Premise
The main character is known as the Nameless One, a man without a past who can’t die. After waking up in a morgue, he begins a quest to discover not only who he is, but how to stop the endless cycle of death and rebirth he is trapped within. He soon finds himself surrounded by an eclectic band of adventurers as he journeys through Sigil, a world-between-worlds where castaways, demons, monsters, and even gods wander the streets and try to scrape together a living.Review
While the premise of this game may seem stereotypical at first, you should know that this game handles nearly every RPG trope with its own unique style. Unlike a spoof game like The Bard that openly mocks things like random monsters having money or the player character being a Chosen One, in Planescape the developers have used the same set of paints to create a picture that is completely different from what we normally see.For example, while most games would use an amnesiac protagonist as an easy way to avoid lots of initial backstory and reveal the world and plot during the course of gameplay, regaining the Nameless One’s memories is the primary conflict of the plot. There is no world coming to an end, no MacGuffin to find or princess to save. The story is a very personal one, the journey of a single man to learn who and what he is.
Another difference in this game is the focus placed on dialogue. While most games in this genre use combat as the main way for characters to gain in skill and advance the plot, in Planescape it’s in conversation that the majority of the gameplay takes place. Almost every NPC encountered has an expansive, branching dialogue tree, and nearly every conversation has a potential XP reward associated with it. As a result, the world of Sigil feels more realistic than any number of beautifully-rendered backdrops from less story-driven games.
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| A comparison of Planescape's dialogue trees with a more modern RPG. |
So, is there a downside to this heavy focus on storytelling? Oddly enough, I think the biggest issue with this game is re-playability. While the writing in the dialogue trees is often interesting and evocative, it is surprisingly confining. There’s a clear best-option in each conversation with an associated reward attached. The lack of focus on combat also means that the dungeon sections are more tedious than enjoyable, which is weird since most of the equipment and skills in the game are used for fighting.
If you’re a fan of story-heavy RPGs, I would say that this is definitely a game to play all the way to completion at least once in your life, though you may never feel a desire to go through it all over again a second time.
I remember the first time I played this game when I was a teenager, I am a big fan of RPG's and got this from a friend I remember that it was so different from what I was used to but it was so engaging that I would spend hours on it and then later I read a walkthrough and found so much more i could have done, but I remember that when I finished the game I felt such a sense of accomplishment, story wise it was great but playing wise it was very unwieldy at times and combat was difficult with multiple characters, otherwise great article about a great game.
ReplyDeleteJerry
Thanks Jerry. I actually didn't discover this game until five years ago or so while browsing on Gog.com, but it's definitely become one of my favorite Western RPG's when I'm looking for something with plenty of good writing.
DeleteI remember this game fondly. As you say, it uses typical tropes in an engaging way to tell a story different from the typical RPG. And it's a fantastic introduction to the Planescape D&D setting, which was quite popular at the time the game was made.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that we never had another game set in the Planescape multiverse. There's so much potential in this dark, rule-bending setting. I've heard that some developers on Kickstarter are working on a spiritual successor, but I don't know any details.
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