Torment: Tides of Numenera

I'm disappointed (half in myself, but half in the game) that I remember so little of Tides of Numenera, and I can't help but hold it against the title. Here's what I do remember: it lived up to its predecessors reputation of being more story-and-dialogue-focused than combat-centered. Which I usually love! But they might have taken it a bit too far; I mostly just remember reading what must amount to hundreds of pages of narration and dialogue. Which, again, is usually my jam. But unless you're going full visual novel, it has to be balanced with good and engaging gameplay, and I'm not sure they struck that balance well enough with this one.

good but flat, at its worst a bit shallow the game is bedazzled and filled to the brim with outlandishness, but does so with little artistic aptitude; it asks big questions about existence, the value and the cost of which, but never shows that it understands the questions by struggling with them itself i would say the best way to approach the game is to treat it as a bag of strange trinkets, rather than a coherent art piece

I liked Torment, a lot, but I have a hard time recommending it. The game relies a lot on a story themes uplifted from it's inspiration Planescape: Torment, but they never really fully come together into something cohesive. Mechanically, unsatisfying to play.

This world is strange, beautiful, and incredibly talkative. I get the feeling even a random rock on the ground could tell me the secrets of life, the universe, and everything it's been through for the past 3000 years.

Haven't finished it yet, so I may comeback later for a full review, but I am quite surprised at how a game that's 80% reading has me so hookep up. If anything, it's an awesome source of inspiration for anything scifi. EDIT: Finished it. It's awesome. It's clearly not for everyone. You are going to be reading 85% of the time, and the other 15% you are going to be expending it admiring the gorgeous and weird vistas this game has to offer. It's what I would call deep sci fi, or sci fantasy. It reminds me a bit of Asimov's Foundation Saga in some respects.

Interesting world, original content but... ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up game engine and a lots of bugs. For example, for finishing second stage of main quest, I must modify xml-files with quest conversation (Lazareth with drones), companions frequently speaks with persons, who are not in party (god of hiding and a live tatoo master), mobs running around in circles... This things need a rebuild.

As far as Planescape: Torment goes, Tides of Numenera is the closest thing you are ever going to get. And it's pretty damn close, in terms of world and writing. This is a true spiritual successor. What I really like is the setting. The Tides bring a unique flavor, to the point [spoiler]I was really excited to see that Oom could tell me how my tides shifted depending on my answers in dialogue.[/spoiler] It also seems to me so far (not having completed the game) that the mood and story are very dark, more like Tyranny. The criticisms of this game seem a little unfair; people can view things through the nostalgia lens. I think the writing is great for a CRPG. Unlike some games like Pillars or Wasteland 2 (although I love both to death) I didn't find the writing boring at times in Tides. It made me laugh out loud often, but that's fairly normal for me. What isn't normal, is how often it made me actually think. I was rereading paragraphs to make sure I understood every nuance of the context. I honestly think the people that found the writing boring, missed a lot and had it go over their heads. If you don't pay attention, smoke too much Lemon Drop sativa, you WILL miss key details. As far as combat, I am a strategic combat nerd. I would have loved to see more combat. However, this game is what it is, and is a successor to what that was. So I'm cool with less combat. I still found my ways to get some work in, loving those cyphers. I still think I fought more battles so far than my entirety of Planescape. So many interesting things about this game, I can't list them all: -The Fifth Eye Tavern -Levies -The machine that makes forced telekinetic copies of the grieving man's daughter from the Ashen imitation quest -slowly understanding Oom's metaphoric thoughts -The House of Empty Time I was putting off playing this because I thought, meh, a lot of reading, gonna be boring, not gonna be PS:T. I was wrong.