Torment: Tides of Numenera is the thematic successor to Planescape: Torment, one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved role-playing games of all time. Torment: Tides of Numenera is a single-player, isometric, narrative-driven role-playing game set in Monte Cook’s Numenera universe, and brough...
Torment: Tides of Numenera is the thematic successor to Planescape: Torment, one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved role-playing games of all time. Torment: Tides of Numenera is a single-player, isometric, narrative-driven role-playing game set in Monte Cook’s Numenera universe, and brought to you by the creative team behind Planescape: Torment and the award-winning Wasteland 2.
A Deep, Thematically Satisfying Story. The philosophical underpinnings of Torment drive the game, both mechanically and narratively. Your words, choices, and actions are your primary weapons.
A World Unlike Any Other. Journey across the Ninth World, a fantastic, original setting, with awe-inspiring visuals, offbeat and unpredictable items to use in and out of battle, and stunning feats of magic. Powered by technology used in the award-winning Pillars of Eternity by Obsidian Entertainment, the Numenera setting by Monte Cook provides endless wonders and impossibly imaginative locations for you to explore.
A Rich, Personal Narrative. Thoughtful and character-driven, the story is epic in feel but deeply personal in substance, with nontraditional characters and companions whose motivations and desires shape their actions throughout the game.
Reactivity, Replayability, and the Tides. Your choices matter, and morality in the Ninth World is not a simple matter of “right” and “wrong”. You will decide the fates of those around you, and characters will react to your decisions and reputation. The result is a deeply replayable experience that arises naturally from your actions throughout the game.
A New Take on Combat. With the Crisis system, combat is more than just bashing your enemies. Plan your way through hand-crafted set-pieces which combine battles with environmental puzzles, social interaction, stealth, and more.
inXile entertainment Inc., 2727 Newport Blvd., Newport Beach, CA 92663. Copyright 2016 inXile entertainment Inc., Torment, the Torment: Tides of Numenera logos, and inxile entertainment and the inXile entertainment logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of inXile entertainment Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Copyright 2016, inXile entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Numenera campaign setting is property of Monte Cook Games LLC.
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Normally, I'm not a huge fan of Isometric games.. Normally, I like RPGs with a lot of voice acting, because... Normally, I hate reading large blocks of text on the screen. Normally, I don't go for games using the same engine I played in two or more other games. Normally, I don't get deep into sci-fi, preferring to stick more with fantasy-style games.
So why did I back it? In short, because it supported Linux. I simply won't buy a game that doesn't. If you know anything about Linux and what the GNU and OpenSource movements are about, you will know why. If you don't, I urge to find out why these movement are so important.
Despite my misgivings about its design, however, I was quickly enthralled.
The creators of this game managed to do something I would have thought to be nearly impossible. They created a universe where fantasy and sci-fi meld, where robotics and sorcery merge, where constructs of metal and worlds of flesh seem somehow organic and plausible. Never did I find myself saying at any point in the game, "Oh my God, that is stupid". It is a world both as awe-inspiring as it is desolate and revolting. It is quite simply one of the most intelligently written stories I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing in a video game.
If you love story in a game, if you can appreciate intelligent and evocative prose, if you love interesting NPCs in a backdrop that is truly unique, then this is the game for you.
While I normally consider it a bad thing, the class-builds/character development is relatively simple. You don't get bogged down a hugely complex compendium of spells, weapon specializations and special abilities. While it wasn't perfect, I found the turn-based fighting system they came up with a lot of fun to use.
All-in-all, it is an amazing game. It provided a very thorough and enjoyable escape for me (while it lasted). I hope that there is a sequel some day that builds on this game's unique strengths.
There are two kinds of people I can imagine not liking this game: those who didn't know what they were getting into, and kickstarter backers disappointed by overly ambitious promises that weren't kept. (Note: they are still supporting this game with free updates. Gamers interested in consumer advocacy should support it.)
If you think that a game with pretty, stimulating visuals and isometric backgrounds - but also under-animated characters, that fills in the gaps with descriptive text - would irk you... stay away? If you consider yourself the kind of person who does or SHOULD enjoy reading and if you like outlandish sci-fi, grab this game.
If you have enjoyed a visual novel, grab this game. Think of it as a choose-your-own-adventure where you travel between story nodes on an isometric map, if you will. Let the descriptions wash over you as you fall into an eddy of despair that crosses dimensions, ponder what a tesseract might look like, and negotiate with entities so powerful that you might as well be "an ant waging war against the seasons."
I loved Bloodborne. It is a contender for my favorite game, but Bloodborne's cosmic horror aspect takes a distant second to Numenera. Undertale would also be a contender. This game is like a mature Undertale. (Some violence is inevitable though, seeing as you might enter a battle with evil itself.)
This game is imperfect. It didn't quite nail the ending in the same way Planescape did. The combat lacks the flashiness that Planescape's combat occasionally had, as well. As mentioned previously, the characters are visually ugly and poorly animated. Those are my only complaints.
FYI, I took the minimum combat, high "Intellect" route, completed every sidequest I could find, and tried as best I could to accept my failures as canon, only seldom reloading the game. Perhaps that could give you the most mileage. I have only completed one playthrough, but I intend to play again. I will consider this game one of my classical treasures.
