Planescape: Torment Review Retrospective on the Original Incarnation

Planescape: Torment Review

Planescape: Torment Introduction

Welcome to my review retrospective on the original incarnation of Planescape: Torment (1999), a cRPG developed by Black Isle Studios, a division of Interplay. The following comments, criticisms and pro-tips pertain to the original version of PS:T that has been standard for two decades (v.1.1).

Planescape: Torment is an AD&D 2nd Edition cRPG set in TSR's Planescape Campaign Setting (PSCS). In fact, PS:T is the only game set in Planescape and is likely to remain unique in that respect. PS:T was built on BioWare's influential Infinity Engine.

As it pertains to cRPG Design, Planescape: Torment is rated as Above Average.

Planescape: Torment Campaign Setting

Originally created by David "Zeb" Cook, the PSCS has since been fleshed out by several Boxed Sets, adventure modules and accessories. The PSCS is notable for its non-standard gritty aesthetic and language as well as its emphasis on cosmology (Planes and planar travel), powers (gods) and philosophy (ideological factions). Due to those last three, it presents itself as more cerebral than the Forgotten Realms, DragonLance or Dark Sun, which are more about treasure-hunting, wars and survival in a desert wasteland.

Planescape: Torment does a good job of translating the world, powers and factions of the PCSC into a cRPG. While it tells a personal story of an immortal in search of the reason for his immortality, its scope is far-reaching and stretches across the planes...

While PS:T employed the full party control, isometric perspective and round-based combat system common to all IE games, it also broke the mold in its employment of dynamic alignment, in its ruleset implementation, and in its profoundly modified user interface.

In regards to campaign design, PS:T also separated itself from the pack, for good and for bad. Let's take a quick look, shall we?

Planescape: Torment Reactivity

PS:T employs build-based cRPG reactivity as it pertains to stats, alignment, class, quests, factions, tattoos and companions. But what is reactivity?

By "reactivity", we are referring to how the campaign reacts to The Nameless One (TNO) that we have chosen to role-play; for example, the campaign frequently checks TNO's class, stats and abilities along with the decisions made over its course, thereby determining the possibilities and outcomes for TNO and his companions. 

To give an example, Mage-class TNOs sporting an Intelligence score >=18 and a Wisdom score >=19 can unlock the Eighth Circle of Zerthimon to upgrade Dak'kon (Str +1, Dex +1, Con +2); the whole Zerthimon dialogue segment (which also nets +12 spell scrolls) being one of the most memorable in cRPG History:

Through other reactive dialogues, TNO can can recall how to raise the dead and how to speak with the dead. The former is especially emotive [Deionarra]. Through his choices, TNO gains access to unique tattoos (items that can be equipped on the paperdoll) which can bestow non-trivial bonuses. He is also able to join factions such as the Dustmen, thereby gaining access to unique items and quests. However, it is disappointing how little impact factional reactivity has on the campaign. 

Alignment, on the other hand, has significant impact on the campaign. However, Lawful Good is the most rewarding though also the most difficult to reach and maintain (at least for players who are seduced by entertaining or "jerk" dialogue responses).

So yeah, some of PS:T's reactivity is profound and far-reaching whereas other examples are trivial or fluff-based (though still flavorsome). 

The goal of reactivity is to make the player feel like their choices matter and that they are actually role-playing their TNO / are TNO. And a particular incarnation, whether that be Mage or Fighter, Good or Evil, Lawful or Chaotic or somewhere inbetween.

cf. Reactivity Baldur's Gate.

The World of Planescape: Torment

The multi-verse is a big place and it don't play by the "normal rules", whatever they are, but learning the dark of them is the stuff of life. A being's got to become a blood to know all the different ways magic works out on the Great Ring, and no basher should ever be able to just lay his hands on a map of all the portals between the planes. There's things a sod wasn't meant to know and things he's just got to learn by experience. (A body can describe what it's like in the furnaces of Carceri, but it just ain't the same as going there.) Sure, some of the multi-verse is so simple that even a Bariaur basher'd understand, but there's some of it that's real dark, and it's meant to be that way. So folks with no business knowing these things should just keep their noses out of it — understand? — Introduction, PSCS Boxed Set, TSR 2600.

Ruled by the Lady of Pain, Sigil aka the City of Doors constitutes the meat and potatoes of  the Planescape: Torment campaign. Similar to Baldur's Gate, Sigil is a quest-dense urban hub encompassing dozens of unique zones, but unlike BioWare's iconic city, its zones are not contiguous in terms of graphics, and so this constitutes a design failure on par with BG2's Athkatla.

