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.
