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Even better than whatever I write.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 150 / 153
Date: September 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

First, you have to ask yourself: why is a game from a few years ago STILL getting 5-star reviews -- a bunch in just the past couple months?!? And second: how could a 2-D game (like the Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 series) possibly hold up against 3-D games like Neverwinter Nights? Well, it's because of gameplay. It's remarkable.

You start out by waking up on a slab, in a cemetary. You have no memory, but you've got a lot of wordy tattoos all over your body, and a very talkative floating skull to fill you in. As you progress, you'll meet up with many other characters who can join your group (or not), including a strange living computer called a Modron, and a bizarre man engulfed in flames.

But what really makes the game stand out is how open-ended it is. It's like Morrowind in that respect. You can do anything, go anywhere, fight or talk, do some quests and ignore others. Your character can find "masters" who will teach your character to fight, become a magician, or a thief. You can even switch back and forth. But even better than that is the dialogue, which is NOT forced or pre-programmed to lead you one way each time. The dialogues that each character speaks can take into account your experience, your intelligence, how attactive you are, where you are in the game, etc.

One of the most amazing discoveries for me went like this. Playing the game the first time, I had a fairly average character who was very strong. Some of the dialogue with Ravel, about two-thirds into the game, was just stunning. The plot twists threw me for a loop. But then I played again with a wimpy but incredibly smart character. I was stunned to see my character pulling out plot details from the characters almost as soon as they joined the group. By the time I got to Ravel, I was a completely different character and had completely different conversations with her. And the end! It can change! It's pretty great ending(s) too, so I won't even mention what happens.

If anything is a disappointment, it is that the opening cemetary is pretty dark -- work through it and get out as soon as you can. If you can find a save-game online that at least gets you down onto the first floor of the cemetary, maybe do that. Once you are in town, the game just blossoms into something incredible. My only sadness is that the game did well when it was launched, but not stellar. I'd like to thank their marketing department for the hideous box cover for probably killing quite a few sales. Because of this, I've lost hope for there ever being a sequel or even a game with a similar style. I'm very sad to see that, even after a few years, this game still has no rival.

Best, deepest, most meaningful game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 109 / 111
Date: March 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Torment is the best computer game I have ever played. It feels wrong to call this 'just a game'. Computer games will become an important new art form in the coming century, and Torment gives us a delicious foretaste of what is to come.

Moral choices abound. The game takes note of what you say and do, and rates your morality and alignment accordingly. The game itself changes depending on how you play it: each action and choice closes some doors and opens others. Consider a point in the dialog where you are offered these choices. (1) Vow: "Tell me and I will not harm you" -- (2) Bluff: "Tell me or I'll break your neck" -- (3) Threat: "Tell me or I'll break your neck" -- (4) "Please tell me". This illustrates the sort of choice that gives expression to your moral character.

You feel like an actor in a play -- but one who can choose his own script. This brings you very close to your game character. When it was revealed that a past incarnation of my character had committed some evil, I personally felt heartbroken about it. This sort of immersion-into-character is not possible in a conventional novel.

The story is compelling and meaningful. It is supported by excellent writing. Some of the key dramatic scenes are still going through my head two months after completing the game. It is an ongoing source of delight to discuss and discover new interpretations of the story and characters.

The characters are deep and complex, and funny. You get the feeling more than in other games that they have their own agendas. Eventually some of their secrets are revealed and -- best of all -- you yourself, in the game, are the one who discovers those secrets.

