This game can be summed up easily, it’s READING: The Videogame. That’s not meant as a criticism either. The game is proof that something can have major flaws and still be a masterpiece and extremely enjoyable.
From what I understand, the game was very divisive at release, presented as a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment, and not what people were expecting. I am perhaps fortunate that I came into this with no baggage. I’ve not played Planescape, though it sits on my very large backlog. At the time it was released I was a child more interested in Age of Empires, and since the game has slipped by. I do look forward to playing it but it hasn’t coloured my perceptions here. In general I really enjoy CRPGs, but I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite genre or that I’m fanatical about them. What I care about in games, more than anything, is a good story.
With all that in mind then, this game has quite a few issues. Combat is mediocre at best, I encountered a few bugs, the game gives you several party members, each with their won side stories, lets you swap them out, but does so in a hugely annoying and clunky manner, and lock you out of seeing the end of their stories for some of them if you don’t bring them with you at the end, although it doesn’t really make it clear. Graphically, it’s not unpleasant to look at, but it’s not great either. It runs on the Pillars of Eternity Engine, and I think that game looks a lot better, despite being a few years older. The detail actually seemed to improve as you move into the later game organic fleshy environment of the Bloom, but initially you are navigating around a quasi medieval city some some scifi additions, which frankly wasn’t that interesting. Also the game’s limited budget shows, there’s only some dialogue that’s voiced (though I prefer it in this style of game, as I read much faster than the spoken dialogue and end up wanting to skip along dialogue boxes) and there aren’t character portraits even for most of the characters you speak to.
The game is also completely confusing at the start. Most RPGs ease you in a few quests in a self contained area, some characters, a bit of conflict but again nothing to complex to allow you to gain a grip on what’s happening. Torment, after a fairly short introduction, has you arrive at the main market place of the city and presents you with a million characters and points of interest. The world is very strange, and your character has no memory. It’s overwhelming and I nearly dropped the game early on. Fortunately I persevered, and after a bit, the world started to “fit” for me.
Ultimately the game is really more of a text adventure, with some CRPG bits added on (there are even side stories which are point blank text adventures through and through). For many people that won’t be that interesting, but if reading huge amounts of text doesn’t faze you, and you want a great story, then this is a fantastic game.
I fall into that category. The world, which is based off the tabletop game, Numenera. The setting takes the idea that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” and runs with it. What appears to be a weird fantasy world is in fact Earth, over a billion years in the future and almost completely unrecognisable, with humans at a medieval level barely comprehending what’s around them. It’s not magic that people are using, it’s nanites that are ever present in the atmosphere. It’s not a fantasy create, it’s a strange creation, or an alien or from a parallel reality. The setting exhibits a fantastic level of depth and opportunity for storytelling. There’s a billion plus years of history and ruins and mystery piling up on top of each other. I wish that the setting got the Pillars of Eternity/Avowed treatment, where the setting receives a proper 3D game as well, as it would benefit from that greatly. There’s so much weird and wonderful stuff described, but the games graphics aren’t great at selling a lot of it.
Despite that, the writing really worked for me. I never found myself bored or tired from reading piles of text. It’s punch, flows well and descriptive, really adding in the detail where the graphics fail. The world is fascinating, as are the characters, who are also complex, and I found myself invested in them, even if I didn’t particularity like them, I wanted to see how their stories played out, and I found the dialogue options gave me the opportunity to reflect my disapproval.
Choices are varied and interesting, rarely falling into the cliché of saint versus kick the puppy, though you can play a total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ if you want. They appear to have a major affect on the story and offer you in most cases, the ability to skip most combat. There is very little in the way of dungeon crawling.
The story is very interesting, on a number of levels. There’s just exploring the world itself, meeting and interacting with the strange inhabitants, while this is driven by the central mystery of who you really are, why are you being hunted by a horrific creature, who your creator is, and what were his plans for you and everybody else. I found these mysterious satisfyingly explained as the game progressed.
Initially I did find myself playing a generic nice guy, were things sort of just happened as I inserted myself into them, but over time I found myself playing a character who became much more defined, with a determination to survive and stop his creator. It got to the point where I went back at the end of the game and chose a different ending, the first one being too “nice” for the character, and having a level of self sacrifice that I felt at that point he wouldn’t reach. The game starts to ask complex questions within it’s story about how you would respond if, despite even your best intentions, the very nature of yourself and fellow siblings was destructive to the world around you.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game. It has many flaws, but if you can engage with the story, it is a fantastic experience. I really hope there are future games in the Numenera setting.
