Technomancer

I'm currently playing it. Dunno about sale, it had a preorder discount and I loved the first game (Mars: War Logs) so I had preordered it.

I still haven't finished it to be sure completely about overall quality, but it's not a mediocre title professional reviewers suggest with their 5/10 - it's above average sci fi RPG.
 
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I've just started. I'm mostly satisfied with it. I really enjoy the overall concept and setting, but certain issues are somewhat annoying (mostly the constant backtracking through empty corridors).
 
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I just wish corridors were empty. :D

Backtracking is getting on my nerves just because trashmobs respawn. The good thing is that by getting positive reputation with a faction, trashmobs of that faction won't attack you any more. However it's antiroleplay - I don't want to play a drugdealer, but if I don't, town mafia in Slums will continue to annoy me for eternity.

It's choice&consequence material obviously, but it's imo bad design decision - choice "abuse" should not be used to help someone with grinding problem.
Which means, I've posted in another thread, one way to deal with endless trashmobs here is to set difficulty on easy so you don't have to waste too much time on same hostiles over and over. Just like with Dragon Age Inquisition - endless respawns push on easy, bosses that once killed can't reappear set on hard for challenge.
Another way to deal with grinding is avoiding the combat. Most trashmobs won't follow or attack you when you run past them instead of picking the fight.

I don't understand why are we still seeing this design in modern RPGs. It's tiresome and it doesn't add anything to game quality.
Critics punished Technomancer for this while couple of years ago they all praised DA:I although it's the same horrible grind design. Same critics praised Dragon's Dogma which is even worse game - unlike Technomancer and DA:I you can't save anywhere in DD, and all of these games are openworlds.
So sorry, but critics are either idiots or liars. Or are punishing only games that don't have a rich publisher behind.

Also to note, Technomancer has chapters. Spiders could use Gothic games design where trashmobs repopulate the world only on chapter progress but they missed the opportunity.

The game is still good, other content and other design choices redeems it.
When Mars got out, I said it has so much potential to retell Fallout story and produce a huge world masterpiece as it's sequel. Spiders did the world. Sadly they didn't "fix" the filler.
 
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I agree. It feels like a missed opportunity, as the setting still holds a lot of potential.
 
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Eh, what? Before Brumbek jumps in, you can actually save in Dogma, even if having only one save.
What are choice and consequence in this one? It was pretty underwhelming in Bound by Flame( aside from player growing a pair of horns) and more cosmetic dressing.
 
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Finished the game.

Nothing much new to say about it that I haven't in my other posts in different threads.
But still.

The game doesn't warn you that there is attributes/skills cap. Dunno if there is level cap, but that doesn't matter.
Anyway, there are 4 attributes, STR, AGI, POW and CON. Each goes from 0-5. You get through the game 12 points to distribute which means you need to concentrate on max two of them. Which is a bit silly, everyone will want power as high as possible (technomancy and related equipment requirement) so they could have removed this one. Strength is needed for staves and soldiertype equipment, agility for knives and roguetype equipment, while constitution ups your health and carryweight total.
There is no +1 attribute equipment, potion or sidekick effect so this is something you should have been warned from the start so you can plan things.

The story kept immersive till the end in my case. Learning it piece by piece plus the game art that presents Mars long after humans colonized it, kept me going forward.
I didn't know till the end how much choices matter, but I know now that they matter only slightly. During chapter 3 you'll need allies and you'll be able to enlist only parties you're in good terms with. This doesn't matter much as you'll still have your back covered even if you screwed them all - the game puts you a new council person who needs help and there is enough of sidemissions to get on friendly terms with at least two more factions (minimum of 3 is needed).
Based on your choices through the main story and sidecontent, you get to choose the end. In that end you discover the truth why Earth abandoned it's colonies on Mars. But it doesn't work quite like the end of setting as it actually opens another question, even more of them. Which is hopefully material for another game.
The thing is, depending on your actions, you can choose between 2-3 ending options, never between possible 5! For example I didn't side with mafia previously so I couldn't choose that one.
Also, many quests you can do different ways, for example data on blackmail you can get from opposition faction or from whores you helped in another quest.
Anyway, c&c exists in the game, but it's not on TW2/TW3 worldchanging scale!

If the story and setting wasn't that good I'd probably uninstall the game before finishing it.
It picked the horrible FF10-2 design where you're crawling through all areas numerous times and mobs are respawning endlessly. Combat against different groups is fun first few times, but later becomes annoying. I think I killed one mob group at a spot I had to frequently pass 20 times! So, combat by itself is fun, but the amount of grinding in this game is not fun.

Seen a few minor bugs. One is clipping issue when camera enters one's head. Happens almost never. Another is Scott (sidekick) personal quest where mobs are invisible at the spot they should be visible and is not a biggie - you discharge some AoE electricity skill, they'll become visible and attack you as they should. One questpoint is constantly displayed on the map although you can't finish it, in fact you finished the quest another way so it should have been removed. Finally dooropening in only one area (mutant valley) causes a microfreeze in the game, apart from that one there is no such performance issue anywhere, the game plays smoothly on my already old machine (GTX760, i5-4670K).
And that's it really, the game is highly polished and won't break, freeze nor crash anywhere.

There are a few types of bosses, and you'll meet them not just once (if you do all the sidecontent too), once you see their moves and predict what they do, they don't look so terrifying. Oh and you can't grind2win like Dark Souls, you need to show some skill. The final boss broke my sweat, I love it!

