Planescape: Torment

aka: Last Rites
Moby ID: 648
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Waking up on a stone slab in a morgue, which the zombie workers just pushed into the room, a big man with a face deformed by scars, his back marked by strange tattoos, looks at the dead bodies scattered around the room through the dim light, unable to understand who he is. He is sure that he is dead, yet he is also sure that he moves, thinks, and feels. Memories of love, a woman's face, good and bad deeds of his life - all his past appears in a flash, only to be replaced by the dreadful reality of the mortuary.

His journey begins with only one goal: he must learn his name, find out what had happened to him, and which forces prevent him from dying in peace, like all other human beings. The Nameless One opens the doors of the mortuary, only to dive into a world full of fateful encounters, strange characters, broken hopes, despair, and hatred. Piece by piece he shall solve the puzzle and re-discover his own past.

Planescape: Torment is a role-playing game that uses a heavily altered variation of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition rules. It is set in the Planescape, the exotic AD&D setting which is composed out of various "planes" of existence, with unique characteristics to each. The game features the party-based, "real-time-with-pause" combat system which was previously employed in Baldur's Gate.

Character growth is handled via the standard AD&D attributes, which can be raised and modified in the game. Abilities that are not exclusive to combat, such as Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, play a special role in the development and outcome of many of the game's conversations and quests. Dialogue options may become available only if the corresponding character parameter is sufficiently high. The outcome of the final quest and thus the ending of the entire game also depend on the way the player has been shaping The Nameless One during the journey.

Various fairly exotic characters - including a talking floating skull and a winged succubus who runs a "spiritual" brothel - will join the hero on his quest. These characters belong to the traditional AD&D classes of fighter, mage, thief, and cleric. The Nameless One himself starts as a fighter but is able to become a mage or a thief if he meets certain requirements and completes certain quests. The hero is unable to wear armor but can enhance his defenses with special tattoos.

Though combat occupies a significant portion of the game, much of it is dedicated to acquiring experience through exploration of the Sigil, the game's main "hub" town, and performing quests for its inhabitants. The game is notable for containing a very large amount of in-game text and conversation.

Spellings

  • 异域镇魂曲 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 異域鎮魂曲 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

143 People (137 developers, 6 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 89% (based on 61 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 372 ratings with 20 reviews)

Interesting, but I think overrated

The Good
It's a superbly well-written game -- easily the best written game I know of in the rpg genre, ranking with the best adventure games.

The central quest to "know thyself" is not unusual if you've played a lot of adventure games, but is unusual in the genre.

Certain mini-quests are extremely memorable. The game starts you out in a mortuary and some of the things you do there are fascinating -- I especially like a moment where manipulating an item in your inventory gets you experience.

Dialog trees are not tough, exactly, but are often absorbing. It's possible to gain experience by taking the proper route with various characters, very neat.

One mini-quest, which requires you to die in order to continue, neatly subverts most rpg quest-like actions. There's also a mini-surprise here that really is eye-opening, regarding your relationship to one of the main npcs.

Excellent voice acting and music, with some genuinely haunting moments.

The Bad
I'm one of the eccentric few who find this game overrated.

Much has been made of the unique setting of the Planescape world, and that's true. That said, though, it's not that unusual. There's still wizards, thieves, priests, etc. Instead of healing potions there's blood clots, but they do the same sort of thing. You'll still see skeletons and zombies -- not quite as you have before, but they're there. Point is, much of the game can be seen as a one-to-one transfer: clots = solutions, charms = scrolls, etc.

The game is very well-written, and often plays like an adventure game. Frankly, it probably would have been more successful as an adventure game. The rpg blendings work well at the start, less well as time goes on. You're in trouble when the most interesting parts of an rpg are the conversations and puzzles, and the combat seems a slog.

My biggest complaint is that the combat engine here is awful. You can pause, give orders to your party, then unpause and see how things turned out -- but your characters don't often behave as you'd have liked. Bad guys often swarm the weakest party, and it can be extremely frustrating to pull somebody out of harm's way to safety. Especially when they kind of ran off and did their own thing despite your wishes.

This wouldn't be a game killer for me, except that combat increases dramatically in the third quarter of the game, and it's exceptionally frustrating to play. This game was not suited to dungeon-crawl antics, and suffers when you have to do them.

I in fact stopped near the end and never finished this (although I read a solution to see how it all turned out -- and the ending seems worthy of praise).

The Bottom Line
This is an interesting attempt at an adventure-game/rpg hybrid. It works extremely well in it's first half, less so in the second. It's considered a classic by most gamers, and if you're an rpg fan you owe it to yourself to try it, if for no other reason than to see what the fuss is about. Like many hybrid games, though, I think the blending of genres points up the flaws of each -- it's a tribute to the makers that they can keep the plates spinning as long as they do, but eventually it does all coming crashing down. Despite it's worthy sections, I can't recommend it.

Windows · by juniorallen (6) · 2004

This is what every role player was looking for on a PC...

The Good
Forget Neverwinter Nights... Forget Final Fantasy... THIS is what an RPG should be! In this game YOU can choose what you will be, if you'll act as a good-hearted angel or a hellish demon, if you'll be a skull-crusher fighter or a more stylish wizard (with the BTW most original spells you'll ever see in a D&D computer game). And your choiches WILL eventually change the story, so you'll be playing the game again and again, only to see what will be the outcome if... And, unlike the 99.99% of computer RPGs, this time you can really perform your character like in your favourite pencil&paper RPG. Think about this: you can beat the game fighting only two, perhaps three times, but you'll still be the strongest man in the multiverse, and you'll had the most deep experience ever in a computer RPG.

The Bad
The fact that a Torment 2 doesn't exist... And perhaps, the confusion of some battles... But nothing serious.