Thus, Sigil feels less like a city and more like a cobbling-together of the elements of a city. Moreover, exploration of Sigil and its outskirts is gated by plot-progression rather than being largely free, open and non-linear, as in Baldur's Gate, Fallout and Fallout 2.

To be fair, Sigil is still one of the greatest quest-dense hubs ever designed. And its graphical tone is consistent even without contiguity.

Torrential Dialogue in Planescape: Torment

The cRPG dialogue in PS:T is torrential. Words, words, words. It just rains and rains words. Here is a dialog.tlk size comparison:

• Baldur's Gate 2 v.26498: 7465 KB
• Planescape: Torment v.1.1: 6393 KB
• Icewind Dale 2 v.2.01: 4605 KB
• Baldur's Gate v.5512: 2987 KB
• Icewind Dale v.1.42: 2798 KB

If it isn't obvious from the version numbers, BG1, BG2 and IWD dialog.tlks include the content added in the expansions (TotSC, ToB and HoW).

And yes, overall, BG2 contains more dialogue than even PS:T, but its emphasis is still not on reading, and a lot of words are confined to optional romances, strongholds and a deeper companion pool (17 vs. 8).

While most of the dialogue, descriptions of lore and journal entries in PS:T are well-written, the sheer cascading paragraphs and multi-threadedness can be overwhelming for some players, and the writing sometimes becomes annoying with its *emphasis* on certain words, its confrontational tone in general, and its awkward inclusion of Planar cant and jargon.

To be fair, this is the style of writing seen in the above-quoted PSCS Box Set written by David "Zeb" Cook, but I just don't see the point in learning 16th-18th cent. slang in order to get to grips with a CS. To my mind, such modes of speech should be confined to thieves' guilds, gypsies and professional beggars: a particular social strata of society rather than the universal. This is just too geeky for my tastes but others may appreciate it so I'll leave it at that.

The screencap below depicts the dialogue with one of four Giant Skeletons standing guard in the Mortuary of the Prologue. As you can see, it's well-written but quite lengthy.

And in order to maximize experience point yield and material rewards, we must go through the exact same dialogue four times (one for each skeleton). People often complain about "trashmobs" in cRPGs. Well, PS:T has trashmobs AND trashtext. Moreover, that is actually not an example of a long dialogue segment in PS:T. Wait until we meet up with a certain old crone, called Ravel.

Buggy Dialogue

There are many situations where, if we choose the "wrong" dialogue option (say, thread "a" before thread "b"), we will just be LOCKED OUT. This can cause us to miss out on quests, powerful bonuses and even entire segments of the game for no apparent reason. Indeed, it can break the campaign and render it incompletable.

In the replay I recently conducted I was locked out no fewer than 10 times. It is incredibly annoying to have to reload the game just because (to give an example), we simply rested in dialogue before requesting a key in that same dialogue — and broke plot progression as a result.

There are dozens of other examples such as Aola (no demon waiting in Curst for us), Narochj (no Dustman faction for us) and Ingress (no Morte teeth upgrade for us). These are the result of QA/play-testing inadequaecy.

In regard to the Norochj bug, we can literally see the thread glitch out and skip. It's a complex interplay between other NPCs in the Gathering Dust bar, including Emoric whose threads alone are complex. It's possible to skip the Not-a-Dustman quest as a result and lock ourselves out of the faction for good, which is a pretty big deal for a Mage TNO who wants access to embalming-based spells that increase tanking ability. And unless we saw the thread jump-skip or have foreknowledge of the correct quest order, we won't know something is amiss. Even a veteran may miss the glitch and return from the lengthy catacombs segment only to find that Emoric has no thread for joining the Dustmen. Your heart will sink if this happens to you.

Also, the multi-threadedness of the dialogue is at times absurd. Getting the proper quest order going in the Dead Nations (with the interplay with the Warrens) is like pulling teeth. It took me three hours to work out how to optimize experience point yield in that segment.

Poor Combat Encounter Design

PS:T combat encounter design is practically non-existent. It is regrettable (since Fallout 1 did a better job of balancing dialogue, questing, exploration and combat) that dev-cycle emphasis on dialogue, lore and writing in general detracted from the effort that should have been put into the most important aspect of an A/D&D campaign.

Furthermore, what combat there is that manages to spark interest in fans of BG and IWD, is ruined by:

• the abysmal pathing routine (worse than even pre-patch BG1)
• broken inventory mechanics (buff or heal as many times as we like per round; multiple quaffings stack)
• clunky portable pop-up (below-pictured)
• no combat feedback in the dialogue window
• limited spell ranges / special abilities
• lack of buff/negative status effect indicators on the portraits (we won't even know what's going on half of the time)
• absurd Final Fantasy-style cutscenes that trigger scripted and pre-rendered FMVs every time we cast an epic spell
• spell effects that obscure the on-screen action (can't see what is going on!)
• stat-screen doesn't even show adjusted THAC0

Must it be expressed in such simple terms as: I'm not sitting before my PC to read, I'm not sitting before my PC to watch, I'm sitting before my PC to play a computer game. It's called gameplay and it's what makes games games. Go and develop an interactive novel or an adventure game if you want to limit gameplay: you have no business developing for this genre.