Having played PT:Torment, Baldur's gate, icewindale and most of the isometrics D&D style game, I wanted to try tide of numenera, even though I knew it would probably be a very different game than torment.
So, here is a summary :
Quick comparison with PT:Torment.
The game starts good. The ambiance, the plot hightly reminded me of Torment. You get thrown into a clone story about mortality (again), death (again), past deeds and legacy, just like the first planescape. In this regard, the game really took up the legacy.
Its a bit superficial though. Death, guilt, regret permeated by every pore of torment. Everything was somehow linked if you know what I mean. Meanwhile, in Numerrarra, you never really get how important the tides are, they don't really play a role in history nor quest. They are almost a pretext.
Its nowhere as deep as it's ancestor sadlty, from my point of view.
There are many good point. interesting first town, lot of hours (took me 30 hours to finish the game). The companions are neither really good, neither really bad. You can get attached to some of them. The diversity of companion is somewhat lacking, you only have humans, and mostly are really loyal good type, without surprise, really straight forward hero character.They have a lot of interractions in the first part of the game, and are completly forgotten past the first big town...
The hero is bland . Sort of pretty teenagers without character, it lacks charisma and doesn't have a story of it own, being just freshborn. What I personnally like in RPG is character that have a very strong back story, and not the empty shell that you can make do anything. The music is cool, the text is rather good, you can read for hours the story. The choices to resolves quest are never always white or black, carrying some degree of maturity and thoughness... at least in the first part of the game.
Because yes, the game becomes very subpar once you leave the first big zone (which represent one third of the game, about 10 hours of gameplay).
Then its become mindless brawling and dephtless adventure...
That wouldn't be so much of an issue if the battle system was good.
But the battle system is really bad. Really, really, really bad and boring. turn based. I played divine divinity ego draconis 2 just before this game that was turn based and had INCREDIBLE possibilities ( a really great game). Then I tried Numenera, and you can basically move, attack once, or use an item/skill. a lot of skill are totally useless, so for me it was basically move/attack/item. No depth, boring as hell, slow and sluggish.
Worst than that, the battle are depending on skill point (strengh, agility, intelligence) that are also used to resolves quest. If you fight at the start of the game, you ll get drained of 75% of your skill point and will have to go take a nap to refill it at inn. That really slow up the pace of the game and severely discourage any attemps to recklessly fight.
Hopefully, if you play smart you can avoid most battle by talking it through. you can really be a pacificist which is probably where the game creators wanted us to go. Thats an interesting developpement, you can decieve people, persuade them, intimidate them... its dependant of dice throw though, which are dependant on.... skill point... past the first part of the game you can actually resolve any quest very easily by just talking, with no challenge at all, once you get an avatar with tons of intellect skill point.
So once again the main point becomes reading, reading...
I hated the whole end part.
So, Numenera is neither good neither bad, if you like reading and Crpg it can be a filler in waiting pillars of eternity 2 . there are some pleasurable and funny part, the writing is good. Its, in my opinion, not standing up to the standard that were PT:T and baldurs gate, or even the recent pillars of eternity and tyranny, that I d recommend instead. if you haven't done these game, you ll probably have way more fun with it than with numenera. I don't recommand this game to anyone who isn't a lover of cRPG.
Well, have fun .
*Visually I find the art style very cool. A massive improvement over the original Planescape. Its still isometric turn based game, but that gives you time to savour the dialogue and take your time with things as the game is clearly meant to be experienced. At its heart its a point and click choose your own adventure graphic novel, but its so unique and fascinating...
*The wall-of-text for all the numenera and characters must have had a huge amount of work going into it, and its pretty well done. Perhaps after a while some of starts to wear thin in some places, but nothing immersion-breaking. I especially like the "Merecaster" experiences. It feels unique and a suitable succession to the original.
*The battle mechanic was actually kind of interesting and in my opinion well done. Its a little odd, but totally intuitive and after getting used to it, I kind of like it. Its certainly a refreshing change from the tired D&D mechanics of the original. Was the game really about combat anyway?
*Philosophically, there are some complex themes here, but this is where the original Planescape definitely outshines Tides of Numenera since the balance of choices here never seemed to matter as much and I never really felt challenged by the conflicting ideas as much as in the original.
*The game length at first feels short, but after reflection is probably about right. Especially considering the replay to explore some different choices. This was one part I never liked about the original Planescape. Once I beat it the first time and all was revealed, there wasn't much left to discover. In here, I think it was a little more satisfying resolution and better replayability though I can't imagine playing it more than twice.
OVERALL I would say this was pretty well done, and is a game that stands up pretty well against the original. If I had to choose to replay one of the games again, my preference would probably lean towards this one. (Sorry Morte!)
I was very excited for this game when the kickstarter was announced (4 years ago!!!) and backed it for $250 dollars. I have been playing isometric crpgs since the 90s, and have always loved games like Baldur's Gate 1&2, Icewind Dale 1&2, and of course Planescape: Torment, the game that originally inspired this one.
