Planescape: Torment

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Summary: The best computer game i have ever played
Review: I know at least two people who say that Torment ruined RPGs for them forever, because other games cannot compare to the excellent story and character development. I am more forgiving, but i can understand their point of view. Playing this game again lets you discover new things you missed the first time around. It is incredibly rich and rewarding, and leaves you wanting more. I could persist in this vein of hyperbole, but i'll just spare you. Get the game; you could probably get it at your local games store for...(i know i've seen it for that price at Fry's, and i think it was bundled with another game, too).

Note that if you're just looking for another click-and-slash game, perhaps you need to slow down and use your head instead of your fingers to fully enjoy this game.

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Summary: Finally, a CRPG where you roleplay!
Review: The CRPG market is overrun with titles that are only in the genre because the publishers figure "if it has stats, its an RPG." The rest are combat heavy with few chances for actually playing your character outside of battle. There are few exceptions to the rule, these include, Fallout, Fallout 2, and Planescape: Torment. Black Isle proves once again that they are the gods of CRPGs. In my opinion Planescape:Torment is the best of the three because the story is amazing and keeps you wanting more. The setting is definitely unique. Being set in the outer planes blurs the line between life and death as the outer planes are where the dead on the prime material plane go when they die. This gives PS:T a dark atmosphere that is a pleasant change from the happy happy fantasy of most CRPGs. Probably one of PS:T's best features is the fact that about 90% of the game can be finished without resorting to combat, including the end boss. If you want to play a diplomat, go ahead. If you want to berserk through the game, go for it. You start with a character of pre-chosen race, sex, and appearance, but from there you can mold him to your will. This is a definite buy, and cheap too! Help out Black Isle so they can make more games like this masterpiece and their other two gems Fallout and Fallout 2.

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Summary: I can't not review this...
Review: This is without a doubt the finest FRPG I have ever played. You should buy it because:

1. The stability problems from the detractors are much overemphasized. I had to choke down the hardware acceleration on my video card and everything after that worked fine.
2. In spite of the "limitation" that you can only play one character, that character can be whoever you want him to be (strong and smart, charismatic and dextrous, or whatever). Limiting the game to one hero actually allows a much richer and more sensible role-playing experience. The overall plot is much less scripted than either Baldur's Gate.
3. People who complain that the game is ghoulish never got out of the first few scenes (which are pretty ghoulish). I was a little creeped out at the opening sequences, but it's well worth going through them. Initially I thought it was all just shock value, but looking back on the plot it was all justified.
4. Role-playing is emphasized, but not to the exclusion of combat. There is combat here, but there is very little senseless combat.
5. The puzzles, etc., are only difficult in comparison to the usual fare, which isn't meant to challenge as much as it is to delay your finishing the game. No one I knew needed a hint book to finish it.
6. This is the only game I've ever played where the conversations with your companions are as important to the outcome of the adventure as the ones you have with the characters outside your group, and where decisions about who to accept into your party really change the experience of the game.
7. I thought Baldur's Gate was interesting, but after the 300th wandering monster encounter I finally lost interest. This one had me spellbound to the end.
8. I, my wife, and a friend of ours completed the game in parallel, all at around the same time, with different ideas about who we were and why we acted the way we did. The endgame was different (and uniquely satisfying) for each of us.

For the price it goes for now, if you enjoy RPG's at all you really owe it to yourself to try Torment.

Rating:
Summary: Best RPG Ever. Period
Review: This game was a little slow to start so if you are going to install it be preparred to spend a few hours right away. Bring some reading glasses as well because this game is very text based and intellectual. Once I got into this game however, I realised I had never played anything with so much depth and originality in game play. Absolutely brilliant game. Deals with Religon, afterlife, philosophy you will be lost in thought throught your experience. I hope to god they make a sequel, because this game is the reason I play RPGs. If you are an RPG fan and have some time...spend it here. If you don't like this game; I am afraid your just not very smart, so go play another Diablo clone.

Rating:
Summary: Another Decent RPG by Black Isle Studios
Review: My current RPG is Planescape Torment. Black Isle studios release from a couple of years back. Developed primarly using Direct X functions, this game is similar to their other games that they have released, which take advantage of different aspects of TSR's universe.

I like it so far, but my one complaint with it is that there is alot of talking to people and very little focus on advancing your characeter through battle. It would be nice to make the next title something more like the old Final Fantasy games. I was thinking of Neverwinter Nights or Dungeon Seige. I prolly go with the Nights.

Rating:
Summary: Torment
Review: After reading a description of the game I thought:"Hmmm well, sounds strange, but since it is the only RPG game around right now I might as well buy it". I started out with low expectations, boy was I wrong!
In the game you play a scarred and unnamed immortal. Yes you read it right, I said Immortal. You can not die in this game(with a few exeptions). So you say, doesn't that take all the fun out of the game? No, it doesn't. After all, in all other games you just re-load a previous save untill you win the battle. The whole game is very plot-driven, and what a plot it is! There is alot of interaction with other characters around you, and the NPC's you can get to travel with you are very original indeed, this is definately not your standard, dwarf warrior or elf archer. There is a good amount of interaction between the NPC's in the group as well, and not just smalltalk, but also plotrelated conversations.
As you travel on the plot continues to thicken and you find out a good deal about yourself, and your past lives. Another interesting feature is the way that you can "switch" between classes(eg. mage, warrior, cleric), this make your character very versatile, and enjoyable.
The game is set in the city of Sigil, in the Planescape world. The planescape is not your average "Tolkienish" world, it is very strange and has alot of odd and different features compared to i.e. Forgotten Realms.
This is not a game for everyone, I have met many people that found the setting and the story "too weird" or "too strange", although if found it very enjoyable, getting away from the average fantasy universe for a time.
The dialogue is also some of the best I have seen in computer RPG's so far, long and detailed descriptions. Almost like having a Gamemaster in front of you instead of a computer. The graphics are somewhat gritty, but that only makes the mood stronger as the it fits the style of the game just perfect.
I don't really like to compare Torment to other RPG's. It is difficult since it uses and entire different world and a very different gallery of persons.
My personal opinion is, as you propably know, that this is one of the best Computer roleplaying games out there, underline ROLEPLAY.

