Torment: Tides of Numenera

A painful slog of a game full of pointless ideas, and a sad imitation of Planescape: Torment that took almost 4 million dollars of Kickstarter money and couldn't even deliver on all its backer goals. Every NPC you speak to vomits paragraphs of useless worldbuilding word salad. There is no roleplaying and no good combat. Go play Planescape: Torment, Arcanum, NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer, or Disco Elysium.

I give it a 5/10 The story is decent, but it can actually be easy to miss a side quest. I completely skipped one section I'd planned on doing and only realized I couldn't go back after triggering the path forward until far too late. Gameplay is so-so and a bit on the short side. No XP for non-party members is a BIG issue that left some characters rather underpowered. This is made worse by the fact that you can actually permanently remove party members from the party before the final battle so you can't even have your leveled up people available and your unleveled characters are almost more of a liability than an asset at that point. I expected so much more from both InXile and a supposed spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment.

I really wanted to enjoy the game. And I did when I played for the first time some years ago. Now I wanted to replay, but couldn't finish it for some reason. I started falling asleep trying to read all the dialogues. Maybe I'm just getting old.

i loved the original torment but this one just cant. this is existentialism for the sake of showing off how cleverly depressing the wrters are.

I tried to like this... even bought it on Steam, on sale... I simply cannot get into this... Walls of text, nothing but text from every angle... Would not be too terrible, if the writing was engaging... You can sense that whoever was writing all of this, was depressed and was being forced to do the writing before they were released to go home. Maybe a decent voice actor could breathe some ...life?... into the walls of text, but this ... this is a No Go for me.

[h3]Just not captivating enough to play[/h3] There’s really nothing in this game that makes me want to return to it. The combat system is bad, the characters are bland, and the story is dull. I couldn’t be bothered to learn more, and I didn’t care to find out who my character is. To top it off, quests can be bugged. For one of these bugs, I found a workaround from two years ago that involves editing source files...

This is a game I love, that I know many will bounce off of. It is deliberately opaque, it’s like an unreliable narrator rpg, which is a bold choice and might polarize players. Combat is….just avoid combat when you can. But the story, world, and presentation are among the best I’ve ever seen. Some of the writing is odd, but I think that is intentional in order to give characters some personality and quirks. This game is partially inspired by Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun series, if you like those books this might be your favorite game of all time. Test the game, test different choices, replay parts of the game over and over looking for clues (just by replaying the intro with different choices you will learn alot about the world), and enjoy a memorable and unique sci fi world. Obviously this game is also inspired by Planescape torment, and I think it does a great job in that vein which better visuals and gameplay (though still janky sometimes), and writing that is on par. If you like weird deep sci fi and getting immersed in a story that is actively fighting against you fully understanding it then this is a uniquely incredible game. If arcane/esoteric gameplay and design choices then you will probably not like this but I think it’s a hidden gem and deserves plenty of flowers.

I've enjoyed this game far more than I expected. I wasn’t anticipating writing on the level of the old [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/heybabyxxx/recommended/466300/] "Planescape: Torment"[/url], so I didn't feel disappointed. Instead, I found an intriguing world, a classic blank-slate RPG protagonist, and a story I could shape to a certain extent. Another aspect I loved is how much combat you can circumvent. I never used any cyphers and never bought a single item. The few mandatory encounters can be resolved without killing every enemy — you can run, hide, use the environment, or simply outsmart your foes. In that sense, it feels like a strong predecessor to [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/heybabyxxx/recommended/632470?snr=1_5_9__402] "Disco Elysium"[/url] (again, the writing doesn't come close). I tried to play as a completist, but I failed a couple of quests because I inadvertently advanced to a new area, and progression is strictly forward. This isn’t a game to play just once: the story branches in at least two distinct directions, and you also need to define your party before leaving the first major area. I finished the game with only 38% of the achievements, and that's to be expected for a single playthrough. The writing isn’t brilliant and could be more concise. I suspect the lack of full voice acting contributes to that impression. Players who dislike reading should probably skip this, since reading makes up about 98% of the experience. But that’s exactly what I wanted, and that’s exactly what I got. Another win for inXile.

[h3] Great RPG and the closest thing to Planescape:Torment you can find [/h3] True adventure with a captivating story, memorable characters, and an atmospheric soundtrack. The biggest selling point of Torment: ToN, though, is a truly unique, inimitable science fantasy world the devs managed to create for this game. It's interesting to talk to every character, explore every level, and finish every quest because you never know what you'll witness or find out—there are so many interesting ideas in this game it'll make your head spin. The gameplay loop isn't that extraordinary but still pretty good due to the well-made leveling system with useful stats and skills. You'll constantly use them during journeys, dialogues and battles and find lots of different items you can utilize or sell. But keep in mind that as a true spiritual successor to Planescape, this game focuses on dialogues and storytelling rather than on combat and long travel sequences, so be prepared for A LOT of reading. If you're tired of samey RPGs that don't offer anything new to the player and keep feeding you old concepts like orcs, elves, castles, brave knights, or sci-fi robots and spaceships, Tides of Numenera will become that very breath of fresh air you so desperately need.

Waaaaaayyy too much lore! Makes casual readers dizzy and confused. ...and I love it.