Addictive and Very Creative

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 100 / 102
Date: December 28, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This has to be one of the most creative RPGs I've ever played. The graphics and animations are impressive, stylized, and original. The plot is relatively non-linear and effectively rests in the hands of the player with multiple endings. The alignment and attributes of the player character affect game play. I played a character with high intelligence and wisdom, and I enjoyed outwitting people in the game. Although the game is VERY dialog driven, I felt there were enough graphics and action to make it feel relatively balanced and seamless. The NPCs are highly original and interact with the party to a much greater extent than in Baldur's Gate. Talking to your party members can be integral to being successful at a Succubus, who has given up her past; a sarcastic, floating skull who can taunt enemies with profanities; a wild and unpredictable Tiefling (part human/part lower plane) thief who seems to have a thing for you . . . Guest voices include Dan Castellanetta (Homer!), Sheena Easton, and Michael T. Weiss (The Pretender). The game is very dark and somber with appropriate music that really added to the mood, yet has very effective comic relief via. Morte the sarcastic skull. I was genuinely surprised by the plot and character development. I was always kept guessing. Your immortality allows for many creative developments. Dying becomes a method to be taken to a place you want to go. Limbs are taken off and reattached. A woman pays you for the privilege of killing you. The magic and magic items are phenomenal. Many items have almost a voodooesque feel to them (roach charm, blood charm, cranium rat charm), while some magic items can actually talk to you and try to seduce you to the ways of evil. Many magic items are appropriately alignment and class restricted. Spell effect animations effectively add a distinctive style to the already rich substance of the game. The animations on the higher level spells can sometimes involve amazing cut scenes! This game could best be called a Fallout 2 on acid with a twist of Baldur's Gate. One moment you're in Hell talking to a pile of skulls, the next you're trying to save a city about to be destroyed by a deranged angel. It's almost as though at least five writers with years of pent up creative frustration exploded into this game. The result is creatively brilliant. I also appreciate the replay value of this game. I just played as a lawful good mage, now I'm going to I'm expecting a totally different kind of game. The latest issue of Newsweek (Jan 1, 2000) declares that "in the century to come, the medium producing the most dynamic, vital and exciting new art will be . . . videogames. . . . Eventually, we'll have artists who realize that videogames are technologically advanced enough for real story telling. . . the closest I've seen to this aspiration. It breathes like a novel, astonishes with great visual art, and allows for more realistic role-playing than in most other games that have ever been on the market. It is definitely a ground-breaker in this genre.

A breath of fresh air.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 42 / 43
Date: February 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I bought Torment about a year ago, played it, enjoyed it immensely, and has since moved on to other titles. There was Diablo II, full of action as its predecessor; Baldur's Gate II that dashed my high hopes; the gods have kept me safe from Icewind Dale. Recently, I contemplated buying a copy of Torment to an acquaintance of mine, and started to recall the game's richness. Before I knew it, the temptation had become too great - I ended up re-installing Torment. Here I am, ready to play it again.

What is, then, so attractive about it? Everyone talks about the great storyline and NPC - indeed, you can't help praising these things, but it remains pretty generic. Devil is in details, they say. In Torment, you get to find your way out of the Mortuary, a cluttered dome full of shambling zombie workers and dissected corpses on slabs. You must walk the streets of Sigil, arguably the center of the multiverse, where *any* opening - doorway, window, picture frame, eye of a needle - might turn out to be a portal to places unknown. You look around trying to avoid the aggressive thugs of the Hive, the city slums, and you travel under mountains of garbage and forgotten mazes. And this is not all - Torment really takes you places: to see the red skies of Avernus, to examine the pale treachery of the gate town of Curst, to witness the forbidding citadel "where the shadows themselves have gone mad" - it is the wildest ride ever.

And the creatures you get meet, situations you find yourself in! In what other game, pray tell, can you socialize with corpse collectors, or run errands for a talentless coffin maker, or stall/help anarchists' sabotage of a secret weapon, or consort with a collective mind of mutant vermin, or help a city alley give birth (that's right)? Where else can you meet a guffaw with fat purse and a desire to see what it's like to kill someone, and use your own immortality for profit? What other impossible, bright world is there that allows you to read the stored experiences of long-gone travelers to other planes?

Also, you say NPC, I say NPC. By now, you've read about Morte. Well, allow me to tell you this: that guy is the horniest, most loud-mouthed, unbearable, insulting, wisecracking floating skull you'll ever meet. (Granted, disembodied skulls are rare.) Of all people, only Morte can drool at the sight of female zombies, or ask you for money when you meet a prostitute (you can actually let him and boy, does he get more than he bargained for), or, in response to a comely woman's "What can I do for you?" shout out "Anything! Do anything to me!!!"

But, devilishly funny as Torment jokes are, they are but a part of the atmosphere. The remainder is quite serious, and, along with the almost combatless gameplay, it seems to be the cause of PST's limited success among "lay gamers". Critics loved it, but the sad reality is, a great deal of players simply aren't clever enough - advanced, educated, subtle, trained to think critically, whatever you want to call it. Just as philosophy books are read by the "intellectuals" and the other 90% of the population think malls the perfect resort, so are Torment's witty, often touching and always exceptionally well-written dialogues lost on the average consumer.

