I was not expecting that a game from 1999 would have some of the very best writing I have experienced in a video game.

I felt like the game took its time with getting me hooked, but once it did, it never let go. I'm just glad I stuck to it and finally got around to beating this gem of a game.

As a dnd noob I didn't care much for the combat, but I managed to get by regardless.

But the story, the characters, the world building, the introspection... Just fantastic. My congratulations to the dev team.

My first real experience with anything Dungeons and Dragons related! I found a lot of the ideas super fascinating and I was also able to see how these concepts have influenced other fantasies which was cool. There are some silly concepts to me, like the whole alignment thing is a bit cartoony in how strictly outlined it is. Still, there is a charm in it, and the game does also manage to create some really interesting story beats and locales with it. I do think this being my first introduction to the Planscape campaign—and DnD as a whole —definitely benefitted my experience. Learning about the world with fresh eyes was the thing that kept me the most hooked in playing the game. Was I well versed in the setting already, I do not know if I would have found the experience as satisfying. The main story is intriguing and the characters are solid, but I felt like a majority of the writing I was reading mainly centred around world building. To balance out all the lore, I wish there were way more dialogue interactions with your companions. The stuff that is there is great—well written and full of personality—there just isn’t as much as I thought there would be for a game like this. I would constantly check in on my party members to see if they had any new input after story beats and a lot of the time they didn’t, even in cases where I feel like the character would most definitely have something to say. Obviously, this game has a wealth of content and writing and not everything will be covered. It’s just the classic catch-22 that when a game is really fleshed out in some regards, the parts that aren’t stand out to the player a lot more.

Moving past writing and narrative and focusing more on gameplay, I do unfortunately have to agree with the consensus that the gameplay is pretty meh. There are certain mechanics that are designed in a way where it feels like the priority was to make it feel more ‘realistic.’ For example, certain vendors won’t buy certain items, character’s can’t rest in an inn unless they’re all right next to TNO when speaking to the inn keeper, etc. I understand these flourishes are to make the world feel more grounded and authentic, but man is it just irritating and pulls me out of the experience more than anything. You could argue that these are rather minor nitpicks of UI and control, and for any other game where the gameplay was more substantive, I think that would be fair. But Planescape: Torment’s gameplay is pretty much all dialogue and menus all the way down, so these minor complaints do become pretty large sticking points for me. I also found the logging of information to be a bit confusing. The game does keep a record of events, which is great, but how it goes about choosing what is logged and what isn’t is weird to me. There are some pretty major revelations that aren’t logged at all while minor events and redundant info fill up the journal, making it harder to navigate. The quests section doesn’t always list all tasks, nor does it always include the relevant information. As a result, some quests can be really esoteric. One could argue that such little handholding is refreshing, but it makes little sense to me that the character you play, or the companions you travel with, or even the npc who gave you the mission in the first place, would not have any kind of advice or info to give.

Simply put: this game is clunky, and there is no point where it feels more clunky than during combat. It’s super messy to try and enact any kind of strategy beyond the complexity of luring a target and jumping them. Not that that matters because it kind of feels like wailing on enemies is the most optimal way to play anyways. There are some really cool spells, but finding the handful of ones that are actually useful is a drag. There aren’t many encounters in the game and rest stops are spread out just far enough where you don’t really get much opportunity to experiment with magic unless you’re straight up grinding. Even when I got a good magic setup going, it was difficult for me to find reason to use them. Most enemy encounters are fairly easy; the ones that aren’t are usually battles where the game just throws ridiculous amounts of enemies at you. Those fights end up burning through a lot of your most useful spells before you’re back to just wailing on enemies again. I do concede that perhaps my gripes with the combat could simply be because of my unfamiliarity with DnD, but the game does not do a very good job at explaining the ruleset of 2nd edition at all. Thankfully, combat is fairly light in this game though it does ramp up in the later half, and the game does kinda take a nosedive in quality because of it. Granted, you can probably still choose to avoid most of it by running away, but then you’re not left with much in the second half. The later parts of this game feel a lot smaller and more shallow than the earlier sections. Less to explore, simpler quest lines, regurgitation of information you already know, etc. The first half of the game is definitely the stronger part in my reckoning.

I know that most of my review has been criticism, but most my critiques revolve around elements the game doesn't prioritize. The focus really is the story/characters and creating an atmosphere that immerses the player, all of which this game does superbly. I now have a lot more motivation in trying other cRPGs, a genre which I had always found intimidating beforehand. But Planescape: Torment, along with Disco Elysium and Citizen Sleeper, has definitely piqued my interest.

