And so i finish my four-month sprint of the Infinity Engine games with the best one, Planescape: Torment. I did manage to finish it in December, but only after my monthly post, so i decided to roll it over to 2025

There's a few reasons why it's the best of the four, but the simplest one is the de-emphasis on combat, which was the least entertaining part of these games for my modern brain. Not only is there a lot less combat overall, but your main character is immortal, so combat deaths are just an inconvenience, rather than a game reload. He also gains the 'raise dead' ability pretty early, so companion deaths are similarly inconsequential

Replacing the missing combat is a much greater focus on writing and dialogue, which suits me nicely. The lore of the Planescape setting is so dense and strange, and the characters so rich and interesting, that i rarely got tired of reading about it all. Dialogue choices are expanded as well, with more options for persuasion, intimidation, or even sneaky logical deduction. Most conversation paths simply lead to more exploration of the world, characters, and the various themes floating around, however

For some plot setup: your character wakes up in a mortuary with no memory. Your initial goal is to find out where you are, who or what killed you, and why it didn’t stick. You find some notes tattooed on yourself as starting pointers, and following these eventually reveals your immortality and the numerous lives you've already lived – which obviously leads to a quest to resolve that mystery. Along the way, you'll meet an array of strange characters in stranger settings, attracting the strangest to be your companions

Like i said before, a lot of Planescape: Torment is reading, even if it's very good reading. I got the same feeling exploring the details of this uncanny world as i did reading fantasy novels in my younger years, and so every now and then, i wondered whether a medium like a book or movie would suit the story better. I would always quickly reject that idea, because so much of the story is centered around your narrative choices, and how you (the player) choose to present this character, when faced with the results of his past actions

Planescape: Torment is a lot more narrative and dialogue-focused than Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, which i think is a better fit for this genre – although it's easy to say that with writing this good. Be prepared for lots of reading, but also for some new existential thoughts and questions living in your head