Recently (as covered in a previous entry) I picked up a copy of Planescape: Torment, the best game you probably never played.
I’ve probably sunk around 22–26 hours into it so far, and the deeper I get into the game the more astounded I am by how ambitious Black Isle were.
The world is incredibly immersive. You can talk to anyone, and every zone has a healthy number of characters with some importance to the story. Stumbling into conversation with a random person on the street can uncover a whole new thread of the plot, and open new doors to your progression. Dialogue options actually matter, unlike most RPGs where their purpose is merely to encourage the delusion that your choices have an impact. (After all, most people only play through once so how would they know if they really made a difference? Right?) An impressive amount of the dialogue has audio too, and the voice actors are usually excellent.
The interactions between your various party members are also very interesting. There are two female characters who will both compete for your attention, a warrior with a long and mysterious past, a talking skull who lies to you compulsively yet sticks by your side… and more. The variety and thought that has gone into the character design is truly impressive.
The game constantly presents you with decisions to make. Some of them may not be important in the long run, but enough are that you think about each carefully. It leaves you with the feeling that your actions really do make a difference to the world.
It’s the small touches that make the difference though. The things you can only come upon by chance, yet add so much depth to the story. I’d wager that the average person sees about one third of the game on the first play through. Countless times I’ve got some interesting plot clue from a random scrap of parchment, an odd looking person in the street, or something found in a hidden compartment.
The fact that there is so much to the game means you never feel pushed into a particular path. You find yourself doing pretty much what you want your character to do, and the game finds a way to make that work. It is astounding that so much content was put into the game, but the effort that must have gone into tying it all together so nicely must surely have been even more immense.
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