Planescape is one of the best games that I have ever played.  It accomplishes a true mastery of its genre, and wields its mastery like a magic carpet to take you on a whirlwind trip.  Does it satisfy every gamer?  No, definitely not.  This is because it is so good in what it specializes.  Some others might not get it.  It is like an NFL enthusiast trying to get into Cricket for the first time. Nonetheless, it is a superb game.

The basis of Planescape is not any type of game play.  It is narrative.  The whole game wraps around the desire to tell a story.  Then all the pieces of a game fit to conform.  That is where the mastery is.  Most games might try to do a good story or apply it as a second thought, but most, even good games, can't seem to work it out.  Usually, combat or challenges of some sort get chosen over the narrative in order to make a game more exciting or fun. 

Planescape doesn't seem to compromise.  It's not that there isn't any combat or challenges.  They merely take second place. In some spots, the reverse is true as combat feels secondary.  Quite a reversal of roles, to say the least.

The story is a great whodunit in the realms of Dungeons and Dragons.  Planescape doesn't have quite the same as any of the lore you'd find in the D&D books or the other games, but it has strong elements.  It's a little more seemly and urban.  It also is, believe it or not, a little more fantastical.

You'll find it familiar if you have ever played Baldur's Gate (any) as it is the same engine.  The game is placed in the isometric view with a real time setting but a pause button that you can use during combat.  Combat is real time (with allowable pausing) but following the Dungeons and Dragons rules. 

Speaking of Baldur's Gate, they have a very similar NPC system.  You could definitely argue that Torment is better.  An insignificant NPC with a standard name like "Villager" can give you unique information.   The NPC's dialogue updates.  In many of the old RPG's, an NPC might speak once and then maybe if you are lucky, you can get a different line or two later.  Here, you speak to many NPC's over and over again getting new information from them.  Your party members have new things to say until the end of the game.

The party's individual dialogue with your protagonist ends up telling great stories within themselves.  These are a motley crew of characters.  Not to give away too much of the story, but you have amnesia.  Hence, when you travel with a group of people who you meet on the way, how do you know if this is your first time meeting them?  Can they even be trusted?  Even the merchant NPC may have information about you that you don't know.  You can see how this could drive the story.

The quests are nicely varied in length, plot and distance.  You get some easy ones to keep the game from feeling like the hose at my house looks, a tangled mess.  These are displaced by long running ones that have rich, satisfying endings.  This also allows for nice work with subplots that might wither in other games.

The combat system works okay and will seem familiar to people who've played a lot of the older D&D video games.  Oddly enough, it didn't shine as much as the other parts of the game.  If you liked Icewind Dale, I'm sure that you'll like it.  However, many won't find it the reason to come back.  This mixed with flawed pathfinding can even detract from the game in spots. 

Some will not like the lack of challenge at certain stages in the game.  Challenges go both ways in the beginning because you start off with a tiny party that doesn't have the possibility to fill all the slots until nearly halfway through the game.  So, you can lose or win fairly quickly, which upsets some people.  I wouldn't put much stock into this since this game isn't supposed to challenge your keyboard skills.  It's a game based more on the cerebral.  Mix that with the fact that killer spells actually are killer for a change; why not enjoy a quick battle?

The experience point system is driven more by plot than fighting.  That's a nice break from the norm.  You can find it in a lot of nooks and crannies.  It also gets you to keep talking with all the aforementioned NPC's.  There also isn't an over binding effect where you are stuck being a mage with 8 intelligence.  You can flip-flop your trade such that you can fit your player's attributes, or you can work your player's attributes to fit your needs. 

They have a decent economy system which makes you watch you money.  Like modern games, they do let you off the hook a little by having areas where monsters respawn.  To me, this is a cop out.  Torment does this in a way that is at least believable.  There are fewer items to buy with your money.  In fact, your main character can't even wear any body armor (even though he has a slot for it.)  In the end, it does make certain items more coveted, so it mildly works.

There are some visual issues.  You can't reset the resolution, which is usually not a big deal for me but in this case it forces two problems.  First, the visuals are not stunning.  They are fine but dated under our standards and they weren't even the top of the line in its day.  In fact, everything is a little dingy which can make the game feel a little stale and lifeless.  Some people may like the dirty palette.  I didn't.  Although, I also did not find it distracting or insufficient.  It is actually appropriate to the story and in the end holds up to help that most important point.

Second, the graphics mixed with the close-in isometric view give you very little visual area.  I didn't understand why they didn't zoom out a little.  They have a fog of war and an active area, so I didn't understand why they went in the direction that they did.  I'm sure there was a memory issue, but they could have relaxed texture resolution in order overcome this weakness.

Planescape does deliver some good visual prompts.  You can mouse over many objects in order to see what I'll call an alt tag.  This helps you get used to an area as well as understand where to go and even forgive a less than well modeled piece of architecture.

Whatever is lacking in the visual is the opposite in the audio.  This is a great sounding game.  It even holds up today.  The soundtrack is one of the best that I've heard in a game.  It works well with the action, story, etc.  Sound effects and voice over are well done, too.  If you look up the names of the voice over actors, you'll probably recognize a few of them or their previous work.  They didn't go cheap on this section.

The biggest weakness of the game is the bugs.  There are some serious crash issues as well as things that appear to be just unfinished.  They may have run out of money.  The one good thing about playing the game now is that it is so beloved by a community that there are some good user generated patches.  However, these patches will not fix everything, and you will get crashes that not only cause you to ctrl-alt-del, but also reboot.  It can get very frustrating on certain maps. 

If you get the old version, you'll have to swap out CD's a lot.  Make sure that you get the fix for that issue as well as some that cure side-quest continuity.  Some patches boast large bug fixes, and I'm sure they catch a lot, but you probably won't escape from significant crashes.

The end of the game leaves some questions.  My guess is that they were setting up a sequel.  This bothers me with games, books and movies.  Then again, a good story can break this rule.  I wanted the story to continue at the end.  I still do.

Recommended: Yes