Torment: Tides of Numenera

BIEN.

[i]A world revolves far below you, a sunset in scarlet flaring on the horizon. To the east, deep indigo shadows fall, painting the planet with darkness. The faintest shimmer of a force-screen distorts your vision, and the exhalation of the station pushes warm, moist air across your skin. The view is familiar, though your recollection of it is hazy, as if it were filtered or blurred through tears.[/i]

Very boring. Almost no fighting. The battle system is bad. Poor skill system

Hi! The quality of Torment is found in its story more than anything else. The game system is alright and does not focus on hack'n'slash but rather a more balanced approach to adventure games. The first big place you visit has lots to do and has rather colourful characters. Sounds and music are fine at a equal volume at default which is pleasant as we do not need to constantly change the volume of this and that. What voice-acting there is in the game is enjoyable. I really liked that they did not include romatic interactions. I do not think it fits with the story much and even less the characters you can have in your party (most of them are damaged goods or deranged). The downside of the game is that outside the first big area you visit, the game feels empty. Few tasks, problems to solve, almost no puzzles and no plots. The tide system is a nice idea and much more interesting than a stupid alignment but its potential has only been scratched. They use it as a score system instead of actually a personality system. Like you have the highest score in gold, then you are gold. It works but it could be used in a different way than a scoring system. It is not that I hate it, I just think it can be used at the higher degree than this. Level-based systems are super primitive and can be easily removed, especially in this game where levels do not give you much. Use the experience points to buy stuff, multiply the cost by the tier for abilities, higher cost for attributes than abilities and skills, and skills should be the cheapest to raise. Adding people and machines that can teach you things would have been nice and thematic too as you are visiting a strange ancient place with lots of mysteries. Somebody out there must know things only they know. The initial big area takes about 60% of the game time if not more. What follows is pretty darn fast to go through. It feels like they rushed the writing and design afterwards... note that I am not talking about the other areas being filled with bugs, missing elements and glitches. The game just feels empty after like they lacked ideas or time to flesh out the areas. Very little voice-acting in the game. This kind of setting needs a deep voice as a narrator. All the main npcs should have been voiced over completly, especially party members. Hearing the same things over and over also is repetitive and boring. Once an interaction between two party members has been activated, you should no longer see it in this playthrough. Otherwise the characters looks like morons who repeats the same thing over and over without knowing they have already asked that question to the other person or made that comment already. The game is also terribly linear. You follow a straight line until you get to the end and voilà! Like Knights of the Old Republic, you have a dialog that simply decides what kind of ending you would like. But like the original Fallouts (1 & 2 and maybe New Vegas) you get a synopsis of what happens to the people you have influenced greatly. Good to have that in adventure games, makes you feel like you have done or accomplished something in the game's world. In the end, if you see it on sale and like adventure games with a strange universe, buy it, it is well worth its price. Buy it full price only if you are a fan of the setting and do not mind that you can only play it once or twice before you have seen everything. If you are not a big fan of adventure game, I suggest you just watch a video on Youtube about the game and pass. Aside from the original game world, it brings nothing new, it does not break any records, and it is rather an ordinary game if we put the story aside. It would be nice if someone or a company (them or another) would take this game and expand the areas beyond the initial town you are in. I would flesh out the rest of the game, it is just too empty compared to the town.

The story and characters are good so far. Combat is a bit clunky but that really isn't the focus. All in all it is worth the time and money if you are into games like Planescape Torment.

This is a very well written game with unique environments and cool art. I found the side quests more engaging than the main quest. You play as the last body of a body-hopping 'god' being hunted by a big Grim Reaper looking baddie, through a sci-fi city, a necropolis, and eventually a many-mawed beast-city. Game play is heavy on reading---I think you can get most things done without combat, and I didn't really seek out combat.

I like this game but it was at times rather confusing. Nevertheless, unique experience.