• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Torment: Tides of Numenera Review Thread

P

Poetic.Injustice

Member
PC Metacritic: 84, PS4 Metacritic: 80
OpenCritic: 80

IGN: 88

The turn-based combat may be a little disappointing, but Torment: Tides of Numenera manages to live up to the legacy of Planescape: Torment by offering a fascinatingly weird and well-written tale. Thanks to a wide variety of options in conversations and the influences of its tidal system, it offers decent opportunities for replay value and a memorable tale each time. This is the rare game that leans almost entirely on its setting and writing for its appeal, and the miraculous thing is that it usually succeeds.
Click to expand...

Game Informer: 85

Cerebral and often disturbing, Torment is a rabbit hole of significant depth, where you can get lost in improbable imaginings of warped realities and existential angst. If you can wrap your head around a non-linear narrative all about consciousness, identity, and memory, Torment is a riveting departure from expectation.
Click to expand...


PC Gamer: 89

A slow start gives way to a thought-provoking adventure in a remarkable setting. A fitting follow-up to a beloved RPG.
Click to expand...


Guardian: 80

Torment: Tides of Numenera is more than a nostalgic homage to Planescape: Torment – its own innovations will mark the genre as much as its spiritual predecessor did.
Click to expand...


Videogamer: 80

Great writing and environment design, combined with an epic story and wide range of player choice, make Tides of Numenera a wonderful RPG. The reliance on text won't be for everyone, but fans of the genre are going to love it.
Click to expand...


Destructoid: 75

Like the way that the Ninth World rises from the ashes of other civilizations, Torment: Tides of Numenera is a layered experience. For role-players keen on experiencing a game of consequences and twisted fantasy, it's well worth the adventure.
Click to expand...


USgamer:80

If one of your favorite things in RPGs is finding a new location, and reveling in the rush of new quests and characters and dialogues and battles, then Torment: Tides of Numenara does that better than just about anything. It's disappointing, although not surprising, that Torment can't maintain that energy for a full game, especially with a rushed ending. But that's a small price to pay for a wildly creative and clever role-playing game.
Click to expand...


OriginalJonty said:
TheSixthAxis- 5/10

Worldbuilding, lore and a nunber of characters are good. Let down by a ton of technical issues on PS4 which really hurt enjoyment of the game. If the pervasive bugs weren't there it would have been a 7 or 8.
Click to expand...

Rock Paper Shotgun

There is, throughout, a slight air of artificiality to Torment: Tides of Numenera. It has been made to please a specific crowd, and sometimes that shows; sometimes that comes at the expense of what matters most. This is outweighed entirely by the scale of this accomplishment. Torment is the weird, wordy, wise and wicked roleplaying game we've so desired during these long years of heightened spectacle. Not a total triumph, no, but close enough.
Click to expand...


WCFTech: 90

Torment: Tides of Numenera is a role-playing game like very few others, giving players total freedom in how to approach any given situation, even allowing them to complete the game by avoiding most fights through this deep choices system. With excellent writing, lively and creative world, engaging story and characters, and solid mechanics, the role-playing game developed by inXile is a game that those who love immersing themselves completely in fictional worlds have to play at all costs. Giving justice to the Planescape: Torment's legacy was a very difficult task, but the team proved that they were more than up to the task, creating a game that builds upon this legacy with the utmost respect, despite some small issues which don't impact the game too much.
Click to expand...


UnluckyKate said:
Gamekult : 6/10 " honest "

Pros
Such a good writting
The Ninth world and its mysterious aura
Quests, stories and the NPCs of the first hub
Story and its thematics
Discovering the Numenéras
Solid art direction
Enough to really enjoy role play
Very good french voice over
Mark Morgan doing ambiant sounds

Cons
Bottleneck structure of content
Anecdotical combat
Skills system quickly unbalanced (broken)
Crisis and Flux are only gimmicks
Lack of polish and obvious visible shortcomings
Short for the genre
Some bugs
Click to expand...
 
V

vandrewal

Neo Member
As much as I dared hope for, really. Many people seemed fairly negative about the beta, and I've purposefully avoided any more info about the game since then. Should be a nice, heavy respite from Nioh, Horizon, Nier, Zelda, Hollow Knight etc.
 
D

deleted

Member
Looking good! How long is the game?

I don't see myself starting a new 50-80 RPG (still haven't finished PoE) anytime soon.
But 20? Maybe...
 
