So, before I begin, I would like to say that as I start this, I have only recently beat Planescape:Torment. I finished the game at about two AM last night, and since then I've just been thinking about the game, what choices I could have made differently, and what the game is truly about. Throughout this little presentation, I will be talking about the game, and why /you/ should get it, and what the game means to me on a larger scale.
Before we get into the grit of it, this game is /old/ going on sixteen years, in fact, and you might ask, why would I ever wish to play a 1999 piece of garbage? The answer to that, is the story, which is one of the most mature, most interesting, and most astounding stories I've ever had the pleasure of stumbling across.
This game is set within the DnD Planescape universe, which features many planes and universes that creatures can hop around within. This setting is unique to any game that I've seen, in a way that it is a beautiful cross between fantasy and sci-fi. In this realm, 'belief' can become reality, and having a strong willpower means the difference between life and death.
You are only known as The Nameless One, a man, that one day, woke up upon a slab in a morgue, with all of his memories lost. This same man was greeted by an ominous skull, that read off directions tattooed upon TNO's back. The directions on this message were simple, they read.
"You are immortal. You might not remember why, or how you're here. Find Pharod, and find your journal, it will tell you more."
That, my friends, is the basis for a good story. The entire game revolves around an amnesiac running about trying to recover his memory, and running into crazy scenarios as he goes along. Where the game really sinks its hooks into you, though, is when it begins to analyze you as a human being outside of the game, and makes you question your choices. Other games, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age, notably, have done the same thing, but this game does it /better/.
Atop of this, the game asks a very intriguing question, one that I've never seen another game address even remotely. Most modern games, concentrate on a battle between good and evil, or how many guys you can murder in a short period of time. This game asks a simple, but truly interesting question.
"What, can change the nature of a man?"
It's here that you begin to delve into TNO's past, and begin to see what this person has been through. Planescape is merely the universe in which the game is set in, the actual games title is 'Torment', and you should think about what that means as you experience TNO's adventure.
Atop of this, the game has some phenomenal RPG features. You meet a vast array of interesting characters, each one better than the last, and you can convice, some of these people to join your adventure. (Or you can horribly murder them, if you're into that.)
Every time you are met with a character, you are presented with a vast array of dialogue options, far beyond that of modern games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, (which give you your generic, good, or evil responses.) In some situations, you are presented with over twenty options to a person, which lead into smaller sub trees of dialogue, and that into even smaller ones, so on and so forth.
This game also has an amazing old-school RPG attention to detail, everything in the world can be interacted with and touched, felt, and experienced. Trust me, you are going to /want/ to touch, feel and see everything this world has to offer.
The music gives the game an ominous edge, which suits the story in a very good fashion. It's honestly better than a lot of modern game soundtracks, which is surprising.
Now, the game /is/ a game from 1999, which means that the combat is fairly rudimentary, as is the UI. Luckily, though, dialogue is a huge thing, and you can actually talk your way out of almost any situation within the game world. I talked the last boss into /killing/ himself.
So yeah, Planescape Torment is an amazing game, one that will leave you up at night pondering if what you did was right, and what it really all means in the end. TNO'S adventure is seriously something to be experienced.
You can pick the game up for a steal at GoG.com, and there are a good array of mods that make the game look more modern, and fixes a lot of resolution errors and the glitches that can make the game run.
So, I encourage, you, go play the game, and answer the question,
"What, can change the nature of a man?"