The greatest trick that Planescape Torment pulled is disguising its verbosity – an eye-watering script of 800,000 words – by relying on, and then swiftly subverting conventions. As an immortal known as The Nameless One, you wake up on a mortuary slab with no memory of how you came to be there. Typically this would be an opportunity for exposition, a perfect moment to explain to the player, via a cast of characters, about their circumstances, while allowing them to project their own identities onto a blank slate. But then a talking, floating skull points out that your body is heavily scarred, including one tattoo on your back with instructions on discovering your past lives. And it turns out the tale behind Planescape Torment is a more personal one. It’s about unravelling The Nameless One’s lifetimes of history, resonant with memories, rather than an altruistic, heroic odyssey to right a cosmic wrong.
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