Mecha Talk

Does anyone remember this game?

Planescape Torment is a little known PC RPG on the Infinity Engine made by Black Isle, the same company and engine that made the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games and Torment is quite a bizarre game.

You play someone called "The Nameless One" and you start by waking up on a slab in a morgue and are greeted by a floating talking skull with eyeballs, seriously, who's name is Morte, again I am being serious here, who tells you this isn't the first time you've died and you lose your memories every time you die. So from there the game is a PC RPG where you main goal is to find out who you are and why you can't seem to die. It's a very dialogue based game and while there is combat your character's mental stats, especially wisdom, are much more important than physical ones and a lot of the game takes place in dialogue.

It's a very rare game because like a lot of well reviewed heavy story games it didn't' sell well, but I managed to find a copy and I won't part with it for anything, same goes for my old copy of Baldur's Gate 2 the Complete Collection.

Has anyone here even heard of this game?

If you want a digital copy, it's not rare anymore. You can pick it up on Good Old Games for $10 (like most of Black Isle's other games).

I did greatly enjoy this game, but I do think that it suffers in that it is only really worth playing through twice for different experiences. Fighter and mage are highly different, Good and evil are highly different, so it's worth trying out a good fighter and evil mage (or vice versa) and then doing the other combination (I never really saw much that was different in playing as a thief).

I suppose that's not a huge problem though, considering that the game, being so dialogue heavy, is more like a book or a movie than a proper game. And it works excellently from that perspective.

I'm just gonna be lame and post a link to an episode of rpg backtrack i appeared on about the game.

http://www.rpgamer.com/backtrack/2011/backtrack060.mp3

short version: it's pretty darned sweet for the time and more games should have taken cues from its design.

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It's one of my favorite pc rpgs. The storyline is what makes it unique and very emotional in a sense that it'll make you remember it for a very long time.

Newer rpgs can learn a thing or two from this game (*cough* dragonage 2 *cough*).

Not only is this available on GoG, but there's a pack called "Dungeons and Dragons Classic Anthology" for $20 that you can find at most retailers and Amazon.

It includes planescape torment, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and their expansions, Icewind Dale 1 and 2 and their expansions, and temple of elemental evil.

I played a little of planescape torment out of that, was most enjoyable. I need to get back to it, but I'm currently too busy with Fallout 1. >_>