If you were a fan of Baldur's Gate when it first arrived on PC, your game of the year has just arrived. That is, until Baldur's Gate II surfaces, of course...
Mark Eveleigh

It all began such a long time ago, when The Bard's Tale first surfaced in the days of 8bit gaming. More recently there was Baldur's Gate, a monstrous RPG that grabbed you from the beginning of the epic story to the conclusion, provoking many sleepless nights for PC gamers.

After Baldur's Gate and its later expansion disk, Tales Of The Sword Coast, the PC RPG market has remained somewhat sparse. Enter Planescape Torment, another AD&D-based game from Black Isle Studios. This had to be good as it uses the same game engine as Baldur's Gate, but when you discover the game behind the engine, Baldur's Gate will be a distant memory as you engage in yet another epic quest.

Planescape Torment is a monster of a game. When you first install it and begin to play, you'll be surprised to find your main character is a tattooed, scarred, half-dead-looking man. Not only that, but your sidekick is none other than Morte, the talking skull. Oh, and you also wake up in a mortuary, which seems to have been your dormant domain for quite some time.

As you progress through the adventure you'll meet a wealth of characters willing to join your cause and each of these has their own spells and abilities, based upon their species and origin. Ignus, for example, is an utter pyromaniac; a wizard whose burning corpse stays alive simply because he wants to burn things. As a result, he has some brilliant fire-based spells that only he can learn.