I didn't know this type of games even existed before playing Torment: Tides of numenera. I've never played Planescape, nor any of those classic CRPGs. My RPG experience started with Fallout and Fallout 2. Do you remember that small window in the bottom left corner in Fallout1 and F2, giving brief descriptions of what the character sees, feels and thinks about? Now, in Torment:ToN everything is like this. Every small nook&cranny gets described by text. Every puzzle gets solved by text, every oddity, every quest, even most of the "fights" are solved by text. Even vendor-trash items are described with their own backstory and feel like interesting items, if you are willing to read. This game is entertaining for people who love to read, who like to have their imagination running wild. People who love action, shiny effects, would not love this game so much, I would say. If you are one of those, steer clear, this is 2/10 title for you, no need to waste your money here. For the rest of us - this game throws you into a strange and alien world, full of secrets, strange strange locations, weird people, or not people at all, extremely interesting sidequests, interesting and well-written storyline and many more. Your sidekicks are interesting people, but I feel they could've benefited from a deeper story, each one of those, they are only interesting about half of the entire game. What keeps you occupied are the locations and people in there, the living world, somehow feeling alive and consistent, history-wise, the desire to know more about this universe of wonder. Each location, every single screen is a story to unravel. I wonder, if my choices were good enough? I guess it doesn't matter, they were mine in the end. For me, this was a 5/5 game, really worth the effort and extremely pleasant experience, 45€ well spent.
This horror game is not like your average horror games full of gore, mutilation and jumpscares. It's more about thinking about your own humanity, your own consciousness, thoughts. If you liked stories like "I have no mouth and I must scream" then this game is for you. What is the boundary between human and a robot? Where lies the consciousness, what makes me different from other living things? Depressive environments add to the "end of the world" feelings. You are trapped underwater never able to look on the surface again. There is not many battles and not many enemies throughout this game. Still, one of the most terrifying games I've ever played. Feelings of unease crept into my mind and stayed there for weeks even after completing it, which never happened with other horror games. That happened because I think, that this is not entirely impossible and something like the main theme (transfer of mind) can happen in the future, if our technology keeps evolving the way it is now. Some scenes trigger goosebumps when I think about them even now (Calm down Mr. Wan). Well spent 30€.
