Planescape Torment - White Label Range (PC CD)

After the inital grouchy "Why isn't <this> feature in it?" shenanigans which I always go through with a new game interface, I got to settle down into it. It took a little while for me to lose the Armour/Weapon/Helmet mentality I'd gained from BG, but I came to appreciate the Tattoo and 'charm' approach. A big kid in some ways - I loved the sick, kid's glee of swapping my different eyeballs in and out, and tearing off an arm and bashing someone to death with it >:-)

The graphics are excellent - more than passable even two years after it came out. Better graphics than some recently released games, too. Shame it's only 640x480 but hey, it adds to the atmosphere anyway. Animations are great, even funny in places and the spell effects are wonderful, occasionally mesmerising and beautiful in a jewel-box kind of way.

There are a couple of buggy bits, but with the included patch installed they don't make too much of an impact. I found a glitch with the non-linearity of the story in one place (the Clerk's Ward) but with so much else going on I wasn't overly upset with it and it didn't affect the main storyline.

The character growth is great, even better than the standard BD/IWD style growth. The way that the Nameless One's stats grow as well as his abilities and skills is a refreshing break from the 'Initial-stats-generation-is-what-you-get-for-good' approach. Real development, here. The way the character's alignment changes in response to his actions is genius, too - a mirror to how 'alignment' is in the real world. The fluid alignment was the biggest pull for me in the early stages, along with the 'faction' approach. The game also really makes something out of charisma and wisdom, used adroitly in Baldur's Gate but taken a lot further here. Charisma is almost key to the whole gaming experience in Planescape.

Which brings me to the RP bit of the RPG. Once I'd changed my expectations of the game, the heavy-duty amount of conversation and storytelling was gripping and enthralling, in the same way that a good book unfolds. Planescape really is a cracking read on this level. I really enjoyed this aspect of BG, but in P:T it's been pushed to the maximum.

I found myself completely involved in some of the dialogue between the characters, some highpoints for me being: conversations with Dak'kon about githzerai history and Zerthimon; the factional conversations, especially with the Godsmen and Sensates; Morte's slanging matches with harlots and others; swapping tales with a 'prostitute' in a brothel; the constant uneasy (and unseen) presence of the Lady of Pain; so many more, I could go on for hours. I was - astonishingly! - almost moved to tears with some aspects of the unfolding story: Deionnarra; her father; Morte's heart- and gut-wrenching memories of being on the Pillar of Skulls and it's aftermath; Fall-From-Grace and the whole Brothel of Intellectual Lusts episode.... This is just a computer game??? I was completely unprepared for this.

Grim, glorious, violent, tragic, hilarious, horrifying, philosophical, bawdy, sick, noble, vicious, beautiful, sorrowful... I wished this 'game' would never end.

Impossible deep compared to Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale, and, in my opinion, easily as good as Baldur's Gate 2 (and, what's more, it can happily coexist with them - it is different enough), Torment is a game that every gamer who likes to think should own.

The character interaction is unsurpassed, think of Deus Ex levels of involvement and interaction but here rather than following basicaly 2 paths you can follow at least half a dozen (found to date) and probably more. Think of how in BG your character grows and how its limited (oh why I can't just practice a bit at being a theif or a mage but stay mainly a fighter and level up) now put aside that bitterness as PT lets you do that, it will also affect how people around you deal with you. Ever wonder why you both spending character points on charisma or wisdom (apart from to get extra cleric spells or cheaper goods in the shops when you know that before long you will have enough gold to buy the entire world) well this game makes use of those stats brilliantly. Oh and if you want to be thick and unpleasant with BO thats fine, its just another way to play the game.

Well what more can I say.... if you haven't already played this game, or eagerly waiting for the postie to deliever your copy then I pity you as you are gonna miss one of the greatest unsung moments of PC gaming. Put it this way I have yet to see a bad review of this game anywhere.... not even some prat saying its pants because pants is the biggest word they can spell. Even magazine reviewers who usualy slate anything RPG have admitted to loving this game.