Torment: Tides of Numenera Reviews

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I'll be honest - there's a lot of on-the-fencery about this game. Looking from the outside, deciding whether to play it or not, I took a chance - I was also nervous about what people said. I'll say this - this game is great. It's very insightful, has a lot of charm, and is well-written. Go into it with some patience. Let the world wash over you. All the dialogue and descriptions. Talk to all the people. The world has a very fleshed out feeling to it. There's some very insightful writing in this gem. For example, you ask one of your companions (a homeless 10-year-old girl) what she thinks of another companion (a curmudgeonly old man), and the dialogue goes: R- "He's sweet," she says. "And sad. Like an uncle no one goes to visit." A - "I'm not sad, kid. Just tired." R- "It probably is tiring being sad all the time." I mean, let's be real, that's something a 10-year-old would say to an adult. Just the right amount of honest observation, and just the right amount of blunt logic. ------- The bar quest with all the old veterans and their tales is wonderful. ------- The companions (I'll just do the first letter of their names, 'cause spoilers are lame), O, R, E, and M, all have good chemistry. The companions A and C were a bit dickish for my taste - they seemed more like you're on their adventure, and less like they would ever be your real companions/friends (which seems to be the point of their characters). ------- To me, the writing, the atmosphere, the world, and the story are the key components that make this game. Combat is solid - it's CRPG-esque. There isn't a great deal of it - you can fight pretty often, but it isn't the focus. Not as complex as Pathfinder, but not so simple as to be boring. I would definitely focus on Speed and Intelligence in a character build - there aren't a lot of Might-based skill checks or weapons. Edge is massively important for not wasting your resource points. Put edge in speed or intelligence (if you do might, only one point is necessary, but it really is a waste.) -------- I think it's absolutely worth playing this game. It does take time to get settled into it. It is for the more story-oriented player. But if you want to play something that attempts to reach a part of your soul, that tries to touch a bit on the human experience, that has depth - then play Tides of Numenera. Worth it.

Great story, fun mechanics, and a clean visual.

While I'm all in for story-driven RPGs, I think Torment: Tides of Numenera falls short of its promise to be a spiritual successor of Planescape: Torment. The premise is intriguing and there are plenty of characters with interesting backgrounds, but the actual story of the game is extremely dull, both in the main quest and in side quest. Most dialogue is either exposition about lore/past events, or bad attempts at copying ideas from the original Planescape: Torment. At the same time, there are things I enjoyed about the game, for example the character building system, which is far more straightforward and simplistic than Planescape's, and in this kind of RPG I actually think that's a good thing; but it wasn't enough to keep me playing past the first act. Overall, you might like it if you're really hungry for a story driven game with decent writing and somewhat deep themes, but there are much better options out there, like for instance the aforementioned Planescape: Torment.

Fantastic game. Great setting and characters. Just forget about it being a succesor to planescape torment and you'll have an amazing time.

As obviously hinted by the name of this game, it is a spiritual successor to Planescape Torment, the 1999 classic developped by Black Isle. Basically, a CRPG where combat takes a seat back and where most situations can be solved through dialogue. Disclaimer: I have played Planescape Torment only once, around 2007, and I don't have vivid memories of it (unlike some other CRPGs like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2). I thus won't comment on whether or not Tides of Numenera is a good spiritual successor. I'll just say that the basic premise of the game seems maybe a bit too inspired by Planescape Torment: you start out as a close to divine-being who has no memory of what he's doing here. That being said, is Torment: Tides of Numenera a good game in itself? Yes, I thought so too. The world is pretty cool (our Earth a few billions years in the future, after countless civilizations, human or not, have appeared and disappeared). The story is pretty good IMO, the companions are well-written... Basically, everything we can ask from a dialogue-based CRPG is here. My only beef is that, after BG3, CRPGs without voice acting and the same amount of veneer kinda feel... cheap. But I know the two games are on two different levels, cost-wise. The french translation was also full of typos and weird formatting. There again, I know the devs probably didn't have the budget to get a top quality french version, so heh, it will do. So, if you liked Planescape Torment or Disco Elyseum, I guess trying this one out won't hurt.