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

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.

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.

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

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'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.

-----------
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.


-----------
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.
-----------
> 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭.
- 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞.


-----------
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...
-----------
> 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠; 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝.
- 𝐏𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲...


-----------
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...
-----------
> 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.


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

-----------
'I regret...'
-----------
> 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞

-----------
"I regret that I played this game."
-----------

"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.

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.