Pleasure. (Planescape - Torment (PC))

Member Name: Odinsday

Product:	Planescape - Torment (PC)
Date:	03/10/00 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Atomospheric, Gripping Plot, Hours of Play.

Disadvantages: Requires about 10% to much knowledge of AD&D mechanics.

"One of these days you'll wake up dead" said my mum, exsaparated with me daydreaming instead of doing the chores. And you know what? She was right.

In Torment, you play a corpse that's just woken up on a mortuary slab. You know nothing about the world you live in, what you are doing dead, and even what your name is. From then on you are 'The Nameless One'.

If you hadn't guessed from the box, or the CD's or the slim manual, a talking skull called Morte soon makes you realise that your in a fantasy world. Unlike normal Tolkeinesque fantasy, it's a pretty Grimy place called Sigil, the centre of the Planes. You'll learn the rest as you go along. I had to. And the journey is fun.

Sigil is part of the 'Planescape' setting for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (Ad&D). I'm not a role-player myself, but my friends who are love this setting, and I can see why. It's dark, power has it's price, heroes live in the gutter and the chances of a happy ending seem slim. Luckily Morte adds a little humour to the situation so you don't end up feeling to depressed about it all.

Gameplay? To be honest, the reason I've not mentioned it is because it doesn't get in the way. The mechanics are simple enough, the graphics a little dark but well drawn and the underlying AD&D mechanics don't get in the way to much after reading the manual. Pointing and clicking with the mouse becomes second nature as you get immersed in the plot.

The actually plot line seems to be pretty non-linear to me (having played it at a similar time to me), with your actions effecting how people relate to you later. The game world reveals itself slowly, with several twists, clever turns and one or two places where you can second guess the plot and feel clever for doing so.

It's as close as I've played to a 'real' RPG on a computer. Hours and hours of gaming on 4
CDs. Now looking forward to finishing it and looking at Baldurs gate 1 and 2 and Icewind Dale, all based on the same game engine, but in different worlds.

Summary: