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

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