Torment: Tides of Numenera

The visuals, music, everything transports you. I haven't felt like i'm in another world since I played the original Torment or Morrowind. Something about this game feels like it was made in the 90's; it isn't as constrained by the latest definitions of genre, and is better described as an adventure game then a pure RPG like Baldur's Gate. There's something reminiscint of games like Sanitarium and Mist; it's eery, beautiful and strange. I won't take off a point for this, but it's worth noting: This game is about reading. Despite the strong visuals and occasional voice acting, 90% of the information and gameplay is in dialogue menus. The reason that this isn't a negative, is because it's all rather interesting. The companion characters are likable and unique, and I love finding out more of their history, quirks and motivations. I hate to admit, I'm not a great reader; if something fails to catch my interest within a few pages, I put it down. So you know I mean it when I say: This game is interesting, and it will grab you.

Well. It's not Planescape Torment. Get that straight and you're more likely to give it a generous score and recognise it's 'ok' in its own right. Ultimately my score dropped the more I played it and in the end I was actually quite glad to get it over and done with. Because I kickstarted it, like others, and very much looked forward to a new PST perhaps I'm somewhat harsh but I felt it was a capable effort without really being anything more. I found a couple of minor bugs, a couple of annoyances and finished it far too quickly for my liking as it really should have lasted much longer. I found the combat to be mainly ok, unlike many but did (like quite a few) discover that at the end it was very easy to use your skills to obtain the optimum result and most of my characters and I had a lot of left over xp and gold or shins, as it's known in the game. I wasn't enthralled, the characters were lacking compared to e.g. Minsc, Morte, and others and at times it seemed quite unoriginal. This in part might be because I have for the first time recently played games like "Thief" and "System Shock 2" and both were far better than this which is surprising as SS2 is exactly the kind of game I tend to avoid. The story had promise and then ... ah well. Knowing some of the writers who contributed to it I do wonder what was cut as I do understand a few things were. This despite the length of time they took to develop the game. It's worth getting (when on sale, its far too short for the price currently), but you should definitely get PST as well if you've not played it. The two don't depend on each other at all so you can play them in any order. I'd suggest this one first to save disappointment and then you'll remember the original and go back and play it again.

The game is far from good, if you believe this gonna be a BG1, BG2 or PST forget it, its more a visual novel than anything else, could only immerse in the protagonist in the end of the game and just a little. Bad companions with build no connection at all with the protagonist, except for Rin. Not worth.

Torment: ToN is a great example of a great game forced to meet unreasonable expectations. My advice: Ignore the mostly unreasonable 1 and 2 star reviews written by Torment fanboys that can't see past their own nostalgia. As someone who loves and appreciates the original Torment, I can also see the many flaws the original has. No, this new Torment isn't as good or quite as unique as the original, but it was never going to be. The special circumstances and time period that the original Torment was released in is part of what made that experience so special. If you can approach Torment: ToN without the nostalgia glasses, you'll find a great cRPG and a worthy successor to the original worthy of a score somewhere between 3-5 stars, depending on your personal preferences.

Magnificent story. The writing is almost unparalleled in modern gaming and the setting of the game puts a nice steampunk+Ctulhu-lite twist on the standard Dungeons and Dragons fantasy formula.Moreover, Torment strikes a nice bittersweet balance between having real consequences for the player's actions and not feeling like a hopeless grimdark slog (looking at you Age of Decadence). Combat is smooth and genuinely enjoyable, though it is a bit perplexing that the game doesn't let you set up your characters in a formation of your own choice before a battle begins. On the minus side, the game can be quite buggy but that didn't really detract from my experience. Don't skip this gem just because some people let their nostalgia for the great-but-overrated Planescape Torment set an unreasonably high bar for its spiritual successor.