P.S. the reason why I got interested in this game in the first place was because of this drawing of Annah by Dungeon Meshi mangaka Ryoko Kui: https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonMeshi/s/SQHT62QsLd

So once again I must thank Ryoko Kui for an amazing experience o7
Also read and or watch Dungeon Meshi

The writing and atmosphere are peak, and that's what you're playing the game for - think of it as an interactive novel. Sadly it continues the trend of the best RPGs being deeply flawed masterpieces. The combat and RPG elements are sort of vestigial - you basically have to play as a high Wis/Int/Cha Mage to get the most out of the game, and the combat is completely uninteresting. Sadly, since the game is blatantly unfinished, the combat becomes a bigger and bigger part of the game the longer it goes on - turning down the difficulty all the way is recommended.

The writing is good enough that if it were in book form, it would be a great novel, but I think a lot of people overrate how well-written and how deep it is because of the low bar set by other video games.

"What can change the nature of a man?"

What can I say about Planescape Torment that hasn't been said before? This game is like playing a Christopher Nolan/Jonathan Nolan movie (or book to be more precise) before they started making success with their movies.

See, this game released in 1999, Memento (movie), which is the closest thing I can compare to this game, was released in 2001. The Nameless One's story would be a hit as a novel, as a tv show, as a movie, as a comic book, anything. I think it's fair to say PS:T is one of the best "mystery" stories told in the gaming media. One that you should experience for yourself.

The gameplay is alright at best. I think it was serviceable for the genre and the time it came out. That said if you aren't able to play older games while "going back in time" with your expectations, it will be very hard to enjoy it's gameplay.

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You sit before the computer again; a bone-numbing chill blankets the air between you and the screen, as if the monitor itself bordered on some other, colder space. This is the portal to your Fortress of Regrets... now all you need do is inscribe your feelings upon the website.

> 𝐓𝐚𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮.
- 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞... 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐰.


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This thought of yours has been peeled from the back of your mind. Its rough gray surface reminds you of a zombie's hide; it looks more like another piece of worn-out novelty writing than a legitimate video game review.
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> 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭.
- 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞.


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You clench your teeth and dig your mind into your soul; with a dry, tearing sound, you peel off a strip of yourself. The chill between yourself and the monitor becomes stronger, almost hungering, as if the screen has opened a crack in your mind...
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> 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠; 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝.
- 𝐏𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲...


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You finish the review. Before your thoughts can escape, you press 'Create Log' and let forth several paragraphs of bullshit. As you prepare to save your work, a series of images float across your mind...
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> 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭: "𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬..."
- 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭: "𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭..."
- 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭: "𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭..."
- 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲.


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You whisper the words to yourself, but the regret echoes through your mind:
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> 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞

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'I regret...'
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> 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞

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"I regret that I played this game."
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I'll give the credit where credit is due: this game has great characters and world-building. That alone is enough to make the game tolerable. But that's really the best I can describe it.

In terms of the gameplay, it's just awful, and that's not just my opinion. I don't know much about DnD, but AFAIK it gives the player a lot of options to basically make them feel like they truly inhabit a world, where they have as much free will as they do IRL. Looking at Planescape from that perspective, it is extremely linear. In fact, I'd even say it's more linear than the streamlined KotOR clones of the 2000s.

Most of the NPCs you talk to are lore banks. "Dialogues" with them are pure exposition dumps. In most cases, when you are given dialogue options, you have one or two. When there's more, in most cases the extra options are completely non-viable. For example, being aggressive will always get you killed, even when you're playing as a Fighter class, except for when you're dealing with bums and lowlifes. In my opinion, it would be best to just not have those options in the first place.

If you genuinely try to immerse yourself in the world and role-play as a sane, rational person, you'll just not move the story forward. In most cases, the most rational thing to do is not to speak to an NPC or not to do their quests. But the game still forces you to, while pretending like you have a choice. It ends up being the case of clicking every dialogue option until you find the right one, even if it makes no sense to you.

In between the dialogues, there's little to no actual gameplay. You run around talking to NPCs and occasionally fight. The combat is extremely simplistic and not fun. You start with no skills, armor or proper weapons, and several hours into the game you still have none of that. And even if you choose to play as a fighter (which is the class you start with), you're too weak to solve any significant problems in the game through force. The inventory management and the leveling-up are just as simplistic as the combat. The worst thing is, while being so weak, you still have to constantly run through hostile environments with respawning enemies.

