Planescape: Torment

Planescape Torment is a traditional computer role-playing game from Black Isle Studios, developers of the highly acclaimed Fallout series. But while the Fallout series contained a post-apocalyptic, futuristic setting, Torment features one of the favorite settings for cRPGs, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. Despite choosing a setting familiar to most traditional RPG players, the developers do a great job in weaving one of the best stories ever told in a role-playing game that will have you questioning your own actions at every turn and that is what makes Torment a truly outstanding game.

In Torment you play a truly out of the ordinary protagonist. You are not a charismatic hero blessed with the powers of all Gods out to save the Earth; you are “The Nameless One”. You are horribly scarred and not only are you immortal but have also lost all your memories from previous deaths. You awaken in the Mortuary of all places and beginning from there your quest is to find out who you are, who you were and why you cannot die? As these questions begin to play in your mind, you begin to develop an almost personal bonding with The Nameless One and by the end you feel like you are more part of an experience created by yourself than a game created by a developer.

It is not only you, The Nameless One, who is extraordinary but every character in your party is just the same. Your party contains everyone from a talking skull, to a fiend with a bad attitude to a mage burning in flames to a walking armor suit who believes everyone will get their justice. As a result of the game’s great writing, you get to know about each of the characters in your party intimately and begin to care for them unlike most other games where they are passers-by more than anything. The great thing is that your party members will react differently depending on whether you are good or evil and your level of interaction will be varied depending on your moral alignment which really makes you choose your actions with greater care.

The only part of the game where D&D comes of any use is in character creation and combat. You can play either as a Fighter, a Mage or a Thief. Though owing to the main character’s immortality playing as a Fighter is considerably easier than playing as a Mage or a Thief. And at any point in the game, you can switch between these classes easily and it makes perfect sense in the context of the game given the protagonist is an amnesiac. Combat is one of the noticeable flaws in the game, the only saving grace being there is not a lot of it. From playing the game, one can clearly make out combat was not in the developer’s mind from the first point. Since this is a D&D game, all of the attacks are calculated as Dice Rolls, though these take place under the hood and the only indication that you have made contact is a small spot of blood from your enemy’s body and a small text displaying the amount of damage done. Given that the early portions of the game contain very few healing items, most people (especially spellcasters) will want to avoid combat early in the game. All in all, combat could be one major area which many people will complain about in the game.

Comparing Torment’s graphics with the standards set by today’s games like Oblivion would be simply unfair. But considering that the game is almost 9 years old and based on an even older Infinity Engine, Planescape still looks average only. Some of the spell effects like Cone of Cold, Fire and Ice and many others still look dazzling considering the game’s age and there are some other neat effects like when you see a huge Abhishai in front of you, it will look like it towers above you. Overall, the game’s graphics does its job quite well but you wouldn’t even care about the graphics even if you feel it is average as you will be engrossed by the game’s awesome story.

Considering the fact that most role-playing games have great sound, Torment can be considered a disappointment. Some of the sound tracks in the game are awesome but there are very few of them so by the end of the game you will hear some of the same tracks looping again and again and this can really put off some people. Some of the sound in the combat sections of the game is very nice and it does well to set the mood for some of the bigger battles in the game and other neat little effects like when you are inside some house or an underground tunnel you would hear the voices lower than ordinary and also hear it echo inside the place are very good. The voice acting in the game is very well done, the only irritating fact being it is few and far between. But when you do hear the characters speak their voices and it happens only during some of the important dialogue in the game it is very good.

The game's interface is rather well designed than most other isometric RPGs. The onscreen action is much closer to your perspective than other isometric games like Baldur's Gate. The interface is not the best but is easy to get used to. Every time you want to choose a special item, spell or weapon, you right click anywhere on the screen to bring up a smaller menu from where you can perform your actions easily. The bad thing about this interface being it opens up right in the middle of the screen covering your characters but the good thing is that the game is automatically paused when you bring up this interface. Overall, you will definitely get used to this interface easily especially if you have played other Infinity based RPGs like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2.

Notwithstanding the game’s graphics and sound, the best part of Torment is actually in its written dialogue and there is a whole lot of it. The best part of the writing is that it never gets boring or tiring to read because of its incredible quality. Some subtle dialogues in the game do a greater job in setting the mood than onscreen action ever would have. For example, you would be in a dark alley and suddenly one of your party members will say “What a stinking place to be in!” and this also helps in character development as you would grow to care about your party members because of it. The developers officially claim there are more than 1 million words in the game and I can safely say that you would not even see all of it in the first play through since most of the dialogue options only open up depending on your stats. The dialogues play an important role in your alignment and because you can be good or evil or shades in-between, you will want to choose your words carefully. Since you see many characters in the game and read lots of dialogues, you would find yourself going back to think what little dialogues earlier in the game actually meant in the wider context of the game’s story and it is kudos to Chris Avellone and his team for integrating the dialogues this tightly to the role-playing aspect of the game rather than relying on combat and action for developing the story.

In spite of having this many likable qualities and one of the best stories in an RPG, Torment didn’t break any sales records and that is primarily due to the fact that there are many minor things which one could nitpick about in the game. There are many bugs in the game which slows the game to a crawl and makes the game nearly unplayable during some of the important sections in the game. Many quests could never be finished because of bugs and though many patches were released they never fixed all of the game’s problems and this was the main reason for the game’s quite ordinary sales. Other things you can complain about are the game’s quite average sound and the fact that only some of the dialogues were actually voiced but these minor problems in no way reduce the quality of what is a great game by all accounts.

Planescape Torment features an amazing cast of characters right from the protagonist to the people surrounding him, an awesome storyline, nice combat and above all a highly replayable campaign to boot. The first time play through will take you about 20-25 hours to finish give or take the number of side-quests you choose and since there are alternate endings and whole different paths which you can choose depending on whether you want to be good or evil, the game offers further incentive to go back at least a second time if not more. Though, there is no way to stop after you have finished the game twice or even thrice as you will eventually get addicted to The Nameless One’s adventure and never stop playing it. Torment is one of those rare gems that comes once in a while to surprise everyone with its originality and that is the main reason anyone who has not yet played this amazing title should get down to it right now. Take my word for it, it is just that good. Go find yourself a copy of this game and see what you’ve missed for the past 9 years.