Planescape Torment

I can’t not mention this game. I don’t know if in the almost ten years since it’s launch I have yet seen another game with this much focus on story & plot… though believe me I have searche and searched. Though not quite as branching and freedong giving like my beloved Fallout 2 it’s got a much more lyrical flow to it: you play the story of an immortal cursed to never die, or actually die many deaths, always losing himself more and more. I was particularly fascinated by the experiences with your past selves. I’m not talking about the above clip, but the experience as you move through the world and you encounter the actions of those that were you, but are you no more, as they may even strongly oppose you and be your biggest enemies, like your paranoid past self who in his (justified imho) selfishness does not want future selves. The game is full of heartfelt moments, touchign on love, destiny, self… and a lot on relationships, even though for that i can tell you less because the game was powerful enough to let me play a lot of it even by myself. How many other games can you think of with this much story and dialogue? And if you still don’t believe me: check out the brilliant novelization done by Rhyss Hess based on the brilliant writing of Chris Avellone and Colin McComb. And this is NOT like other game novelizations (caugh caugh … i’m not even going to name names… caugh) where the novel has little to do with the game: the game is just about killing stuff while the book actually contains the depth that the game should have had, this is I think 99% plain old copy-paste out of the game. 227 pages worth. And I seem to recall i once saw 2x that, one book for the good path and another for the evil one (yes, there are actually meaningful choices!). I bow my head in admiration of this amazing masterpiece!

PS: the concept of the sensory stones is still one of the most brilliant i have ever found in my extensive searches, as is the city of doors with the keys being anything from a feeling to a tune…