Torment: Tides of Numenera

A game with interesting world, characters, interactions. I was hesitated to buy the game because of the extreme range of reviews, but this game is good. It is not in the league of Planescape, but I didn't expect it, the Planescape is a very special unique experience, nearly impossible to make something like that. Numenera has weird scenes, weird things and npcs to interact, I liked to spend my time here. There is alot to read, but I never felt it is too much. The turn based combat not-so-good, but thats ok, most of combat can be avoided by talk or other means. All in all, not perfect but very enjoyable experience.

This is not a game for everyone. Personally, I was afraid to play it, because of the negative feedback. After finishing it, I'm glad that I backed such an amazing title. I was very surprised, by how well written this game is. There are many small side stories that create just a wonderful world. The characters are well presented and I enjoyed interacting with them. This game really works on the imagination, because of the amount of text. I won't forget such journey for a long time.

I had a blast playing this game. The story is very deep an interesting. There are tons of people to engage in conversation, not only the very fleshed out companions. Puzzles to solve, almost all information means something, even when it seems like gibberish. I found the world a very interesting place. In the far, far future, the world is littered with machines far beyond the current inhabitants comprehension. You might be able to understand a little bit, and the wold opens up yet another dimension to you. It is kinda refreshing actually, I applaud Monte Cook for creating such rich an interesting world to play in. First game in a long time that made me win the staying-up-late-Olympics several nights and then being a wreck at work the day after (to quote Uncle Bumblefuck). Worth every minute of it :-D I didn't run into many bugs during my first play-through, I played version 1.0.1. When I write this version 1.0.2 has released with many fixes. Sure there were some irritating bugs, but on the whole nothing that I couldn't get around, it didn't really hinder my enjoyment of the game. Turn based combat might not be for everyone, but I enjoy it tremendously. Real time with pause is just not as fun for me, and I did partake in the voting for combat system back at the time of the kickstarter. RtwP would probably have been fine too, it just that I enjoy turn based more. I backed this game back at the Kickstarter and spent $39. Money well spent, although it was a pretty long wait. Not unexpected though as these things go, I have worked as a software dev and appreciate the challenges.

Pros: Good looking and a decent soundtrack, achieves the weird aesthetic it wanted. Ton upon ton of lore and backstory Some of the characters are well done (Avellone wrote Erritis) Cons: The lighting is washed out and the areas feel far too small. The ''setting'' is an infinitely random, disjointed sandbox. It doesn't have enough cohesion between the thousands of random ideas they came up with, and so this isn't a proper setting at all. This is my biggest peeve with this game. Most party members are humans who are depressed because they ran afoul of some odd technology. The combat is as basic as Planescape, but far slower and tiresome to slog through because it's turnbased. The main storyline got damaged when they ran out of time/money and cut out a load of content, and probably wasn't interesting to begin with.

I really was quite enjoying the game. Agreed with many reviewers that it is NOT the experience of the original, and that it probably does lie closer to the family try of a VERY interactive ebook vs an actual computer game RPG... if only sheerly due to the quantity of text and the absence of combat.. but... it works. It's compelling & well told. The quests seem unique and mostly worthy of your time. However, about X (60%? i dont know) through the game, I have encountered a bug that affects all of my "skill check" rolls. Notwithstanding that this is a conversation heavy game to begin with, I have built a persuasive and intelligent character so that I could have access to all non-combat options. Now they are nearly unplayable/impossible because of this calculation bug. I have therefore lost all interest in the game & have not returned. I almost considered giving this game 2 stars despite this, but to top it off the customer support has been 100% unhelpful & does not seem at all concerned. (Their reply was this: "Thanks for passing this along. Unfortunately, we don't have any kind of workaround to offer. Will let the dev team know, though." ). Then I got an email from support that I hadn't responded to the issue and it would be closed. I responded that of course they should keep it open as I had no resolution. I received no further response. Buyer beware!