Premise:

You wake up as a man who is known as "The Nameless One"(TNO) or "The Restless One" in a mortuary. This man is an immortal who has just woken up from "death" again but he has no recollection of his previous lives or his previous memories, Only things he has is a talking head named "Morte" who acts as his companion and some writing on his back that has two messages for him: one is that he has to find his journal which has some useful information, two is that he has to find a man named "Pharod" to know more about his situation.

Review:

Writing a review for this tour de force of an interactive video game is not an easy job but I will try my best to explain why it's such a phenomenal experience without spoiling anything major or even minor to some extent about the main story because I truly believe this should be experienced completely blind and the experience is really different for different individuals because of it's interactive nature.

Before I start though let me give a brief overview of the setting and world of the story but I can't possibly cover all of planescape lore here, it's huge. Most of the events in the game take place in the floating city known as Sigil. Sigil is in the Outlands, hanging over the very tall structure known as the Spire, which sits in the middle of the plane. It is in the center of the multiverse of the Great Wheel Cosmology. It is also known as the city of doors as it has a lot of portals which is normally invisible to the eye unless the observer has the key for it, which can be anything, a thought, a physical material etc. Almost every species that exists in the multiverse is represented in the population of Sigil. Many different factions of people live within this place, all of these factions of people have their own philosophies regarding life. For example, the first faction that you meet in the game are called "The Dustmen". Let me add a quote from the game to better explain their views on life and death.

"Passions carry weight. As long as one clings to emotion they will be continually reborn into this life, forever suffering, never knowing the purity of True Death. To achieve True Death you must kill your passions and strip yourself of the need for sensation. When you achieve this you achieve peace, past the Eternal Boundary lies the peace all souls seek."

The "True Death" is what The Dustmen believe in. Life itself is a hurdle to removing passion, and passion itself is an obstacle to true enlightenment. Life's trappings are worthless, thus everyone should purge oneself of them in order to reach the emptiness of True Death. They hold the view that passion is what binds souls to what they term a "false life" and forces those who are overly passionate to experience rebirth repeatedly; in order to break the cycle, one must let go of desire.

Not all of the people that are part of a faction completely believes in their factions philosophies however, there will be some who will be struggling to believe it, some who doesn't truly believe the teachings but only acts outwardly as such, it's really complex much like real life, different kinds people believe in different things about life but they are not always black and white about it. What I love most about this is that you, the player will learn about these different philosophies as you play the game and you will have to make decisions, choices and actions to understand whether you align with any one of these philosophies and what you find right or wrong about them. Your actions also determine your alignment in terms of law and chaos as well as good and evil.

Planescape's combat is arguably it's worst part, although it's not bad by any stretch of imagination, it can be very tiring and also feels very outdated. There is also a section of the game that takes tedious to a new level if you are not prepared for it. At the beginning of the game you will be given some attributes points to add to your attributes(which are Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Charisma, Constitution), I suggest spending all of your attribute points to Wisdom, Intelligence and Charisma because these three stats are arguably the most important stats in the game specifically Wisdom and they will affect conversations and choices too, you could spend a few points on Dexterity but I recommend spending all of the points you get when you start the game on those three. There are three classes that TNO can switch between in the whole game, they are Fighter, Mage, Thief. I recommend sticking to Mage most of the game but also leveling up the others to some extent. Being a mage will make the game much more bearable than the other classes.

There is little amount of music in the game but the music that is there is simply brilliant, seriously I listen to a few of these osts repeatedly sometimes.

The Nameless One's journey is unforgettable. Throughout this journey he will meet a lot of companions, friends, adversaries, who are all very complex individuals with different motivations, ideologies and background(well most of them are). TNO is probably the most interesting protagonist I've ever seen and also one of my most favourite characters ever. The main conundrum of the game is a single question for which the player/TNO must find an answer of his own. I will not spoil what this question is but it is beautiful, it connects everything that planescape is about so perfectly that I can only describe it with the word "beautiful" or anything synonymous to it.

I think if there are five stories that I will fondly remember even 20-30 years later, this is one of them. It seriously is a story of that calibre, I know all of these seem really hyperbolic but I urge you to play and finish this game at least once.

Personal Rating - 10/10

i can see why it is so well-loved, and i did enjoy my time with it, particularly since you cannot die and a speech-based build is encouraged (until it's suddenly not by the end of the game but well!), but i think i am just sick of this brand of writing lmao. the misogyny and just... i'm not sure how to phrase it, but the dramatic writing makes it harder to see the characters as people...? rather than concepts. it's harder to connect with them and thus harder to care. deionarra's plight at the hands of the [redacted]s was terrible, and seeing that memory was hard, but it was hard to actually like... give a shit as a person... i guess it might be appealing to other people but not me. i equally hated the companions avellone wrote for pillars of eternity, particularly the grieving mother, for the same penchant. idk how much of the writing he did here but if this is his style then it makes sense why it doesn't click with me. oh well.

at the same time it Is sort of a silly complaint when the game Is conceptual and all about deconstructing typical DND tropes but i still just felt more like an observer than part of the world, and i find it unfortunate as i like CRPGs with loads of writing for that particular sense of getting lost in a different world and having my own adventure

it is still an interesting story that takes on deep and existential themes that are rarely well-explored in gaming, and it must have been groundbreaking when it first released, but even back then among CRPGs and especially now there are works that resonate with me way better so there's that

also the puzzle you find nordom in is kind of horrible, but i also had fun drawing it out while exploring and it reminded me of the charm of old videogames and only having printed guides or having to figure things out yourself lmao. so that was oddly nice

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.

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.

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.

"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.

What can change the nature of a man?

Planescape: Torment is THE CRPG. Some of the most beautiful and thoughtful writing I've encountered in an interactive medium, some of the coolest and most unique narrative design and worldbuilding (thanks in part to its rich history as a TTRPG setting) and heaps upon heaps of that true dialogue-option-core swag, where you got a hundred branching dialogue options and they all meaningfully effect things - in a way that you sometimes forget video games can even do in the first place. Planescape is all those things, and still mind-blowing, to this very day. It's a shame that, of course, the combat is so deeply dated and janky that I have no idea how to recommend it to people. If you've got what it takes to wade through all that, you're just in for something totally special. Maybe the only piece of art that I'd ever say "Hey maybe they should do a remake" - just so I can present this arresting narrative to my less-patient friends. It's something special.

Very few games have hit me as hard as Torment. It is a masterfully written game that manages to be both grand in scope and introspective in nature, and delves into many topics, setting and set-pieces with near universal perfection. What few flaws it has concern the unspectacular gameplay and some elements of poor design that are inherent to its era, but that is nothing in front of how impactful and emotional its narrative about discovery and improvement of one’s own being is. Almost every single party member in this game, even the ones I didn’t use, is really intriguing, every quest is written with a great level of care and there are so many different alternatives it accounts for in many of them. It’s a bit of a bummer that it becomes more linear and a little less introspective for a decent bit after a certain event but before the finale, but it’s not a deal-breaker at all in the grand scheme of things.

When I edited this Backloggd said "Your journal has been updated" and I almost did the fucking leonardo di caprio point IRL even though it's just the same text for every fucking game it's not even an actual reference

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.

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.

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