Torment: Tides of Numenera Released

[Lexx]

I haven't played the full release yet due to lack of time, but I wouldn't mind them doing an expansion pack for it, if the story allows for it. They could put in the missing stretch goals and add new side / story content as well, similar to PoE's addon. This time they already have a console version, so chances for it becoming something like the W2 DC should be slim.

[UserForFun]

Everything about this game is cheap and lazy. From the menu to the generic and barely audible music, to combat. Design is good though, nice art. Honestly, when I first saw the menu I thought it was a bug, then checked the gog for update and nada. Anyhow, anyone claims this to be the spiritual successor of Planescape Torment is fooling you.

 

This is literally a fake-copy of it. Everything decent from it has been pasted over. The bar, even a character from it, the overarching plot, etc. I cringed more than one time at the absolute copy-paste content from it. The story is predictable, simple, and embarrassing, Skyrim-level. Characters are forgettable and uninspired. There are about 50 lines of voiced-acting. Planescape Torment, back in 1999 or w/e, had more voice-acting than this. Considering how much free money they got, just laughable.

 

Follower interactions and comments? Once every blue moon. Questions to ask, characters? Generic, who are you, what are you doing. The writing itself? Walls of texts just for the sake of it. The writers didn't write for the gamers, or readers w/e u wanna call it, but for themselves. Unnecessarily details where is not needed, not enough details when needed.

 

I figured out the plot when I finished a side-quest in the main-city, with the ghost chick. I actually deluded myself into thinking '' Nah, this isn't it. It has to be more complex '' Psst. Nope, what you see is what you get. An ape with a lobotomy can follow the story.

 

All in all, I'm very disappointed, don't buy it. Maybe DLC or Expansion will patch it up, but... Who are we kidding. They just made a big bag of money over very little work. 

 

'' Planescape Torment Successor '' Ahahahaa. Dream on.

[Agiel]

It took me until I reached the Bloom that I finally learned I could use the Bronze Sphere that was sitting in my Quest Items inventory, and when I realised its purpose... well... let's just say I almost made a great impersonation of a Shaolin monk when my head hit the desk.

Edited March 5, 2017 by Agiel

[Raithe]

And one of the minor irritations in a way if you do realise it late in the game and use it to change your companions, is that any summoned companions have not levelled up in any way. So you can have maxed tier 4 characters running around with barely tier 2 companions.  Also for things not to realise until late in the game, that half the oddities you pick up can be used in a way to improve your skills or abilities and aren't just sellable junk.

 

I will say I was kind of surprised at the length of the game. I was expecting to have a fairly lengthy time of it (or at least, some comparable to Wastelands 2), but it does seem that once you get out of the city it really bounces along quickly.

 

On the whole, I fairly enjoyed it, but it has a lot of niggles that annoyed me. While it was interesting to see a game that gave you plenty of non-combat options through the majority of it, getting stuck in some of those final crisis points was agonisingly slow and awkward. Plus the whole screen jerking around as 1 of 10 enemies has their turn, and then the next, and then the next.... That definitely took some of the polished enjoyable glow off getting into the endgame.

 

Rhin turned out to be a well written character and I liked that extra twist towards the end of her story.

[Agiel]

[T]hat half the oddities you pick up can be used in a way to improve your skills or abilities and aren't just sellable junk.

 

...

 

...

 

...

 

Son of a bitch.

[Raithe]

 

[T]hat half the oddities you pick up can be used in a way to improve your skills or abilities and aren't just sellable junk.

 

...

 

...

 

...

 

Son of a bitch.

 

 

Yeah. Check details for each oddity. If it just has "sell" it's a junk item to raise shins. If it has a "use" option, use it outside of a crisis and they normally open up a dialogue option choice and depending on how you go with it... You quite often end up with a Stat or Skill boost of some sort.

Edited March 5, 2017 by Raithe

[Fenixp]

Yeah. Check each oddity. If it just has "sell" it's a junk item to raise shins. If it has a "use" option, use it outside of a crisis and they normally open up a dialogue option choice and depending on how you go with it... You quite often end up with a Stat or Skill boost of some sort.

