Torment:ToN - Review @ Mortismal Gaming

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Torment: Tides Of Numenera - Review After 100%

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Im playing this now after i finished the first game and i like it more.

I loved this game - played it twice through. Might do again at some point.

Loved this game.

My vote 5.5/10. Too short, wordy and way overrated. Vastly inferior to the original.

Originally Posted by Telstar
My vote 5.5/10. Too short, wordy and way overrated. Vastly inferior to the original.

Also the combat was 100% pointless.
Was something like:
Win the fight: "Oh, you are so strong, you must be a god, you are our new master."
Lose the fight and get killed: "Oh, you cant die, you must be a god, you are our new master"

Basically the game was a whole chose your own adventure game, bad decisions and combat just put you on a slightly different path if at all. Also means that stat wise nothing mattered.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Also the combat was 100% pointless.
Was something like:
Win the fight: "Oh, you are so strong, you must be a god, you are our new master."
Lose the fight and get killed: "Oh, you cant die, you must be a god, you are our new master"

Basically the game was a whole chose your own adventure game, bad decisions and combat just put you on a slightly different path if at all. Also means that stat wise nothing mattered.

When cRPG is only creating illusion of character development, but is not being able to hide it well enough, it often kills large part of my interest. Usually I dont finish such game, just as it happened here, although I gave it at least 2 or 3 proper tries.

Wow..vastly different points of view here on this game.
I haven't played it yet, really liked the original Torment..not sure yet if this would interest me..

Originally Posted by Warmark
Wow..vastly different points of view here on this game.
I haven't played it yet, really liked the original Torment..not sure yet if this would interest me..

Yeah, well it's really also depending on what you expect from the game and it's probably strongly related to this poll we currently have like "what makes you buy a game".

For me personally game mechanics and also challenges have a high importans. The game can still be good without being good in either of them, but it will become much harder.

And I think in order to really enjoy torment you have to have a specific mindset.

For example if you just play in a way, where you just roll with whatever happens and enjoy that playstyle and enjoy how the story is unfolding, you will likely enjoy the game more.

There is just no optimizations, meaningful character development or anything similar in a game.
No matter what you do, if its a combat or just a skill check - both options are somwhat viable and lead to different fragments of story.
In most games you would want to optimize your character in order to win a battle or to pass a skillcheck.
That is not the case for ToN. It doesnt really matter. The different is just whether you have both options available.

So while in a "normal" game you would want to try to win a fight, in ToN it would be your active decision of "Whether you want to lose the fight in order to see a different story fragments unfolding".

If you just accept whatever happens, that is not an issue. But as someone liking game mechanics you just have a overwhelming feeling of uselessness for whatever you as player are doing and deciding.

Maybe comparable a bit to a game like Europa Universalis or Crusader King or Distant Worlds 2 or something like that, where you limit yourself to one interaction per hour or so, and just live with the rest what happens. If you enjoy that - and I am sure some people would do, then you would likely also enjoy ToN. But if you'd try to reach some goals like conquer the world and maximize all options you have in these games, then ToN is likely not to work at all for you.

I enjoyed this one a lot. Was it superior to the first one? For me, no. Not even close. Was it worth supporting, playing, and then replaying? Absolutely yes. I can see how this style of gaming wouldn't appeal to everyone.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Win the fight: "Oh, you are so strong, you must be a god, you are our new master."
Lose the fight and get killed: "Oh, you cant die, you must be a god, you are our new master"

I loved the game but the statement above is true and funny.

Originally Posted by Wisdom
I loved the game but the statement above is true and funny.

I loved it as well, might be time for a replay.

I don't believe I ever lost a fight so I never noticed that it was meaningless to win…

You can actually die in the game. I did twice.

Also its part of who you are as a character to not die (in general) as that is part of the whole concept. So complaining that you don't die is missing the point completely.

Also missing the point if you think the game was about combat. I felt I had plenty of opportunity to develop and role play my character as I progressed in the game.

Probably not a game for power gamers who love to min/max their characters and conquer the world though.

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
Probably not a game for power gamers who love to min/max their characters and conquer the world though.

Is it a game for people who just want to play a game tho?

I'm not being facetious with the question, although is is partially rhetorical, but aside from the 6 combat encounters in the game, or however many there were, I forget the maximum number, what is it you're doing that implies a game is being played? Is it quite puzzle heavy, for example? Do all the stories in it require you to 'work them out' to get 'better' stories? Or whatever?

I wouldn't have responded but for your use of the notion of power gamers being disappointed, which implies more casual gamers might like it, such as myself, but I always got the impression there wasn't really any gaming, so to speak. I usually nod off if the computer game spends too much time in words, which I don't when reading a paper book you see. Is there 'more' to it than just, erm, reading? What is that more?

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
Also missing the point if you think the game was about combat. I felt I had plenty of opportunity to develop and role play my character as I progressed in the game.

Probably not a game for power gamers who love to min/max their characters and conquer the world though.

Yeah, it's not. And it's also not about skillchecks.

But the thing which I personally don't like is the feeling of "everything is pointless".

Winning or Losing a fight is a decision. There is no incentive for either.

Same goes for skillchecks. For example you could try to get some ring out of thorns.
Success: You get the ring. Fail: You get scratched on thorns and get a skillgain.

Most of the time you could easily solve all skillchecks. So it's an active decision if you actually want to succeed.

There is no success and there are no right decisions. There is only progress.

Originally Posted by lackblogger
but I always got the impression there wasn't really any gaming, so to speak.

Yeah, you could say that there is no "gaming". The game has game mechanics, but they are not relevant. If the game removed all game mechanics and for everything you could just chose between A and B you would have had the same experience.

Besides of course: If you arent aware it is like this, you might play it as "game".

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Yeah, you could say that there is no "gaming". The game has game mechanics, but they are not relevant. If the game removed all game mechanics and for everything you could just chose between A and B you would have had the same experience.

Besides of course: If you arent aware it is like this, you might play it as "game".

So it's not even much of a purely narrative CYOA? [in terms of the game aspect]

Originally Posted by lackblogger
So it's not even much of a purely narrative CYOA? [in terms of the game aspect]

Probably depends on the CYOA. The ones I played from "Das Schwarze Auge" (Realms of Arkania) allowed you to fail, die in combat and whatnot. So in that case it's not.

It's more like a CYOA without combat and skillchecks where you always reach the ending.