PS:T combat is just completely uninspiring and yawn-inducing. Remembering that it was released several months after Tales of the Sword Coast, there are no notable mage duels à la Davaeorn...

... there are no interesting set-piece battles or boss encounters (Warders & Aec'Letec)...

... there are no rival adventuring parties to pit TNO's crew against...

... and there is almost no terrain to be employed by the player for tactical purposes. Instead, combat encounters are usually staged in wide open areas and largely consist of one benign trashmob (that might bleed into an adjacent, identical trashmob), one toughie and his crew, one super-toughie all alone, or just a full-blown horde such as the one in Curst prison: no fewer than 57 hostile Curst Guards.

Is this PS:T or Diablo 1?

Cool itemization: punch daggers Planescape Torment:

Planescape: Torment Axes:

Cool companions:

Could have meant cool combat, too. But no.

I've criticized the combat in PS:T a lot, and for good reason. The campaign employs a solid combat-centric - indeed, a hack n slash - ruleset (AD&D 2nd Edition), awesome companions and enemies, along with some nice dungeon design and itemization.

And yet, somewhere along the line, Black Isle decided to drown the campaign to death in torrential dialogue and loredumps; to ruin it.

Bravo.

Planescape: Torment is NOT a Passive Game

PS:T should not be given a free pass by members of its fanbase who like to cite it as "an interactive novel with stats thrown in" that should be played "passively"; in other words, the aggro is hot on their heels and mad as hell as they frantically run about the area, all the time hoping that the pathing routine doesn't f**k them over as they seek out the next "quest post" to click on, the location of which is only known to them by virtue of foreknowledge.

These posers love to boast about how we only have to slay four NPCs to get through the game; this does not make PS:T passive by design for the above reason. Fallout can be played by a genuinely passive Vault Dweller, and I have satisfied ToEE's main quest without so much as even drawing aggro. Whoop-de-doo for meta-gaming.

If, through a Strength or Charisma check, one can intimidate or bluff potential aggro into backing down —

— likewise, if, through a Dexterity check, one can stealthily break someone's neck and avoid AR-wide alarm bells...

— then that's great. And we needed more of that. But otherwise the aggro is spawned to be slain, it is in fact easier to navigate an area once the aggro has been cleared (and logical to do so in most cases), and there is a reason for all those weapons, direct damage spells and Morte taunts. 

To be clear, I'm not talking about slaying every trivial respawning Hive Thug; I'm talking about real aggro that is actually a threat, yields solid XP (and potentially powerful and interesting material rewards), and is unavoidable short of playing all kinds of silly positional tricks.

Planescape: Torment Aesthetics

As with the other Infinity Engine games, PS:T was designed and coded to run in a native resolution of 640x480.

[proof: Original Planescape: Torment main menu].

That includes UI panels.

Area, architecture and sprite design along with the color scheme and textures employed separate PS:T from its medieval-fantasy IE cousins. From the dilapidated Hive to the opulence of the Civic Festhall, it's impressive to look at.

Sprite size for protagonist, companions and NPCs was notably increased, and extra anim cycles were added (f.e, walk and run cycles). Watching TNO slide off the Mortuary slab and have a floating skull bob over and start chattering to him will be forever etched in my mind.

There are many idle anims, too: nice touches reminiscent of Fallout 1 and Jagged Alliance 2. The anims are not on par with those two but they are certainly a big step up from BG1!

Note the transparency effect for the ethereal Deionarra:

Audio-wise, I'm pretty nostalgic for the OST and VOs. I almost shed a tear upon hearing the main menu music for the first time in 10 years, though I wasn't able to call one forth even though I tried pretty hard to do so.

And of course, Deionarra's theme, punctuated by her voice. My views here are incurably colored by nostalgia so that's all I'll say on OST/VOs.

The sound effects, on the other hand, are a bit disappointing in that there are no footstep sounds and no sounds for opening doors and chests (as in the other IE games). There are also no general voiced NPCs, like in BG1, and the ambient chatter isn't enough to cover for that. Thus, sometimes, the game just feels oddly silent and unengaging.