I so love the UI making no distinction between junk and useable items. Lack of information is so oldschool and desirable, isn't it? I'm sad they even have any item categories, we should only find out what an item is by carefully reading its description and then equipping it to the right slot. If we equip it to the wrong slot, it'll break, obviously - including quest items!

[Heijoushin]

...that half the oddities you pick up can be used in a way to improve your skills or abilities and aren't just sellable junk.

 

....

 

Son of a submariner.... I missed a lot.

[Hynkel]

Reading the feedback here makes me glad that, despite a few minor issues, Pillars of Eternity feels like a finished game. It's easy after such a big kickstarter success with high expectations to have a very unfocused development, and ambitions that go way beyond what the budget allows you to accomplish.

 

So kudos to Obsidian I guess.

[Raithe]

One thing I do think can be a bit of an issue, is that there's not a really good journal keeping track of information.  I can understand on one level the approach, plus the whole throwing in of reading and old school feel to it, but at the same time, if I read something one night and save my game, then have life interrupt for a few days and come back to it.. my memory probably isn't going to be exact for all those little things I've read in walls of text.

 

The writing is generally really well done, the universe is interesting, there's a lot of fun concepts. But it can be a pain to keep it in mind when you play for an hour or two, then have to go off and deal with life for several days before getting back into it.

[Katarack21]

 

 

[T]hat half the oddities you pick up can be used in a way to improve your skills or abilities and aren't just sellable junk.

 

...

 

...

 

...

 

Son of a bitch.

 

 

Yeah. Check details for each oddity. If it just has "sell" it's a junk item to raise shins. If it has a "use" option, use it outside of a crisis and they normally open up a dialogue option choice and depending on how you go with it... You quite often end up with a Stat or Skill boost of some sort.

 

Even better, there's at least one Oddity that doesn't become useful until a second Oddity (it's partner) is acquired with it.

[Lexx]

But isn't this kinda "part of the setting"? Even in the books (as far as I've read them), they always keep talking about old numenera and cyphers that nobody knows what they are actually doing, if something at all. Also objects being misused constantly, because nobody really knows what to do with them. Therefore, "junk" items not necessarily being junk is perfectly fine and even a cool thing, imo. It allows for more replayability and toying around with random things that might or might not be useful.

[Raithe]

But isn't this kinda "part of the setting"? Even in the books (as far as I've read them), they always keep talking about old numenera and cyphers that nobody knows what they are actually doing, if something at all. Also objects being misused constantly, because nobody really knows what to do with them. Therefore, "junk" items not necessarily being junk is perfectly fine and even a cool thing, imo. It allows for more replayability and toying around with random things that might or might not be useful.

 

I think it's a fine line to walk. When you're sat at a table playing the pen and paper (or hypothetically speaking a character in that universe) it's something that's fairly easy to keep in mind and part of the whole feel and atmosphere.  When you're playing a computer game, you don't get the full effect of that, and you have a lot of in-grained habits from playing other computer games where the junk is the junk is the junk. Plus, to a certain point, you don't necessarily get all of that aspect pushed at you from a computer gamers point of view in-game, so unless you know the world previously it's not going to trip your mental switches to really keep an eye on?

 

When your first dozen oddities are all "junk - sell" stuff, a lot of people shut down on checking the rest because they'll be focusing on the other things that have already shown themselves to be potentially relevant/important to the game.

 

I know I kept most of the oddities I found for ages through the game thinking they might potentially be useful or involved in something else rather than simply flogging them off. But even then I didn't click to the aspect of being able to use them on their own and getting boosts until I was halfway through the Bloom.

[Oner]

Personally I could use the money, but I'm scared of selling anything.

[algroth]

It took me until I reached the Bloom that I finally learned I could use the Bronze Sphere that was sitting in my Quest Items inventory, and when I realised its purpose... well... let's just say I almost made a great impersonation of a Shaolin monk when my head hit the desk.