Most people who praise this game will also acknowledge that the gameplay is flawed, and the main selling point here is the story. And this here is why I never take gamers' advice on story anymore. Most gamers don't read any good literature or watch any arthouse cinema; their idea of a great story is a Marvel movie. I've been conned into playing through the entirety of Star Wars: KotOR 2 by people saying it has a deep and philosophical story, which in reality turned out to be some vague ranting about the (clearly misunderstood by the writers) concept of the Force. I've been hearing the same things about this game, and it's written by the same writer. I'm not gonna spend 30+ hours on this one too just to be disappointed.

In my experience, great stories in video games tend to be great from the start. Take Deus Ex for example, a game in a pretty similar genre. Every piece of written content and every interaction with an NPC there carries substance beyond just world-building. Characters discuss relevant political and philosophical themes that engage the player intellectually and emotionally. All the books, newspaper clippings and emails carry valuable commentary on late-stage capitalism, militarism, autocracy, the co-option of technology by the powerful elites, philosophical musings upon the impact of technology on human identity and freedom, etc. I legit walk around quoting Deus Ex, because the quality of its writing is on the level of actual art. And this quality is consistently displayed from the very start.

But what actual substance did I get from 4+ hours of playing Planescape: Torment? Well, I learned a lot about Sigil, the city of doors, and the reputation of Pharod, and the warring factions underneath the city: the rat(-people?) and the undead. This is all superficial stuff. Where's the beef? And all that I had to learn between terrible gameplay segments.

I honestly went into it thinking "well, at least it won't be as bad as KotOR 2, because that game is broken", but at least KotOR 2 is built on the solid template of the first game. And, in fact, I can't really say Planescape: Torment is not broken. Perhaps, it's less broken, but I've encountered some instances of incorrect dialogue-chains, and one time I accidentally soft-locked the game. It was when you have to get Soego out of his room and snitch at him to Hargrimm. I suppose I must've gotten him way too far from his room, because then he didn't reappear in the "cutscene" where Hargrimm is scolding him. So the "cutscene" just stuck and there was no way out of it other than Alt+F4'ing out of the game. It's a good thing I saved right before that. Which btw the game often will not let you do for no apparent reason.

In the end, I felt like I did have some interest in continuing, purely out of curiosity based on the character relationships. But there was a segment where I did not know what I was supposed to do. I talked to all NPCs available, clicked on all dialogue options, and still had no clue. And I was so tired of the respawning enemies, that the very idea of running back and forth between these NPCs felt exhausting to me. I think, if this game truly had the amazing story everyone keeps raving about, I'd probably be willing to suffer through the horrendous gameplay, but clearly I am not.

Well, the story was good. I liked the overall plot, and the prose was enjoyable to read. I also found the setting of Planescape to be one of the most interesting and compelling video game settings I've seen, and the characters felt like characters, as opposed to tools for the player to progress the story through. This did, however, have its downsides -- there were a few times where progressing required following a random dialogue tree with a random named character. It wasn't particularly troublesome due to my tendency to fully embody the very inquisitive archetype of The Nameless One, asking everyone every available question, but it did feel a bit off.

The main issue with the game is the combat -- there are notable stretches of gameplay which pretty much devolve into dungeon crawls. The tactics I utilised seemed quite simple and boring, but also most effective -- drawing aggro with Morte and then wailing on the enemies one-by-one as they did not fight back. You would quickly figure this tactic out if you played the game. What this ultimately means is that a lot of the game is spent on rather tedious gameplay which does nothing to aid the story or worldbuilding -- the good parts of the game.

There is not much more to say here: the story was quite moving, the gameplay was bad, but tolerable. It's pretty short for an RPG, at around 23 hours, so I'd recommend it to any prospective player.

Most tactically interesting Planescape: Torment encounter (mild spoilers for a late-game boss fight): https://youtu.be/nAKLjyG7OHw

Really sad to have shelved this one but circumstance has forced me to. Was about halfway through this game and enjoying it a lot when I got the worst flu I’ve ever had and would have ended up in the hospital for dehydration were it not for my partner’s physician dad giving me prescription anti emetics he had lying around the house. Tried playing more of this game when I was laid up in bed which was a huge mistake. Literally can’t even think about this game without feeling nauseous now. Huge shame because I was enjoying it quite a bit.

One of my all-time favorite games. Planescape's writing is often touted as a highlight of RPGs and video games in general, and I generally agree with that. It's reputation for having mediocre/boring at best combat is also, unfortunately, appropriate.

Planescape's world is inherently intriguing, with it's rusty gothic architecture, strange creatures, and multi-dimensional portals. It becomes the "almost sci-fi" D&D setting, and thanks to its relationship to the Forgotten Realms the setting stands out as more bizarre next to the more standard high-fantasy worlds. It is still, of course, high-fantasy, but it is more Elric of Melniboné than, say, Lord of the Rings.