So are its psychological challenges. Example: somewhere in Sigil, you may encounter Nodd, the Collector - gathering corpses and selling them for profit, grey as a mouse, in dirty rags, stricken with some nasty disease and slightly out of his mind. He is in no way important to the main plot, as most other NPC, but if you pause to talk to him, he'll tell you his one precious secret. When he was young, he had a sister, Amarysse - bright, beautiful girl, showing much more promise than he did. Life pulled them away from each other since then, but to this day Nodd keeps this last bright memory of what future might have been, despite the trash, poverty and stale despair.

Elsewhere in Sigil, you might come across Amarysse. You look at her and see what happened to Nodd's bright girl. Amarysse has become a prostitute, selling her body to thugs and patrons from the nearby bar. Then it is up to you what to decide - what, if anything, to tell Nodd. And though compassion is not something I feel very often, episodes like that tend to leave me with a heavy heart, and the "human condition" bears down on me. You see, Torment is indeed a "mature" game, for whatever the label is worth. The game is wise and sober. It knows that life isn't about merry heroes bringing evil wizards to justice, and that there are slums, and people who haven't taken a bath for years, and wars, and plans gone awry, and failed romances, and rude awakenings, and that there is no guarantee of happy ending.

But there is also hope amidst all the Torment. So far, I didn't mention the main quest. Perhaps, it is best left for you to uncover, if you decide to buy the game. As a nameless immortal, you travel the planes, and now and again, a flash of memories explodes in your brain. It seems you have lived a great many times, in different places and different epochs. You seem to have influenced a great many people, but in unclear and contradictory ways. You are a hero as much as villain. And because you can't remember clearly who you are, this, in a way, makes you everyone at once, and turns your struggle for identity and control over your destiny into the more universal quest of humankind to make a difference.

Reminding us of this goal, Torment never once moralizes, and though the designers have their own answer to the game's central Question: "What can change the nature of a man?", it is remarkable that in the end the conclusion is left hanging. Maybe it waits to be drawn - by us. We are living, breathing, thinking creatures, we are active agents, and whether in real life or worlds of imagination, the direction of our fates is ultimately up to us. This, I believe, is the great game's most important message.

The Best RPG Since Ultima 7

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 44 / 46
Date: September 26, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Like some of the other reviewers, at first glance, I was somewhat turned off by the weird, gothic look of this game. After looking at the box, and even reading through the brief manual, I still wasn't impressed. My first impressions of this game couldn't have been more wrong!

This is the BEST RPG to come out since Ultima 7 p. II, Serpent Isle. I'm glad I didn't pass this one over. It is a shame that it hasn't received the attention and acclaim of Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale (YUCK!).

These designers understand what an RPG is supposed to be about - a great storyline with a great plot and interesting characters, absorbing you into its world so well that you forget about the real world around you. You can tell that a great deal of effort went into the making of this game. The level of detail is amazing in all aspects - the graphics, sound, and most definitely, the dialogue, which can be extremely involved and lengthy at times (although sometimes annoying right before a big battle when you can't save the game). Despite other people's complaints, I found the reduced viewing range to be more than a fair trade-off for the improved detail and animation, where you can see the Nameless One cracking his knuckles, and Annah's tail flicking back and forth. Some of the spell sequences are something to behold, although they tend to cause slowdowns and sometimes outright crashes. The sound is the best I've heard as well - you can hear people shouting at each other in the background, hammers banging on anvils, and of course, the voices are first-class - look at the cast they got for this one. All of these elements together create an atmosphere to this game that makes you feel like you're there, living the story.

This is one of the few games where I was truly disappointed when it was over, almost like going into withdrawl. If you like RPGs, you're a fool not to add this one to your collection, especially if you like deep plots and alot of conversation and problem solving. The development of character abilities and skills is also novel, allowing you to essentially turn the Nameless One into a demi-god towards the end of the game as you go to level 15+. This game has a few spots for pure hacking, but not too many. Most of your XP will come from completing quests and talking to other people. If you really like Diablo, you should probably avoid this one. If you liked Ultima 7, Ultima Underworld, and Fallout, you shouldn't miss it.

