Torment:ToN - Review @ The Geek Society

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HiddenX

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Thanasis of the Geek Society has reviewed Torment: Tides of Numenera:

Torment: Tides of Numenera is the new cRPG of inXile Entertainment

Tides of Numenera is a game that was made through crowdfunding. In the original campaign it managed to raise about $ 4.2 million from 74,405 backers and has been held the record of pledged money for over two years, until it was surpassed by Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Note that one of these supporters was the author of this post.

As the title of the game suggests, it aspired to be the spiritual continuation of the famous cRPG Planscape: Torment, which, although it came out in distant 1999, is considered one of the best (if not the best) cRPG that has been made. If you're curious to see if it manged to do so go directly to the end of the article, otherwise if you have a little patience, read on to find out why and do not worry, we will reveal the least possible spoilers.

[...]

In conclusion:

Overall you can finish the game with all side quests in 30-40 hours, depending on how fast you read the dialogues resolve the quests and Crisis.

Torment: Tides of Numenera is a good cRPG, from which we expected much more, according to what was said in the funding campaign. It certainly is not a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment, and the omission of the Torment word from the game title in almost all the article is not accidental . It is a pity that such a good writer cast didn't achieve something more memorable, but as it is the first attempt in a relatively new world, perhaps in the future they could create something better, since the background for stories exists.

This problem may result from the introduction to the history of a new world together with the linearity of the plot. Baldur's Gate, when it came out, gave so much freedom of movement and thereby gave the opportunity to learn the history of that part of the Forgotten Realms, whose history had already had 11 years of life. Perhaps such free exploration could have given greater depth to the world of Numenera and make it a worthwhile successor of the Golden Age.

Also, the game pays the price of Crowdfunding early era, where there was an exaggerated euphoria of backers and creators alike, which led to great promises that could not be implemented in the future. Someday we write an article about this issue, because I think it was a great lost opportunity for this industry, albeit I hope temporarily.

On the positive side we have, briefly, the interesting, although new, world, beautiful graphics and a different way of character development.

On the negative side we have Sound, the GUI, dialogues without special depth and purpose , the meager items and not so impressive plot.

All this does not mean that you should skip it and play something else, just do not expect something as impressive as Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment or Witcher 3.
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More information.
 
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This problem may result from the introduction to the history of a new world together with the linearity of the plot.
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I don't know but I can't agree with this statement.

I don't think the Numenera setting is the problem here. I certainly would not have wanted it to be set in D&D again. And I thought the main plot in PST was linear too, more or less. But maybe I'm mistaken.
 
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If you want to know what was in the designers heads when they were making TTON give this video a look.

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024206/Everything-s-on-Fire-and

Session Name Everything's on Fire and No One Knows What to Do
Speaker(s) George Ziets, Leanne Taylor-Giles, Chris Avellone, Colin McComb, Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie
Company Name(s) inXile Entertainment, Ubisoft Montreal, Freelance, 3lb Games LLC, inXile Entertainment
Track / Format Game Narrative Summit
Overview Everything's on Fire and No One Knows What to Do is about developing a common knowledge base for game writers, narrative designers, and cross-discipline communication. This panel focuses on the day-to-day aspects of game writing and working within a team, namely problem-solving, clear communication, and uncovering constraints after all the dialogue has already been recorded. Five industry experts share their experiences working on everything from AAA to indie and tabletop, discuss their strategies for remaining creative on varying budgets, and define common terms that may just result in you not needing to set everything on fire after all.
 
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On the negative side we have Sound, the GUI, dialogues without special depth and purpose , the meager items and not so impressive plot.
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inXile kills another game.. after W2 yet again!

Could it be possible that McComb didn't write the amazing Disks religion parts of Torment 1 and the majority of the story? He just took credit for the whole, when in fact he wrote around 30% of it?
 
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mercy said:
inXile kills another game.. after W2 yet again!

Could it be possible that McComb didn't write the amazing Disks religion parts of Torment 1 and the majority of the story? He just took credit for the whole, when in fact he wrote around 30% of it?
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It could be that back then they were young and wanted to prove themselves but now they don't care enough.
 
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mercy said:
On the negative side we have Sound, the GUI, dialogues without special depth and purpose , the meager items and not so impressive plot.
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inXile kills another game.. after W2 yet again!
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Not really... I'm having enormous fun with it.

- Sound is good but not the best possible, there is no Vivaldi's two oboe concert, there is no screech while memorizing a spell (because different ruels), etc, I'm not sure what's the reviewer talking about, good does not mean negative.
- GUI for chatty has a microstutter on opening which is Unity's fault. Otherwise it's all good IMO. Not the best again, but still not negative.
- Dialogues have purpose, your tide shifts and you learn so much lore one playthrough won't be enough to connect everything. Depth... I didn't expect Vittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, the reviewer did and this game is not that. So far I actually like main story and substories I've stumbled upon.

- Meager items is definetly a problem. Every junk (oddity) has it's small story yet all you can do with those is to sell them. So you'll stop reading those and will stop using those that can be used as there is no effect on anything.
Actual useables are pretty much useless, I mean, you'll carry them and never use. Singleuse Cyphers are too frequent and you can't strategize with those much, usually the one you need is not on the sidekick that's currently active during combat.
 
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Torment/WL1 look to be one-hit wonders.
 
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joxer said:
Singleuse Cyphers are too frequent and you can't strategize with those much, usually the one you need is not on the sidekick that's currently active during combat.
Click to expand...

There's a clever, non-obvious way of making them repeated use ;)
 
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At first the writing seems pretty incredible and then as time goes on it become lack luster with little direction, kind of repetitive.

I agree with "Hairysctsman2" and also during combat using a cypher could be a lot more clear.

Initially, I was okay with Torment:ToN but the more I played it I began to wonder what these seasoned veterans of old where trying to accomplish and just felt feeling empty; much like Wasteland 2. I'm saving my money from any more inXile turds.
 
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Three ARE actually oddities that are usable and with an effect, so at least check them before you sell them.

I learned toward the end game to use Cyphers in every battle, you'll get enough of them anyway. Give high damage cyphers to your weakest hitter, give damage increasing ones to your strongest. And don't exploit the bug that makes them reusable, that just makes it trivial and boring in my opinion.
 
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