Retro Review! Planescape: Torment - PC

    Your eyes snap open and you gasp as your lungs refill with air. The ceiling above you is splattered with what appears to be old blood. You suddenly become aware that you're laying on your back on something very cold. You swing your legs over the edge of the platform and sit up only to notice that you have been laying on a slab in what appears to be a mortuary. The pounding in your head slowly subsides leaving you with only an empty, blank feeling. Where are you? Why are you here? Who are you? You examine your body and find many, many scars tracing their way across your skin. Your back itches incessantly, but no scratching can alleviate the crawling of your skin. Suddenly, a skull floats up to you and greets you. The skull explains that you were dead. There's no sugar-coating it. You were dead. The skull floats around you and examines your body. You explain to the skull that you do not know how you got here, or who you are. In fact, it seems that your memory is completely blank. The skull explains that this has happened before. In fact, you have died many times in the past - always returning to life with just a little bit more of your mind gone. The skull mentions a tattoo on your back - so THAT must have been what was causing the itch. The skull reads what has been tattooed there and describes instructions left there by one of your past incarnations. Along with a brief explanation of your never-dying "condition" are two simple commands with little explanation: "find your journal, find Pharod, both of these tasks will help you learn who you are." With these instructions in mind, you make your way out of the mortuary with your new boney companion.
    Planescape: Torment is a Computer Role-Playing Game created by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay Entertainment. The game was released way back in 1999 for the PC and Mac. The game has since seen multiple re-releases in different formats such as the switch to DVD from CD, as a bundle with another game, and even a release for iOS and Android. I bought the game back in...well..probably around 2003? I remember seeing the game in a bargain bin, noting that it came with TWO games (it was bundled with the game Soulbringer), and feeling like the deal was too good to pass up even though I knew absolutely nothing about either game. I remember playing Soulbringer a bit, but never making it very far. I also remember trying Planescape: Torment, feeling instantly overwhelmed, not having any idea how to progress, and going back to playing Soulbringer. Years later, I reinstalled Planescape and gave it another shot. This time I thought I had made a lot of progress, but slowly lost interest once more and stopped playing. Recently I saw the game on a "best of" list and remembered that I still have the CDs laying around. I made up my mind to finally play the game fully and sat down for what I thought would be a somewhat grueling playthrough. I quickly learned two things. Number one: in my previous attempts at playing the game I had made almost no progress whatsoever and never really learned the game at all. Number 2: Planescape: Torment is an amazing gaming experience that I am glad to have finally played.

    Planescape: Torment follows its main character "The Nameless One" as he searches to recover his memories and to learn who he is. The Nameless One has a unique ability, in that he cannot permanently die. How and why are just two more mysteries that await discovery. Planescape takes place in the Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting of Planescape - a world in which multiple planes of existence are linked together by portals. Since multiple planes are connected, the world of Planescape features multiple types of creatures living side by side such as humans, demons, angels, and other creatures from various planes. While journeying through the world, The Nameless One will meet multiple other characters that will join him in his quest such as Morte, the talking, floating skull with an encyclopedic knowledge of the realm. Together, the party will solve puzzles, help residents of Planescape, and combat horrible monsters in order to help solve the mystery of The Nameless One's immortality.

For a magical encyclopedia, Morte is kind of a bonehead.

    Planescape: Torment uses the Infinity Engine which was created by Bioware for use in the very well known CRPG Baldur's Gate. This engine displays the game world in an isomentric 2D view and allows players to move characters by clicking their desired destination on screen. Players can move characters as a group, or select individuals to move independently of the other members of the party.  Everything in the game is done by clicking with the mouse, though there are a few keyboard shortcuts that can come in handy. The Infinity Engine uses the rules of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition for combat and interactions - meaning that there's a lot of stat checks and "dice rolls" going on behind the scenes of the game. AD&D rules are notoriously hard to understand, however, making combat in Planescape: Torment difficult to get used to. Characters receive experience points for completing quests, defeating enemies, and for some special dialogue choices. Characters then become stronger by leveling up after a certain amount of experience points are earned.

