The Immortal RPG
What value does life have in the eyes of an immortal? How much power must an idea have before it starts changing the world? Do strong passions like love and hate transcend the physical universe? And are concepts like good and evil simply relativistic labels, or are they universally constant absolutes?
Video games do not have much of a reputation for contemplating philosophical questions, or provoking much contemplation at all. One notable exception is Planescape: Torment (PT). The 1999 release from Black Isle Studios was something of a sleeper hit during a golden age of isometric RPG's but has since then been recognized as one of the greatest video game RPG's ever made. PT's unmatched story, setting, and authorship make it a must-play title even ten years after its debut. While modern RPG's have moved to hybridize with succesful genres like action adventures and third person shooters, the ever constant test of any RPG is its story and setting. Is this an immersive, interesting world for players to be drawn into? Is there a compelling story? PT delivers these demands in spades.
Sigil is the city of doors. It is so named for the fact that somewhere within its boundaries is at least one passage (and usually many) to any place/time that exists. This is the setting of PT, and as you might imagine, Sigil can be a confusing place. Players will find it both familiar and strange. There are all the staples of classical high fantasy, (the Planescape setting is a Dungeons and Dragons creation) but they have been twisted in ways that are strange, refreshing, hilarious and epic. Walking through the streets of a slum you might easily encounter a demon from hell minding his own business. On a street corner, the Sigil civic services may have converted a mindless zombie into a kiosk, covered with notifications, want ads and obscene graffiti. In the cellar of a basement you may find a pack of rats who think with a collective conscience. Or maybe you will encounter a massive seige tower, which is in fact a sentient being utterly devoted to entropy, that is the breaking down of order. All the "normal" archetypes are here: righteous clerics, ambivalent mercenaries, selfish magicians, evil demons, do-gooder paladins. But unlike most RPG's, PT shows each from their own perspective. At one point you will meet the receptionist at a medieval social club, who in his own plane of existence is a god, but here in Sigil compared to average beings he is just a normal person.
Your adventures will not be limited to Sigil though, (afterall, from Sigil you can theoretically access anywhere in existence). If you ask Morte, one of your companions about Sigil and where it is, he gives a telling and somewhat funny explanation. "Most people conclude Sigil is sitting on top of an infinitely tall tower in the exact center of the planes. Of course this only makes you wonder how an infinitely tall tower can have a top and how the planes can have a center."
In this unique setting you will embody an appropriately uniqe main character, The Nameless One(TNO). The opening sequence begins with TNO waking up on a preparation table in a massive morgue. After speaking with one of the attendents, you learn that TNO is an immortal and just that. He is a normal human except that he cannot die. No matter how grievous his injury, he will recover given enough time (and this is represented in gameplay). Unfortunately the trauma of repeated "deaths" has hampered his memory, and he cannot remember anything about his past. The only thing to guide him is a collection of tatoos on his back that he has written in anticipation of such amnesia. Without writing too much more I can assure you the ensuing quest to learn TNO's identity is epic without embracing the typical save-the-world video game archetype.
Your allies and enemies will be equally intriguing, being both familiar and strange like the game's setting. There is a succubus who has renounced the evil embraced by her species and thus taken a vow of chastity. There is an angel who is born entirely of goodness but flawed in that he is convinced ends justify any means. A personal favorite is a pyromaniac-arsonist mage, who after being convicted of murder, was sentenced to have his body transformed into a channel for the elemental plane of fire, dooming him to be burned alive forever. Of course there are also more mundane characters like a young tiefling thief.
Trying to describe the variety of strange characters you migh encounter would take a book. Ironically, PT is just that in a sense. Most of the game's RPG elements take place in complex dialogue windows where the character speaks with friends and enemies. There are according to wikipedia over 800,000 words of text in the game, and most of it is extremely well written. It is in these sequences where you will make promises, threats, beg for mercy, condemn another's actions, inquire to someone's opinions, and anything else.
The rest of the gameplay is taken up by traditional character level progression and combat. A lot has been written about PT's combat, and much of it is negative. Compared to other isometric RPGs like Fallout 1%2, Baldur's Gate, and Icewind Dale, PT will feel somewhat limited. There are only three character classes to be chosen from, fighter, thief and mage; and only seven characters that can join your party. Thus the tactics you employ in combat are comparatively limited, and the quantity of time spent in combat is only about half of that spent engaging in dialogue and exploration. Personally I found the combat quite satisfying. There's a diverse and unpredictable range of enemies to be found, and memorable items ranging anywhere from a severed arm that can be converted to a club, to brass knuckles, to a sinister blade known as the Edge of Oblivion, to a sword of heavenly vengence known as the Celestial Fire.
Even though almost every RPG tries to flaunt that ever desirable but frequently nonexistent element of "choice", none of them have ever come close to PT. The standard RPG gives players a good and evil scale on which to move their character's rating through predictable choices like whether to save/kill the civilian. PT gives players a massive range of both nuanced and blatant choices that effect the D&D alignment rating between good, neutral, evil, chaotic, and lawful. Additionally there are a variety of ideologies in the game to find inspiration from, and several organizations to join.
If I had to summarize PT's gameplay in a sentence I'd call it an isometric RPG with the interation mechanics of a point and click adventure. This is hardly doing justice to its complexity however, and if I had to describe its story in one sentence I would be unable.
In the final analysis however, the highest praise I can give PT is that at ten years old, it is still a compelling game. This is because it does not depend on graphics, slick shooting or fighting mechanics, unlimited player progression, or an unending dungeon crawl. PT is about its story, and the remarkable setting it takes place in. It is also about its characters who are some of the most memorable in any game. Admitedly, some players will not enjoy PT for its dated look, or for the amount of reading it requires. However most will enjoy it. Acquire it as soon as possible and join the club of satisfied gamers who have experienced its adventure.
In the meantime, here are few samples of PTs writing that I pulled from IMDB for you to check out.
Vhailor: When the injustice is great enough, justice will lend me the strength needed to correct it. None may stand against it. It will shatter every barrier, sunder any shield, tear through any enchantment, and lend its servant the power to pass sentence. Know this: There is nothing on all the Planes that can stay the hand of justice when it is brought against them. It may unmake armies. It may sunder the thrones of gods. Know that for all who betray justice, I am their fate. And fate carries an executioner's axe.
The Nameless One: I see
Vhailor: No, you do not see. Pray you never will.
Vhailor: Justice is not blind, for I am her eyes.
Morte (a talking, floating skull): One time you awoke obsessed with the idea that *I* was your skull and chased me around the Spire trying to shatter and devour me. Luckily, you were crushed by a passing cart in the street.
Annah (a sarcastic thief): The Old Ward, also known as: Wanker City.
Coaxmetal (a weapon-constructing war golem): Start with a fragment of the enemy. A drop of blood. A crystalised thought. One of their hopes. All of these things tell the way it can die.
Dak'kon (a stoic fighter): Endure. In enduring grow strong.
A second-hand memory: The entire hall was in ruins and still in the process of being destroyed, as dozens of combatants hurled weapons, deadly, arcane magics, and themselves at on another in a desperate struggle to be the last one standing. Plumes of acrid green smoke rose from the pile of limp bodies you dragged yourself out of, having barely escaped the wrath of some fiendish spell. There it was - across the way, through the battling throng, through the bloodthirsty battle ahead of you, sitting untouched on a miraculously upright table - your pint of mead! And you'd get it back, if you had to kill every last one of the brawling tavern patrons to do it!
