Written 06.04.2010 - Uploaded 06.04.2010
Planescape: Torment is one huge blast from the past. For me at least, because I bought this game in 2001, tried it out, got annoyed by the user interface and forgot it for a very long time. Well, not exactly forgot, but just didn't play it until 2009. I had pretty much run out of PS2 games to play that time, so I finally decided to tolerate the game's user interface and play it through. Several weeks later I was very pleased with my decision and the game lived up to all the expectations people have put on it through all these years. So, in case you, dear reader, haven't played this game yet, it is now my responsibility to pass on the wisdom and tell you why you should play this game. In the spirit of fairness, I will also tell you what obstacles you may face when starting to play this game.
Torment is all about the story. Nameless One, the protagonist, wakes up in a mortuary and cannot remember anything. Not the most original starting point for a plot, but the way the plot unfolds easily justifies the beginning. During the course of the story, Nameless One finds out more and more about his past, and discovers the things he has done - often it's not very pretty. The game keeps its mysterious appeal to the end, and doesn't explicitly state everything to the player. Who the Nameless One truly was is a question that never gets fully answered, leaving much to the player's imagination. The game reveals new things at a fair pace, and usually avoids keeping the player too long in dungeons where nothing new is learned. Numerous sidequests often reveal some small things as well, which does well to keep up motivation. Every clue becomes a precious piece of information, worth more than any gold or experience reward.
Naturally Nameless One is not on his trip alone. The NPC cast in the game is really good and especially unique. What else can you say when your first companion is a floating skull with a dirty mouth? The other cast includes a tiefling (that's kind of a half-demon in Planescape) woman who talks pretty rough (my favourite), a philosophic succubus and an eternally burning mage. There are more, but these I'll leave for you to find. The whole cast is interesting on its own, but also because most of them are somehow connected to the Nameless One's past. Although the game has a ton of dialog, the NPC's get relatively small piece of it each. While this still means they talk a lot more than in most RPGs, I also felt I still didn't learn enough about them, and the relationships between the characters did not develop that much during the game.
Planescape is an interesting place to say the least. Well, not a place exactly, as the name refers to the entire multiverse of AD&D planes. Most of the game takes place in the central location of Sigil, a city connected to most (or all?) planes, if one can just find suitable portals. Sigil is full of all kinds of creatures from various planes, and in Planescape things are rarely what they seem. Just discovering all the curiosities in the game world is an adventure in itself, since you just never know what you'll encounter next. Let's just say that one of my favourite items in the game was "severed hand (yours)". Also, there's a brothel for intellectual delights, where customers can hire girls to engage them in deep conversations. Since Nameless One is immortal, certain events in the game become quite hilarious. For example, to get back to the mortuary, you'll have to have someone kill you. These small examples are really just the tip of the iceberg, there's just a lot to be found in this game.
Although it's an AD&D game, Planescape: Torment is quite far-removed from the character development craziness in its relatives (e.g. Baldur's Gate). Sure, the ruleset is still there, but the limited amount of equipment slots and allowing base classes only decreases the amount of character development options quite a bit. This is not a bad thing, although some might argue otherwise. Torment keeps its difficulty quite low, so there is no need for highly advanced development schemes. Actually good amount of plot-related fights are avoidable by talking! The most important development aspect in the game is the main character's stats. Unlike normal AD&D characters, Nameless One gets an additional stat point every time he levels up. As additional twists, most characters get some minor special abilities, but overall we can conclude the mechanics bit by saying that Torment just isn't your run-of-the-mill RPG.
Since mechanics and game play wise the game is not exactly up there, fighting does get a bit tiring. This is especially true in the beginning because the party doesn't get its first (and only) cleric until roughly one third to the game. Until then, relatively rare healing charms are the way to go. Fortunately it all becomes quite manageable once a couple of characters join the party, because the game really isn't too difficult. Sometimes I still wished the game would have even less fighting, because it is actually even quite pointless as you don't really get that much with XP. Focusing on wisdom, charisma and intelligence is actually a good idea in this game, as these stats (especially wisdom) open the best conversation options which often lead to avoiding fights. I don't think I could play this game without the ability to avoid as many fights as possible.
So, bottom line: I'm not sure if the above convinced you, but seriously, the story in Planescape: Torment is one of the best in computer game history, and its world is equally good. Overcoming the gameplay issues (remember to patch!) is not really that hard either, so just fix your attitude and enter the (Nth) life of Nameless One, one of the best protagonists ever seen in RPGs. Many aspects of the game are pretty unique - there's a lot of stuff that has never been seen before and equally lots of stuff that hasn't been repeated since. In the world of Torment, bizarre things are the norm and anything can happen. You may even like it enough to play it again (which I think is rare for games that emphasize story and mystery, especially if their game play is a bit on the weak side).