Rating:
Summary: The best computer roleplaying game ever made
Review: This game is quite simply the best computer roleplaying game ever made.

The backdrop of the story is the most original and artistic I've ever seen in a computer game, and one of the best settings I've seen in paper & pencil roleplaying. While the setting uses elements of other fantasy, fiction, and history (elves, demons, zombies, etc.), the way they are arranged and utilized along with original ideas will blow you away from time to time. The architecture and character designs are beautiful at times, and always intriguing. One of the best aspects of this game is that it doesn't assume the player knows about the setting; rather, it introduces the strange and wonderful setting gradually as the game goes along, so the player can take it all in and appreciate it.

The actual gameplay is great. The game is easy to control and the interface is very user-friendly and intuitive. The player's options for what to do in the game slowly widen, so the player isn't overwhelmed with complex decisions early-on.

The actual story and character development is inspiring for roleplayers like me. Anyone running and Dungions & Dragons (or other roleplaying game) campaign should play this game for a while to see what an immersive, entertaining roleplaying story is like. Some PC games and roleplaying campaigns put a player's character as a tiny speck in a wide world, meaningless and useless in the grand scheme of things, while other games build the whole world around the player. This game puts the main character within his own mystery he must uncover, discovering the world and meeting people, while there is a whole world (infinite planes of existence, really) out there to interact with, that exists independent of the characters. This game does a very good job at making the player feel a personal connection to the character and the strange world through which he travels.

The only roleplaying game that comes close to this is Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, because it is so non-linear and immersive. The only way Morrowind excells beyond this game is in graphics. It is tragic that Wizards of the Coast discontinued the Planescape setting when it bought Dungeons & Dragons, so we may never again see a Planescape game. My only hope is that Black Isle someday remakes this amazing game with the new Neverwinter Nights engine. They really should...it would introduce this great title to gamers around the world who glance over it because it is a 2D game with dated graphics.

If you haven't played this game, read this review, and other reviews, and then do yourself a favor and buy this game here or at your local software store. You can probably find it in the bargain bin. Give the game an hour or so...if you don't like it, you only spent the cash it would take to watch the latest big-budget Hollywood cliche, and were probably a hundred times more mentally engaged. If you do like it, keep going - it only gets better.

Rating:
Summary: awesome
Review: this is an awesome game....it's kept me busy for hours....the graphics are great and the plot keeps twisting and turning...you never know what to expect!

Rating:
Summary: Torment the soul
Review: This game was pretty awesome...I picked it up because it was cheap even though I have never heard of it before.

It has a good storyline that kept you interested in what more you could learn about the mysterious character that you play. Torment kept giving you little pieces of your memory as certain events or items triggered them. An interesting concept. The graphics and sound were impressive, as was the witty humor from the floating skull(pretty funny).

In all, it was very well thought out sleep devouring game that kept you in the dark and action for most of the gameplay.

Rating:
Summary: A game of games, truly Art.
Review: A few nights ago I saw the movie Momento. The movie "borrowed" heavily from Planescape: Torment. While watching, my lost (and treasured) memory of Torment resurfaced (you read right). I was skeptical when I first picked up the box a few years back, it seemed profoundly strange, obscure and the beneficiary of massive drug induced creativity. And in truth it is all those and more, and that's why its so genius and a genuine original. The possibilities and curiosities plagued me and I had to buy it. Not in my greatest of expectations did I expect what ensued.

The game takes place mostly in the dark keystone of an infinite universe(s). Sigil the City of Doors, where any contained space may be a door, from the circumscribed area of table and its legs, to the eye of a needle. Where reality is determined by the popular beliefs of its denizens. The setting, characters and story are among the best I have ever seen in a game anywhere in the last 10 years. Funny, mysterious, engaging, beautiful, touching, and definitely thought provoking. The Immortal One is on an epic journey through time and space, searching for... death and subsequently redemption. Torment is so refreshingly
untraditional and deep. Through the lives of countless beings it is ultimately about one man. A man so Tormented by an unknown past and unattainable future he longs only for the rest and dignity of the grave. The Immortal One moves ever close to his goal as he has for countless times before, discovering who he was and what he can be. And the unspeakable ambition of his original incarnation for which he wanders in damnation.

The ending did not satisfy me at first reaction. A place such as Planescape left my mind wanting to stay. This is how I first reacted to the end of the Lord of the Rings. It was melancholy in LotR and dark in Torment... but so can life be. The more I pondered these endings the more meaningful I found them.
Stephen Crane (The Open Boat) - "Now, however, it quaintly came to him as a human,living thing. It was no longer merely a picture of a few throes in the ...of a poet,meanwhile drinking tea and warming his feet at the grate; -- stern, mournful, and fine."

Planescape: Torment is interactive literature. I give it a 97%, 3% off for very unnoticeable tech issues. This is one of the deepest games ever made.