A (wait for it) ADULT computer game! By golly yes (Planescape - Torment (PC))

Member Name: Deaner666

Product:	Planescape - Torment (PC)
Date:	11/09/01 (547 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: intelligent, adult, addictive

Disadvantages: too addictive?, bye bye social life, not for kids

Sadly I am a Dungeons and Dragons veteran. It's not something I'm proud of, but it is a hobby I can pursue without embarassing recrimination thanks to a software company known as Black Isle. These darling people are responsible for bringing the world of Role-Playing (RP) to the masses in the form of graphical adventure games for the PC. They started out with the superlative post-apocalyptic Fallout series (recently extended with the new Fallout Tactics game). They then moved into partnership with TSR (the makers of Dungeons and Dragons) to bring us the ubiquitously lauded Baldur's Gate. If you've heard of PC games you've heard of Baldur's Gate. Well the same engine is used for Planescape: Torment - the difference however is the subject matter.

Even as a fan of D&D, I recognise it's slightly childish short-comings. Planescape completely overthrows this problem with an overall theme that encompasses everything from necrophilia to interdimensional existentialism. Whew, this is heavy stuff... and not for the faint-hearted or easily offended. It is finally a game in an adult market that can actually claim to be adult oriented. For too long have games companies held onto the idea that computer games are for kids, despite the success of the Playstation amongst adults and the knowledge that adults are the primary purchasers of video games. We are still steeped in an ethos of video games = childish end-user. Well, Planescape: Torment ardently rejects such commercially viable rubbish and cuts to the fact that games buyers are adults. Not to get too detailed in an article that will be read by a wide variety of age ranges, Planescape encompasses a host of adult themes... You wake up on a morgue table with no idea of who you are, prior to having an autopsy performed on you for crying out loud!

You continue on to replace body parts, find equipment hidden in bodily tracts and all manner of hitherto tabboo topics in the realm of compu
ter games. However, unlike the Quakes and Duke Nukems of this world, Planescape doesn't attain it's adult rating through gratuitous use of gore and violence - it is its innovative use of adult plot that sets it head and shoulders above the competition. You won't find beardy dwarves and legions of kobolds here (to incorporate the necessary D&D cliches into the review)... you'll find neurotic immortals who've spent eternity encased in flames and pregnant alleyways (yes alleyways). As you can see, Planescape's storyline is comparable to that of the most imaginative of novels. And that's the beauty of this game - it really transcends the tiresome computer game typicalities that have built up over the years and brings us to a new standard of design. It's far and away the best benchmark for the RP genre... and the benchmark for any game that would claim to incorporate an innovative plot. It's now out on budget. So buy it. Or else.

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