Torment: Tides of Numenera

First off, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. I recommend playing it to everyone daring to read, appreciating food for thought, and open to feeling an unknown world. There was a lot to like for me, I found the characters to be varied and interesting, the story engaging, the writing expansive and good, combat "crises" few in number and better to play than fights were in PS:T. Also, the music was very to my taste. Now the flaws that prevent a 5/5: - I think most critique stems from people that engaged in the niggles around development and pledge fulfillment, which lead to resentment, causing scathing reactions to every detail of the game. - My issues with the game however were mainly, and it's somewhat embarrassingly superficial of me to say so, caused by the low quantity of surroundings: everything was packed full of quests and story NPCs and lore and interactive elements, which I found overwhelming and hurting immersion. The environments consequently could not convey a consistent look-and-feel. - Independent of that, there were some nods to PS:T that seemed too much like unnecessary copy/paste (does there have to be Adahn, does the bar really have to contain flames, etc.) - I encountered one bug that caused a crisis turn to never end, but I could easily solve it by loading the latest autosave directly before the situation. - My 5.1 setup did not output directional audio from the correct speakers (i.e. front and back seemed switched at times)

For when you absolutely, positively need to play the exact same game as PS:T again. Hard to say I was disappointed, since that's what I expected. If you're looking at this, you're probably an Infinity Engine veteran hoping for a fresh take on the classic formula. Friend, I have bad news: this take isn't fresh. The most exciting thing to me during development was hearing about the setting for this game: a world built on the ruins of countless prior incredibly advanced civilizations, filled with ancient technology that may as well be magic. I'm not sure how it's possible to make that premise fall flat, but Tides manages somehow. It feels like an amusement park, with all the weird gadgets and gizmos and telepathic squid just being there for you, the player, to gawk at, rather than an earnest exploration of what kind of society could arise from that situation. That's not the really bad part, though; I'm willing to chalk up my reaction to personal preference. The thing I find infinitely harder to excuse is the writing, which seems terrified of standing on its own. The main plot is almost completely identical to PS:T. In fact, Tides seems like it's dedicated to replicating the PS:T experience almost precisely. Infodumps abound. The writing style has its moments -- Erritis' personal quest is very charming -- but most of the time just feels ponderous and purple. The Big Philosophical Questions feel like abstract thought experiments, and anyway, as the game is very insistent to tell you in case you might doubt or question yourself, there is no right answer and it's all a matter of perspective. I'd call that ethically timid. No doubt I would have loved it all back in 1999, but we're all 17 years older now, and games have moved forward so much -- but Tides is intent on reliving the glorious past instead of taking a chance on innovation (beyond the nice new stat system, which I don't feel is nearly enough). 2/5 for Callistege, who should have been the main character.

Finished it on steam, had a lot of fun. It's not the og torment, but at a discount it's certainly a steal. Must play for story driven rpg enthusiasts. However, there isn't a lot of combat and the general gameplay loop is not the addictive kind of fun, it's more like a slow paced exploration gameplay, so if you are looking for a hack and slash you probably won't like this title. However, remember that this IS what people who funded the game wanted, less combat and a deep, well written video game novel. The setting is great and the story was pretty good and unique. Solid 4/5 at what it tries to be.

The plot in the game was extensive, with an emphasis on the story of the world and the story of heroes. I think that it is quite difficult to present a concise opinion on the course of events in the game. It can be said that - from the perspective of this medium - it is quite non-linear, because although the main line runs one-way, we arrange adventure chapters according to our own idea - there are many options for playing smaller threads. Mechanics have pros and cons. Undoubtedly, emphasis was placed on the psychologization of our decisions. Our hero discovers the trends that lie dormant in him. The authors assigned them colors, giving categories such as scholar, mystic, ruler. Unfortunately, due to the fact that we run the game in different ways, in which the fight is a marginal option, the title suffers from a weak development tree and a slight expansion of the equipment. There was no visible progress in my perception. The graphic layer is really good, which was probably due to the extensive feature creation, because the designers prepared a mass of individual objects in a fairly fantastic shot.

If you don't like reading - this will suck. A lot. There is no escaping from it. On the other side if you like to read and/or don't mind it that much - You'll have fun. You'll see an incredible world of extaordeenary things, people and events with laws that first baffle you and then you enjoy as second nature. This is not Planescape Torment. This is not one coherent story wrapped to perfection as that game was. But it's split stories are still fun. And fun is why I play games for.