A look back at: Planescape: Torment

 

Well this one was an interesting game. I knew I was going to experience it at least once, and I'm glad I did, even if I received it rather lukewarmly. It's nowhere near the best of games, but its probably the most interesting D&D game that is standalone or part of a lesser-known D&D plotline. No Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, or Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment is about seeking mortality, as your Nameless One has immortality and would rather figure things out with lots and lots of dialogue compared to just bumrush battling.

This is the first game I've played in a very long while where combat is usually put in the backseat. It's a bit of real-time strategy and commanding your characters to attack a target or several, and real-time battles could get hectic. Though it's important to do some grinding at some points, as well as skill point allotting. What this game is really going to do is make your character go through the dialogue, and lots of it. You'll be going around, asking denizens questions with multiple possibilities, some of which can change alignment. And for once, the game offers actual named party members, each with some sort of connection to the main character. And even the main villain of the game and a random love interest also have some connection. It's super strange. It's even strange that the main character can't even properly die.

The journey the Nameless One goes through is a confusing one indeed. Aside from the dialogue, there is the inner incarnations of himself that he should fuse himself with. This happens at the end, which also separates and KILLS the other party members. And the main villain is...the Nameless One's mortality? Where all of a sudden the Nameless One can coerce to joining, killing it altogether, or killing his own self in order to...rejoin a blood war going on. Yeah, the ending really did confuse me a bit. The philosophical nature of the game is certainly its highlight, as is the lack of combat, but it's a weird game any way.