Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12582 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Avalon Interactive
• Released on: 2001-06-29
• Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 95

Amazon.co.uk Review
In Planescape: Torment, you play a nameless, scarred, immortal on a quest to discover his past, his identity, and his role in the conflict over the nature of reality. The brilliant role-playing and adventure game focuses on the "Planescape" campaign setting of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, and combines the best elements of Interplay's phenomenally successful Baldur's Gate with an enthralling storyline, well-written dialogue, and beautiful artwork and graphics.

In an inspired choice, Black Isle Studios, the developer of Planescape: Torment (and also the Baldurs Gate series), has chosen to provide the player, at least initially, with as little details about the story as possible. After viewing a mysterious introductory movie, players guide The Nameless One on a journey through the bleak city of Sigil and its underground catacombs.

The story leads from there to the bizarre realities of alternative planes of existence, where belief and thought determine the laws of physics. Through dialogue with hundreds of non-player characters, puzzle-solving, and point-and-click combat, The Nameless One discovers clues about his identity and the circumstances surrounding his condition.

Gamers overwhelmed by detailed role-playing games will find Planescape: Torment easier to grasp; players can freely switch between three different character classes (Fighter, Mage, Thief) for The Nameless One as the game progresses, and learning the combat and magic system--with a simple point-and-click interface--takes only a few minutes. Literally hundreds of weapons, items, spells, and "tattoos" can be collected and affixed to The Nameless One or any of the several party members acquired during the course of the game. If you're a fan of role-playing or adventure games, Planescape: Torment's engrossing world creates a must-have gaming experience.--Doug Radcliffe Amazon.com

Manufacturer's Description
Welcome to Sigil, the "City of Doors", - a place with gates that lead anywhere in existence, provided you have the proper key. It is a neutral ground and watering hole for races across the multi-verse, all under the watchful shadow of the Lady of Pain, the enigmatic ruler of the city. It is a place where the word is mightier than the sword, where thought defines reality, where belief has the power to reshape worlds and change the laws of physics.

Customer Reviews

A gem... I wished it would never end
I'm astonished at the quality and depth of this game. Having played Baldur's Gate (1, 2 & add-ons) and Icewind Dale to death with numerous characters, I needed a game to get me through until Neverwinter arrived - so I looked at Torment and thought "Hmm, I suppose I could give it a go". I'd always been wary because of the "Haer'Dalis/Actors Troupe" glimpse I'd seen from Balder's Gate: not something that impressed me. Planescape:Torment was nothing remotely like it...

After the inital grouchy "Why isn't feature in it?" shenanigans which I always go through with a new game interface, I got to settle down into it. It took a little while for me to lose the Armour/Weapon/Helmet mentality I'd gained from BG, but I came to appreciate the Tattoo and 'charm' approach. A big kid in some ways - I loved the sick, kid's glee of swapping my different eyeballs in and out, and tearing off an arm and bashing someone to death with it >:-)

The graphics are excellent - more than passable even two years after it came out. Better graphics than some recently released games, too. Shame it's only 640x480 but hey, it adds to the atmosphere anyway. Animations are great, even funny in places and the spell effects are wonderful, occasionally mesmerising and beautiful in a jewel-box kind of way.

There are a couple of buggy bits, but with the included patch installed they don't make too much of an impact. I found a glitch with the non-linearity of the story in one place (the Clerk's Ward) but with so much else going on I wasn't overly upset with it and it didn't affect the main storyline.

The character growth is great, even better than the standard BD/IWD style growth. The way that the Nameless One's stats grow as well as his abilities and skills is a refreshing break from the 'Initial-stats-generation-is-what-you-get-for-good' approach. Real development, here. The way the character's alignment changes in response to his actions is genius, too - a mirror to how 'alignment' is in the real world. The fluid alignment was the biggest pull for me in the early stages, along with the 'faction' approach. The game also really makes something out of charisma and wisdom, used adroitly in Baldur's Gate but taken a lot further here. Charisma is almost key to the whole gaming experience in Planescape.

