Torment: Tides of Numenera

I remember reading some writing advice once that said that strangeness was a currency you had to spend carefully; people needed some reality from which to base themselves, and to give the unreal content contrast and meaning. Tides of Numenera took none of that advice. It was strangeness on the surface, and beneath the surface, and in its thoughts and prayers. It was a bit exhausting. That said, I found it compelling enough to finish. I love the classic CRPG pre-rendered 2D backgrounds. The locations are stunning. The characters are strange and unique without being obstructive or obtuse; you can usually find common ground with them and progress without violence, which for me is the very centre of a true roleplaying experience. The combat is quite dull, as other reviews have pointed out, but it really isn't the core of the game, and is infrequent enough not to get too boring. This game is really for fans of Planescape: Torment. Fans of Pillars, Tyranny, and the Baldur's Gate games will find the maps and interfacing familiar and nostalgic, but it doesn't have any of the mechanical depth of those latter games.

I started this game numerous times, but always life circumstances were in a way of completing it. One day I decided to start from scratch and finally finish it. I barely remembered anything from my earlier attempts, mostly a feeling of weirdness of the world and I wasn't disappointed. First of all, this game is narrative heavy, and allows you to unveil a lot if you're paying attention. It's definitely best enjoyable if you love to read and you love exploring new worlds. Ninth world felt really out of there and provided this strange blend of fantasy and science which you rarely see in other games, books and other media. It's a world built upon ruins of numerous civilizations which controlled all forces of nature and thus various artefacts, numenera, are left in this world, making it wonderous and dangerous place. By the middle of the game I grew tired of inventory system, only to rediscover all curious and useful things I collected by the end of the game. I wish this part was more accessible and straight forward, but I guess it became a norm for me to read descriptions of all oddities, cyphers and other various items I came across after some time. This game is full of small puzzles. Most of them are not too special, but they add a flavor to the process of unveiling story and world. Some of them are quite simplistic in implementation, like a dialog system, which steals a bit from the experience. I liked skill checks in dialogs and Meres, but I would love to see more ways to fail them and wished it to be much harder experience overall, so you would weight your actions and spend more time planning stuff, gathering supplies and resting. Overall it's one of my favourite RPGs and I wish more games like this will see light of the day, but it's too niche to be a viable business.

Слишком [i]душно[/i] всё это читать. После Диско Элизиума так и вовсе невыносимо.

Sad it took me so long to get to this one, If you make a game that has so many characters with extra layers of descriptions and dialog (whether they are alien, not from this dimension or simply undead) the game slowly stops to feel like a game and starts being a visual novel. There is nothing "ordinary" about this narrative. I dont think boring humans exist anymore, or if they do their numbers are really low, everything you see is either an alien entity, a cosmic entity or some sort of a robot with its own special back story. (I did enjoy the Bloom quite a bit) and everything has to be special or twisted in some way. Now lets talk about Tides - or special "castoff powers."If you play as a magic user you will use nanites and cyphers (magical devices) to cast powerful wizard like spells, but Tides (the force that only castoff's can use) is a force that ONLY gives you special dialog options, which yes they are relevant to the story, but otherwise do NOTHING ELSE in the game. Oh you get a small symbol painted in the corner of your avatar to match your dominant Tide and you can fiddle with Oom for some bonuses, but thats it.... Tides are completely irrelevant, it doesn't matter which Tide you use, or how you use them. Game is fun, insane, imaginative and nothing like Ive played before, and at times it feels a bit short - like they could have added more chapters or explored more cities, but trust me its not short. It feels like you are reading two very long books about your characters adventures, and just when you got the hang of it they start throwing you into the past with long chapters and decisions and subtext of subtext etc etc. Story could have been told much more straightforward without diluting it so much, and the different POV'es certainly dont help.

You know how they say that every person has a book in them? For the devs of Torment: Tides of Numenera (TToN) that was Planescape: Torment. TToN is an extremely similar game, to a point that if you played P:T, then you'll know most of the twists and turns of TToN's main plot. Sadly, P:T was a superior game in its themes, and had better written companions, making TToN pale in comparison. That, however, isn't a fair metric. On its own, TToN is still an amazing game, set in a unique world. In fact, the best parts of TToN are all about exploring that bizarre setting. The world of Numenera is set in a far future, combing elements of both fantasy and sci-fi, very much in accordance with the phrase "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". The game shows it well, as it combines the off-the-wall oddities, with the mundane reality of people living in their shadows. The game uses the Numenera TTRPG ruleset, which uses the same simple rules for both combat and non-combat encounters, making it one of the best systems I've seen for story-heavy RPGs. The game does have some problems. Chiefly, it's designed to be played several times (at least two, if not three), but the scripted nature of the game doesn't suit more than one playthrough. At least a quarter of the game can be missed if you're not playing with a walkthrough or are psychic: Some quests need to be completed in a certain order for the best outcome, resting can cause irreversible (and often bad) changes to the locations if done too early, and you need a very specific set of skills if you want to get the most out of dialogues. That said, the game is still highly recommended for lovers of story-rich cRPGs. 8/10

The story and writing are excellent. The game is not too long or difficult. It's worth the time and money as long as you like reading.

Just an absolutely fantastic game, story, and world to experience even in 2024. That said, I don't think this game is for everyone. As others have mentioned, it is a LOT of reading, but I absolutely loved it. I purchased this because I was interested in the world of Numenera and I ended up falling in love with it! If you're even slightly interested in Numenera I would recommend the novellas in the upgraded game package to start with and then go on to experience the game. I found the novellas to be pretty good overall and a great primer to the game and the world. I would recommend taking your time with the game too and reading as much as you can manage. I found it extremely worthwhile!

Actually a very underrated RPG.