Rating: 
Summary: The best computer rpg I have ever played
Review: This game one of the best rpg's I have ever played, certainly the best computer based one. First off, the story is like an epic adventure that slowly reveals its true magnitude throughout the game. I felt like I had just red a great novel when I had finised the game. The graphics and the music are on par with the story, which as a whole makes the game the complete rpg experience.The only problems I found that it is quite hard to know what to do next in some parts, so explore, explore. Also it takes quite a while to load in some parts, but this can be fixed by installing the whole game (4 cd's). Theres not much I can fault with this game, it really is that (damn) good.
Rating:
Summary: You MUST play this game!
Review: What a game! I've just seen the end-game sequences today, and that means my personal Torment has just started. Since I've already played Fallout 2, how will I ever find another game this good? Heavily scarred and tattooed, your character, the Nameless One, awakes on a mortuary slab and the first sound you hear is the smart mouthed floating skull, Morte, the first of your companions on of your journey. Morte is a floating repository of knowledge, which is just as well since it turns out you've died, come back to life and lost your memory ... again. When Morte translates the tattoos on your back, you get the first clues about the cycle of life and death you've become trapped in. In your search as an amnesiac immortal to find out what's been happening to you and who is behind it all, you get to explore and meet many of the strange denizens of the Planes, performing quests in return for knowledge. Some of those who know the most about your past consent to join you - it would be great if the party size could accommodate all of them. Almost as quickly as you realise this ain't Kansas, it becomes obvious Planescape: Torment is not your average hack'n'slash RPG. In fact, too much bloodshed will find you "mazed" (I had to restart!) by the Lady of Pain who watches over Sigil, the "City of Doors", the Plane which houses the Mortuary, and which contains portals to many other Planes if you have the right keys. Most confrontations are best sorted out by words, and this may be a problem with some players, as you have to wade through a HUUUUGE amount of text and dialogue to resolve these encounters in a peaceful fashion. In fact, I've recently read that Feargus Urquhart of Black Isle Studios said the incredible amount of dialogue that needed to be written almost killed the guys working on it, and sometimes I thought the bizarre and esoteric nature of some of it was going to cause my brain to self combust, but it all added to the rich texture and complexity of the game. It's a good idea to save often, because it's easy to accidentally offend someone while tip-toeing through the diplomatic minefield and suddenly find yourself in a fight to the death with someone who shouldn't be killed. You start the game either as a Fighter, Mage or Thief, but can change professions during the game, as you need. However, it's important to specialise sooner or later, as there are only so many experience points to go around. Unlike other AD&D games, you don't get to decide your character's alignment during character generation - this changes according to your actions throughout your travels. And when you level, you get points with which you can increase attributes, such as Strength and Wisdom, so you can start out as a pretty mediocre Mage, and end up a mental giant, if that is your path. Like all AD&D games, Planescape: Torment is full of items and artefacts, often only usable by certain professions, which can temporarily change statistics. As usual, you need these things most in the beginning, when you can least afford them. Set in the bizarre, surrealistic world of the Planes, designing Planescape: Torment must have been an experience. How many times have we played games supposedly set in an alternate reality, but where the buildings look eerily similar to ours? The external architecture of Planescape: Torment's buildings, many of which served no apparent purpose, looks like something Gaudi could have designed had he been on crack! The interiors, however, are usually disappointingly familiar. Some of the spells, and there are many, are worth learning and casting just to see the effects! Members of your party have their own little idiosyncrasies (Annah's tail-flicking, Morte's eye-rolling, and Dak'kon constantly sipping from his flask) and like to chat or argue among themselves - which can be disconcerting just when you're about to wade into battle! Although Planescape: Torment uses the same engine as Baldur's Gate, the "camera" is closer to the ground, thus making the characters and their immediate environment quite detailed. However, this makes everything very close, so ranged weapons are useless and by the time some spells are cast, the foes are beating the @$#%^ out of you (some can't be negotiated with!), or with some of the area spells, you get hurt as much as the enemy. You have to learn very quickly what works. The music score, although sometimes tedious after many hours, contains some great themes - Deionarra's theme in particular is so hauntingly beautiful it was worth visiting her just to hear it. The voice cast, containing some reasonably well known actors, is largely wasted since, except for a few introductory phrases, most dialogue is text. However, among others, you will hear Michael T. Weiss (The Pretender), Mitch Pileggi (X Files), Dan Castellanetta (Simpsons), John DeLance ("Q" in Star Trek: TNG) and who knew this is what Sheena Easton has been getting up to lately. I must admit that when I first read about Planescape: Torment and read the box, I thought it would be too "dark" and bizarre for me. Then I thought these other people awarding 5 stars can't all be wrong, so thank goodness I changed my mind. Even so, it was several hours before I "got it". Apparently, due to the reason stated above, while not ruling out the possibility, the guys at Black Isle are in no particular hurry to get started on a sequel. I hope they recover soon and get started, because I'm already waiting. In its latest issue, my favourite gaming magazine here in Australia listed Planescape: Torment as the second best game ever, beaten only by Deus Ex. For me, even though it's like comparing apples and oranges, it's a dead heat for first place - Fallout 2 and Planescape: Torment (but then, I haven't played Deus Ex!)