This review is both a commentary on the game itself, as well as inExile as a company. First, to inExile - you can skip a few paragraphs below if you're just interested in the game. In 2013, inExile was happy to take backers money to make this game, and slated the delivery for T:ToN in December of 2014. They made about four times as much money as they set their funding goal at, and as stretch goals made many promises about added content to their backers. Ultimately, it seems that many of those promises have not been kept, which is disappointing, but forgivable if the game is well-made at the end of that process and the company is communicative with the people who helped to fund the project.
However, after the kickstarter funded and pledges from people like me were locked in, inExile announced that they were changing the combat system from Real-time-with-pause (RTwP) to Turn-based (TB) mechanics. They announced that this was to better fit the mood of the game. That claim is very dubious, as the 90s game that they are basing this sequel off of (Planescape: Torment) has a RTwP combat system. "What can change the nature of a game?" Well, an obvious answer would be to change one of the fundamental mechanics of the game. Personally, I would never have donated money to inExile for Torment had I known they were planning to make a TB game.
But why would inExile make such a fundamental change for a fan-funded game that so many people felt so passionately about? At first, this was not obvious, and it really wasn't until the game was coming close to release that I really understood. From a business standpoint, RTwP combat-based games have one major issue. They require a mouse and keyboard, and are therefore mostly a PC-friendly market. TB games, on the other hand, are easily adaptable to controller-based game play and have a wider distribution on consoles. Since inExile is releasing XBox ONE and PS4 adaptations of this game, it is fair to say that they chose to screw their fan-funders for a market friendly combat system.
Adaptations to new systems cost money, and so it is even more frustrating to find that inExile has cut a massive amount of content from this game that was promised during the fund-raising phase on kickstarter. Over a four year development cycle, they made no announcements to their backers about cut content, even though it is now clear that they spent a lot of that money that was supposed to be used to create that content on console ports, and actually only let backers know that anything had changed in the game about a month before the game released. The cut content included promised characters, an entire city, and while I personally have not finished it, reports indicate that the game is relatively short for a crpg. During that time without communication to their fans about the dropped content, inExile raised millions of dollars from two other crowd-funded projects - Bard's Tale IV and Wasteland 3. In addition to cuts from the game, inExile also gave a worse deal to fans who purchased a collectors edition during the kickstarter than those who purchased it at release, and also cut a promised Italian localization in order to ship this game to consoles.
Game Review:
Story 9/10: This is where this game shines - it is well written and the interactions between objects/characters in the game is fascinating. In places it is badly in need of an editor, but after playing for about 5 hours, it is clear that the game story lives up to - but does not surpass - the game that it is trying to emulate. The protagonist is not as well characterized as the Nameless One from PS:T, which detracts from the immersion. The major focus of this game is to tell a unique, strange story in as much depth as it can, and it succeeds in keeping your interest. If you like to read, 95% of the game play is reading text in the vein of a choose your own adventure novel. Well done here.
Graphics/Interface 5/10: There is no way to change how fast the interface moves with a mouse scroll - presumably because the game has been adapted for console-controller play. This is inexcusable, as the game is run on the Pillars of Eternity engine, a game that was released in 2015, and that game had the option to adjust the mouse scroll. The 2D backgrounds are beautiful, the character models and animations are not. Character's momentum/inertia during movement is incredibly distracting, and the strange need for the camera to follow your character is very odd for this style of game. Altogether, these things add up to a very frustrating interface that slows the pace of the game down. For a game with a 4 year development cycle, it feels like I am playing an alpha build.
Combat 2/10: Even for a TB game, the combat mechanics are incredibly weak. Divinity OS, which I played for a very short amount of time, had an excellent TB system that used action points to define your movement and abilities. You could do anything in any order, so long as you had sufficient AP to perform the task. Torment uses a simplified mechanic where each character gets one movement and one action. When you choose an action, or move your character, there is no way to confirm it or take it back, so if you misclick, you are screwed. By modern standards, this is just pathetic. Additionally, in virtually every combat you will find yourself highly outnumbered, and this is the game's way of telling you that you should just settle everything with conversations. If you do find yourself in combat, you need to win on the first round, as the enemies will simply target your protagonist on their first available turn and kill him/her, sending you to the mind labyrinth. Additionally, because combat is fairly rare, you will most likely have no idea how to use your abilties to their full effect. This is incredibly disappointing, as the other crpg revival game that is currently on the market, Pillars of Eternity, has a very innovative RTwP combat system that is a true spiritual successor to other isometric RPG games. My other personal beef with TB-combat is that it is SOO SLOOOW!! RTwP battles can be finished in just a few minutes, even when the combat is challenging. TB always takes considerably more time, even for trivial battles. Torment is no exception to that rule.
Torment is not a bad game, but it doesn't feel like it is a finished game. It would be an excellent game if it had been released 20 years ago, but compared to all of the other crpg nostalgia releases that have come out over the past five years, it is one of the weaker ones. This is many due to clunky interface, and poor combat mechanics. I'm very disappointed that inExile chose to enhance their distribution instead of trying to stay true to what their fans wanted. This half-baked game is the result. I will not be supporting them in the future.
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