There are several downers to the game though, and they're all related to the game engine and character AI. These are fairly minor points, but they can make combat quite frustrating at times. As in Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, the pathing can be pretty choppy. I'm surprised that they couldn't do a little better job with the AI also. After all, Ultima 7 is 8-9 years old now, and I remember that having so many AI choices for your party members (preset before combat), where you could have someone attack the strongest monster or the weakest, stay back or guard, defend another character, flank to the left or right, charge ahead, go beserk, or flee. In this game, you would have to go through each character individually during combat to assign their attacks. When there's a mass of bodies fighting and people running everywhere it gets confusing to say the least. If you attack as a group, everyone tries to mob one monster, trying to path around other bodies in the way, getting hit in the back as they go... not too effective. If they would fix these minor problems, you would have perfection.

These things are easily overlooked when you look at all the other stuff you get from this game. This one is a winner.

Side Note: Later in the game, you probably don't need your party members for combat. The Nameless One becomes strong enough to solo everything that comes his way (Whoa - take a look at your damage with a 25 strength, a +5 weapon skill, and the Deva's fire weapon - you'll do 100+ pts of dam in under a second. Take a look at your heal rate with a 25 consitution and a tattoo of improved regen.. you'll heal 4 hps per second.) Still, the other characters are so interesting that you'll want to keep them around just to hear what they'll say or do next. The story and characters make the game.

It doen't get any better

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 27 / 27
Date: March 31, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Playing RPGs with paper and pencil in the early 80's I remember thinking that someday a computer would handle all the mundane math and free up the players to enjoy the adventure and story. I have played every major RPG computer game since then, and this one is the closest to that vision.

It is better than Bauldur's Gate, its technical predecessor, because it realizes a fundemental thruth - people play these games ultimately for the story it tells. No matter how good you are, you don't get to take the weapons or gold you find away with you when you finish an RPG, but the story stays with you forever, if it is good.

This game is like playing through a well written novel, where the you have to actually think, fight, or puzzle your way to the next plot twist.

This game consumes...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 25
Date: December 29, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This game is way too cool. The premise is you wake up on a mortuary slab with amnesia. You have to figure out: who you are, where's your stuff, why do you keep waking up after each time you die, and what do you want to do about it?

The locations in the game stay constant but what your character does and says *greatly* affects what happens in the game. I had to restart the game after moving it to another PC, and there were different interactions with the characters in the game. (In one the main character was able to talk his way out of a lot of trouble. In the other, he had to fight his way out.)

The tone of the game is very *dark*. You are in an afterlife and it's not a very pleasant place. There is lots of creepiness: the music, the visuals, even the written descriptions.

Philosophy plays a big part in the game and story line. Your character can succeed by talking, making helpful observations, or verbal argument (if you know something about your verbal opponent's point of view). And when diplomacy fails, there is always force. (Violence is not much of a philosophy but having other options is a nice change from the traditional Hack and Slash RPG where the choices are: hack violence or slash violence.)

But the game also needs a lot of system resources. 600 meg of hard drive minimally. To get faster play you can copy the CD's to your hard drive (roughly eating another 3 * 600 meg - described at a very cool game web site: plus as much free space for page/swap file as you can spare. And it will run with 32 meg of memory but it's choppy when you enter a new area. It does better with 64 meg (and even better with more).

But you get some great effects for all those resources. You watch little characters move around, talk to each other, and fight each other in some pretty amazing detail.

And it's been eating all my goof off time for the past week.

Another great Black Isle game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 29 / 31
Date: January 03, 2000
Author: Amazon User

For the last couple of years people have been patiently awaiting the release of I found out that the same makers of those two great games where releasing an RPG in my favorite campaign setting, I almost soiled myself with glee.

Torment uses the Baldur's engine, but don't be the setting is not the sword and sorcery genre you are used too. In fact to me, it seems to have more of the quirkiness of Fallout2 than the straitforward D&D elements of Baldur's. There are few weapons choices and I've never even worn any armor, but, you won't miss any of that.

The main PC is a recently resurrented immortal and his first ally is a floating skull. I have almost finished the game and my weapon of choice through most of it was my own severed arm! How can you not love that?

The only reason I'm not giving the game 5 stars is because, for my system, I found it quite buggy. I suffered lots of lockups and assertion errors, as well as the occasional graphics glitch. The third disk had trouble loading at times as well.

