Torment: Tides of Numenera (2017)

I've had this game for many years. I was a big fan of Planescape: Torment and supported this on Kickstarter. I also supported the original pen & paper Numenera RPG.

I got started playing this way back in 2018, but got bored after a couple of hours and left. I started it anew in 2026 and have now played it through. In a lot of ways, it's similar to PT - especially with the different moral choices and the vast strangeness of characters and places. However, while I like some of the ideas in this game, like Crises being about more than combat, I found that in most encounters, there's not much to do but fight, and the mechanics are...well, limited, and the control lacking. Except for the Anchorage Tour sequence, which was very cool.

In fact, I find that the emphasis this game puts on Weird Things is often to its detriment. If everything is weird, then nothing is weird. You don't know what to expect, so you're rarely surprised. If nothing is familiar, it's also hard to care about anything. The most interesting weirdness in the game are the environments, which look cool and are extremely varied. Unfortunately, that doesn't go for the characters, which are too small to make out properly, and none of the NPCs even have portraits to look at while talking to them (remember that talking to NPCs is probably the thing you do the most in this game). All in all, it has an interesting main story but a slow pace and a big moral choice at the end. Play it if you like reading a lot of text :)

HYVÖ

Eteerinen, uniikki maailma täynnä kaunista taidetta. Planescape-maailma tuntuu freesiltä eikä nojaa fantasiakliseisiin. Luovuus kukkii täysillä ja korkealentoinen tarinakin toimii.

HUON Taistelua on suhteellisen vähän, vaikka pelaisi öykkärillä, joka haasta verta nenästä. Ainakin kolmen varsin oleellisen "ison" taistelun päätavoite ei ole vastapuolen lahtaaminen, vaan vimpaimien säätäminen ja pakoilu. Miksei nämä voineet olla vain rehellisiä tappeluita?

Wall of textiä riittää ja nykypeliin kaipaisi enemmän ääninäyttelyä, joka tuntuu alun jälkeen katoavan täysin. Lisäksi pelissä on tekstiseikkailun omaisia pien-episodeja, jotka lisäävät puuduttavuutta. Pelasin tämän läpi hieman väsyneessä mielentilassa, joten paljon tuli näpyteltyä tekstiruutuja läpi lukematta niitä.

Peli on lähes täysin kaupunki-painotteinen. Pelialueet ovat varsin pieniä, jonka vuoksi joutuu tuijottamaan paljon latausruutuja. Maailmankarttaa ei pelissä ole lainkaan eikä fast travelia, joten kävelemään joutuu aina läpi kaupunginosien.

(Ainakin) Xbone-versio on buginen, kaatumisia, hidastelua, ja keskelle taistelun jumittumista.

A story without a doubt very different from what I have seen so far, which is cool.

The player has at his disposal a complete creation system where he can customize his playing style by choosing skills, abilities, exploration skills, weapon skills and dominating trait.

There will be many occasions where the player depending on the choice a Tide will form, which corresponds to the player’s personality, where can vary gardually throughout the game.

Certain objects called Merecasters, will have the player's disposition in which they let the player interact with visions where they include dialogues and allow the player to choose how they want to behave.

There are several companions that the player can choose for his party where each one has there skills and companions quests.

One of the things I noticed in this game is not always necessary to battle, sometimes just talking can solve unnecessary fights.

A suggestion I leave to anyone who is going to play this game is explore the environment to the fullest, talk to all people and do the various side quests that exist in the game in order to gain extra experience and items.

Perhaps the only problem I found in this game, especially for those who do not like to read (which is not my case) is that most of the time the player will have to read a LOT in the game, although there is voice in the game. In my opinion this game is more like an interactive read book.

But it is still a good game that I recommend to anyone who has no problem reading.

i want there to be more games like this.

by which i mean, more games where the gravitational pull of combat doesn't overshadow everything else. whenever i play tabletop rpgs the least interesting part is always the combat - the phase space of things that are possible is so much more than fighting things - let me do them instead! so i love torment for letting me have that, and i love how imaginative its universe is. i love the little vignettes you come across, and i love that it had me questioning why i was making the decisions i was making. am i doing the right thing here? i'm not sure.

it didn't quite move me like planescape moved me and it's far from without flaws; the beginning section is simultaneously overwhelming and moves at a snail's pace, and the ending is nothing if not rushed, but i value the time i spent with it and my castoff, and i value the bizarre and brilliant world inxile and monte cook have built.

It's losing me...I'm not really caring about any of the characters. Also, something else is happening that I'm not sure I like. I'm sort of siding with the antagonist, here. I don't see why he's so bad. They haven't explained to me why he's bad. I met him face to face and actually took an "OK, you can have it" option. The game immediately went to a Game Over screen, and I was told that my decision was incorrect and they he caused misery on the universe.

Well...I mean I had no evidence to support that. I wouldn't mind being in cahoots with him, frankly, instead of all the whiny baby castoffs.

Also the combat. UGH THE COMBAT. There are 2 kinds of CRPG combat types I have encountered. Tactics-style turn based, where each unit has a discreet turn (thin Final Fantasy Tactics, even though I know thats a JRPG) and a more free-flowing (yet still turn based) combat style like Pillars of Eternity. I really don't like the former combat style. It's one of the reasons I never liked Shadowrun Returns. I just can't get into it. The AI is also buggy as fuuuuuuck. It takes a long, long time to take turns, so when your turn is up you might as well get up and go grab a drink. So in my last update I was like "So glad there's very little combat!" and I still agree with this. But I honestly never want to see combat again.

Oh, and the load times. Ugh the load times are horrible.

Currently playing this on Xbox One. Controls are janky and sometimes moving around can be cumbersome, but I very much appreciate this being on console. I like these kind of games, but I don't like playing PC games. I sit at a PC all day, I don't want to be at one at home, too.

It's a good experience so far. I have like 3 hours played and only fought ONE TIME. This game puts an emphasis on the "RP" in "RPG." Of course, this can change, but I'm enjoying the storytelling and investigative nature of the game. Hope it keeps up.