direct contrast to Planescape torment where the world felt unbelievably rich, here my character was screaming for mercy - please let me commit suicide before i have to kill another wolf for some [nocando] farmer and help his son score with a chic (is that why i got my +strength + intelligence super rare sword ? shouldn't they be on sims-livin' large or some dumb game like that)
due to my rpg-addiction struggled through to the luskan tower only to find a total lack of story/motivation to climb the level and fight dumb-[nocando] wizards.
Direct Contrast: Samuel rocks - especially the demons constantly regenerate theory AND the summoned away.
that is so better than - oh, the superboss you killed was revived by DNA transfusion also known as Resustication Spell Level 6. AND his dna melded with Mr T and Conan and Rambo to increase his strength and a bucket load of other attributes
BEYOND DIVINITY ROCKS
Overall verdict: the raw gameplay and strong storyline (DK-Hero co-dependency and one dies=> both dies) really makes BD an awesome game.
it's slightly lower than Planescape, Chronotrigger, ff6 etc. i.e. doesn't really make it to Top 10-20 RPGs ever.
However, with a little focus on
1) storyline/richness
2) balanced and challenging gameplay
3) some more cool charm/skills stuff
divinity 3 could challenge for a position.
and BD is definitely better than NWN and the new 3-D rpgs which mostly suck.
and it's on par with diablo and diablo2 - most definitely.
great job guys - thx for the sleep deprivation
and more importantly for the hope that i don't have to live the rest of my life wishing i'd not sated myself with planescape torment. i.e. your next game can touch that level.
