Planescape: Torment

Planescape: Torment is a 1999 computer role-playing game developed by Black Isle Studios which takes place in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Planescape campaign setting. Unlike similar CRPGs such as those in the Baldur's Gate series it places a greater emphasis on conversation and storyline than on combat, and the game's plot has a darker and more mature tone and style than those of its contemporaries.

While praised almost universally, Torment failed to capture the mass-market imagination in the same way that its predecessor Baldur's Gate did - selling around 400,000 copies. The original Diablo game (albeit a rather different sort of game) reputedly sold approximately 20 times the amount of copies Torment did. Although the game originally recorded sales lower than expected, Planescape: Torment has since become a cult classic. The game was added to Gamespy's Hall of Fame in August 2004 and Gamespot's Greatest Games of All Time list in October 2005.

The game's main themes include guilt, redemption, regret, the significance of reality perception and the importance of knowing one's true nature.

Synopsis

Tagline: What can change the nature of a man?

The story begins in Sigil – the "City of Doors". The protagonist, an enigmatic and heavily scarred immortal with pallid gray skin referred to in the game interface as "The Nameless One", wakes up in a mortuary with no memory of his identity and past experiences. A chattering skull named Morte floats over to him and informs The Nameless One of writing on his back instructing him to read his journal, and then find someone named Pharod. The Nameless One then embarks on a quest to resolve two fundamental problems: why he is an immortal and how he can become a mortal again.

Gameplay

The player controls the protagonist from a third-person perspective. The game runs using the Infinity Engine designed for the Baldur's Gate series, which presents the player with a three-dimensional world explored by clicking on the ground to move to that spot or on objects or characters to interact with them. Items and spells can be employed either by using their assigned hotkeys are by equipping them in a series of quick slots along the bottom of the screen and clicking on them.

The Planescape campaign setting incorporates beings, locations and oddities from several different existence planes. The player travels to destinations such as Avernus (the first layer of Baator), Carceri (the plane of thieves and liars), two of the Lady of Pain's Mazes, a "pregnant" alleyway, and more.

One idea that presents itself many times during the game is a sort of consensus reality — if enough people believe in something, then it is real, and begins to exist. For example, when people ask The Nameless One his name, one of the choices of response is to lie that it is "Adahn". If the player tells 10-12 people that this is his name, a man named Adahn will appear in a certain location, claiming to be an old friend, even though he never existed before. Another example is a recovered memory of a past event in which the Nameless One apparently debates a man out of existence.

Another feature of the game is player's ability to join several of the factions which exist in Sigil. Players can join the Dustmen, the Sensates, the Godsmen, the Anarchists and the Chaosmen. Along the way, the player can learn what these factions believe in about the world. Some of these belief systems are non-trivial. Most of the non-player characters in the game are members of one faction or another.

Through the course of the game, the protagonist learns that his original incarnation sought out Ravel Puzzlewell, an infamous night hag and greatest of the Grey Sisters, whose pursuits were the "solving of puzzles not needed to be solved", and whose crimes included crossing the Lady of Pain and attempting to open all of the portals in Sigil. It was this incarnation who asked Ravel for immortality. The request was made because he had performed a terrible crime, a crime so wicked that a lifetime of good deeds could not save him from eternal damnation in the Blood War, an ancient demonic feud. Ravel took up this challenge and attempted a solution, which was mostly successful — The Nameless One could still die when wounded badly, but would later wake up mostly intact albeit missing his memories. Ravel, in a gesture of cruelty, killed the first incarnation in order to test his immortality. Upon waking he had forgotten his goal.

The overall goal of the game is to recover The Nameless One's mortality. His mortality must be recovered because with each "death," another person dies in his place, contributing to the vast crimes of the first incarnation. This is achieved by following clues and hints that the previous incarnations had left him, however, many links in the "chain" of knowledge leading to his mortality are broken or dead. For instance, the tattoos on his back instructed him to read his journal (which was destroyed by an incarnation of himself) and to find Pharod (who is eventually killed). Those are two links in the chain which are broken throughout the course of the game, and many more are sundered as the player continues on his quest. Were the Nameless One to lose his memory again, he would be lost without a single guide to nudge him in the right direction, and would probably never recover his mortality.

Eventually, The Nameless One reaches the Negative Material Plane to confront his mortality, which was separated from him by Ravel, and had grown into an entity by the name of "The Transcendent One" (a being which had "transcended" from simply being someone's mortality to a far more powerful being).

If The Nameless One is wise enough, he can convince or force The Transcendent One to merge with him. If he accomplishes this, The Nameless One wakes up in a new plane, going willingly to the punishment he became immortal to prevent - becoming a soldier in the Blood War. Various other options are available to persuade The Transcendent One if The Nameless One is charismatic enough.

