In a game as famously dense as Planescape: Torment, the only word I can use to describe my experience playing through it is simply esoteric.

While it carries the CRPG tradition of "pretty damn impressive story and world-building, but really weak combat" as one would expect from this era, Planescape: Torment would go beyond these met-expectations to deliver an incredibly unique, poetically rich experience that earns its place as being one of the greatest written video games in history.

The most interesting part about Planescape: Torment as a game is how it takes special effort into subverting the many RPG tropes and conventions people were familiar with the genre at this point. The standard blank slate RPG protagonist? This premise is flipped on its own head as they discover they have this entire repressed history that’s important in deciphering which works as an effective mystery hook for the narrative. The plot of a hero trying to save the world from a greater evil needing to be stopped? The Nameless One is more interested in trying to discover the existential truth about themselves and the damage they’ve caused in their previous lives. This goes for other aspects of the gameplay like traditional fantasy equipped armor being tattoos or eyeballs you replace from your own body, experience being gained by remembering memories or skills you’ve always had but forgotten, and the player being immortal makes dying just a minor annoyance and also a brilliant integration between story and gameplay. There's even an entire optional dungeon in the game which makes fun of dungeon crawlers. The hilarious setup being that it was a failed psychological experiment by actual robots to discover why people would venture into unforeseen danger and death. Something beautifully topped off with generic enemies who don't know what their real motivation is beyond just programmed to fight the player while dropping generically named loot like "A Goody!" which has no in-game value.

The combat may trench on being territorially mid unless you’re a Mage with high leveled spells to your disposal but I believe nothing can quite knock down the experience of exploring Sigil and all the various multiversal planes in this ridiculously rich yet cryptic fantasy setting. All the very out-there philosophical ideas of mortality and the ever-so famous theme of “what can change the nature of man?” are echoed throughout the locations and characters you encounter. This has among my all-time favorite party members for being a well-written group of tormented individuals who are attracted and follow the most tormented one of them all. You know you’ve really succeeded in telling a really damn great story for a game when the most fascinating character worth paying attention to is The Nameless One himself. In how he, through the player, confronts his own literal demons catching up on him and harming the people affected by it. The way immortality is treated more like a curse than a blessing in disguise when it comes to personal choices and consequences being made. And the different versions of himself throughout his undying life that he once was or could potentially still relapse back into.

The ending of Planescape: Torment was what fully convinced me this was a certified classic. In how it perfectly caps off this surreal yet intimate story being told from where it leaves The Nameless One from where the game began, and for being one of the most memorable and worthwhile experiences I've had playing a video game.

"What can change the nature of a man?"

Any attempt at un-ravel-ing the world and narrative of Planescape: Torment must center around this question. It's the anchor of the game, spidering out like tiny tendrils of silken web from the central plot onto every piece of dialogue, every character and even the setting itself - connecting it all as it envelops and cocoons. Sigil is a ring of infinite doors, and Planescape: Torment could be described in the same way - revolving around itself with each door a different question leading to the same place.

If this seems like insanity for a video game review, that's ok. Planescape revels in absurdity and esotericism in an attempt to be unlike any other fantasy game. Released a year to the day after its Infinity Engine sibling, Baldur's Gate, Planescape doesn't contain many of the hallmarks of Dungeons and Dragons - there are no elves, there are no dwarves, and there are no stories of epic heroism laden with the trappings of treasure and fame. In fact, Chris Avellone didn't even want swords to be in the game. Instead, the first companion of the game is a floating skull, the first area of the game is a mortuary filled with grotesque dead and undead, and your epic quest is simply: who am I, and why can't I die?

Traveling through the city of Sigil, the literal center of the DnD universe, the nameless protagonist slowly begins to un-ravel his story and the stories of his companions. Each companion character is written with delicate care, providing richly textured stories that interweave with your own. This is not a game that can or should be rushed without speaking to others - it is more like a novel that should be scrutinized over. Each line of text is meaningful. Science Fiction and Fantasy are a their best when authors use the impossibilities of the universe, whether magic or science, to push the boundaries of human thought and storytelling, and Planescape is a testament to this through its explorations of mortality, fear, love, regret, good, evil, justice, and chaos.

