Torment

Fitting Name!

In Torment, you are spared the opportunity to create a character for yourself… kind of. Your race, name (such as it is) and gender are already pre-defined. You are the Nameless One, a barely recognizable human who is immortal for all intents and purposes. Throughout the game you'll take horrific beatings and die quite a few times (even voluntarily). It is will soon become clear that you die a great deal, and judging by the multitude of scars covering your body, you die grisly deaths. At least once in the past, though, you seem to have found out much about yourself, as there are detailed instructions what to do upon death. Thus, even if you lose your memory, you still know roughly what to do and what you need. The tattoos tell you to find a man named Pharod and to keep your journal at all costs. Problem is, upon waking up on the concrete slab at the start of the game, you have no journal.

But they look so cute!

Run you fat toad!

An Unfortunate Situation…

Now, without your memories (and all those abilities that come with them), and lacking an object of vital importance, you set out on your quest to rediscover yourself. It seems, however, that you are not alone on this quest. A big mouthed, disembodied, flying skull named Morte decides to join you provided you can get him out of the same predicament you find yourself in - captured by the Dustmen who think you're dead.

One of many, many, many load screens for you

Look, it's a Lady of Pain Clock!

Humble Beginnings

The beginning of the game serves very well as an introduction to the basic concepts, although it might be a bit advanced for novice players. Fortunately, Black Isle has given most gamers some credit and doesn't force them along some sort drudging, boring guide to playing a game properly. This is very easy to appreciate, since the concepts in Torment are fairly simple: talk, move, fight. The more difficult parts, like the puzzle solving - are skills you simply cannot give to someone with a tutorial.

Where there's death, Nameless passed

Cool shiny floor

For his part, the Nameless One starts off meagerly, as a 3rd level fighter with nothing more than a scalpel for a weapon and Morte for a companion. He must solve the puzzles on how to get out of the Mortuary while getting the first hints of who he is and where he can find Pharod and his journal.

Free At Last!

Upon leaving the Mortuary, the Nameless One will be introduced to Sigil proper - its slums, but still Sigil. He'll soon encounter the wide variety of beings inhabiting Sigil (who, in the slums of the Hive, tend toward the poor, weak and shady) and begin small quests which will slowly earn him experience and build him up. Before long he'll start getting into the main story and once that starts, kiddies, kiss your sleep goodbye.