Planescape: Torment

The Good
First of all, the game has an incredible storyline. The only others that rival it are Baldur's Gate, The Longest Journey, and Deus Ex. It has deep, insightful dialogue, and the choices you make actually affect the outcome of the game.

The game is a tad more focused than Baldur's Gate, which means there's not miles and miles of terrain to explore. Much of the game takes place in Sigil, the City of Doors, center of the known multiverse. Your character is the Nameless One, a battered, bruised and scarred shadow-of-a-man who wakes up in a mortuary with no idea who he is or where he came from. Along with your trusty sidekick Morte, a talking skull, must find out your identity and unlock the secrets to your immortality.

The game's graphics are also pretty schweet, sporting some of the coolest spell effects in any Infinity-engine game thus far. The environments are beautifully crafted, creating an eerie and creepy atmosphere. The art and architecture of Sigil really make the city come alive.

I could just go on and on all day about this game, but the bottom line is that if you get it, you certainly won't regret it.

A+ -- A must-buy.

The Bad
There's no sequel!!! Other than that, not a thing.

The Bottom Line
The game is dirt cheap, so you have no excuse not to get it!!

The Good
Amnesia in today's role-playing games has become little more than an over-used cliché to create blank characters on which players can project whichever personality they wish, but which nonetheless have a past that's relevant to quests and NPCs. Off of the top of my head I can name only two RPGs in which the cliché works as a plot element, one being Knights of the Old Republic, the other Planescape: Torment. Planescape's major feat is combining the time-honoured AD&D rules with a setting and characters that are amazingly original and deep. Players are presented with a world that appears to the main character as alien as it must have appeared to lovers of classic high fantasy when they first opened the Dungeons & Dragons Planescape campaign box.

Waking up on a slab in a gigantic mortuary, players are hit with some rather surprising facts about their existence: one, they were dead; two, they can't be too sure whether or not they still are; three, their memories of what brought them there are gone and four, apparently somewhere along the way they befriended a floating skull who pleasurably gives the hero what little information he is to be provided with to start his quest. The macabre miracles don't stop there because not only must the walking corpse flee the mortuary run by a slightly disconcerting group of people nourishing a philosophical death wish, upon stepping out into the streets the nameless hero, appropriately named Nameless One for the entire game, discovers that he is in Sigil, the City of Doors and easily the most unusual place in the entire AD&D multiverse. Being the hub of a cosmological wheel on which all possible worlds in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons universe are located in the form of dimensional planes, Sigil appears to possess the inherent trait of randomly opening magical doors to said worlds and attracting its inhabitants. The potential for literally outlandish characters which bring a plethora of personalities, backgrounds and quests to Torment's rich story is nigh unlimited and used to almost full effect by the creators.

Everyday little wonders can be found at every corner and its a credit to the game's sheer narrative power that the vast majority of odd episodes play out almost entirely as text box descriptions. Dialogue in Torment is elaborate and incredibly well-written; at the time of its release it easily beat the until then wordiest RPG, Baldur's Gate. The game's strong focus on personalities and intellectual problems very elegantly steps in the way of this becoming a chore. Battles play an inferior role in Torment and can often be evaded altogether using the game's equally developed and elaborate dialogue options. In short: Planescape is one of the wordiest games ever, waking memories of old Infocom text adventures which captivated gamers' imaginations like good fantasy novels do. Torment achieves exactly that.

Torment's main cast is one of the strongest and most colourful in any RPG created to date. Whoever thought Final Fantasy holds the monopoly on quirky and unusual party members needs to play this game. Where else does an undead hero team up with the already mention floating, Billingsgate-talking skull who equips dentures like weapons, a half-demon street thief, an honour-bound mystical warrior, a succubus and ex-proprietor of a platonic brothel, a robot looking like a walking TV set, an eternally burning arsonist wizard or an animated suit of armour?

Based on the Infinity Engine already used in the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series, Torment's graphics are presented in Black Isle's standard isometric view. Running at a resolution of 640x480, the game's detail level benefits from larger onscreen sprites and a closer look at the morbid scenarios. Thanks to a freely placeable actions menu that can be displayed and hidden with a right-click, the screen layout feels a little less cramped than in Baldur's Gate and allows for a literally broader view of the world. Torment's music is appropriately odd, mixing minimalist and experimental tunes with mysterious melodies just unusual enough to never let players forget that while they're still playing a fantasy game, a classic AD&D campaign this ain't!

The Bad
For players with the right mindset Torment is an almost perfect RPG experience and its shortcomings are mostly matters of personal taste. Unfortunately, its greatest asset, the captivating text descriptions and dialogue, make the game inaccessible for casual gamers or those who don't feel like wrapping their minds around an exceedingly fantastic and macabre world. The game decidedly (and rightly!) closes the door in the face of people who are unwilling to read the equivalent of a fully-fledged fantasy novel onscreen.

The graphics, while bigger and clearer than in other Baldur's Gate-related titles, restrict a larger view of the scenarios by limiting the game to a single resolution, 640x480 - pretty low by today's standards, considering that unlike Baldur's Gate even the action panel to control characters can be freely moved and hidden when desired. In addition, character models, although detailed and well animated, are static in terms of design. Almost no equippable item changes anything about the models onscreen appearance.

AD&D fans will also miss the possibility of building a custom party of adventurers. As versatile as Torment is in terms of scenario, it is far more linear than most other AD&D game when it comes to character development and customisation. Only the main hero can equip different weapon classes based on his chosen profession and it isn't possible to choose from all professions the AD&D rules have to offer. The Nameless One can be either a fighter, wizard or thief, but always looks like a buff warrior type even if his stats and chosen profession say otherwise.

