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Torment Life isn't what it should be. But then, neither is death. Here the living are closer to death than the dead, for life may still find peace. There is no peace in oblivion, it is a dream of tearing flesh and formaldehyde. The dead stretch out between both - zombies, skeletons, or ghouls, endlessly animated, purposeless, lost; shadows within shadow. Living is a slow mutilation; an aching, brutal bruise. Everywhere is loss, suffering, and decay. Waking is weighted with hopeless, sedating amnesia. Yet within the horror there is hope. Somewhere edged in the fibrous cracks between endless incarnations there are fragments of knowing. They are barely memories; less than vapours breathed out and dissipated within eternity's vast ephemeral ether. To find them will take untold lifetimes, but they must be found and held. For in the planes between existence of Planescape: Torment where belief is reality, faith is physics, and every space is a locked door hiding a treacherous world, knowledge is the only key that matters. So you had better learn.
And the first thing to know about Interplay's original AD&D RPG is that knowing is more important than anything else. Forget what you have always thought about role playing. This game is different. You may want to play an over-strong meat beater, but it won't help you nearly as much as being brilliant and wise. You may enjoy casting high level spells and watching the fireworks (and the fireworks in Torment are worth watching), but it's often more effective to hide and strike from the shadows. You may want to be noble, but sometimes there is no choice except to do wrong - how wrong is up to you. Fighting is always an option, but talking will get you much further. You're going to hurt, and you're going to die. But that's okay, you're immortal. You come back. You're also going to read - a lot. Torment is one of those rare games that draws upon several genres to make something deeper. In a way it fuses the depth of old text Adventures with the graphical niceties of modern RPGs, utilizing the grand daddy of all systems: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (2nd Edition).
The Baldur's Gate engine Torment uses is recognisable, but only just. Interplay have introduced so many enhancements and refinements it is almost a different thing entirely. And they had to, because Planescape is not a normal environment. It is a place of gods and magic, of realities between realities. It is a flux of conflicting ideologies. Normal rules do not apply. Normal weapons and armor are not available. Even the things that seem familiar are either unnatural or twisted with macabre change. Healing potions do not exist. In their place are blood charms, and dirty bandages. A dismembered arm from a previous incarnation makes a +1 club. One magic item can only be found by ripping open your own body, and dying in the process. Feeding a tormented ghoul your own flesh and biting off your finger in order to replace it with a foreign digit yields a magic ring. Traditional RPGing could not cope with such a broad skewing of normalcy. Among the smarter changes to the BG engine is a new quick menu which appears upon clicking the right mouse button. Calling up the menu pauses the game, and puts everything from spells to inventory items within a few easy clicks. It's a bit hard to get used to, but ends up being very useful.
Torment rediscovers the power of words to conjure a depth of atmosphere graphics never can on their own. There is a richness of dialogue and storytelling unequaled by most RPGs. Unfortunately the interface allows for only limited responses during speech with Non-Player Characters (NPC). Not only does this exclude the possibility of genuine discourse, it also controls the direction of conversations and spoon feeds answers. And it gets very tedious. If your character is intelligent or wise enough to conceive the correct response, it appears as an option automatically. With a simple mouse click the problem is solved. There is no thought necessary (unlike the old text Adventures) and that is a real shame. In a game as vast as Torment it would have been a small thing to introduce genuine text conversations. As a result, one of the game's strengths is also its weakness - the words are great, but there are just too many of them.
It's a good thing Torment offers so much literally, because graphically it does not quite cut it. Resolution is limited to 640x480 which, in an age of 3D acceleration and 21 inch monitors, is just not good enough. RPG engines had better catch up with the rest of the industry in this area or the genre is going to slip backwards very quickly. Pre-rendered backgrounds are also of a perplexingly low quality, maybe to conserve memory as it is a huge game. Yet the result is to diminish the game's power. The rest of the artwork, however, is top notch. The world created by Interplay is fractured, tortured, and in constant tension. Brooding, somber artwork complements this. The spell effects are universally excellent, as are the character animations. All games make trade offs. Great games trade off on the side of gameplay, and that is what Interplay have done with Torment. While the game uses the AD&D system as a base, it is a very limited version of it. Because the entire game is story driven, physical aspects of the central character become much less important than the journey he takes. In fact, too much choice would conflict with the world and the situation. As a result, you can't start the game as anything but a standard Fighter, though a set number of attribute points can be allocated freely. Here I would strongly suggest to weight things in favour of wisdom and intelligence as these two attributes affect memory recall and dialogue options. As the game progresses you can change class and become a Thief, Mage, or Priest, but they are the only choices you have.
Far from spoiling the game, the limitations actually enhance gameplay. Class differences are emphasised instead of being blurred with the endless, highly detailed and subtle graduations common to other more modern systems. With RPG systems, less can be more and Torment elegantly wins that truth back. Each of the character classes is very different and so offers a unique playing experience. The mechanics of role playing are thus neatly de-emphasised and the story takes over. More reward and experience is won through quest and dialogue than by haphazardly killing things. Thoughtful resolution is more important than hacking and slashing your way through. The story and sub-plots become so engaging that leveling up is almost always a surprise, reminding that you are actually increasing in power and ability as well as moving through a cathartic journey.
Peppered across Torment's complex world is a host of great characters. There is Reekwind, who has been cursed with unbearable body odor, flatulence, and halitosis. There is O, one of the primal sounds of existence who (if you choose the correct dialogue options) can help you grow in wisdom. There are treacherous lycanthropes, decent wizards, and deeply troubled zealots. All are wounded, marred, corrupted, struggling, or enigmatic. Most are self-interested, some are benign. It's inevitable that you will miss a lot of what is possible within the game, but the point is never simply personal power so it doesn't matter. Planescape: Torment is a story of intense internal conflict set against a world of flawed and disenfranchised peoples. The pervading angst and loss is an eloquent metaphor for the human experience. It is only a game, but it says some profound things. It is a psychological detective story as well as an external adventure; a search for peace and wholeness amidst fractured decay. Min/Max power players are not going to get as much out of this game. Torment is not about hacking and conquering, it is a dark voyage of discovery that will consume several weeks of your life and give you unsettling dreams. It may also provoke you to contemplate the deeper mysteries of existence. Bon voyage.
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