RPGWatch Feature - Torment: Tides of Numenera Review
 

Corwin checked out Torment: Tides of Numenera and provides his view on the game in this review.

More information.

Thanks Corwin for the review and Wolfgrimdark for the screenshots.

Thanks for the review, Corwin! The game actually doesn't seem bad. The review is far more positive than the Codex one.

That review hits all the major points. Very well done Corwin. I think I will hold off until they add the extra content. There is no way I am doing that much reading twice. I would rather just snuggle in my bed with a good book :)

Thanks, Corwin. Finally well written and convincing review on hardcore RPG site.

Thanks for the review!

Good review, you hit the major problems and all the good points. I am with Hastar though, I will wait to read this once over.

Great review, Corwin.

You could always play it on the Shield since it just released on there. Snuggle in bed with an immersive pair of headphones and a good RPG. It's noice. :)

I'm sorry, but how anyone can find writing good that for a very large portion just describes what you can see with your own eyes on the screen is beyond me.

The rest of the review I can definitely follow, though.

Thanks for the great review, Corwin. I haven't gotten around to playing yet myself, but it sounds like a solid game, even if it can't live up to Planescape:Torment which, in my opinion, had one of the most memorable stories of any RPG I've ever played. That's something almost impossible to live up to, which may be why a lot of these "rpg revival" games have met with mixed receptions from longtime rpg fans. Personally I've really liked most of them, so I suspect I'll enjoy Torment as well.

Great review Corwin, it mirrored my own experience spot on, both the good and the could have been better parts. Great work.

It did? I never felt the describing text was superfluous, to me it increased immersion by giving details not represented in the visuals (if it was a first person game I would probably have been more inclined to agree with you).

The trouble is, based on all I've read, I think it will be a disappointment to me. My expectations were certainly very/too high, but that's perhaps inescapable when it's touted as the successor to Torment. I was hoping for an RPG that knocked it out of the park, rather than yet another that's kind of fun, but not quite what we'd hoped.

Thanks Corwin - I already bought the game, but I'll wait for a few patches before I start playing.

Thanks for the review but I'm on the game this moment and am scared to read (spoilers! ;)) before I finish it. Probably this weekend as I'm already 32 hours in.

Unlike WL2 release, this one is polished, I did find a few annoyances but nothing serious or gamebreaking I'd suggest as worth the wait.

The only very light spoilers in the review concern the first hours of the game, so you're probably safe to read it if you've played for that long.

Ah then I'm off to read it. Will return and post is something bugs me. ;)

Thanks Corwin - appreciate your perspective as always!

The main reason: I have still tons of other RPGs to play…

I agree with Corwin's review for the most part. There is replayability here through I do wish for more show and less tell next time. Also employing combat more often to create some tension in our choices would be beneficial.

I've no idea why you put game's core goals under cons Corwin, but otherwise congrats on a fairly decent preview. :)

Pretty much mirrors my experience as well. Starting over as a glaive I have found more chances at combat although I am not going to replay again (was just doing a little testing) until after the patches and such - just because memory will dim and will be more fun that way.

The story still haunts me a little though as I find myself thinking about my choices at the end a lot. Mainly because it raises some tough questions on choice and how it affects your life and others.

Any game that keeps me thinking about it after I am done playing it is a plus in my book.

I'm glad that Corwin doesn't mind reading. :)
Planescape Torment was one of my all-time favorites, despite its slow pace.
You have to know going in that this isn't Diablo, or even Baldur's Gate.
Torment games are more like an interactive fantasy novel.
I just hope the writing is half as good as in the original Planescape Torment…

I really want to play this now, but I'll try to wait for the patches.
InXile has promised to add back in some cut content, including the toy sidekick Oom… I just hope it doesn't take too long.

Same here, plenty games to play.

Nice review Corwin! Thanks!

Another great review Corwin. I think I have enjoyed pretty much every game you have positively reviewed so I know I can trust your reviews.

Nice one, Corwin!

As you rightly pointed out: It's a very hard game to actually review. I wouldn't know where to begin. Of course, mechanics and such can be described, but they really don't tell the whole story. In fact, most of the things thing truly worth reviewing would have to be reviewed in a massive spoiler bracket.

All in all though, I suppose the verdict for most people seems to be somewhat similar to my own: Enjoyable game, but it doesn't rival PST.

OK, OK, lots of stuff to read.

Is it GOOD reading? I'm not expecting great literature. But I'd settle for a Stephen King (for example) style page-turner, something that compels me to move forward.

