A fantastic game, truly a classic, one for the patient gamer who enjoys reading and is looking for a true RPG.
Planescape Torment is based of the now defunct Planescape universe were all the various "planes" think dimensions intersect so people and monsters can travel to brand new worlds/dimensions by going through portals all of which lead at some point to 'Sigil'. I can't go into too much detail about the Planescape universe because its so indepth a description would probably exceed the information in regards to review.
You take on the role of 'The Nameless One' called this for good reason, you see you wake up on a mortuary slab and have forgotten who you are how you got there and so begins the adventure to uncover your identity.
You quickly find out that you are also immortal only vulnerable to permenant death from being eaten and burnt alive, if youve been slain by more conventional means you'll be ressurected nearby with replenished health points.
Before the very start though you can edit your character by assigning various skill points, its fairly limited coming from the likes of baldurs gate,icewind dale, Arcanum and fallout but you can specialise your character too have one or two very strong stats maybe constitution and strength for a fighter with plenty of health points or having high wisdom or intelligence to effect dialog and quests.
Which leads me onto another point, your characters actions and stats have a huge effect on the game as you progress, you can find out ways to solve quests, notice what other characters might be doing or learn from past experiences from your previous incarnations.
Its also worth noting that whilst you cant pre determine what style of character you have you can specialise the stats and eventually become trained to be either a thief, mage or fighter.
The fighting in the game is in the same style as Baldurs Gate series, its in real time with 'invisible' rounds as it were, your character will be attacking a monster but only after a certain amount of time will a hit or miss check be done then damage calculated which will then display above the creature, fighting can be interrupted by pressing the space bar to pause it at which point you can still decide what actions to undertake, spells to cast ,where to move to and maybe even use some quick items.
And in classic RPG fashion once a enemy is killed you're rewarded with some experience points, when you have enough experience points you can level up and you gain more hps dependant on your 'constitution' stat , if you're a mage more spell slots dependant on your 'intelligence' stat , a fighter can gain more weapon proficiencies and your general combat skills improve and a thief gets thief points to spend in various ways these being disarm traps, pickpocket, stealth and pick locks. Conversely and this is a postive, Planescape Torment also takes what is standard RPG elements and changes them so the game feels much more unique, for example devils dont lie, death isnt the end for the main character, rats can become the most powerful enemy and theres no staple races as seen in other classic DnD style games like dwarves etc, it makes for a unique refreshing take on a fantasy setting, and what a setting it is!
The system works well enough, offcourse a turn based option would be preferable but the game has alot of monsters which tend to be in mobs so sometimes the speed at which combat with the lesser creatures is done can be a time saver, but against anything remotely difficult or challenging the combat system is more of a hindrance tapping the space bar alot just to gather bearings and respond to the situation.
Planescape is quite an amazing setting for a game, theres a huge variety in monsters, views and characters to meet throughout the game, some are pretty bizarre indeed such as your very first companion, a floating talking skull with a penchant for dead females and later on (and somewhat disturbing) a giant column of writhing skulls and heads.
And although the game focuses on the city of doors - Sigil its still a really big area comparable easily to Baldurs Gate itself from that series with a huge array of factions, characters and quests to check out easily the biggest section of the game and certainly fun.
I don't want to spoil the story in any way, but out of all games ive had the fortune to play and even hear about or read about, this game has the best storyline out of them all, the setting, the characters and the actual story and how it plays out and how it all fits together is really a work of art and puts even published novels to shame.
The world looks very nice even today when finding every game is being made 3D some of which really really isn't all that good, the 2D graphics such as in Planescape Torment are ageing very well, everything looks well drawn and vividly coloured, nothing seems too bright or too dull and animations are likewise done to a high standard, it is a little annoying that the resolution is fixed quite low to the same degree of Baldurs Gate 1 without a way to change this (though im sure theres a mod out there to do so) but still it looks good even after all this time.
Conversations take place in standard RPG form you go up to a character and engage in a discussion, in planescape its much much much more indepth and has descriptions for virtually every NPC , every odd looking object in the game , the descriptions read like they're actually from a novel so , theres a lot of reading involved in this game so whilst the real time combat might appeal to twitch gamers it takes a patient gamer to truly appreciate the game, and such a gamer is blessed with a rewarding gaming experience where choice and consequence truly matters, your character stats will effect dialog and solutions to quests, you can join factions which have their own benefits and enemies, a huge impact dependant on your choices during conversations, beats the hell out of modern RPG's which tend to be rather light on the choice and nonexistent on the consequence part - join every faction in oblivion? you got it!, wiki dialog in morrowind? you got it! , mass effect choices lead to the same conclusion? - you got it!. In planescape its not like that at all and there are very few parts of the game where you'll be forced into a confrontation with a major character and have to kill them.
Sound wise, the voice overs what little there is in the game is done well, cant fault it, sounds in general are well done too but the music is the highlight, its mainly done by the same person who did the music in the Fallout series of games, Mark Morgan and there are a few tracks you can definitely tell are composed by him. The music is a mix of almost orchestra with a modern synth creating some very nice tracks such as the main theme and deionarras theme and fitting ambient tracks such as Sigil and Mortuary themes, its a very good soundtrack on par with the excellent Fallout soundtrack aswell.
The credits music is also very good and was composed by Richard Band, but the lions share of the soundtrack was Mark Morgans work.
Planescape is a big game, its not as big as say Fallout 2 or Baldurs Gate 1/2 but its still lengthy enough, one of the other problems I have with Planescape though is that, whilst its superb I cant help but get the impression that Black Isles were rushed when developing it, because Sigil is done absolutely amazingly well but when you leave Sigil/ravels maze and arrive at 'Curst' the town has very little to do in comparison yes its smaller than sigil but theres not many quests and its centered around one hub essentially that being the bar, furthermore the dialogs are bit lame, I talked to the fellows in the bar then came back when I had to get 'a key' and talked to one person again and they simply said 'so do you have both of the items yet?' was abit strange considering that I didnt have an option to ask what items and just got lucky that I found what items they required.
Furthermore the game then (after ravel) relies on massive encounters with some pretty tough enemies which might surround characters and mercilessly butcher them and then later on theres respawning enemies which I hate - hook horrors from Icewind dale and the infuriating ninja monks from Vampires The Masquerade :Bloodlines also have this weakness although in those latter two games its done to a much worse degree.
This is a great game, its such a shame that Planescape universe is no longer supported and no new content is made , not even any fictional novels, and its equally disastrous that this game didnt become a huge hit it deserved to be and that black isle is no more.
I recommend wholeheartedly acquiring this game, its considered quite rare these days and demands a higher than expected price even for a budget version on ebay, so good luck finding a copy.
Pros:
.Superb storyline much more engrossing and emotive than other games.
.Excellent unusual setting - refreshing setting compared to standard DnD affair.
.Quality soundtrack
.Choice and Consequence gameplay
.Filled with many memorable moments and interesting characters
.Graphically still looks fine.
.Big game will last quite a while, not the same size as Baldurs Gate but satisfying amount of gaming hours to be had.
.Quite abit of replay value due to the choice and consequence nature of gameplay
.Unique take on what would be considered standard RPG elements..
Cons:
.Path finding can be abit iffy, may find your character getting stuck or blocked by other team mates - a minor inconvenience.
.Real Time combat is a mix bag.
.Fixed resolution which is quite low
.a little bit buggy still
.Felt a little underdeveloped/rushed after Sigil and Ravel section.