Exploring Sigil and its inhabitants is one of the greatest joys I've ever had in an RPG. It is almost a pity that after three fourths of the game players are ripped out of the by then familiar surroundings. While the game builds to a climax they are forced to travel to other, significantly smaller and more linear planar worlds.

The Bottom Line
Planescape: Torment is one of the most unusual, original and rewarding RPG experiences to date. It requires and tries players' patience and imagination but repays them many times over if they are up to the task. The game exists and entertains through its deep and lyrical understructure, making its lack of character customisation excusable. All seasoned gamers looking for a fantasy tale far, far away from the genre's stereotypical elves, dwarfs and humans vs. orcs stories must play this game.

The Good
My friends warned me that Torment was "different" and that I might not like the "dark theme". But, on the other hand, other Moby reviewers tout that it is one of the best PC Role-Playing games ever made. So, instead of diving into other games sitting on my shelf, I decided to back up a few years and try Torment and form my own opinions.

And, I'm SO glad I did. I'm writing this review within minutes of finishing it ... and ... I not only liked this game, I Loved It !.

So, what's so different about Torment, you ask? Here's a run-down:

1. Your Character. He's not a handsome bloke. In fact, he's ugly as sin, with scars, cuts and bruises all over his body. It's obvious he's been around the block a few times. You cannot change the race or sex for the "Nameless One" or those of your party members.
2. Your Profession is chosen early in the game, but not on the Character Generation screen like in other RPGs. Meet the right people, perform a few tasks for them, and they will teach you the skills to become a Fighter, Thief or Mage etc. And you can change your profession within the game if you wish.
3. Your Party evolves as you meet and talk to people. Members can join you when asked and will leave when told to. Each one has a distinct personality, attitude, fighting style, and movement. In certain situations, they will interrupt you to make a comment of warning or offer information - even talk among themselves, all of which makes them "feel" more real. You can talk to them to get their opinions, and those opinions are "true to character".
4. The Story. You're not trying to save a damsel in distress, nor are you attempting to save the world from some evil maniac. As you learn more about your past, you find out that your primary goal is to die!! The whole story is based upon immortality and reincarnation (or in this case the proper word may be "regeneration"). No matter how many times you "die", you come back again.
5. Conversations have choices. If you lie or bluff, that choice will effect what happens now or in future parts of the game. You can also ask questions repeatedly in case you didn't quite get the answer the first go-round. Experience is gained not only by fighting, but by conversing and questing. In many situations you can even choose not to fight, but to talk your way out of it instead.
6. Items include strange tattoos with magic properties, weird charms made out of rodents and insects, unusually named spells and weapons, some made out of body parts. Heal yourself with blood droplets of varied strengths, spells, bandages or embalming fluid!

The graphics are beautifully rendered in realistic colors and are smooth and clean. I never got stuck in the scenery with no way out, and did not notice any pixelation whatsoever. I would have enjoyed seeing a "head shot" portrait of people while talking to them, but at least I could look at pictures of them in the Journal area.

Dungeon/Location Maps are similar to other RPGs, but here you are able to add in your own notes. I don't remember that feature being available in Icewind Dale which came out a year later.

When you enter a crowded area (room or marketplace), you hear people talking and laughing amongst themselves. This provides the illusion of the hustle and bustle of everyday life and adds atmosphere. There are 33 original songs in the game, mostly played in the background, so if you have that option turned down you may not even hear them. I got bored with the "battle" music fairly quickly, however.

Finally, it has a wonderful ending! (There are 3 and I was lucky enough to have high enough stats to get the "best" one.) All your questions are answered.

As a side note, my version of Torment was already patched (v.1.1) and came on only 2 CDs (1 install disc and 1 play disc) instead of the 4 mentioned by other reviewers.

The Bad
Even though I thought the game was great, there are still a few things that should be mentioned in this section.

If you play for hours on end, like I did, you may find that the game slows to a crawl. A restart of the game (or my computer) seemed to help the sluggish inventory screens, loss of character highlighting and dumps back to my desktop that I experienced. Of course, this could very well have been a quirk of my video card. (Getting an "unofficial" patch to turn off the battle music helped.)

Combat segments were painfully slow later in the game, and magical spells (although visually stunning) seemed to tax the engine.

Action selection seemed intuitive enough, but it look me some time to master it. I tended to keep the AI "on" all the time, so the characters jumped right in and started attacking before I was ready sometimes (usually when I wasn't expecting a fight). Basically I learned to select everyone and then unselect any people I didn't want to fight in hand-to-hand combat (to move them out of the way for casting spells and such).

When you want to talk to an NPC, only the Nameless One can do it, and he moves to a spot right next to them. Because you are "up close and personal", the Nameless One will get the first blow should any fight ensue. If a group of enemies moves in, they do it very quickly and it is difficult then to get him out of the way (to cast a spell for instance).

I agree that there were too few voices. You sometimes hear the first phrase, but nothing more during a talk session. You cannot skip through long conversations or cut scenes (most irritating if you are replaying a segment and have already done it before).

The Bottom Line
Unlike other games in the genre that offer seemingly unending, immense worlds that take months to travel through, the game map in Torment is smaller and, in my opinion, much more playable and manageable. But never fear - there are still miles of terrain to cover and people aplenty. This game can be as long as you wish, depending upon how many sub-quests you choose to complete.

What this game lacks in size of the world, it makes up for in story. Be prepared to read and read, and read some more. But, like a great novel that you can't put down, the story will engross you and haunt your dreams.

Don't let the "dark theme" dissuade you. Planescape: Torment is a "must play" for every RPG lover, and a game that others have tried to emulate thereafter.