Torment: Tides of Numenera

In less than one month, Tides of numenera is finally released! According to their homepage it will be on feb the 28'th.

It is the successor to one of my all time favorite games: "Planescape Torment", which probably had the best or at least one of the best stories of all computer games.

I'm not sure what to expect and i have demolished my expectations(just to be on the safe side), but the thing is coming out and it's a torment game.. it has crazy potential for a unique experience.

https://torment.inxile-entertainment.com/


World of Numenera

An example of questing

awesome

It's "spiritual successor" tho, don't fucking lie atleast.

At least?

Trolo

Be happy i share of the good games coming out.

Either way do not be so sure it is not the actual successor. It is named torment after all and many of the original team has helped out as well.

"When we set out to make Torment: Tides of Numenera, our vision was to make a thematic successor to Planescape: Torment. We’d explore a new setting, and use a new core question to explore a similar vein of philosophical thought. I am proud to say that the response from you, our backers, has been incredibly positive. I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating: when Brian asked me to be the creative lead for Torment, I had to take some time to think about it, and I almost turned down the opportunity. I knew what Planescape: Torment meant to people, after all. For people to say that we have succeeded in creating a tonal and thematic successor is… well, it’s overwhelming, and I – WE – are grateful for the opportunity."

https://torment.inxile-entertainment.com/game/about/development-information

There you can see who worked on the game.

I believe the word you thought i used was.. "sequel".

expectations very low.

Ive learned over the last 10 years or so.

also, brian fargo done fell off. wasteland 2 was meh to the 10th degree at best

so uh,it's out. I wanted to tread lightly and see the reviews first, but looks like I'm not playing 2.6 as the concept bores me to death... so I guess I'll be picking this up. if it's even 1/20th of the original, I prolly get my money's worth.

What can change the nature of a man?

I'll check it out.

It's oouuutt naauuw ftw!

So i took some time to read reviews and they are generally mixed but mostly positive. Planescape torment was a very special game, certainly not for everyone and it seems the sequel is the same. I tried to find a review i thought was honest(without me having played the game):




"So after about 32 hours with the game and its Review build (release build) I feel confident to say that i absolutely love this game... so lets dive into why.


Text:
There is one caveat regarding Torment... If you do not enjoy reading, you will almost certainly not like this game, because there is a LOT, and i mean a LOT of reading. Dialogue, Interactions, Descriptions, Activities, inner monologue - everything primarily communicated through text, and then - maybe - through visuals.

Which means that the primary point of critique is the story... so is it any good?

yes. Yes. YES.

The combination of excellent writing, very well fleshed out characters, a unique and mind-bending universe and an endless parade of cool interactions with people and and objects make the setup for the story great... and the story, side-quests and objectives you have are all also VERY Good.
But not only due to good story: Your choices are important, your actions are critical and choices made before, affect a lot of things later in major ways. Sometimes in ways you wouldn't imagine, but even minor changes will make massive differences.

There is a just a LOT of things that you do to shape your gameplay, and that provides a lot of replay value and a lot of general gameplay value. VERY good.


Now, having set that stage: There are a few issues. The game is still not as bug-free as I would like and is missing polish in certain areas: primarily the UI. So its not a perfect game, and would benefit form a good Quality of Life pass by the developers. Just small animations issues, minor bugs and UI inconsistencies that break immersion for no particularity good reason.

The Visuals are also a bit of a mixed blessing - While the art design, direction and composition are all amazing and the sound design (including the limited Voice over work) are very good... the character customization and visuals are very restricted and not that great and the level of animation, effects and interactive elements that are more than text... are also not that great. It's not a major issue to me personally, but your mileage may vary.

Combat is the last part and here i have a few issues with the way the game does a few cool things, but ultimately - it feels very limited. The various stats, items, usables and so on are often available in combat to perform cool actions and your characters can have a wide range of abilities, but because of the massive story / dialogue focus, the game doesn't reward "working towards" combat focus - so you end up with a character that can talk down a demi-god, but still needs to use a cudgel to fight a literal sentient nightmare. While the combat requires thinking about actions, much like the rest of the game, it doesn't have the same effect where possible consequences are exiting - merely the end result of smacking something in the head.

Thankfully - combat is infrequent unless you actively seek it out, which makes it very good indeed. Talking your way out of a sticky spot is a viable strategy and that is very much applauded.


Overall Torment is a fantastic CRPG, and i wholly recommend the title for anyone that enjoys RPGS. Unless you don't like reading, because... yeah... tons of that."

This will be interesting to test out, played a lot of D&D Planescape years ago, then the original game some years ago.

Torment is just such a different experience. It's like being inside a detailed book. Almost to the degree that it is challenging to stay focused in processing the wealth of information you have to contemplate, yet so unique that you will probably never forget it.


These games, at least the old torment, are just something very very special. Like this guy says talking about his father:

"Another game he had was Planescape:Torment. I watched him play it, but didn't get into it myself. I thought the main character was ugly, the environments weird... it was just too far out there for the younger me to appreciate. I wanted swords and dragons and castles, and P:T had transdimensional rifts, wisecracking floating skull party members, and little combat in lieu of long text boxes. But, a part of me knew I had missed something, and growing up I would keep thinking I let something slip when it came to that game."


These games are just multiple levels higher in terms of consciousness(to be conscious, to be aware, to have knowledge of) than other games, they are made by individuals who are well versed in popular old knowledge and belief systems of the real world as well as some mysticism, it makes other games looks like childrens entertainment. Still, always been hard to do long sessions of these games for me due to how much you have to reflect to absorb everything, but it scratches an itch other games just do not even come close to, it challenges me philosophically without it being forced on me. Almost like the game doesn't play itself for you, doesn't try to tell you what you should think, but if you begin to examine the hidden details and invest energy on making the journey through the game, you will have been served so many thoughts about the world that you have not just been entertained, meaning that something didn't just play out and you sit passively and watch it, but you have been mentally challenged both to understand what is but also to look inside yourself to find out what you believe in.

The result is that even though i never played torment all that much, maybe 1-2 times through, and even though my computer couldn't handle the later parts of the game due lag so that i never fully completed it, it still left an extremely strong disproportional impression on me and i never forgot it, and the original torment is the game that showed me the true potential of video games as a device to tell stories - how video games have the potential to tell stories more powerfully than both books and movies. Probably being that i was younger and therefore more impressionable, it left a stronger mark on me than if i had played it now.


If you don't want spoilers for the original torment, you probably shouldn't read more now.