Title frankly says it all. I bought this a few years after it came out in the hopes that the bugs would have been ironed out. They haven't. I "played" this on Linux, so this might not apply on other platforms - please keep that in mind. The game is very unoptimised - making the use of the "Pillars or Eternity technology" bit that you get in the intro sequence rather annoying. It also suffers from some rather unfortunate memory leaks. Now, the good part is that I actually succeeded in playing it. Once, in the tongue-and-cheek die before the first scene even starts that I'm sure somebody thought was very clever... and then the problems started. I got stuck at the death screen. Unable to return to the main menu or load another save - since there were none. Force closing the game showed me the game had left a few hundred megabytes in memory so I restarted. With the computer restarted I tried launching the game again. No problems yet. Then I tried starting a new game. This time wiser in regards to what choices not to make. The game never loaded the new game. IT got stuck. I had to force close the entire computer via the power button. Here's the thing. I don't buy games to make them work, I buy them to play them. Since the start of the year I've already completed a full playthough of Tyranny, one of West of Loathing, and am currently doing one of Pillars. All three Unity games, two of which use the same base as Torment. I know for a fact Unity works on this machine and how the Pillars version of the engine should behave. Torment is unoptimised, badly programmed and suffers from a rather serious memory leak issue. I know GOG doesn't like it when we bring other games into these reviews but in this case it's a matter of the engine and Torment themselves using the name of Pillars of Eternity in their own game. Torment invites an engine comparisons to Pillars and other Unity CRPGs. Pillars and other Unity based CRPGs work, Torment does not.
A lot of people praise this game because it's very easy to get into. As opposed to games like Pillars or Shadowrun, this world is fairly straightforward. Few new words and little lore to bog down the start of the game. This should be a sign of growth on Obsidian's part after the criticism levied at Pillars a few years earlier, but that would have required this game receive the same kind of love Pillars did. Most CRPGs will have a certain degree of linearity to them but this one is ridiculously linear. There are only a few paths to tread, and far too few sidequests to flesh out the world. The entire game is basically just one giant main quest with four branches. In all fairness, you are given a few chances to change direction, but that's usually just between any of the three main branches and the third anarchy branch. Imagine your favourite CRPG's main guest, and now imagine if that's all that CRPG was and you'll get an idea of what Tyranny is. I own the Gold edition and played with 4 of the 5 DLC that came with it. The interface wasn't envisioned with that many portraits and coats of arms, which is why the're free DLC and not inbuilt in game. Bastard Wound and Tales do flesh out the world but had little-to-no QA with cartoon villains - unlike the main game. By now most bugs and typos you'll notice are from their content. The fifth "DLC" is inbuilt in game and needs a Paradox account to unlock. The New Game+ was never fully fleshed out and the interface for respecking is problematic at best. Because Obsidian stuck with Unity the load times are long. They also stuck with a pen and paper d100 combat parading. It's a CRPG guys, stop rolling virtual dice already, just use probability and more complex formulas! The one thing were they go full PC, spell making, is allowed to get tedious. VA is also inconsistently used. Voiced intro and act I narration. Voiceless: acts II, III and the epilogue narrations. Some dialogue BRANCHES are voiced, but only for some companions.
This is a funny little game, alas the emphasis must fall on little. The game can be completed in under three hours, and that's taking into account the replay value. The game is good and if you like it you like it. Unfortunately, since your first playthrought is probably going to be the longest at around one hour, even at just 5 euro you might feel cheated. I personally really like the game, it's my favorite Amanita game thus far, but I am certain at least some will consider this too easy, or too short. Consider this your warning.
