Torment:ToN - Review @ RPGCodex

[Archangel]

One thing people need to know is that the TToN reviewer is not that loved on Codex because he usually writes neutral-positive stuff about things most of the Codex bashes (like his Pillars of Eternity review).
If even he found TToN bad, well...

 

[rjshae]

Meh, it's just one review. Overall it seems to be doing decently well, review-wise.

 

[mbuddha]

Meh, it's just one review. Overall it seems to be doing decently well, review-wise.

"Official" reviews, yes. Steam reviews, not so much.

I had to pass. Too much reading without enough non text-based interactivity to balance it out. Although I don't like action-RPGs, this sounds like there's not enough combat as well. And, cut graphical content just sounds disappointing. Finally, the super serious tone sounds like a drag. The sex and wit found in Witcher games needs to pervade other RPGs more.

Some patches and a 75% off sale sometime in a year, then maybe.

 

[TomRon]

One thing people need to know is that the TToN reviewer is not that loved on Codex because he usually writes neutral-positive stuff about things most of the Codex bashes (like his Pillars of Eternity review).
If even he found TToN bad, well…

That's funny, I found Torment more satisfying that PoE. I didn't hate PoE, but to me it was just okish, mostly because in such a combat heavy game I would have liked the party composition and the character building to give more impact. I felt the classes all could do pretty much everything? Anyway, opinions are always going to differ, nothing wrong with that.

 

[Carnifex]

Personally I enjoyed the game for what it was. Yeah, it could have been longer but I got over twenty hours of solid entertainment, and I'm good with that.

 

[SpoonFULL]

I do prefer a competent 20 hour, non-filler and replayable rpg over a 100 hour diluted one which I will not finish.

This is why I enjoyed the new Shadowrun games, and ToN sound like something that I will enjoy (backed and have it already on GoG).

It is also important to remember that inxile delivered almost a bug free and in good time, an innovative rpg that is not just copy and paste from the past or recent iterations.

 

[TomRon]

It is also important to remember that inxile delivered almost a bug free and in good time, an innovative rpg that is not just copy and paste from the past or recent iterations.

Apparently not bug free at all for some users, especially on consoles. And in good time? Wasn't the original release date years ago? I still have faith in inXile, but because I've enjoyed all their latest games, not because of their excellent Q&A or time schedules...

 

[GabrielMP_19]

I think it's time the CRPG revival stops and gives space for a new era of CRPG. I'm getting kinda tired of all those spiritual successors. It's time to move on. Those games always come up short on everybody's expectations because we all love the classics and generally have a great nostalgia for them. Of course the game wouldn't be as good as Torment. Torment was, in first place, inovative. The new Torment, inspired in the first, could only be derivative of it.

 

[hairyscotsman2]

There is a market for adventures, yes. But there is even wider market for new type of adventures, openworld ones. Environment puzzlers like RotTR shouldn't fail on KS and I'm not sure why noone tried a project like that. Maybe everyone thinks racing boredom sim is more desirable (GTA5)?

Stunning visuals and dialogue, erm… You mean stunning both? Both stunning is very hard to make, especially when a publisher decides against the audience, remember cut away visual spectacle from Watch Dogs on PC for the sole reason it looked 100 times better than on consoles? Perhaps I took a wrong example as that game didn't have stunning dialogue, but you get the point I guess.

Wait… That's not what you said. You said "stunning visuals and dialogue by Slavoj Žižek". Žižek is not into visuals. So you ment only stunning visuals, but dialogue doesn't have to be stunning, only written by a certain person? Right?
Couldn't disagree more on the writer. Apart from original PST writers, I can think of only two people who make scripts for visuals (but not games) and who's wild imagination can be dark enough yet stunning to fit a Torment game. Yea, mentioned them before. Alejandro Jodorowsky and Fabien Vehlmann. Maybe, just maybe, Junji Ito, but I'm unsure if that guy is still alive. Žižek should never write anything for videogames, leave him to criticize the society in ways he already does, he's good at it.

Joxer, I'm really genuinely sorry to have wasted your time by giving such a reasoned and thought out response to what was really a throw away comment on my part, albeit a deliberately nonsensical one when closely examined. My post was a comment on the review, but maybe you got that anyway. Thank you for the time you took nonetheless.

 

[lackblogger]

"This is a combat game for players who hate combat; a skill game for people who hate to fail; a story game for people who measure story by word count."

oh, lol. Haha, love it.