I certainly found it interesting enough to read it properly. The only time I skimmed text was in one of the meres.

Thank you for the great review, Corwin!

"The good news is that your companions can help you with 'skill checks' so you don't need to be a generalist if you have a balanced party."

This actually "bad news". Because it trivializes the whole skillcheck thing and ruins replayability.

You know there were a lot of combat encounters in PS:T, right?

Not really.

1. You can shove off all sidekicks and solo the game.
2. There are many skillcheck instances where only the main protagonist's ones count.
3. During combat if you chat with hostiles skillcheck counts only for a person that's into talks.
4. Skillcheck fails sometimes result with better rewards than successes and sometimes the sidestory gets additional path.
The thing is, most of times you can fight or avoid combat in T:ToNumenera, your choice. This choice is not always obvious, so if you rush persuasion/deception/intimidate dialogue usually combat won't happen as it's set to appear later in the dialogue. In some cases proper "puzzlesolving" will also save you from combat - and no I don't mean skillchecks here.

Please stop being IGN/Gamespot shallow gamer.
I'm not saying Torment2 is as brilliant as PST as I didn't finish it yet, but so far, in my case, it's good.

I have finished the game and i suppose i know about encounters in TToN. My point was just that PS:T was not an "interactive visual-novel" and you had a lot of trash combat.

1: But… why?
2: Only in very few areas(mostly in the Labyrinth)
3: But there are only 2-3 combat encounters where you can talk to enemies during combat
4: Yup, i have noticed that. It's a shame that it's hard to actually fail a skillcheck ;)

Did not read through the comments, just two things I'd like to mention here:

I'd say the opposite. It basically makes no difference what you chose to play. Because the game is mostly about the stat pools and your amount of resources there is almost unlimited. So it really does not matter what character choices you take. In the end even the worst fighter will be able to do all the fights (which wont matter anyways, as you can just bypass them or progress if you lose them) and even the most unskillfull character will be able to succeed in all dialogues by just using pools from the companions.
And as mentioned before: Failing often has better rewards than succeeding. So thats another option.
The lack of meaning to character choice is also why I see absolutely no replay value there. (the game has some replay value, but this is due to selection of answers and companions). And that's also a big con of the game imho: All the combat based items and cyphers and all the character skill decisions basically do not interact well with the game and feel tucked on.

Speaking of companions:
I though the companions have a lot of personality actually. I played with Rhin, Matkina and Callistege. And while they didn't have so many discussions with the main character, no other game comes to my mind where these characters brought themselves that often into random dialogues. Talk about killing or assasins: Matkina will contribute. Talk about science: Callistege will add to the dialogue. Talk about morale choices, Rhin might contribute. Also I felt that all these characters had quite some profile. They weren't just husks with some stats but real characters with a backstory and personality.

Edit: Another thing to add would be the bugs, which are still present in this version of the game. Like the annoying sound effect caused by an passive aura which forces you to switch the zone once each time you load the game. Or the crashes / freezes in some combats with too many combatants.

The topic is Torment:Tides of Numenera review.
When I need my interactive novel fix, I buy some hentai game.

1. Didn't you say replayability before asking that?
2. No. Stop fastrunning through games and ignoring things like useable items in inventory.
3. No. Maybe we don't (in your case didn't) play the same game.
4. It's not hard at all. Try to roleplay a clumsy and ignorant character, make sure your perception and lore skills are low.

.

Have to add to Kordanor's observation, cyphers are this game's utter trash mechanics. Those are used as moneysink and also to cover for bad choices while evolving your character. Negative bonus for having a few too much of them is laughable, 1-2 more than you should have irrelevant penalty takes away the reason to care if you'll keep them or just ditch/sell.
What's even worse, when you sell them to a merchant, this merchant puts them in ordinary inventory, means they don't get any penalty. At least I didn't notice they suddenly drop prices or something being "overwhelmed".

However, as I can't care less for combat in RPGs and cyphers' function is primarily ment for combat, ah well, it's like it is.

Indeed.

Just as Effort absolutely annihilates character progression.

Yes, there was combat, but with more words than the Bible, Planescape:Torment played like an "interactive fantasy novel" because it was virtually all story-driven; Except for a handful of fights, combat was optional.

I recall the Carceri arc was almost entirely combat.

Each of these remarks is kind of beside the point, though…

You're speaking of how players could by-pass this issue, and not addressing the issue. (companions' help + Effort resource mechanic = taking away from traditional character building)