Conversation is more than just window dressing, it's a vital part of building your character.
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One thing you can say for this latest RPG from Interplay's Black Isle division is that it's, um, different. Based on the Planescape campaign setting from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and using a modified version of the Infinity Engine that debuted in last year's epic game Baldur's Gate, Torment junks the usual elves, dwarves, and goblins for tieflings, dabus, bariaurs, and other denizens of the Planes. From what we can tell after a few hours play, the result is both intriguing and exciting.
Your stats. You begin the game with more than you might expect, but also much less.
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Set in Sigil, aka the Cage, Torment tells the story of The Nameless One (that's you), a human male who awakes in the Mortuary, where presumably he's supposed to be still a corpse. From that point on you acquire a collection of bizarre companions, a host of definitely non-standard items, and a lot (and we mean a lot) of chances to talk to the locals. Sigil is unique in the Planes, a city at the crossroads of the multiverse where the Powers (gods, to most of us) can't interfere and beings from all walks of life and unlife coexist, more or less. Ruled by the enigmatic and terrifying Lady of Pain, Sigil is the city of doors, containing portals to nearly anywhere you could imagine. Finding those portals, and the keys needed to operate them, is another matter entirely. Apparently, a lot of your adventuring will involve locating doors and figuring out how to pass through to wherever they lead.
The area map is helpfully annotated.
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So far, this is one dark and interesting game. There's lots of macabre humor, some rather deviant sexual references, and enough weirdness to send the devotees of Tolkienesque fantasy running for their copies of The Hobbit. The interface is a streamlined version of the one used and abused in Baldur's Gate, and the view is zoomed in more so the characters are larger. The artwork is so far superb, as is the music; who says a game has to be 3D to be good looking? Technically, we've had a few problems with random slowdowns and crashes when you try to leave an area without resolving a forced conversational event, but overall this four CD game seems to be working pretty well.
Mayhem in the Mortuary. Combat is very similar to Baldur's Gate.
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One of the real differences between Torment and most other RPGs is that conversation is actually as beneficial as fighting in advancing your character. You begin as an immortal fighter, magic user, and thief, who has lost most of his memories and abilities. As you talk to NPCs and observe them, you gain experience, trigger memories, and acquire special abilities, all simulating your reawakening into the realm of the living. It's not uncommon to rack up a couple thousand experience points just by rattling your bone-box (talking, to you clueless berks out there). While your character starts with fairly modest stats, you get character points as you level, and you can assume that by the endgame you'll be a pretty frightful blood ready to take on the worst Sigil can offer. Or not-it's a pretty nasty place.
We'll have a full review coming along shortly, as soon as we can finish this one. For now, it's definitely something to keep an eye out for. Just remember to put the eye back in when you're done.-
by Robert Mayer
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