If The Nameless One is not wise enough, he can choose to murder himself or threaten to do so. Given the special nature of the Negative Energy Plane, it is the only place that The Nameless One can truly die. As such, if he dies, The Transcendent One dies as well. This requires use of a special item.

Finally, The Nameless One can defeat the Transcendent One in combat, with or without help from allies. This results in the protagonist going to the punishment he became an immortal to prevent, thus becoming a soldier in the Blood War.

Characters and voice cast

Michael T. Weiss — Nameless One
Rob Paulsen — Morte
Jennifer Hale — Fall-from-Grace/Deionarra
Sheena Easton — Annah
Mitch Pileggi — Dak'kon
Charles Adler — Ignus
Rodger Bumpass — Strahan Runeshadow
Dan Castellaneta — Nordom
Flo Di Re — Ravel Puzzlewell
Tony Jay — Transcendent One
John de Lancie — Trias
Keith David — Vhailor

Literary aspects

Planescape: Torment is notable for the quantity (and quality) of textual dialogue it contains. An estimate by the creators of the game places it at almost 1 million words. This is comparable to one volume of the Encyclopædia Britannica. A review in the New York Times noted that, "The game's level of detail and its emotional impact have prompted some players to cast about for literary peers."

The wordy nature of the game means that gameplay often focuses on resolution of quest and story objectives through selection from available dialogue choices, rather than through combat encounters. Simply stopping and having a long - often a very long - chat with one of the other members of your group can often advance the game more (and reveal more surprising things) than hours of combat and questing in other games. In fact, there are only four or so required combat encounters within the game, as compared to tens or hundreds in contemporary role-playing games. All other encounters can be resolved or avoided through dialogue or stealth. As the game's interface borrows from other Infinity Engine CRPGs like the Baldur's Gate series, it is occasionally criticised for being ill-suited to such a large number of dialogue-heavy encounters.

A book based loosely on the game was also released, though the storylines do not match up due to the book having been written before the game's script was completely finalized. Fan reactions have been generally negative due to liberties in plot and characterization. For instance, the Nameless One actually chooses a name, and is referred to by it early in the book, something he never does in the game.

An unofficial novelisation based more closely on actual game dialogue was completed by RPG author Rhyss Hess.http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html

Torment has been translated to several languages by fans and enthusiasts. A full translation to Hungarianhttp://member.rpg.hu/peterpg/index.php?doc=rpg:adnd:torhu took over 4 years to develop. The Italian Translation Project took about 15 months translating 1.4 million words in 68,510 dialog sentences.http://www.itpteam.org/traduzione.aspx?tradu=1 A Korean translation was completed as a one-man effort. A Spanish translation by Clan Dlan, an RPG fan group, was reviewed and reported to be of a professional level.http://www.clandlan.net/index.php?page=academia/view&id=49

Trivia

On St. Patrick's day and Easter of 2000, the developers released a pair of humorous character modifications - one that turned the character of Annah into a leprechaun, and Morte into an easter egg.

The expressions used by the game's characters (cutter, berk, dark, etc) are based on actual 17th century English slang, spoken by the working class.

The designers chose not to have any swords in the game with two exceptions: the sword of Trias (only usable by Lawful Good characters) and Dak'kon's karach blade (only useable by Dak'kon). Axes, maces, and daggers are all common, but no swords. This adds a somewhat humorous note to the entry in the game manual, which states that "...ideas and beliefs can be more threatening to you than some berk with a sword..."

The game Baldur's Gate II has an optional quest which involves a group of actors from Sigil. The player can choose to rescue the bard (a Tiefling, like Annah) and may choose to enter a pocket universe. Some rare magical items related to Planescape: Torment can also be purchased from a special merchant (such as Dak'kon's Zerth Blade or Vhailor's Helm).

"Planescape: Torment - The Soundtrack," an unofficial promotional soundtrack album by Mark Morgan and Richard Band for Planescape: Torment, was released in Poland by CD Projekt as a bonus CD which contained several tracks not included in the game. It includes two unused themes for a "good" and a "neutral" ending; it appears that only the "bad" theme made it into the game's final version. A 38th bonus track of the game credits was released from Platter's site.http://www.planescape-torment.org/?page=soundtrack

Planescape: Torment has numerous inspirations from a variety of books, comics, and games. Notable works among them include Archie Comics, The Chronicles of Amber, The Elementals, Final Fantasy, and Shadowrun. It is not known exactly to what extent they influence Planescape: Torment, although numerous allusions can be seen throughout the game.