I wont deny that some aspects of this game look gorgeous, but I'm not one for filler trash text every 5 inches.

Is it weird of me to enjoy reading books but, for some reason, I just can't do it with computer games. I considered the original Planescape: Torment to be a bit too wordy in places, and that was my only real complaint of the game and yet this new Torment game seems to have only focused on that one particular aspect of the original at the expense of all other aspects.

It would be like someone doing a spiritual successor to Icewind dale and for the game to be just non-stop linear combat. Yes the game was combat focused, but that's not why its good, it was the careful blending of lots of elements with a bias towards combat, just as Planescape: Torment wasn't all text, it was a careful blending of elements with a bias towards text.

 

[ChaosTheory]

Hmm... Seems I may put Torment on the back burner until some more patches/updates are released. InXile taught me with Wasteland 2, which was dull, to wait for the 'director's cut' version, which rocked. Perhaps they'll do the same here.

As a side note, a lot of reading isn't an issue, but A LOT of reading in a game is... taxing. At least with a book you can curl up in the corner with comfy pillows. Hard to do that with a pc.

 

[Morbus]

To be honest, this wasn't a review of the game, it was a review of the kickstarter campaign :\

 

[lackblogger]

Don't kid yourself. Planescape: Torment is probably better paced than Tides as far as gameplay variety goes, but outside of the story, characters, and art, it is actually a pretty fucking terrible game. The game is probably 15-20 hours longer than it needs to be because of all that combat and inventory management.

Oh really. You mean if you cut out all the aspects that make it a game then you can just read yourself to the finish quicker? Oh, sure, you've really hit on some genius there. What amazing and revolutionary times we live in.

 

[lackblogger]

Maybe I'm just getting older and don't have as much time anymore, but my patience for poor quality or filler content is very low these days.

For an extreme example: I've been playing Dragon Age: Inquisition, and that game is a poster child for why quality should trump quantity every time. Sure, it's got 100 hours of gameplay… but only 20 of them are good. Everything outside the main story is like a bad MMO you can't play with your friends. The poor quality of the side content actively harms my impressions of the rest of the game, and I don't think the game would have been any worse if virtually all the open world stuff had been removed.

I'm not saying that is a direct comparison, obviously, but yes, I'd rather have content or systems removed or tweaked if they don't improve the game. Your mileage may vary, especially if you measure the quality or value of a game by its hours to dollar ratio.

Is there any particular reason why you're incapable of viewing text as filler content?

It's normally text that's the primary aspect slowing down every RPG I've ever played…

And, no, I have no idea why you're talking about Dragon Age: Inquisition. If you're running from comparisons to PS:T then maybe comparison's to Tyranny might be more fair, what with it being the same game engine, same game length and same isometric style for pretty much the same audience, but bringing DA:I into it? What a load of filler text that was &

 

[borcanu]

exactly what i feared

 

[Ripper]

exactly what i feared

You mean Lackblogger turning up?

 

[Couchpotato]

Bottom line for me was it's an above average game that has some flaws. Now hopefully they can fix some of this with the upcoming cut content they axed, and various patches.

Also I still prefer the older Torment over this inspired sequel, and I'm not sorry for saying this. So take my little opinion/rant with a grain of salt if you want to. Moving on now.

FYI: Forget to add I enjoyed both Wasteland 2 & Pillars of Eternity. So despite both games not being poplar with various members, I cant wait to play those sequels.

 

[Ripper]

In fairness, I think that as a review it leaves something to be desired, but as a polemic it's very well-written. He makes some good points in a strong way.

 

[revjwh]

RPGCodex is like the group of old men that gather at our local diner in a small town in the middle of nowhere America. They talk politics and judge and critique everything with almost no ability to actually change, produce or do anything except bitch.

It gets tiresome to hear self-proclaimed 'experts' offer such vitriolic "reviews" when InXile is at least attempting to offer a style of game that is mostly ignored today.

Reviews are fine when offered with some humility, spewed hate from some internet troll-site (RPGCodex) not so much.

 

[Archangel]

RPGCodex is like the group of old men that gather at our local diner in a small town in the middle of nowhere America. They talk politics and judge and critique everything with almost no ability to actually change, produce or do anything except bitch.

It gets tiresome to hear self-proclaimed 'experts' offer such vitriolic "reviews" when InXile is at least attempting to offer a style of game that is mostly ignored today.

Reviews are fine when offered with some humility, spewed hate from some internet troll-site (RPGCodex) not so much.

Hi Brother None.