Planescape: Torment and the RPG That Asked a Question Instead of Handing You a Quest

The tagline of Planescape: Torment was a question: what can change the nature of a man? It is an unusual thing to build a fantasy role-playing game around in 1999, when the genre’s usual promise was a bigger sword and a bigger dragon. It is also a fair summary of what the game was actually about.

Planescape: Torment was made by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay for the PC in December 1999. It ran on the Infinity Engine, the isometric, pausable real-time technology that BioWare had built for Baldur’s Gate, so it looked at first glance like a cousin of that game. It was not. It used the Planescape setting from Dungeons & Dragons, a strange, philosophical corner of the tabletop game’s multiverse, and it opened in Sigil, the City of Doors, a place ruled by a silent, feared figure known as the Lady of Pain.

You play the Nameless One, a scarred man who wakes on a slab in a mortuary with no memory and, it turns out, no ability to die permanently. Death is not a fail state here; it is a mechanic and a mystery. Dying can open new routes, and the game’s central puzzle is who you were in previous lives and what you did in them. Your companions include Morte, a floating, insult-slinging skull, and several others who are more than sidekicks. Their stories are tied to yours in ways that reward paying attention.

The design idea worth remembering is how the game treats words. In most role-playing games of the period, you gain experience by fighting. In Torment, conversations, choices and quest resolutions carry much of the weight, and dialogue is enormously dense, with attributes such as Wisdom and Intelligence unlocking lines and options rather than just adjusting numbers. Combat exists, and many players and critics have long felt it was the weaker part, but it is possible to treat it as the least interesting thing on offer. That was a genuine departure from the genre’s conventions, and by most accounts it was intentional.

The game was widely praised for its writing on release, but it was, by most accounts, a modest seller. That is a large part of why it sits in the “overlooked” pile despite its reputation. Its reputation has grown over the years to the point where it is routinely named in lists of the best-written games ever made. It is a common comparison for any later game that tries to make a role-playing world feel like a place of ideas rather than a place of errands.

Its legacy runs in several directions. Torment: Tides of Numenera, released in 2017 by inXile Entertainment, was pitched as a spiritual successor after a successful crowdfunding campaign. And in 2017 Beamdog released Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition, which modernized the game for current displays and systems and put it back on sale for a new audience. Check current storefronts for availability, as listings change.

The opinion part: Planescape: Torment is not a game for everyone, and it asks for patience. There is a lot of reading. But it demonstrates something that the industry still forgets. A role-playing game does not need to be about power. It can be about identity, regret and consequence, and a thoughtful conversation can be as tense as any boss fight.