History VideoGame / PlanEscapeTorment

** "Berk," a fairly common term of address, is short for "Berkshire Hunt," which is rhyming slang for... [[CountryMatters Cats]].

* BonusBoss: If you resolve the Morridor's Box quest by [[spoiler:getting a priest to banish the fiend inside it]], the fiend will somehow transform into an extremely powerful monster that can be fought in [[spoiler:the ruins of Curst]].

** Annah's [[http://www.gamehotties.com/images/annah/annah.jpg outfit]]. Weakly justified as her infernal heritage giving her increased body heat.

Released in 1999 by Black Isle Studios, who also created the famous BaldursGate series, and set in the ''DungeonsAndDragons'' setting ''{{Planescape}}'' in the Outer Planes, the RolePlayingGame ''Planescape: Torment'' was applauded for its storyline and script. What starts off looking like a stereotypical amnesia tale drops you and your hero into a very strange world with interlocking plotlines about your past, complete with a series of helpers who may or may not know more than they're letting on. It's like ''Film/{{Memento}}'' in computer game form.

* OneSceneWonder: This game has more than a few, among them the following: [[spoiler:Ravel Puzzlewell, meeting the incarnations, and, of course, the Transcendent One.]]

* PlayerPunch: [[spoiler:When navigating the Fortress of Regrets, you have to watch as each of your scattered party members are approached by the Transcendent One. They all die. And there's nothing you can do to stop it.]]

Released in 1999 by Black Isle Studios and set in the ''DungeonsAndDragons'' setting ''{{Planescape}}'' in the Outer Planes, the RolePlayingGame ''Planescape: Torment'' was applauded for its storyline and script. What starts off looking like a stereotypical amnesia tale drops you and your hero into a very strange world with interlocking plotlines about your past, complete with a series of helpers who may or may not know more than they're letting on. It's like ''Film/{{Memento}}'' in computer game form.

* BalancingDeathsBooks: [[spoiler:Every time the Nameless One resurrects, someone else dies in his place. Their ghosts become the shades that periodically attack the party.]]

* BrokenBridge: You can't get out of the Hive until a specific event. When asked about it, Hive dwellers mutter something about "the streets being rearranged again."

** [[spoiler: The Transcendent One's]] theme is a DarkReprise of The Nameless One's.

* {{MacGuffin}}: The bronze sphere ''seems'' like this. [[SubvertedTrope Make sure you get it back as soon as you can and hold onto it, though.]]

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Your party. You can potentially recruit, in addition to the amnesiac immortal you start with: a floating [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] skull who doubles as MrExposition, an old githzerai [[MagicKnight zerth]] with a sword shaped by thought, a brash tiefling thief, an agnostic celibate succubus cleric, [[spoiler:a fire sorcerer whose body is a gateway to the Elemental Plane of Fire, a cubic robot gone rogue, and a suit of armor possessed by the restless spirit of a dead KnightTemplar]].

* {{RPGs Equal Combat}}: For a game with so much emphasis on dialogue, some areas are filled with trash mobs.

** Good Incarnation: "I needed more time, and I needed more life." This is an allusion to [[BladeRunner Roy Batty]]'s line: "I need more life, f___er."

It's also well-known for being heavy on the personal interactions and puzzles, while relatively light on the combat -- so much so that it's more a highly interactive novel than a game. In many situations, your allies are more useful for the advice they can bring and the clues they can decipher than any capacity as "another warm body to throw at the enemy" (although [[HornyDevils some of them]] are [[InfernalRetaliation pretty hot indeed]]). For a complete gaming experience, creating a character with high intelligence gives the best dialogue options.

* NoodleIncident: [[spoiler: The first incarnation's crime. It's never revealed what it is, but a thousand lifetimes of saintly penance wouldn't even begin to make up for it.]]

* ImmortalityImmorality: The Nameless One had a good reason for not wanting to die: [[spoiler:his first incarnation had committed a horrible atrocity and sought immortality to avoid going to hell]].

*** Which can come as an even bigger punch in the gut when you realize that up until then, you've treated temporary death as a minor convenience or even ''an easy solution to some sidequests''. Remember when that Sensate paid you good money to get to kill you? Someone else took that blade for you.

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:The game's three bosses are a nigh-omnipotent demon witch, [[OurAngelsAreDifferent an angel]], and a creature that, through thousands of years of accumulated experience, has basically become a PhysicalGod. By the end of the game, you will have defeated at least two of them in combat, and will have the option of [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talking]] the third into submission.]]

* CessationOfExistence: [[spoiler:In two of the endings, where the Nameless One kills himself with the Blade of the Immortal or wills himself out of existence. The end video only shows the Transcendent One disintegrating and then nothing, as the Nameless One has removed himself from existence altogether.]] Considering that all other endings end up with [[spoiler:the Nameless One going to Hell]], this may qualify as the best ending.

* BattleRoyaleWithCheese

* {{Immortality}}: A toss up between Types III and IV - you sort of "fall into darkness," but then get better.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Your party. You can potentially recruit, in addition to the amnesiac immortal you start with: a floating [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] skull who doubles as MrExposition, an old githzerai [[MagicKnight zerth]] with a sword shaped by thought, a brash tiefling thief, an agnostic celibate succubus cleric, [[spoiler:a fire sorcerer whose body is a gateway to the Elemental Plane of Fire, a cubic robot gone rogue, and a suit of armor possessed by the restless spirit of a dead KnightTemplar]].

[[redirect:PlanescapeTorment]]