Does it tell you your real name?

[Fenixp]

Therefore, "junk" items not necessarily being junk is perfectly fine and even a cool thing, imo.

I do agree with the sentiment, it's just... at the start of the game, make an NPC say "Bro, I found these two oddities! I think you can use this one, but the second one is useless, sell it!" and there, you've set an expectation.

 

I'd even stop and think about why are they called "Oddities" as opposed to "Junk" and hold onto them, but with the game liking to call similar concepts by whatever it feels like, well...

Edited March 5, 2017 by Fenixp

[algroth]

Perhaps some of the more humorous comments regarding Tides is the lot that go "HOW DARE THEY CALL THIS A SUCCESSOR TO PLANESCAPE: TORMENT! SHAME ON THE CREATORS FOR TARNISHING THE GAME'S IMAGE AND DECEIVING US THIS WAY!". It's always fun to read the fanboy butthurt that follows a franchise being revived almost two decades after the fact.

 

Personally I'm always glad of seeing a game take some influence from Torment - even copying it outright may lead to an interesting product, being itself so unique a piece in the medium. Some will work better than others, that's usually the risk you take with any artistic endeavour, and at the very least I find the ambition here worth applauding.

Edited March 5, 2017 by algroth

[EUIX]

I think the stretch goals being cut is really just a symptom of larger project management problems. Inxile is basically Troika of the old, great ideas but without the technical or managerial sophistication to fully realize them.

[algroth]

I think the stretch goals being cut is really just a symptom of larger project management problems. Inxile is basically Troika of the old, great ideas but without the technical or managerial sophistication to fully realize them.

I've yet to play it, but everything I've heard so far does point that way. It also sounds to me that the game was eventually rushed to release, despite (or maybe as product of) the many delays there were on its release date.

[the_dog_days]

I feel like they spent 4 million of their 4.5 million budget on writing, and the other 500k on everything else. Seriously, it wouldn't have hurt to put more money into the sound library.

[algroth]

I've heard a lot of complaints about the sound and music. That's interesting and suprising, considering it's where Torment excelled at the most, writing and voice acting aside.

[Jozape]

I've heard a lot of complaints about the sound and music. That's interesting and suprising, considering it's where Torment excelled at the most, writing and voice acting aside.

 

I think the music is terrific, though the ambient sounds definitely aren't as good. It's odd because some parts of the game do have those wonderful ambient sounds -- like the Underbelly around the foundry -- but other places, like Circus Minor, lack it completely.

[Fenixp]

Reading the feedback here makes me glad that, despite a few minor issues, Pillars of Eternity feels like a finished game. It's easy after such a big kickstarter success with high expectations to have a very unfocused development, and ambitions that go way beyond what the budget allows you to accomplish.

Yeah, it's obvious Pillars of Eternity had been developed by a highly experienced team that already works well together. You can say what you want about the game, but even on release it was already a highly polished title, if not technically competent. Numenera in comparison feels a lot more amateurish.

 

I've heard a lot of complaints about the sound and music. That's interesting and suprising, considering it's where Torment excelled at the most, writing and voice acting aside.

The music feels... Unremarkable. Which is a huge shame, especially seeing what Justin Bell achieved with extremely limited budget of Pillars of Eternity. Edited March 5, 2017 by Fenixp

[Oner]

Just got my focus. It's one thing that there's only 3 foci but why is Silver Tongue useless*? xD At least Breathes Shadow gives me 5% for certain skills in addititon to the sneak attack.

 

*Yes, I consider the ability to waste more Int on a roll useless.

[Agiel]

 

It took me until I reached the Bloom that I finally learned I could use the Bronze Sphere that was sitting in my Quest Items inventory, and when I realised its purpose... well... let's just say I almost made a great impersonation of a Shaolin monk when my head hit the desk.

Does it tell you your real name?

 

 

Nah, but let's just say that for the story completionists this item is vital.

 

It's funny. I presumed that it was just put in the game as an in-joke by the developers "Hey, Planescape fans! Remember this thing? Har, har."