Don’t Trust the Skull

The Brainy Gamer has published a new piece entitled “Don’t Trust the Skull” that provides us with a sort-of retrospective review of Black Isle’s Planescape: Torment. This particular essay follows their initial impressions of replaying the classic RPG, both of which are worth a good read for nostalgia’s sake. An excerpt:

We don’t often think about “reading” games (aside from interactive fiction), but all my memorable experiences inside the world of PST are connected to what I can only describe as literary moments of resonance, surprise, humor, and recognition. The lateral, deconstructed narrative of PST encourages an approach to playing/reading that allowed me to piece together its fragments in my own way, returning to places of interest, skipping others, recovering the Nameless One’s elusive identities, and generally constructing meaning in ways no other video game has done.

Such a moment occurs in the Empty Tomb. Several strands of PST’s narrative come together here as the Nameless One finally discovers the journal he’s been seeking with all the notes to himself (the film “Memento” comes to mind here) in the form of stone tablets. In order to access them, however, he must die and be reborn several times. Each death takes him a step closer to his destination.

Finally, he discovers a startling warning written on a tablet (conveniently ignored by his sidekick Morte in the opening scene of the game). It reads: “Don’t trust the skull.” What to do with this information? What does it mean, and why did I write it? Can Morte still be trusted? Should I confront him with it, or just keep my eye on him? The game does not provide an answer, not does it insist on any course of action. Instead, the player must decide. Much later in the game, all of this will matter a great deal, and our understanding of Morte and his past will grow considerably.

The genius of Avellone’s narrative construction is the way he ensures an advancing plot while offering complexity and resonance to the player who is willing to explore beyond the main quest and ruminate on how all this fits together. Other games have done this–subplots and side-quests are nothing new–but these rarely matter very much. Such activities often extend the game, giving the player more to do, but adding little real thematic substance. PST unfailingly utilizes such optional activities to add color, nuance, and complexity to the story and characters. Ultimately, the Nameless One will come to know himself–the central quest of the narrative–only by coming to know others. Getting acquainted with sharp-tongued Annah, for example, isn’t necessary at all. But oh what you will miss if you don’t!