I

Imp the Dimp

Member
Will definitely come back to this once I'm done with the avalanche of amazing Q1/Q2 games. Reviews sound more favorable than I anticipated. I had the beta on my Steam acc for like half a year but couldn't really be bothered, and it seemed that despite the early access very few people actually provided impressions.
xyla said:
Looking good! How long is the game?

I don't see myself starting a new 50-80 RPG (still haven't finished PoE) anytime soon.
But 20? Maybe...
Click to expand...

Planescape: Torment is like 20-30 depending on how many side-quests you did. Hopeful this is not longer than that.
 
O

OriginalJonty

Member
TheSixthAxis- 5/10

Worldbuilding, lore and a nunber of characters are good. Let down by a ton of technical issues on PS4 which really hurt enjoyment of the game. If the pervasive bugs weren't there it would have been a 7 or 8.
 
U

UnluckyKate

Member
Gamekult : 6/10 " honest "

Pros
Such a good writting
The Ninth world and its mysterious aura
Quests, stories and the NPCs of the first hub
Story and its thematics
Discovering the Numenéras
Solid art direction
Enough to really enjoy role play
Very good french voice over
Mark Morgan doing ambiant sounds

Cons
Bottleneck structure of content
Anecdotical combat
Skills system quickly unbalanced (broken)
Crisis and Flux are only gimmicks
Lack of polish and obvious visible shortcomings
Short for the genre
Some bugs
 
M

Musiol

Member
Here's review from my site:

PSSite.com - 7/10

It's PS4 version which we reviewed. Unfortunately, there's a lot of bugs and performance issues on console. Techland and inXile are aware of this and I hope they will fix this soon.
 
D

deleted

Member
Imp the Dimp said:
Planescape: Torment is like 20-30 depending on how many side-quests you did. Hopeful this is not longer than that.
Click to expand...

jb1234 said:
20-30 hours looks to be about the average.
Click to expand...

OriginalJonty said:
Took me 31 hours and that's without finishing all the sidequests.
Click to expand...

Gothos said:
Well, it took me 24 hours with most side quests done :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, that looks just fine. I find good writing depending on a meaningful story to get watered down the longer the game continues.

20-30 hours might just mean I use my key and start the game instead of selling it.
Loved the story trailer, not the biggest fan of what I saw in the Beta. If the writing is really that good and the story satisfying, I might do this though.
 
R

Rhiwion

Banned
There's a Day 1 patch for PS4 (PC as well, I'm assuming), right? Seems to be a pretty massive patch. If that fixes what dragged down the console version reviews, I'm probably game. ~30ish hours sounds like a nice change of pace for CRPGs.
 
KainXVIII

KainXVIII

Member
Gamekult : 6/10 " honest "

Pros
Such a good writting
The Ninth world and its mysterious aura
Quests, stories and the NPCs of the first hub
Story and its thematics
Discovering the Numenéras
Solid art direction
Enough to really enjoy role play
Very good french voice over
Mark Morgan doing ambiant sounds

Cons
Bottleneck structure of content
Anecdotical combat
Skills system quickly unbalanced (broken)
Crisis and Flux are only gimmicks
Lack of polish and obvious visible shortcomings
Short for the genre
Some bugs
Click to expand...
Yeah, wait for sale.
 
KainXVIII

KainXVIII

Member
Imp the Dimp said:
Those cons sound completely inconsequential for a game of this sort tbh. I feel like the pros outweigh the cons in that list by a landslide.
Click to expand...

Maybe when decent sale starts devs will finally implement all cut content and fix all the bugs, so its worth to wait..
 
M

mclem

Member
Eurogamer has it as 'Recommended':

Kickstarter-fuelled nostalgia or not, it takes more than a little self-confidence to name your game after one of the smartest, most beloved, most respected RPGs ever made. That's not a percussion heavy soundtrack you're hearing in Not Planescape Torment: Numenera, just the clanking of its giant brass balls. And yet somehow, against the odds, inXile does it proud. To be clear, Planescape remains by far the superior Torment, but Numenera is as close as anyone's gotten to not just recreating what it did, but the experience of discovering it.
Click to expand...

