RPGWatch Feature - Torment: Tides of Numenera Impressions
 

Corwin entered the world of Numenera in the beta version of Torment: Tides of Numenera and wrote his first impressions of the game.

More information.

Thanks Corwin!

Thanks, Corwin!

Stopped reading there.
It's a game of my dreams, I don't need to know more!
…

j/k, I've read it all, I'm not action twich streamer and I could never ever force myself into watching that crap instead of playing a game, great preview, thanks Corwin!

Thanks for the preview, Corwin!
I haven't backed the game, tho I intend to get it after release.

Hmm I need to install the beta….

*Standard disclaimer: All this is my opinion, and your mileage may vary*

Yea, that opening is such a mess. I think that whole opening scene needs to be scrapped, and something completely different put in its place, honestly. It is very confusing, not fun, way too long and drawn out, with no reward, and will put off many gamers. Hell, just your character waking up on a table in some strange doctors office type room, like the first game, would be a much better opening scene than what they got now. And where the player just picks their stats and skills in a traditional manner, instead of the way where you answer a bunch of obscure questions, and then the game decides what your character will be organically…that is very lame, IMHO.

And maybe an option for those who want to skip some of the novels of text would be great as well, like, in an options screen, "less text (action focused gamer)" would be an option, and the game would then cut out half or more of the normal text. And it would all still make some sort of sense…Oh well, a guy can dream, anyway, heh.

Thanks, Corwin. Your impressions are similar to other impressions that I've read, and it sounds like the developers have some (a lot?) of polishing to do. That's hardly surprising, so it could turn out well.

Thanks for the impression. Sounds like mostly good news, except for the opening segment… I hope they get that sorted out. I generally detest in-game tutorials and prefer they be very brief, if not completely optional.

Think I'll probably resist the urge to mess around with the beta and just wait for release. I just hope one RPG I've been looking forward to actually gets released this year.

Thanks for posting this, but surely you can say *something* about the combat?
Bugs aside, is it at least better than the TBWP of Pillars?

Thanks Corwin! I'm glad I backed this one and can't wait for it to be released.

(the following is based on the alpha build I played)

The combat in Torment is way different than Pillars. Torment has a true turn-based combat system, and it's likely to please the more "old school" turn-based combat fans. Each character - and enemy - gets a move along a set initiative, and when you click to move somewhere, a dotted arrow pops up and basically asks you to click again to confirm. You finish your action, then someone else goes, and it comes back around to you.

Thanks Corwin!

Thanks Corwin! The artwork is gorgeous :smitten:

Will most likely get this after early access.

All Kickstarter backers can play now? I guess I missed that update.

The game's combat is closer to something like Divinity: Original Sin than Pillars of Eternity (turn based and gridless).

There is a lack of UI feedback in the current beta build that is public (things like how many actions you have left, whether a target is out of range, etc.) but a lot of that has been addressed in our internal builds now and so that should be way better going forward in future releases.

Nice preview, Corwin. Thanks!

I wonder if people who backed it through BT4 also get access…

Thanks, Aubrielle and sea. I can't stand a game with crummy combat so I'll remain optimistic.

O'rly? I also must have missed that update. That is rather tempting, I'm going to hold off and wait for the release version on this one.

Brilliant, thanks Corwin, I'm really optimistic about this now.

I immediately backed it on Kickstarter, but have not been following any of the updates from the devs, as I want to go in without knowing anything of the plot or characters.

When I bought the original Torment in 2000, I knew absolutely nothing about it. The "Dungeons and Dragons" logo made me pick the box up, but the lack of fantasy setting made me think it couldn't be an RPG (ah, how naive I was). I think it was on sale and the only non-shooter in the shop that I hadn't played, so I bought it. It was a revelation.

Oh, to capture that sense of wonder again!

"Oh, for a good, old fashioned heavy game manual." - I enjoyed these back in the day and actually usually read manuals but I'm fine without them these days. I much prefer having good UI's that include tooltips and in-game info. Manuals are even more easily made out of date in these days of patches, xpcas, DLCs. There is something to be said for something like 'civlopedia' type in-game docs though for games with enough complexity to warrant it.