The Infinity Engine, while dated, lends a certain grimy charm to the world and character visuals. Beamdog have done an excellent job of modernizing the UI with quality of life improvements while still holding true to the spirit of the game. The original game had a sparse menu bar, forcing the player to utilize a wheel to control the characters and action. This unwieldy setup has been replaced by a simple toolbar with hotkeys that makes things intuitive and easy to use. The addition of a zoom-in and zoom-out feature also allows for easy adjustment of the originals claustrophobic FOV.

The one thing that Beamdog could not update without affecting the gameplay is the combat, which does blemish the experience. Planescape is not combat focused, however there are certainly sections which could be considered combat heavy. Though these are fairly rare, they can be frustrating, as the goal of the game is not to defeat enemies, but rather to gain knowledge. This frustration is doubly apparent when comparing Planescape to something like Disco Elysium, which accomplishes many of the same goals while having no combat. While not an ideal solution, turning the difficulty slider to the lowest setting makes the combat bearable and quick, allowing for much easier exploration.

The writing, characters, and narrative shine as the centerpieces of Planescape. Each character provides different perspective to both the protagonist and the absurd, yet tragic, world around them. Though the central question to un-ravel is "what can change the nature of a man," Planescape offers up many other avenues of introspection and consideration - it's hard to stop questioning, theorizing, and imagining, even after the credits roll.

Planescape: Tormented

I played the majority of this game with a migraine/heavy headache so my experience in understanding the late game plot is probably a bit off but, I'm a little bummed I didn't seem to have the same takeaway from Planescape that others did. The game is dated in quest/map design and the visuals, though diligently remastered, are definitely rough in the current year. Another qualm is that combat and mechanics are hidden behind CRPG Menus and not thoroughly explained, I never truly understood how to make my fighting more efficient or better equip my party, but that was alright thanks to an in game command log making it possible to adjust XP (thank you old games.) I don't think I can do this game justice in a long form review but I think this certified a theory I've been working up for some time, I really don't like CRPG's, and the way that they treat the main/side story by leaving it moreso up to the players' discovery is more of a detriment (personally speaking) than a boon to the over-arching narrative. I appreciate the approach to philosophy that Planescape takes but it really didn't take to me as other games that I treasure have.

This is definitely a "not for me" game that I think will definitely be for fans of CRPG or the golden age PC games of the 1990's.

This game has a great story, its very well written which is good because 80% of it is reading text.

the other 20% thats a typical dungeons and dragons style party rpg is complete and utter shit.

the graphics for their time were very nice, today the art style overall still caries mostly

the combat is receptive and boring requiring very little strategy. There are annoying encounters late in the game with enemies that can kill you very easily making it essential that you just avoid combat all together in some areas.

people have gone to the trouble of writing out the full script of this game including character blocking as a novel for the benefit of people that dont want to have to play it and still experience the story.

I made it 5/6 of the way through before giving up. Its just too boring.

If this were a proper novel im sure id like it as much a most of the sci-fi fantasy novels ive read but even to that standard it would not be exceptional.

as it stands Planescape torment is a great example of how well written text can be done in a game but the rest of it aside from some pretty visuals here and there is crap.

Beaten: Apr 28 2022
Time: 15.6 Hours
Platform: Mac

I just replayed Planescape: Torment, and I’m glad it held up for me as well as it did. Not that I played it for the first time all that long ago, but I’ve played (and replayed) many more CRPGs since then, and it still made me feel something none of them quite hit. That being said, I don’t want or need to spill more ink in aimless praise of Torment. It’s good, fun, and timeless, and you should absolutely play it. Instead, I think I’ll ruminate on a recent facet of its legacy that I don’t think quite gets its due: the newish trend (ish) of hyperlocal adventure games.

The particular games I’m thinking of are Disco Elysium, Kentucky Route Zero, and Norco. All of these games, just like Torment, place more of a focus on an artsy bookishness, a strong prosal (like, prose-al. I don’t think it’s a word but) identity, than any specific mechanics beyond genre convention (KRZ/Norco with adventure game mechanics, Disco with RPG framing and mechanics). Torment absolutely focuses more on its D&D roots than any of those games engage with really tough puzzles or combat, but you can easily tell that it’s not about that.

That being said, I think Torment’s combat gets a lot more flak than it deserves tbh. It’s not as fleshed out in RPG combat as many of Black Isle’s or Obsidian’s or Bioware’s other games, but it’s still rooted in that same rtwp style. It’s clunky where the other ones are, it’s smooth (mostly) where the other ones are, and mostly it’s just pretty fun, if a bit on the easy side comparatively.