Although there's some criticism for when battles do occur, particularly late in the game. (The spoiler section is a very vague comment about the finale, but I'm playing it safe)

The further into the game you get though, the less inspired these sequences become. By the end there are far too many characters taking forever to take their damn turns and the initial sequences' complicated, interwoven mechanics have been boiled down to stuff like 'kill everyone or hit that crystal three times. Yes, that one just sitting there in the open.' The final really big fight -
surviving until a certain event
- was so boring, I put on a movie. While there are options to avoid combat at times, having a non-combat build didn't help me avoid taking shots and knocks on the way to these non-violent solutions.
Click to expand...

In conclusion, though:
Luckily for Numenera, the audience most likely to enjoy it is also the audience most likely to be tolerant of such mechanical things. The obvious comparison is with Pillars of Eternity, a game rooted in the RPG mechanics of Baldur's Gate et al, and the feel of the old Infinity Engine. Torment however, then and now, is a game built on story and narrative; of seeing promises of over 1.2 million words and going "Hurrah!" instead of emitting the kind of groan that normally involves a regrettable curry washed down with a whole cheesecake. If you're the kind to just click through the text, avoid. That's where most of the fun is.
Click to expand...


So, my reading of it, in short: The combat isn't particularly engaging in the long term, but the game is heavily tilted towards story and non-combat RP - which, fundamentally, is just like Planescape: Torment.
 
L

Lime

Member
Has anyone read the novellas? Are they any good if not recommended readings before jumping in?

EDIT: Oops, wrong thread
 
H

His Majesty

Banned
Stellar reviews. I do wonder why they would provide PS4 review codes when their console versions seems to be really unoptimized.

Anyway, cannot wait to play on PC later today.
 
A

Atolm

Member
The bugs & performance were already horrible with the PS4 version of Wasteland 2. Abd I really mean it, with crashes to OS while saving every 15 minutes or so. That's why I'm gonna pass on this.
 
S

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
Atolm said:
The bugs & performance were already horrible with the PS4 version of Wasteland 2. Abd I really mean it, with crashes to OS while saving every 15 minutes or so. That's why I'm gonna pass on this.
Click to expand...

Crickey. I think I had only one crash playing W2.

There's a ma-hoo-sive Day One patch for Torment. Shame they couldn't get it out in time for the reviews. Defo scuppering it.
 
E

epmode

Member
inXile should probably cool it with their console ports until they figure out how to get performance up to par, whether it's a new engine or better code. As it is, console ports are just dragging down their scores.

I'm happy to hear that it's a good game even though it doesn't beat Planescape!
 
G

Grim Patron

Member
Our review on God is a Geek - http://www.godisageek.com/reviews/torment-tides-of-numenera-review/ 9/10

Reviewed on PC. PS4 version also tested. Here's the PS4 part for those who care:

The PlayStation 4 version of the game is just as good, however, there were a fair amount of times when the game stuttered a little, or froze temporarily. These issues aren’t a constant occurance, but certainly worth mentioning if you’re mulling over which platform to get the game on. Ignoring this, and you’re blessed with the same incredible game, but it did get frustrating at times.
Click to expand...
 
H

Hammer24

Banned
I'm going to pick this up for the xbone. Consoles don't have enough games of this ilk, so I want to support them bringing it over.
 
H

His Majesty

Banned
The Last Wizard said:
Damn shame about the PS4 version, I was literally about to pull the trigger cause of the story praise:/
Click to expand...

PS4 version is getting a day one patch which is supposed to fix performance. Best to wait for patch reviews I think.

Anyway it's great to see an RPG that relies so heavily on text do so well.
 
I

Instro

Member
Sounds about as undercooked as you might expect from In Exile. Reviews seem pretty solid overall so far though.
 
mindatlarge

mindatlarge

Member
His Majesty said:
PS4 version is getting a day one patch which is supposed to fix performance. Best to wait for patch reviews I think.

Anyway it's great to see an RPG that relies so heavily on text do so well.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, the day one patch does not seem to fix some performance issues on consoles. I'd imagine we'll see another patch that will address the performance issues on consoles more in depth, hopefully sooner rather than later.

https://forums.inxile-entertainment.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=17175
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered | Review Thread
Analysis Review
3
642
Thick Thighs Save Lives replied
Blizzard announces massive changes to Diablo 4 starting Season 4
News
2
637
clarky replied
Little Goody Two Shoes | Review Thread
Analysis Review
29
2K
PanzerCute replied
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Review Thread
2
55
4K
Flabagast replied
  • Poll
Rise of The Ronin | Review Thread
Analysis Review 4 5 6 7 8
371
32K
fart town usa replied
Top Bottom