The writing's focus on introspection of the Nameless One, naturally leads to introspection of the player if it manages to grab you. While it is more on the level of a "Philosophy 101" class, that is still more impressive and interesting than the majority of video games. Of course some parts of the game's writing are as shallow as any other RPG, but the highs still stick out enough to warrant the game's reputation. The writing's great strength is that it effectively uses ambiguity to allow the player to imprint themselves and their own feelings into the narrative.

Sadly, the combat is just sort of "there". Encounters are rarely interesting, with so many enemies just doing melee and ranged attacks against the player. There is no shame in just cranking the game to the easiest difficulty or walking past enemies when possible.

I love the game and it's writing. For me personally, the strong introspective and melancholy writing is enough to warrant 5/5. However, my objectivity says that the slog of combat is an undeniable detractor.

Eu nem sei o que dizer, que roteiro, que história, é uma experiência sem igual, um RPG muito mais focado em diálogos, mistérios e questões filosóficas do que em combate (tanto que o combate é a única coisa questionável do jogo). Dificil falar da história sem spoilers, é uma narrativa muito pautada por foreshadowing, nada é forçado, tudo faz sentido e tem um porque, vai desde twists que envolvem o começo da história, coisas que conectam o fim com o início, twist de personagem random que consegue mudar toda a tua perspectiva sobre aquele mundo e sua jornada, cada detalhe e diálogo dá pra notar que foi feito e escrito com carinho. Os personagens são um primor, os party members de início parecem extremamente genéricos, mas no decorrer como uma cebola (como dizia Shrek) você vai descobrindo todas as camadas deles, todo o envolvimento deles com esse multiverso e principalmente com o Nameless One, tem um personagem em específico que possui uma situação de vida tão complexa que deixa o protagonista se questionando se deve continuar a jornada e esse mesmo sentimento consegue ser transmitido pro jogador a ponto que fiquei com vontade de parar de jogar, tem o Morte também que é um personagem que vai ficar no meu coração pra sempre. Eu amo como no início principalmente, tem uma vibe de história de detetive, tu sai por aí que nem maluco questionando as pessoas, a grande questão é descobrir o que está acontecendo e quando tu enfim descobre tudo............PUTAQUEOPARIU.

JOGUEM, simplesmente joguem e talvez, talvez vocês descubram o que pode mudar a natureza de um homem.

Looks and sound
There's no way to mince words with this. Planescape Torment doesn't look good at all. The backgrounds themselves are fine and even good for the time but the sprites are pretty low detail. It's hard to tell what anyone really looks like from the sprites. The cutscenes don't look good though they do the job for the most part.

The soundtrack is good. It's not amazing but there are some tracks that stand out and I like the way the motif of The Nameless One's theme was used throughout the game. Some of the dialogue is voiced and what is voiced is pretty good.


Combat
I can't stand the gameplay. It's a real-time-with-pause system but it's a fairly boring one at that. It's easy to skip most of the fights or turn on the debug console to avoid gameplay. Now one would wonder why I would talk about avoiding gameplay in a game. The answer is pretty simple. People recommend Planescape for the writing, characters and worldbuilding not for the gameplay. Even the game itself knows this. For example I got 90,000 xp from a conversation with a character while the enemies near that area gave 750xp and there were like 5-7 of them in that area. This is essentially an interactive novel with some banal gameplay attached to it that one can and should skip.



Story and Worldbuilding

"Endure, and in Enduring Grow Strong"

I am not sure how to go about this section even though or maybe because it is the meat of the game. The story shown here is something unique and bizarre. To this day there is nothing else quite like it out there despite attempts to capture it's spirit. The companions and the protagonist are very well written and have interesting interactions and relationships. I could maybe spend hours analyzing the characters themselves.

The protagonist himself, the nameless one is a very well done version of an amnesiac protagonist since the amnesia isn't a plot device to give a blank slate or for cheap drama. It's an integral and interesting part of the story. Piecing together who he was keeps the player hooked.

The quests aren't the general RPG quests people are used to nowadays and have a fair amount of depth and effort in them. There are a lot of dialogue options with actual choices and consequences. These choices have an influence over the nameless one's alignment which changes how his companions and other characters behave.

The game is set in D&D but I don't know much about it so I don't think it's required knowledge. Specifically it's in the 'planescape' setting, in the city of sigil which sits in the middle of a multiverse.

I can't say much about what makes this setting, characters or story without delving into spoilers but I'll leave it with the statement that this game has the best writing I have ever seen. Despite the looks and the boring gameplay it still stands up because of the writing. There's a reason that this game comes up on any discussion on the merits of games as works of art. It's an experience that will stay with the reader/player long after they've finished it.