Crafting is not needed at first, I'd say first two chapters. But in the third chapter you better start adding resistances, damage and critchance to your equipment or you won't go far easily! Technomancer made crafting meaningful. You don't get overpowered weapon nor equipment, but you get it to the point of easier survival. There are also some unique items to find while exploring (purple) that are actually different by being upgradeable other way than normal items, for example normal boots can't be upgraded, unique ones can!.

Did I miss something to add… Probably did. Maybe I should add a pic or two, I took some while playing it.

Technomancer is not a mediocre title, you'll be amazed by setting creator's vivid imagination. Graphics is not on TW3 scale when it comes to living beings, but I don't believe ambients and props can be done better.
Still, the game part, and I mean game, you know, the process where you game, could have been done better. Much better than it currently is. With more areas to explore instead of just backtracking through a huge town where everyone you dealt with before got revived.

Took me 33 hours to finish the game (not just main story, I did all possible sidequests!), means it's twice as big as Mars: War Logs not just by explorable areas but also by time needed to complete everything.
Add to all said low quality music and lack of humor (grrrr), that's strong: 7/10.

Will I buy the next Mars/Technomancer game?
Absolutely!
 
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Watched that biscuit's fellow's "review"...most are biased gripes, but raises one or two decent points.
 
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Those points are?
 
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About the group combat…though it's funny how he uses Shadow of Mordor/Batman as good examples, which in my opinion are (on the other end of the spectrum) even worse.
Group combat is about sense of rhythm and recognizing patterns of movement of the entire group and using this to your advantage…kind of like dancing, when you "feel it"- it comes as something effortless.
Technomancer is far too chaotic, punishing and disorganized with this, so you have to roll away after every two or so strikes, which breaks away it's "flow".
In Batman it was sort of tolerable( given the context, and at least enemies had a variety of attacks which the player had to respond specifically, even if resulting into something that sometimes was more like an elaborated QTE minigame), but pretty damn funny in Mordor when entire army of growling orcs surrounds the player, and watch, as one by one in turns, is killed by the player in the spirit of "fair play".
Witcher was not all together great at this(humans in particular…far too passive), but there were a lot of fights( especially wolves, spiders, endrega, boars, and all four legged critters) where it shined. Plus with it's extensive evasion mechanics( roll, dodge, sidestep, group sidestep) player could adapt easily to any type of tactical position while new group aggro mechanic allowed you to dictate/or be killed by it.
The rest are really gripes that could be applied to a lot of games…why guns/player is less powerful etc, etc. Plus I like the crafting system in Spiders games. It doesn't yield spectacular results, but it nicely complements the game play without breaking/adding more tedium to it.
 
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yeah, it looks mediocre from what I've read and what TB describes.

Then again, his is a first impression.

I have played games where I felt woefully underpowered in comparison to basic mobs, It saps my will to play. A challenge is one thing, but an uphill battle the entire time is quite another.
 
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About the group combat…
Staff fight? Improve it so you can roll the staff over your enemies. With it, practically you destroy everyone except armored ones.
Technomancy? Charge area infront of you, it's AoE attack where all mobs caught in will suffer damage and get knocked down.

Technomancer is not Assassin's Creed where combat is watching TV while clicking randomly and you kill everything. You need to use skills your character has. Go pro or go home maybe should be said.

Remember, TB is not into RPGs, he seems not understanding what's it about.
Shadow of Mordor is a game I refused to buy after seeing it's pathetic "easymode" gameplay that's almost copypaste AC, Batman is also not RPG.

Finally all mobs in Technomancer have certain move which nitifies you what they'll do next. There is a learning curve, TB just don't have time for that (shit). But you *can* predict everything.
And you don't have to roll out constantly - just dodge hard hits and bombs. Rest of the time, try to knock mobs over either shock fist or spam kick (space).
 
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Or you can do what I did: Go full Guardian and just block/counter everything except the biggest monsters. Fairly straight forward and easy.

I've completed it now, doing a second run for the sake of being thorough, but I'll probably write a short review soonish.
 
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Or you can do what I did: Go full Guardian and just block/counter everything except the biggest monsters. Fairly straight forward and easy.

I've completed it now, doing a second run for the sake of being thorough, but I'll probably write a short review soonish.

RPGWatch's resident completionist speed runner strikes again :p
 
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Pretty quiet out there for this game. I was out doing other things and did not see this game coming. It was one of my most anticipated games of the year, but due to other stuff in life, I am on a hold for new game right now. Still, looking forward to impressions . . .
 
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Quiet on RPGwatch because seems only Maylander and me were "early adopters". Maybe some more people, but not everyone wants to write. ;)

Critics helped it, many big names claim it to be mediocre (5/10, 3.5/5, 50%).
Which caused reactions pro and contra. For example, 12 pages long and still ongoing discussion over TB's review (again, IMO TB makes the best tech analisys in reviews, but when it comes to actual gameplay his taste doesn't meet mine):
http://steamcommunity.com/app/338390/discussions/0/358416640392996291/

On those same Steam forums it's not quiet, people are discussing different stuff about the game, so you can check for more there.
 
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Quiet on RPGwatch because seems only Maylander and me were "early adopters". Maybe some more people, but not everyone wants to write. ;)
I'm happy to have an actual backlog of games more or less for the first time ever including Technomancer and Enderal. I still at Blood & Wine but I'm very much looking forward to this one. I'm sure I'll have fun.
 
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I'll never understand that site. Their reviews are always better written that those from "pro" gaming sites. At the same time their community is worse than LeagueOfLegends community (sounds impossible, right?).
Yes, I know, noone's perfect, but still.

A note, the review contains mild story/setting spoilers, none of which will ruin your playthrough, but just so you know if you wan't to discover things on your own.
 
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