Fresh out from inXile studios, Torment: Tides of Numenera has seen the light of day this past week, and if you hadn’t heard, the game made it gold thanks to the massive outpouring of donations to its historic Kickstarter campaign. The creators, who worked on the title to which Torment is a spiritual successor, Planescape: Torment, used that experience to attract attention which no Kickstarter campaign has seen before (although that record has been broken since).
Torment: Tides of Numenera and Planescape: Torment are similar not only in name. Originally, Numenera was meant to be a sequel to Planescape, but after being unable to secure the rights to the IP, inXile simply crafted an entire world from scratch instead. If nothing else, this should give you an idea of how dedicated this team is. Despite being created anew for the sole purpose to become a setting for Tides of Numenera, players of Planescape: Torment will notice a significant number of similarities between the two games. Whether a sign of lazy design or paying homage to its predecesso, it is hard to tell, but what is clear is that despite these similarities, the Tides of Numenera story stands firm on its own two legs.
The isometric view harkens back to the time when essentially all cRPG (computer RPG) were presented in that form. Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, and of course Planescape: Torment among others followed the same graphical formula. Isometric view of the area, focusing on the player character and their party. This, when coupled with hand-painted and animated characters and scenery gives off the old-school vibe that the creators were going for. Don’t get me wrong, old-school does not mean poor or low quality; the environments painted by the artists are enchanting and surreal, a blend of organic and mechanical just as the world.
The world of Numenera has been created specifically for this game by none other than Monte Cook. Along the course of the Kickstarter campaign, inXile also released a traditional pen and paper roleplaying rulebook to accompany it. Story of the game takes place in the Ninth World, Earth; one million years in the future, although nobody calls it by that name anymore. Ninth World, because there were eight prior ones, each world reaching some peak in technological advancement before being torn down in a global catastrophe of some sort. Unfortunately, as with many things in the Ninth World, memory of these events or the purpose of old technology has long been lost. That is what the Numenera are; fragments of old technology, reused and jury rigged to serve a new purpose, often completely unrelated to the creator’s intent. It is not unusual to find space ship engines used as foundry furnace or surgery centres using robots to implant ancient technology into people, none of which is fully understood by either the surgeon or the recipient. Yet sometimes the power given by these “magic” implants is worth the risk (and the price).
As with any self respecting role playing game, character is a major part of the game, but if you are looking for a robust character creation system from more modern RPGs you will be disappointed. At the beginning of the game you get to pick whether you are male or female… and that’s it. The rest is stats, skill, and abilities. If you are worried you will be overwhelmed by the amount of information thrown at you, don’t be. Tides of Numenera take advantage of its storyline to feed the player only as much information as is necessary to complete the next step, with its tutorial seamlessly built into the story so there is little risk of being overwhelmed.
This brings me to the combat system, or as Torment calls it “Crises”. Crises in Torment are what combat encounters are in other RPG, but not exactly. Simply because you have entered the turn-based scenario in the game does not automatically force you into combat, even though that is usually how a Crisis will start. Some Crises will count on your stealth and guile to avoid direct engagement, others will require you to skillfully take advantage of the environment, reactivate an ancient cannon and use it against your enemies, or disable a supercomputer controlling your adversaries to avoid combat entirely. Sometimes you will even be given a chance to talk your way out of a sticky situation. These all count as Crises, and they all draw from the same pool of abilities. Each Crisis will slowly drain these pools (the higher level a character is the slower their pools will drain) and once they are spent, they are gone until you get some sleep.
This results in another effect rarely seen in modern games. Your character gets tired, and as they get tired they get worse at performing their tasks, sometimes to a point where your mighty hero goes from never missing his target to being unable to hit the broad side of a barn, or where your superhuman genius is so exhausted that they are unable to process a simple equation. This all means that sooner or later, you will need to find a place to sleep, and then you realize yet another thing that Torment is nearly unique about doing. The world moves on while you take your break. Quests progress without your involvement, events pass and things simply change. If you decide to take a nap while solving a murder mystery, who’s to say the killer won’t strike again while you enjoy a relaxing evening?
My system isn’t top notch anymore, in fact I am in dire need to upgrade, however Torment: Tides of Numenera did not cause any issues, which is expected of a game that outwardly should not have very high system requirements. Even in highly populated areas and combat with multiple spell and skill effects going off, there was barely any noticeable frame rate drop. There have been reports of PlayStation owners suffering technical issues and constant freezing, however we cannot confirm on this, and do not know if it is a fairly isolated or widespread issue.
If you are looking for a trip down the memory lane, or simply want to experience a different style of an RPG from the more modern selection, Torment: Tides of Numenera is definitely something you will enjoy. On the other hand if you hate books and reading, you will likely get bored quickly as the style of the game replaces elaborately animated characters with highly descriptive text. Text that delves into the minds of the characters, brings up philosophical questions on the nature of mankind and tests the psychological fortitude of the characters involved in the story. If that sounds exciting rather than daunting to you, then Torment: Tides of Numenera is a title you should definitely enjoy. Perhaps it was the sheer amount of affection I have from my earlier days of playing games of this nature that make me love it so much, however on the other hand it is exactly what I expected from it, so I had absolutely zero disappointment.
The game is out now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Linux and Mac. Our review was conducted on the PC version of the game. You can check out the story trailer here:
