Planescape: Torment
Planescape: Torment is a 1999 role-playing video game developed by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay Entertainment for Windows. The game takes place in locations from the multiverse of Planescape, a Dungeons & Dragons fantasy campaign setting. The game's engine is a modified version of the Infinity Engine, which was used previously for BioWare's Baldur's Gate, an earlier D&D game set in the Forgotten Realms.
Planescape: Torment is primarily story-driven, with combat taking a secondary role. The protagonist, known as The Nameless One, is an immortal man who forgets everything if killed. The game focuses on his journey through the city of Sigil and other planes to reclaim his memories of previous lives, and to discover why he was made immortal in the first place. Several characters in the game may join The Nameless One on his journey; most of these characters have encountered him in the past or have been influenced by his actions in some way.
The game was not a commercial success, but it received critical acclaim and has since become a cult classic, claimed by video game journalists to be the best role-playing video game of 1999. It was lauded for its immersive dialogue, for the dark and relatively obscure Planescape setting, and for the protagonist's unique persona, which shirked many characteristics of traditional role-playing games. It is commonly cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. An enhanced version for modern platforms was made by Beamdog and released for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS in April 2017 and for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in October 2019.
Gameplay
Planescape: Torment is built on BioWare's Infinity Engine, which presents the player with a pre-rendered world in an isometric perspective in which player characters are controlled. The game's role-playing ruleset is based on that of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. The player takes the role of The Nameless One, an immortal man with amnesia on a quest to learn why he was created immortal. Exploration around the painted scenery is accomplished by clicking on the ground to move, or on objects and characters to interact with them. Items and spells may be employed through hotkeys, quick slots, or a radial menu. An alternative to armor is the use of magical tattoos which can be applied to The Nameless One and certain other characters to enhance their abilities.The game begins with character creation, where the player assigns attribute points such as strength, intelligence, and charisma to The Nameless One. The Nameless One starts the game as a fighter class, but the player may later freely change it to a thief or wizard. The player may recruit companions throughout the game to join the party. There are seven potential companions, but only a maximum of five may accompany The Nameless One at any given time. Conversation is frequent among party members, occurring both randomly and during conversations with other non-player characters. The gameplay often focuses on the resolution of quests through dialogue rather than combat, and many of the game's combat encounters can be resolved or avoided through dialogue or stealth. The Nameless One carries a journal which helps the player keep track of the game's numerous quests and subplots. The Nameless One is immortal, so running out of health points usually imposes no penalty beyond respawning in a different location.
Planescape: Torment uses the D&D character alignment system, in which a character's ethical and moral perspective and philosophy are determined based on the axes of "good vs. evil" and "law vs. chaos", with neutrality bridging the two opposing sides. The Nameless One begins as "true neutral" but can be incrementally changed based on the character's actions throughout the game, with reactions from the game's non-player characters differing based on his alignment.
Synopsis
Setting
Planescape: Torment is set in the Planescape multiverse, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting which consists of various planes of existence, the creatures which live in them, and the properties of the magic that infuses each plane. A large portion of Planescape: Torment takes place in Sigil, a large city located atop an infinitely tall spire at the center of the multiverse, that connects the planes with each other via a series of portals. The city is overseen by the powerful Lady of Pain, while numerous factions control different functions of the city related to each group's world view, with The Nameless One being able to join several of these factions during the game. The story eventually moves on to other planes, such as Baator and Carceri, where The Nameless One continues to discover more about his past. Throughout the game, The Nameless One slowly learns about his previous incarnations and the influence they have had on the world.Characters
Planescape: Torment protagonist is known as The Nameless One, a man cursed with immortality for thousands of years. Every time he dies, another person in the multiverse dies to fuel his resurrection. Upon rebirth, The Nameless One has little to no recollection of his past life, and often with completely different personality than before. When the game starts, The Nameless One wakes in a mortuary as a result of his latest death. He then sets out on a quest to discover how he died and why he is immortal, also hoping that the adventure will help him regain memories of his past incarnations.During his quest, The Nameless One meets several characters who can join him as companions: Morte, Annah-of-the-Shadows, Dak'kon, Ignus, Nordom, Fall-From-Grace, and Vhailor. These playable characters can also interact with the Nameless One to further the game's plot. Morte is a cynical floating skull originally from Baator's Pillar of Skulls, a grotesque entity composed of the screaming heads of individuals who dishonestly advised others in their lifetime. He is introduced at the game's beginning in the mortuary. Morte loyally follows The Nameless One, partly out of guilt for having caused the deaths of some of his previous incarnations. The Nameless One meets Annah-of-the-Shadows, a young and brash tiefling rogue, outside the mortuary, but she does not join the group until a later point in the game. Dak'kon is a githzerai, who once made an oath to help The Nameless One until his death, but became enslaved to him for eternity due to not knowing of his immortality. Ignus is a pyromaniacal being who was once an apprentice mage of one of The Nameless One's past incarnations. In the Rubikon Dungeon Construct, the Nameless One can find Nordom, a modron disconnected from its species' hive mind. Fall-From-Grace is a succubus who acts as proprietress of the Brothel of Slaking Intellectual Lusts in Sigil; unlike other succubi, she is not interested in seducing mortals. Vhailor, found below the city of Curst on the plane of the Outlands, is essentially an animated suit of armor dedicated to serving merciless justice.
