The Technomancer, for xbox one

Rating: 7.5/10; Good

Played: 2020

Recommended as a solid B tier story driven action rpg, especially if you like the Bioware style of games

The Technomancer is a 3rd person action rpg which is kind of a sequel to Mars War Logs. They take place in the same fascinating setting, that being centuries after Martian colonists lost contact with Earth after some kind of disaster, only from the perspective of the enemy nation this time. It has post apocalyptic and cyberpunk themes with water being the most valuable resource, and melee weapons being the most prevalent style of combat. In fact it puts new meaning on the old school ethos of using blunt weapons as a cleric so as not to draw blood; water is so valuable that people can't afford to waste it by spilling blood. Combat against humans is non lethal. After combat you can choose to finish off the fallen by draining their body of fluid, literally converting it into money. Needless to say, killing people gives bad karma.

The overall structure of the game is similar to Mass Effect and other Bioware rpgs in that you follow a mostly linear story that includes plenty of fully voiced dialogue, major choices that determine the fate of npcs and your reputation with various factions, and a cast of colorful companions that have their own personal quests and takes on situations. Your character is a new technomancer who already has an established back story and relationships; you don't even get to name him. There is a somewhat limited character creator.

The game mechanics are an iterative improvement over Bound by Flame, which is itself an improvement over War Logs. There are 4 trees corresponding to 4 classes with a combat system that allows you to freely swap between them on the fly. The technomancy tree focuses on your ability to use "magic" spells that cost mana. You start off with a ranged electrical nuke and a passive buff that imbues your melee weapon with electricity. You only have 2 mana starting off. The nuke immediately consumes 1 mana while the buff locks out 1 mana until it is turned off; you don’t have to worry about buffing up before each combat. The tree gives passive boosts, including additional mana, and new spells. The other 3 trees benefit specific weapons, creating 3 different fighting styles that all blend well with magic. Each style has 4 moves that are functionally similar: a normal attack that does more damage with each successive hit, a disruption attack that breaks enemy guard, a dodge, and a special that forms the core of each style. The staff focuses on area attacks to harm multiple opponents and is the style used by most npc technomancers. The shield + mace focuses on blocking and is the most defensive style, but there are some enemies that can bypass the shield. The last style uses a blade and pistol, and is most similar to the combat in War Logs. It does the least damage but makes up for it with quick attacks, reliable range and a better dodge. There are 3 separate types of points that you gain on levels up, which are usually spread out so that you are drip fed rewards without being able to master multiple combat styles; by the end game you will be able to master 1 combat tree and about 2/3 of another. In practice you are going to want to pick 1 weapon style and the technomancy tree with the main decision being which to focus on first and which gets fully mastered. Of course you can spend your points however you want, but then there are ability scores and requirements for equipment. Maces, staves, shields and heavy armor require strength; blades, guns and light armor require agility; and technomancer gear requires power (equivalent to typical intelligence or wisdom). So you can't be optimal in all styles at the same time. The 3rd type of point is for passive non-combat things, like crafting, stealth and persuasion. They each have only 3 levels and you can get 1 free point from equipment and some have another free point from a companion. For example, if you put 1 point in science, wear a doctor's coat and have the science companion in your party with good reputation, you will have max science.

The playable game world is fairly small, consisting mostly of corridors and rooms linked with multiple paths. Several of these areas are visited regularly during the main story and side quests, with more or less the same enemies respawning each time. This was a major shortcoming with War Logs because fighting the exact same enemies every time you pass through an area gets old fast. Technomancer improves this a bit by introducing a little bit of randomness. Monsters especially do not return in the same numbers and sometimes may not spawn at all. Human enemies sometimes wake up at different times, allowing you to defeat a group and come back later with only 1 or 2 ready to fight. But the very notion that you can beat people unconscious and take their weapons and pants only for them to be ready to fight again without spending days in hospital is absurd. It also does not really make sense that you can keep going through the same areas without security increasing. Enemies are visible from a distance, allowing you to use stealth mode to get a free hit, and the enemies will not chase you outside their area if you feel like doing some hit and run cheese. Combat requires precise timing of the appropriate button depending on what the enemies are doing; dodge or parry incoming attacks, attack the vulnerable and disrupt guarding. Button mashing will get you killed; you can't afford to take too many hits and enemies will go defensive after taking a few hits, forcing you to alternate between normal and disrupting attacks. The game can be paused during combat to use special abilities, explosive traps, health and mana potions, and choose 1 of 3 AI styles for each companion. The crafting system is mostly about improving the stats of weapons and armor using a few types of materials that can be found and purchased. It is a very simple process of buying plans from npcs and picking which upgrade you want out of a list.

The Technomancer is a solid B grade story driven experience. Even though the writing seems like some important information is missing, as if there was supposed to be additional lines of dialogue, a codex, more background scenes, or something, the overall story and presentation is excellent. The gameplay is not quite as good but has a lot more depth than many other action rpgs. The biggest problems that may turn people off include the level design, backtracking, respawning enemies and general clunkiness of the controls.

Pro

• Good story, characters, setting, dialogue
• All abilities and items have clearly defined stats and descriptions
• All ability and item upgrades are clearly defined, making it easy to plan builds
• Good skill based combat with fluidly changing between many options
• Can usually freely cancel animations in combat, like for last second parries/dodges
• Can freely pause in combat to use items and abilities, and change companion AI
• Good audiovisual feedback for grenades and overheating guns
• Makes good use of all buttons on the controller, though it can be a bit confusing to keep track of everything
• Often have choices on how to complete missions that can have later repercussions

Con

• Menus and inventory are too transparent and can be hard to read if the background is too bright
• Mini map has no compass and rotates with the character. Need to hold a button to bring up a map overlay while moving around in order to properly navigate
• Dialogue ability checks are % based, allowing save scumming
• Clunky movement controls
• Some combat moves will not always perform immediately
• Too many fights that significantly outnumber you, and enemies always split up against you and companions making tactics difficult to pull off
• Block and dodge are a bit overpowered because even a horde of enemies can’t hurt you. Very few enemy attacks are like your disruption attacks
• Enemies respawn too quickly and significant backtracking means lots of repeat fights
• Fast travel, change party and crafting are locked to specific locations where you have to walk to. The final town is particularly bad with the fast travel at the entrance while change party is way at the other side
• Can’t switch party members in “dungeon” type areas even though they all visually come with you in the rover
• A few quests have time limits or require waiting for a counter to expire
• Sleep to advance time and get a temporary xp boost is a pointless chore
• Romance sex scenes have full armor
• Got permanently stuck in terrain a couple times, requiring reloading a previous save
• Seems like there should be more scenes and dialogue
• I first met Viktor at the end of a mission in a scripted cutscene. 5 minutes later I met him again in a scripted cutscene triggered by walking near a certain point where he was talking about how nice it was to finally meet Zack