Rating:
Summary: Take this on a lonely island
Review: There have been exactly two games that have seeped into my life, stolen endless hours of my time, ruined my relationships and job opportunities - Doom and Planescape: Torment. Since Doom is history now, let's forget about it. Torment is something you'd like to disbelieve at first. A game cannot be that good. It just can't. The storyline of the game is the most sophisticated I have ever seen and it would make for a killer movie. The dialogue in the game is about 400 pages in length and has been written by true talents. The main characters are so weird that you just gape at them. I have a sexy picture of Annah as my wallpaper while writing this, you know. :) As for the game engine, I'm very pleased with the fact that it is zoomed-in compared to Baldur's Gate. I really enjoy the little details you can see everywhere.
Rating:
Summary: Home on the Planes
Review: Planescape: Torment has rekindled my passion for role-playing games. In the early days of computer gaming, RPG's were always more involved. Amazing graphics and technical wizardy were many years to come. But Zork, Wizardy, Ultima, and countless others, still offered something most other games couldn't: immersion. Now, however, the flashier 3D graphics seem to win the prize more often than not. Eye-candy supersedes content. Until the return of the RPG... for which Interplay deserves all the credit. Planescape is the first game I have logged over seventy hours on and am proud of it. I would actually invite friends over to see some of the higher level spells being cast. But unfortunately for those friends, a few moments spent watching a spell doesn't begin to show how great this game really is. The story and countless pages of diaglogue are excepttionally well written. The NPC's are terrific; varied and endearing. Torment is a game where you really want to win, you really want to find out what happens, and you really become your character. Its only fault is minor when compared to the whole: long load times. Toward the end of the game, quests may require a long trip from one side of the world map to the other, and the load times moving in and out of structures can be frusterating. Bottom line: get this game. Forty bucks these days buys you about five movie tickets which adds up to about ten hours. Planescape: Torment is not only more money-efficient, but is time much better spent.
Rating: 
Summary: A cool spin off the D&D system
Review: If you've ever played Baldur's Gate this game should be fairly familiar to you. It uses the TSR D&D rules (although instead of having your stats rolled out for you it assigned a certain number of points you have to spend) and many of the creatures that inhabit the D&D world. You play the Nameless One, a man who dies and comes back to life over and over again. You have bo idea who you are or what you're doing, and have nothing to guide you except a note tattooed on your back telling you to go visit a man named Pharod. From there you're plunged into a great long adventure all about finding out who you are and how you came to be what you are. The perspective is akin to Baldur's gate and Diablo, although unlike those games there are no multiplayer capabilities. You still are able to pick up companions in the game such as Morte the floating talking skull, Annah the red haired half-demon woman with a rat's tail, Ignus the fire elemental, and many others. All of them have their own skills and their own personalities. (Quite often they'll bicker at each other!) I really loved the myriad of sub-quests in this game that you can run through or avoid at your leisure, and also the fact that most of the experience points earned in the game come from TALKING to people and discovering new things instead of just bashing lots of monsters -- although there are plenty of monsters to bash as well. As you progress your actions determine what alignment your characters is, and you have the option of being a fighter, a mage, or a thief as you progress. It's a really great game with plenty to do and tons of entertainment time. And remember to ask yourself, "What can change the nature of a man?"
Rating: 
Summary: Gothic "chic"
Review: This game seems to have bought into the whole "Gothic Chic" that has overtaken roleplaying games of late. The same type of cretin who thinks that "The Matrix" is the end-all and be-all of science fiction movies will think that this is the analog among "RPGs". You want *real* roleplay? Try a MUSH. If you don't know what one is, look it up. You want a good "RPG"? Get Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale. Those are fun. This is like a bad synthesis of King's Quest and...well, basically, some twisted teenager's vision of 'cool death stuff'. Unbelievably dark, with a very juvenile sense of humor. Either play a regular RPG, or play a regular 'adventure' game. This is neither, and is the worse for it.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting RPG
Review: I just bought this game and I've only played it for a little while, but already I've found it to be very interesting. I've enjoyed the NPCs I've encountered and enjoy laughing at the nameless one's sidekick (for lack of a better word) Morte. I look forward to spending more time with this game in the coming days.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible.
Review: This title has spoiled me for the entire output of the gaming industry. It is far better than nearly every supposed "RPG" in existence. It contains such rarities as real drama, not the boring, hackneyed save-the-world-from-evil or save-your-twue-wuv-from-evil plots that pass for such in the industry; a real philosophical level worth thinking about without neat, clean answers; and an incredibly satisfying ending. Actually, until the ending Torment was only one of the three best games I'd ever played; afterward it was far and away the best. (I've been with this genre since Bard's Tale and Wasteland, or since adventure and rogue if you want to count them.) This game is a work of art which I presently despair of seeing matched.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best CRPGs ever!
Review: Finally a game worthy of the title "Role Playing Game"! Unlike many other CRPGs, which are really only hack and slash with barely a hint of a background story, Planescape Torment really let's you submerge yourself into the persona of the Nameless one. With a compelling story, choices which really affect the way you interact with the world, tons of texts worthy of a novel, believable characters and fights which don't dominate the game but are merely supplementary, Planescape Torment is one of the best RPGs ever!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent role-playing game
Review: It can't get much better than this! If some of you "older" gamers remember Origin Systems' Bioforge game, you've got a general concept. You have very little memories and what you do makes you who you are. :)
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