Notable non-player characters include Deionarra, a former lover of one of the Nameless One's past incarnations who died as a result of his amoral actions; Ravel Puzzlewell, a night hag who helped the Nameless One's first incarnation to become immortal; Trias the Betrayer, a fallen deva who decides to take matters into his own hands due to his disillusionment with the gods’ stance on fighting evil forces; Coaxmetal, a giant golem confined inside the siege tower in Sigil's Lower Ward who forges weapons for the inhabitants of the planes to destroy each other in the name of entropy; and the Transcendent One, the embodiment of the Nameless One's mortality and the final boss of the game.
Plot
The game begins when The Nameless One wakes up in a mortuary. He is immediately approached by a floating skull, called Morte, who offers advice on how to escape. Morte also reads the tattoos written on The Nameless One's back, which were inked there as reminders by a previous incarnation of himself, that contain instructions to find a man named Pharod. After a conversation with the ghost of Deionarra, and passing by enslaved undead who work at the mortuary, The Nameless One leaves to explore the slums of Sigil. He finds Pharod, who is the chief of an underground village of scavengers and the adoptive father of Annah, and is asked to retrieve a magical bronze sphere for him before he will give answers. After returning, Pharod does so, giving him further hints to help piece together his forgotten past. Later on, The Nameless One learns from a powerful sorcerer named Lothar that the night hag Ravel Puzzlewell caused his immortality, but that she is imprisoned in a magical maze for committing crimes against the Lady of Pain. The Nameless One eventually finds a portal to enter the maze, but realizes that it requires a piece of Ravel to activate it; for this, he locates a daughter of hers and takes drops of her blood.Once in the maze, The Nameless One converses with Ravel, who asks him "what can change the nature of a man?"a question that plays a prominent role throughout the game. Ravel is pleased with The Nameless One's answer because he offers his own thoughts; she claims she has killed many men in the past who, instead of giving their own answers, tried to guess what her answer, which they assumed was the only answer, might be. As the conversation progresses, Ravel explains that a past incarnation of The Nameless One had asked her to make him immortal. However, the ritual she performed was flawed, which causes The Nameless One to risk losing his memory each time he dies. She also reveals that the mortality she separated from him was not destroyed, and that as long as he was alive, his mortality must still be intact somewhere. Not knowing where it is, she suggests that the fallen deva Trias might know.
Ravel then attempts to keep The Nameless One and his party there by force, with them having to defeat her in combat. After they do so and leave the maze, Ravel is revealed to have faked her death. A being known as The Transcendent One then appears, and kills Ravel after a short conversation. The portal that The Nameless One and his party found in the maze takes them to the city of Curst, a gate town on the border of the Outlands and Carceri, to find Trias. Finding him magically imprisoned underneath Curst, The Nameless One offers to help free him in exchange for answers. Doing so, Trias then claims not to know where The Nameless One's mortality lies, but points him in another direction. The Nameless One then visits the Outlands and Baator, where he learns that his mortality lies in a place known as the Fortress of Regrets, and that only Trias knows how to access it. Meanwhile, however, Curst has "slid" from the border of the Outlands to the neighboring chaotic plane of Carceri due to the chaos unleashed by Trias after The Nameless One freed him. After fights through the city against large groups of demons, The Nameless One and his party reach Trias, who they also fight. After Trias is weakened enough through combat, he tells The Nameless One that the portal to the Fortress of Regrets is located within Sigil's mortuary, right next to where The Nameless One awoke.
In the Fortress of Regrets, The Nameless One encounters three of his past incarnations: one practical, one good, and one paranoid. The Nameless One learns that the "good" incarnation was the original man who was made immortal by Ravel, and learns that he had committed immeasurably terrible sins in his lifetime. Realizing that he would be damned to suffer in the Lower Planes when he dies, he sought immortality to give him time to atone for his sins. Unfortunately, the memory losses he suffered after each death and reincarnation foiled this plan. After merging with his past incarnations through dialogue or combat, gaining their combined experience and knowledge, The Nameless One confronts the embodiment of his mortality, The Transcendent One, who reveals that since being separated from The Nameless One, it has enjoyed its freedom and has been erasing clues that might lead The Nameless One to discover the truth. Depending on the player's choice, The Nameless One either slays The Transcendent One through combat, convinces it to rejoin with him, or commits suicide with a special weapon, with either option ending his immortality. The Nameless One then awakens on a battlefield in the Lower Planes, and accepts his fate to fight forever in the Blood War.