The Power of TNO

TNO Immortality

This godly built-in ability deserves an immediate mention. Basically, The Nameless One or protagonist of Planescape: Torment is an immortal being. When he "dies", he auto-raises at a reset-point and can resume adventuring immediately. There is almost nothing and no one that can permanently kill him; the penalty of death solely consists in the need to reheal and travel back to the scene.

For TNO, death can actually be employed as a means of travel: in the low levels, TNO usually appears back on his slab in the mortuary but in some cases he may travel to places he has not yet been (such as the Trash Warrens). This simulates the reinterment or collection of his corpse by Dustmen or others. Players that learn of the destinations can therefore get themselves killed on purpose in order to travel. Basically, death-travel can save on backtracking or speed up campaign advancement.

TNO Raise Dead Special Ability

Imagine a third level character that can Raise Dead as an innate ability three times per adventure interval? This extraordinary latent ability is acquired from a regained memory while speaking to Deionarra in the Mortuary Prologue, but is entirely missable. If it is missed, TNO's companions can only be raised in combat zones by Fall-From-Grace once she breaks into fifth circle divine spells at 9th level or 225,000 XP. And we all know how many hoops we need to jump through in order to find Grace, recruit her, and level her to that point.

TNO Regeneration

TNO sports regen at even the lowest Constitution scores; the rate of regen increasing as the score is cranked on level-ups (or through tattoos and other items, but that is not innate). TNO regenerates 1 HP every other round at Con 18 (as low as third character level; that is, chargen) and maxes out a whopping 12 HPs per round at Con 25 (as low as ninth level), which is four times the rate of a troll and almost twice that of a Solar. In comparison, entry-level regen is possible in Baldur's Gate, but only for Kagain BG1 and Charname BG1 Dwarves: 1 HP every 60 rounds.

Note that Dak'kon and Morte can attain solid healing-rate regen, but only through items.

TNO Stats

TNO can hit scores of 25 in Strength, Constitution and Wisdom by 12th level. He can also achieve 3½ ApR by 13th. cf. Planescape: Torment Guide.

Best Phase of Planescape: Torment

Consisting not only of the Dead Nations, Drowned Nations and the Warrens of Thought, but also of caves, crypts and the Tomb of TNO, the Catacombs of Planescape: Torment stand as one of the most atmospheric cRPG dungeons in the genre. The previous non-linear exploration of the quest-dense urban hub of Sigil is also a standout, and feeds into what we see below.

This is the highlight of the campaign; mystery is at its highpoint and it's dangerous adventuring. Love it.

But after those two phases, the campaign is comparatively poor (Sigil: Lower Ward & Clerk's Ward), and turns out to be a major disappointment (Curst, Baator, Carceri) [Planescape: Torment world map]. 

Final Judgment

To conclude this review, PS:T was made too early in the Infinity Engine life-cycle, and it shows. Constituting a branch of development all of its own -- and that during the engine's infancy -- it could not avail of any engine extensions or refinements made by BG2 and IWD2, but it did manage to influence subsequent IE games and future cRPGs, for good and for bad.

PS:T is deeply flawed similar to Troika's unpolished and bug-ridden masterpieces [ToEE, Arcanum], but the latter are superior as games. And while Troika's cRPGs are underrated, PS:T is somewhat overrated.

Bearing in mind that it would not have existed without its spiritual predecessor, Mask of the Betrayer arguably knocked PS:T from its perch in regard to cRPG reactivity and cRPG story. MotB is also much more replayable by virtue of its D&D 3rd Edition cRPG ruleset, its largely non-linear campaign, its spirit-eater mechanic that facilitates resource management, and its mutually exclusive companions deeply embedded into the lore, quests and plot.

We are unlikely to want to endure PS:T more than a few times thanks to its torrential dialogue, linear final quarter and painfully limited build options.

Best Build Planescape: Torment

As hinted at in the manual itself, there is a singular TNO build that offers the best overall experience and access to the most content; that is, the best build in Planescape: Torment is a Lawful Good Mage TNO with maxed Intelligence, maxed Wisdom and minor investment in Dexterity and Charisma (buffed with Friends).

If such TNOs take Fighter to 13th level, then they will also have tons of HPs, ApR 3.5 and Grandmastery -- even when they switch back to Mage.

Not only that, but party composition is pretty much set in stone: it consists of Morte, Dak'kon, Annah and Grace, first and foremost. Then, Ignus and Vhailor are milked for all their worth, and Nordom usually becomes the final addition to the six-person party. Therein lies the core experience — and it's a good one.

I've criticized PS:T a lot in this retrospective, but I acknowledge that, as a cRPG, it is still head and shoulders above the current gen crop of crap. Note also that Planescape: Torment is ranked in Best cRPGs.

Next up: Icewind Dale 2 Review.

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