![]() That’s not where the similarities to Planescape: Torment end. The Nameless One in that title was immortal and death was basically just a temporary inconvenience. It’s very similar in this regard to Planescape: Torment. From your first few moments in the game you might die simply by engaging with your surroundings, and if you do, it doesn’t matter. There’s a definite sense of experimentation and discovering your own motivations as a player, especially with the numenera you encounter. Torment encourages you not to save and reload if things don’t pan, because what is more important is “your story”. The Last Castoff’s body has been modified with upgraded regeneration so most deaths aren’t game overs and when you ‘die’ the world moves on without you as you recover, often in interesting and unpredictable ways. In Torment failure often results in interesting outcomes.” This is true, though Torment is also one of few titles where you can die and see the game over screen while still creating your character. In fact, the game has some advice in the early stages: “Don’t worry if you fail this task. This isn’t a game where you rush through text to get to a fight. There’s a lot to read and Torment expects the player to visualise all the intricately written and structured descriptions it uses. In terms of dialogue, the writing is superb, evocative and ranges from lighthearted sci-fi jokes to a terrifying dissection of existence itself. Much like Baldur’s Gate, if you take a course of action that your companions disagree with there’s a chance they may leave your party for good or even attack you. ![]() Companions are fleshed-out characters with their own motivations and reasons for helping you. The player is given the option of recruiting companions who can assist in dialogue skill checks and in combat. You are abandoned, confused and uncertain, and the scraps of knowledge you pick up become as important as the scraps of technology you scavenge to survive.Ĭombat features a turn-based system reminiscent of Divinity: Original Sin. You begin the game as one of these husks. As the Last Castoff you play the latest reject of a powerful entity who switches bodies to remain immortal when the entity switches to a new body the previous body becomes conscious. The sheer mass and detail of the lore is overwhelming and hard to digest at first, though this seems deliberate based on who you are in this setting. You’re expected to read and learn as you play. Torment is unapologetic in how much it tells the player there’s no encyclopedia or tool tips to guide you in dialogue. The Ninth World has seen the rise and fall of countless civilisations and races in that time, but all of them remain unknown to the current denizens, who have been left only with their equally mysterious and often extremely dangerous numenera. The titular numenera are the remnants of past civilisations which dot the Ninth World, a battered and bruised Earth set a billion years in the future. The player is the Last Castoff, an outsider with a past they had no control over, on an uncertain path of self discovery. As you’d expect from that game’s spiritual successor, Torment: Tides of Numenera is a bizarre mishmash of worlds and themes. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |