More Games Like Planescape Torment

Greetings All, I just started playing Planescape Torment and I'm really enjoying this game. I know I'll be playing this for a long time but I'm trying to get some future game ideas. I would like to find similar games to Planescape (low combat) I'm not great at combat games but I am really enjoying what I'm playing now. Any Ideas?

Disco Elysium is great and very much in that dialogue-heavy cRPG vein if you're down for ditching the swords and sorcery for dysfunctional detective hijinks.

Some of the more recent CRPGs have some difficulty settings for people who want to breeze through the combat encounters and get to the next bit of exposition, but aside from Disco Elysium or maybe some small indie stuff I'm not aware of, there's not many games of this kind that are light on combat.

The modern Shadowrun games are fantastic (Dragonfall and Hong Kong, especially), and the Easy difficulties in those games are fairly trivial.

OH, Pillars of Eternity has something called "Story Time" mode, which is extremely easy.

Tides of Numenera let's you avoid most combat but much like the original Planescape it is still in there. I liked that game a lot and if you enjoyed the very out there world design of Planescape it hits a similar angle. Disco Elysium is totally combat free and one of the best games I've played in years so that's a strong recommend.

Seconding (thirding?) the Disco Elysium mentions. Very little combat, arguably no combat, just the dialogue system. Great game.

Thanks for getting back so quick! I keep hearing about Baldur's Gate 2 and Neverwinter Nights any input there?

BG2 is pretty much the gold standard for "classic" (late 90s/early 2000s) tactical RPGs. As such, it's very combat focused. Not much like PS:T at all other than the game engine and roots in D&D.

Neverwinter Nights is a somewhat similar idea, but moves to a 3D engine and doesn't have a particularly good story. Though some of the official expansions are better and NWN is know for its friendliness to user-created campaigns. Some of which are very good.

@aem2169:

Neverwinter Nights 1's original campaign is... not good. It feels like a really bad implementation of the Bioware hub world (which is funny because Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 were pretty okay ones) with a mostly nonsensical plot. But playing Shadows of Undrentide (Expansion 1) and Hordes of the Underdark (Expansion 2) was a really good ride back in the day and probably still holds up. Hordes in particular does some interesting things with the ideas of fate amd free will alongside eternal damnation. Deekin is probably obnoxious these days but back then he was really fun. Haven't checked out the Beamdog re-releases but they are probably fine.

Neverwinter Nights 2 I don't think was ever actually a good game but I liked it a lot. Even the original campaign has a lot of "good" to it but Mask of the Betrayer very much reeks of classic Obsidian "We ran out of money two thirds of the way through the project and slapped an ending on". But MOTB also does some REALLY cool stuff and is one of the best realizations of "you can be the bad guy". Storms of Zehir I liked but... it was probably not worth playing in the 2010s let alone the 2020s (... sorry Rorie). It was awesome for its time but really rough and dated in the way that those "Other games did this so much better later" games tend to be.

Well that takes those two off the table!! I have plenty of time though Planescape has my full attention right now just trying to get a jump on the next game to play. I'll look into the other suggestions THANKS!! Keep them coming if any other ideas come to mind. I know I can't keep avoiding combat games just need to ease into those and probably die a million times until I get the hang of it...LOL

If you end up liking disco elysium and can wait for an upcoming game, I would check out Clam Man 2. It seems to be directly inspired by the dialogue system of DE, but employs it in the context of stand up comedy. (so basically no combat)

The full game is called Clam Man 2: Headliner, but its not out yet. Luckily they have a free prologue called Clam Man 2: Open MIc, so you can see for yourself. https://marafrass.itch.io/clam-man-2-open-mic

Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 are essentially Baldur's Gate with a lot more story and lore and in-depth quests. They have very easy difficulty settings and lots of adjustments you can make.

Torment is possibly my favorite game of all time, and I feel like I've been chasing that vibe in some ways ever since it released.

I'll second the Baldur's Gate & Pillars of Eternity suggestions, and like others have said, I think Disco Elysium might be the closest approximation to Torment's overall feel. It's weird and deep and amazing.

Some other modern suggestions I'd make would be Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Divinity: Original Sin. Just great CRPGs all around.

And for some deeper (and older) cuts, if you're wanting something more adventure-focused, Sanitarium and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream are both pretty bonkers adventure games that capture some of the weirder, darker vibes in Torment.

I'll give a suggestion from the left field and say Vampyr. It was originally way too punishing as a game, but they implemented a Story Mode mode that makes the combat suitable even for beginners. The game also has a lot of cool decisions for the player to make and the setting is pretty original in the video game space.

As you've heard, Disco Elysium is the CRPG to play if you don't want much combat, but if you're willing to go through combat to get to the good stuff, then you'll find some really good stuff.

Also, Baldur's Gate 1 on Easy is probably going to be the best way to get into CRPG combat. Yeah, I know, in some ways it is a little archaic - but it also starts you off with the basics and you're not inundated with spells and abilities and buffs and debuffs and such until the halfway point of the game. They're doled out in a very manageable way, over the course of forty or fifty hours. And the names aren't complete nonsense, either, unlike Pillars - the heal spell is called "Cure Light Wounds", your basic magic attack is just called "Magic Missile", and so on. As someone relatively new to CRPG's, I found this very refreshing.

Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, 2 especially, do have lots of quests to them and the Enhanced Editions have the same story mode that Planescape Torment does - there's lots of adventuring to be had and it's interesting to note how much Bioware kept pulling from their Infinity Engine years all the way through Mass Effect. They still have plenty of combat to them, but there's more than enough writing to go through.

Icewind Dale is the Infinity Engine game you want to avoid if you're not into combat. It's got some good writing in it but 90% of that game is well-tuned combat for people who love them some Infinity Engine real time with pause combat.

Torment: Tides of Numenera is a spiritual successor to Planesape: Torment. Reception to it has been rather mixed, though, and I haven't played so I can't suggest anything.

Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 are the games I mentioned above, when I was on my phone and not at a computer to type stuff up. Both have tons of great writing and characters and lore to explore. There is plenty of combat, but again, there's a very easy difficulty and you can turn a lot of options on and off to make sure that it's not much of a problem. These two games are also massive.

Tyranny, from the makers of Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 (Obsidian), has an interesting premise and lots of writing, but I haven't played enough of that one to say anything about its combat.

There really isn't anything quite like Planescape. The closest games ahve already been suggested.

Not a game, but I do think you might want to check out the Sandman series by Neal Gaiman. Graphic novels in a unique fantasy setting that explores interesting philisophical themes and has a dark sense of humor. I consider Planescape to be the Sandman of video games.

Thanks for all the great suggestions, I'm looking forward to checking these out and learning some basic combat skills so I can broaden my game options. I see a lot of really interesting games out there that I would love to try once I get the basics down.

I'm going to shout-out Legendary Gary here.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/688070/Legendary_Gary/

@justin258: I like your idea regarding Baldur's Gate as an intro to combat. I do want to expand my gaming options and try new games but I need to learn basic combat techniques before I jump off the deep end. I'm still playing Planescape but sometimes I like to play two games at once so when I tire of one I can jump into the other for a change.

Thanks!!