I still highly recommend this game, and I commend Black Isle for putting the RP back into RPG. The setting and story are compelling and unpredictable and the party members are rich and interesting instead of just someone to hold your treasure. So, if you are biting your nails in anticipation for Diablo 2, give Torment a try (and if you haven't already, try Baldur's and Fallout2) you will be glad you did.

What can change the nature of a man?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 29
Date: January 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

There are games, and there are good games. There are good games, and there are great games. Every once in a while, you falter and fall flat on your face and drool slightly as you witness the birth of an epic.

If you want to speak technically, I'll get that out of from every deep dark corner. The crew at Black Isle have used the Bioware engine to create effects never before seen in a two dimensional game, and some of the spell effects have the intense drama Hope) The graphics are, as usual with Black Isle, crisp and stunningly real, not to mention incredibly beautiful. Also, I'd have to say that the web to look for a patch or to read through pages of ranters and lunatics posting their off-topic and non-sensical ramblings on the Torment-ed planescape-torment.com boards.

THE EPIC THAT IS TORMENT I've only played three games in my life that I would consider epics, with Torment being the newly added third. It just happens that all three are RPGs, mainly because I believe this is the only type of game that can create these rarities. In order to create an epic, you must first find a story that deserves to be told. It is here that Torment brings to light the story of an immortal who does not *know* himself, and is therefore lost, both to the Planes and himself.

The game _is_ the story. The story is the heart and soul of Torment, and what you do as The Nameless One will shape his destiny -- which in this case is his enigmatic past. Brilliant voices, heart-felt music, and a story which is one of the deepest, most enthralling I've ever experienced in a computer game all contribute to what has got to be one of the most endearing RPGs ever made.

This game sets itself apart from prior both, and I liked both, but I _loved_ Torment. A fantastic story is what most games today lack (*cough* Quake *cough* Tomb Raider). An epic brings not only the story to the player, but the player into the story. In the end, as I watched the last scenes to the epic unfold, I felt as if I had been there, acting as a caretaker to guide this lost soul to his destiny.

True RP may finally be here!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 18
Date: June 27, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I've role-played since the 70s, and have probably played every RP game that's come out since that date, including recent reviews for BellaOnline.com. My first assumption was that Planescape would be a knock-off of Baldur's Gate, and be fun but not unique.

It is, amazingly, far more than that.

Sure, it's built on the same great engine that Baldur's Gate was. Same third person view, with the great graphics and sounds that BG is famous for. However, the developers of Planescape definitely knew what they were doing when they enhanced the system. They addressed many complaints gamers had with BG, and took it to another level.

Take death. Yes, that pesky death stuff that seems to happen to gamers when they encounter a group of basilisks or perhaps a bandit or three. No problem for Planescape - you're immortal! Not only that, but deaths actually help you sometimes, jarring loose memories that were until that point hidden. Like who you are. What you're about. Why you're immortal when apparently nobody else is.

Which brings me to another point - the storyline is great! They take an idea that has definitely been done before - you wake up with amnesia, uncertain of your past or present. Nine Princes of Amber is a famous story that does this very well. So you learn as you go, with the help of your amusing sidekick, the skull named Morte. Yes, your pal is a floating skull who follows you along :)

The game is understandably "dark". You are, after all, someone who keeps rising from the grave, wandering around a miserable little town full of unhappy people. It's probably not a game for 6 year olds, but most teenagers will easily relate to the misery of the town's occupants. You find things like clot charms to help heal your wounds, bandages to tape yourself back up. It's the same quests and challenges, but it's so much more ...

Your alignment actually alters as you interact with NPCs. Keep doing good things - your alignment is naturally good. Keep slaughtering innocents while they plead for mercy, and yup, you're bad. Your alignment then affects how people react to you. Even better - your intelligence determines what you can say or do in some cases! No more of this idiotic barbarian easily figuring out how to deal with a noble negotiator.

I was impressed!

There are all sorts of twisted plot items that are clear indicators of the amount of work the designers put into thinking this through. You wake up with a note to yourself carved in your own back. You wander outside and find a note-zombie, with notes stuck to his body. Every doorway can be a portal to another world, if you find the key. But keys can be anything - a piece of paper, a certain person, even a song sung in a certain way.

The game is definitely a thinking game - one created for true strategists and role players, who want a challenge out of a game and not just a hack-fest. For gamers who have complained that RP could never be fun on a computer, try Planescape Torment. You just might have your hands full!

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