The Bottom Line
This game is not so popular as the Baldur's Gate saga, but it beates his cousin in many ways. The characters are well described, the story is so fascinating, it's almost as intriguing as a novel... Definitely the best computer RPG experience I had since Wasteland! (and it was a long time ago... ;-) And I love succubus!

Windows · by David Borraccino (2) · 2003

The new standard for RPG's

The Good
1 of the best story lines ever. It's a truly original experience. The dialogue touches on subjects you almost never hear in games. The graphics help to bring the surreal world of Sigil alive. The characters you interact with feel alive, you find yourself actually caring about them. The most important thing is this game is fun. It makes you want to play for just a little bit longer until you look up and realize it's 3 in the morning.

The Bad
Combat can be a bit akward for beginners.

The Bottom Line
The best RPG i've ever played.

Windows · by jeremy strope (160) · 2000

[ View all 20 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Advise Indra was here (20756) Nov 6, 2010
Some new revelations. The Fabulous King (1332) Sep 29, 2007
For you Tormented souls DJP Mom (11333) Aug 13, 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Planetscape: Torment appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Add-ons

For both St. Patrick's Day and Easter of 2000 the developers released a pair of character add-ons: Leprechaun Annah and Eastern Egg Morte. These change all the graphics and animations for said characters and, in Morte's case, add new sound samples that were left in the cutting room.

Cover

So who is the guy that appears in the box covers and ads as the Nameless One? Game director Guido Henkel himself (with some heavy makeup and after some digital post-production of course).

Cut content

One feature that didn't make it into the game from the vision document was the ability to change the character's smell.

Cutscenes

In the initial concept for the game the title screen menu was to have an additional tab for viewing the cinematics. Though it was removed for reasons unknown it still made its way into some manuals which state the title screen should have a "Visions" tab for movies.

Development

The creator of the Planescape campaign universe and former TSR creative guru himself Zeb Cook, contributed to the creation of the game along Colin McComb, (who took the Planescape banner at TSR when Cook left), and Guido Henkel, designer of the Realms of Arkania series.

Language

Morte If one is to believe a certain motion-picture-like print ad that ran in late 1998 (you know, the ones that go "so and so present a so and so production starring...") you'll find that Morte's last name is "Rictusgrin".

Music

The music that plays in the Civic Festhall is from the 2nd movement of Vivaldi's concerto for two oboes in D minor.

Novel

There is a novel based on the game written by regular Planescape suplement writters Ray Vallese and Val Vallese. The novel was later included for free with copies of Planescape: Torment when bought from the Interplay Store. A soundtrack CD is also available.

Trailer

There is a promotional trailer for the game featured on earlier Interplay titles like Baldur's Gate (NOT the one featured in the game's page and which includes gameplay shots), that includes completely unseen CGI footage that doesn't appear in any of the game's cutscenes. The trailer shows, among other things: the Lady of Pain floating around, Nordom in the Modron Cube, the Iron Golem roaming a forest, the Nameless One at his tomb, Hargrimm casting a spell, Ignus being consumed (probably his origin?) and several other creatures plus many POV sequences which show places and scenery (you know, the ones that get triggered when you first travel to some location). Rumor has it that this is actually a mix of sequences made solely for promotional purposes and stuff that was cut out of the game for space considerations. In any event, save for a part of the shadow world intro, this is all unseen stuff.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 2000 (Issue #188) – Role-Playing Game of the Year
    • March 2000 (Issue #188) – Best Character of the Year (for Morte)
    • March 2000 (Issue #188) – Best Art Direction of the Year (for Morte)
    • October 2004 (Issue #243) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
  • GameSpy
    • 2001 – #45 Top Game of All Time
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)
    • Issue 06/2005 - #2 Likeable Secondary Character (for Morte)
    • Issue 11/2005 - #3 Game Which Absolutely Needs A Sequel
    • Issue 12/2006 - #8 Hype Disappointment (the number of sales was disappointing in relation the quality of the game)

Information also contributed by Adam Baratz and SDfish

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Related Sites +

  • Alphabetti Spaghetti: Planescape Torment - Fully Modded!
    A complete, step by step guide to installing, patching and modding the game for WinXP systems.
  • Bootstrike.com - Planescape Torment
    Has walkthroughs, downloads, cheats and lots of cool stuff, including the story of Planescape Torment.
  • Hints for Planescape: Torment
    Excellent question and answer type hints to help you solve the game without spoiling the whole thing for you.
  • Matt Chat 63
    Video interview with Chris Avellone about the development of Planescape: Torment
  • Planescape: Torment Fix Pack
    An unofficial Fix Pack that fixes many bugs in Planescape: Torment that were not fixed by the official 1.1 patch.
  • Planescape: Torment Walkthrough
    A walkthrough of the game
  • Planescape: Torment website
    Official Planescape: Torment website, archived at planescape.outshine.com
  • Planet Baldur's Gate
    Another Planet, this one covers Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast, Baldur's Gate II and the Throne of Bhaal, and Icewind Dale. Files, forums, articles, help, walkthroughs, news, and links populate it. A typical Planet site.
  • Torment Wiki
    A wiki-based encyclopedia about Planescape: Torment, with walkthroughs and descriptions of locations, characters, items, creatures and more.
  • What's in a face?
    Guido Henkel's blog post about the Planescape: Torment cover shoot.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 648
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by DarkTalon.

Linux added by Cavalary. Macintosh added by Foxhack.

Additional contributors: xroox, Dr. Elementary, Kalirion, Zovni, G. Ganesh, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Jack Lightbeard, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Lain Crowley, FatherJack, Sith Wist.

Game added January 2, 2000. Last modified March 14, 2024.