This is where Torment’s more obvious legacy comes from, games like Tyranny or Torment: Tides of Numenera. Talky RPGs with less tidy themes and slight less words for days, but also combat as a true component of gameplay. These games get away from the hyperlocality that played a part in making Torment feel so unique, though. 

That’s where those first three games really get it right, imo.

More than just being books with games attached, they’re incredibly deliberate in their literary themes and the way they explore a place, a city or region or highway. You see into every crack, every nook, just enough people’s personal problems that you get a sense that yes, this is a living, breathing, Place. 



Purely speaking about RPGs, I think Baldur’s Gate 2 and Pillars of Eternity 2 also have *a place in them that’s almost this well fleshed out, but they also have many other smaller places in them. You’re exploring a whole countryside, an archipelago, that happens to have a big interweaving city inside of it. In these hyperlocal games, the city is the setting, it is* what you explore. Planescape ends with a few disconnected places, but 80% of the game is exploring Sigil, the City of Doors, and that’s what stuck with people.

There’s a third pillar of Torment’s influence, and that’s KOTOR 2. Influence is kind of a weak word though, instead it’s like a Star Wars themed remake of Torment fit inside of a stark-eyed takedown of everything Star Wars as a cultural idea ever held dear. But seriously, there’s even more direct parallels than I remembered lmao.



Anyways, yeah, Planescape: Torment has a wide ranging legacy with a high hit rate of games that are good to great to Amazing, and is maybe more important than the walls of text praising it would even have you believe!! If only chris avellone wasn’t a PoS aha

Planetscape: Torment is an isometric CRPG set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe. It has gained a reputation over the years for its writing and setting which elevate it to "essential" status in the genre, and after playing it personally, I have to agree. It's a bizarre journey of discovery that's fascinating from beginning to end and it's probably best if you go in as blind as possible.
However, gameplay wise the title is not nearly as good, I'm not a fan of real time with pause and most enemies are honestly only there as fodder for the player, very few encounters are actually challenging or interesting. For this reason I feel like it's usually better to solve things non violently, not to mention that way you get more interesting stuff to read.
To conclude, I would recommend this game to pretty much anyone unless they dislike reading, but that makes me sad for them more than anything because reading is radical.

Não sei se dá pra chamar isso de RPG, talvez visual novel, mas é uma experiência completamente literária, com quase toda a sua gameplay e level-design focada em diálogos (até as dungeons), dito isto, como um jogo que pretende jogar tudo fora em favor da escrita, ele é quase perfeito. É o jogo mais bem escrito que já vi, uma mistura de humor com uma lore absurda, cheia de aspectos teológicos e filosóficos para contar uma tragédia, um pouco similar a Silent Hill 2 nesse aspecto, ambos envolvendo romance e condição humana como temas principais. A jornada, os personagens e o mundo de Planescape são muito bons e poucas vezes me vi entediado passando 1 ou 2 horas lendo no computador, desde as situações mais sérias até as mais absurdas (como refutar a existência de alguém e fazê-lo desaparecer) tirando o combate (que é descartável em 90% das situações) que é travado e provavelmente o pior dos jogos da Infinity Engine, não tem muito oque se falar, a trilha sonora também é muito boa. Pra finalizar, esse jogo me impressionou com o seu material simbólico, ele trata muito bem suas referências teológicas e filosóficas, tem algumas coisas ali que quem não tem um conhecimento mínimo de alguns conceitos religiosos realmente não vai pegar, o jogo é denso e não tem vergonha de usá-los como eles realmente são, sem simplificar muito ou ser pretensioso, coisa que acontece com quase qualquer jogo que tenta lidar com algo minimamente religioso por exemplo. Não me impressiona que o game não ficou popular entre os círculos "underground" de jogos, é muito mais fácil falar de Nier ou Persona, que banalizam esse tipo de coisa.

This is pretty much the exact game I wished I was playing when I went through the Baldur's Gate games. There's a heavy emphasis on player choice and agency, combat that's actually fun with encounters that aren't absurdly frustrating and a great story carried by some of the most well written prose and dialogue I've ever read in a video game. While it does feel like a book at times and suffers from a few issues like occasionally awkward AI pathfinding and unresponsive controls, it never failed to grip me.