Which brings me to the RP bit of the RPG. Once I'd changed my expectations of the game, the heavy-duty amount of conversation and storytelling was gripping and enthralling, in the same way that a good book unfolds. Planescape really is a cracking read on this level. I really enjoyed this aspect of BG, but in P:T it's been pushed to the maximum.

I found myself completely involved in some of the dialogue between the characters, some highpoints for me being: conversations with Dak'kon about githzerai history and Zerthimon; the factional conversations, especially with the Godsmen and Sensates; Morte's slanging matches with harlots and others; swapping tales with a 'prostitute' in a brothel; the constant uneasy (and unseen) presence of the Lady of Pain; so many more, I could go on for hours. I was - astonishingly! - almost moved to tears with some aspects of the unfolding story: Deionnarra; her father; Morte's heart- and gut-wrenching memories of being on the Pillar of Skulls and it's aftermath; Fall-From-Grace and the whole Brothel of Intellectual Lusts episode.... This is just a computer game??? I was completely unprepared for this.

Grim, glorious, violent, tragic, hilarious, horrifying, philosophical, bawdy, sick, noble, vicious, beautiful, sorrowful... I wished this 'game' would never end.

What can change the nature of a man
"What can change the nature of a man" is the fascinating centrepoint to Planescape:Torment, another RPG from the Black Isle/Interplay stables. Undeniably, then, the pedigree is excellent, but the game itself is better. The plot centres around the Nameless One, a man who we learn has somehow severed his connection to mortality, and has died and been resurrected so many times, that his memory is fragmented, his identity lost. We start with the awakening of the Nameless One on a mortuary slab, where he meets his first companion, Morte, a floating skull, and begins the adventure. The game itself, unlike the current run, is not set in Faerun (The Forgotten Realms), but in Sigil, the City of Doors. This is a welcome break, and introduces us to a new world, one significantly darker than those that have come before. This increases the scope immensely, and Morte is not the most unusual creature met in the game, to say the least. The story itself is superb, with many different choices depending on how you play your character, furthermore, morality is important too, whether evil or good, or inbetween of course, influencing the game development. Using the bioware engine, the charaters seem larger and more detailed, as do the surroundings, with the consequence that less of the screen is visible at any one time. However, rather than detract, this adds to the atmosphere, lending a sense of immersion.

Impossible deep compared to Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale, and, in my opinion, easily as good as Baldur's Gate 2 (and, what's more, it can happily coexist with them - it is different enough), Torment is a game that every gamer who likes to think should own.

Awesome.... this is how RPGS should be....
Forget about Balders Gate 1&2 and don't even mention Icewind Dale... this is Black Ilses best work to date without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, Yeah I know BG and IWD are brilliant games I have played them and loved them but this game takes what they promise and delievers by the shed load.

The character interaction is unsurpassed, think of Deus Ex levels of involvement and interaction but here rather than following basicaly 2 paths you can follow at least half a dozen (found to date) and probably more. Think of how in BG your character grows and how its limited (oh why I can't just practice a bit at being a theif or a mage but stay mainly a fighter and level up) now put aside that bitterness as PT lets you do that, it will also affect how people around you deal with you. Ever wonder why you both spending character points on charisma or wisdom (apart from to get extra cleric spells or cheaper goods in the shops when you know that before long you will have enough gold to buy the entire world) well this game makes use of those stats brilliantly. Oh and if you want to be thick and unpleasant with BO thats fine, its just another way to play the game.

Well what more can I say.... if you haven't already played this game, or eagerly waiting for the postie to deliever your copy then I pity you as you are gonna miss one of the greatest unsung moments of PC gaming. Put it this way I have yet to see a bad review of this game anywhere.... not even some prat saying its pants because pants is the biggest word they can spell. Even magazine reviewers who usualy slate anything RPG have admitted to loving this game.