Planescape: Torment (1999)

At the time of its release, Planescape: Torment was not a huge commercial success. It didn't sell millions of copies, but it was noted as an amazing title, and almost twenty years later, it stands out even more. Planescape shows its age through a dated interface, but the other aspects hold up surprisingly well. Its graphics are relatively timeless, but it's the story that truly stands out. In The Nameless One, the player is given a blank slate. Waking as an amnesiac and nothing but a floating skull for company, his quest is to reclaim his memory. That mystery keeps you invested in the early story, but a bigger component is deciding if you want to live up to the memories you discover.Planescape was one of the first games to introduce branching story and dialogue mechanics, and few games have done it better since. Dialogue is brilliantly executed and text-driven, and the player can legitimately affect the game. Your choices aren't between different vague one-liners with the same outcome, but specific and concrete choices. You can interrogate someone, be witty, ignore someone completely, or outright kill them. It's not just a choice between good and evil, but plenty of hard decisions with gray areas. As a result, this title remains one of the most in depth and fleshed out narratives around.