    Characters in Planescape: Torment each fall into the basic class system of AD&D. The Nameless one starts out as a fighter, but as he continues his journey he can switch to a mage or a thief. Other characters starts as a class, and remain that class for the entire game. It's best to balance your party in a way that best makes use of each class's strengths and abilities. Combat in the game feels very strange at first. Players can click an enemy to tell a character to attack it. Your character then runs up to the enemy and a basic attack animation begins. Mostly, players will watch their character swing and miss an enemy repeatedly. This can feel very strange when other games have gotten us used to all attacks connecting, but once you realize that the behind the scenes dice rolls are determining hit chance and damage, combat becomes a little less weird. The game offers quite a few weapons, magical items, and spells for use against enemies. Some of the game's spells have what I can only imagine were amazing effects for 1999, and are all a pleasure to use - though some of the effects slow the game down a bit. The ability to select each party member and give commands individually opens the possibility for very tactical choices in combat. It's very cool to send your fighters into a brawl, keep your mage in the back while he slings spells from safety, and have your thief go into stealth mode to sneak up behind enemies. Combat in the Infinity Engine happens pretty quickly, and with all the tactical choices, can be somewhat complicated. Luckily the game allows you to pause at any time and give commands to characters while everything has stopped.

Gross! Kill it with fire!

    Planescape: Torment's combat can definitely be a handful, but the fact that The Nameless One can't die takes some pressure off of players. It's a good thing, too, because combat really isn't the focus of Planescape. What kept me playing and driving me forward in the game was its writing. Planescape: Torment feels like playing a very good book. Characters each have their own motives and personalities, the game's events are interesting and thought-provoking, and the plot constantly expands leading to more questions that players will thirst to answer. Most of the game's narrative comes in the form of written dialogue. There is a very small amount of voice-acting in the game, but for the most part you're going to be doing a LOT of reading. I know in the modern era of gaming that reading can feel like a chore, but in the case of Planescape: Torment it really works to further evoke the feeling that you're playing a book.

    I was amazed by the amount of narrative and dialogue in the game. The further I delved into the game's quests, the more my mind was blown by how complicated the game is. Similar to other D&D games, players have a set of stats that determine not only how they perform in combat, but also their abilities to interact with others in the world. Planescape: Torment uses these stats to shape what The Nameless One is capable of. Depending on wisdom and intelligence, players will find that new dialogue branches open up. Stats can also determine the amount of options that are present for solving many of the game's quests and puzzles. The amount that changes in the game depending on your statistics was amazing to me in its complexity. You could easily play the game twice with a different distribution of stats and find things playing out very differently than they had in your previous playthrough. These branching options really give players a chance to role play like few video games have before. The Nameless One can lie, bluff, and make other choices that - depending on your stats - might manipulate a conversation in a much different direction that it would have otherwise gone.

"So umm, I have this friend who might be immortal..."

    One of the most striking aspects of Planescape: Torment was the game's visual design. The world of Planescape is bleak - feeling almost post-apocalyptic. Architecture in the game has a very unique style with strange, pointed buildings and weird angles. The game's interior environments are amazingly detailed, even if the game's technological limits only allowed for those details to be somewhat blurry. Characters in the game show exceptional visual design and creativity. Overall the game has an otherworldly, dark feel to it that goes extremely well with the game's theme. Black Isle really did an amazing job of bringing the world of Planescape to life.

    My playthrough of Planescape: Torment lasted for around 40 hours. I tried quite hard to experience all that the game had to offer though, so if you were to rush through the game doing only story quests I could see it lasting around 35 hours or so. There are a lot of quests in the game, as well as a hidden area that contains treasure and a special party member, so there's a lot to do and see.

The Nameless One apparently needed a drink. Maybe that's how he forgot everything in the first place?

    I'm so glad that I decided to give Planescape: Torment another chance. I can see why I would have lost patience with the game when I was younger. At that time, I was likely looking for more action and less reading than Planescape provided. This time, however, I took my time and savored the game's storytelling and experiences. I really enjoyed the game a lot, though it clearly suffers a bit from the technological limits of 1999 and some questionable programming (crashes and slowdowns). I still find myself surprised at how intricate the game's workings are, and wondering just what would have gone differently if I had made different choices while playing. The game is definitely worth checking out if you're into the CRPG genre, roleplaying games, or what felt to me like an interactive book!

Amulets and Ale Rating:

Find Amulets and Ale on social media - Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AmuletsAndAle Instagram: @amuletsandale