Torment Tides of Numenera Review

This post records my initial impressions of inXile's newly released cRPG, Torment: Tides of Numenera (TToN). Of course, I compare TToN with Black Isle's Planescape: Torment (1999).

First up - and this is a big one for me - startup and loading times are actually tolerable. This is in contrast to Tyranny, where you could go off and make a cup of coffee, return to your PC, finish your cup of coffee, and still find yourself waiting another minute or two before you can play the fricking game. Such a grave lack of optimization killed Tyranny for me, so thank you inXile for hiring competent coders! Or did you? Expect framerate drops, dialogue lag, and the exe to occasionally lose focus and threaten to CTD. lolUnity. Patches, please.

Second - and you probably already know this if you've been following its development - T:ToN is heavily influenced by Black Isle's legendary Planescape: Torment (PST); for example, the art assets, the tone of writing, and the non-standard setting. But what I want to emphasize here is that dialogue is torrential. It just rains and rains WORDS. Words, words, and more words. So yeah, if you don't like reading walls of dialogue and lore then this is not a game for you. And if you don't like role-playing then this is not a game for you either.

If you're only interested in turn-based combat then I kindly refer you to Temple of Elemental Evil and Jagged Alliance 2, the two greatest turn-based cRPGs on the PC platform.

The game-play of TToN is not as "pacey" as PST. This is primarily due to the former employing turn-based combat whereas the latter employed realtime-with-pause (RTwP) which was configurable to 60 AI updates per second. Now, for those who don't know, let me tell you - that's FAST. And fast makes playing the game FUN. In addition, PST's dialogue scrolled smoother and faster, and its selections were more responsive. This is not so much a complaint as it is an observation of a trait shared by many current gen RPGs: they are simply slower to play than the likes of Fallout (1997), Arcanum (2001) and the Infinity Engine RPGs (1998-2001).

The TToN dialogue window features a scroll bar so that you can review the dialogue, on the fly, as per PST. But inXile made the same mistake Black Isle did back in 1999, in that the dialogue window cannot be maximized vertically in order to show more text on-screen. Why devs continue to make "interactive novels" and not give us the ability to show as much dialogue as our screen size allows, is beyond me. Check out the pic posted below. You see that top border of the dialogue window (which, btw, wastes too much space like the bottom part)? I instinctively want to drag it to the top of my screen so that I can read the dialogue like it was a page in a novel. But no, I can't. This is a waffle-heavy cRPG with a crippled console interface. Bring on the UI mods!

This is how you make a dialogue window for a dialogue-heavy game:

Left: Neverwinter Nights. Right: Neverwinter Nights 2.

PST dialogue was punctuated by welcome voice-overs and sounds to indicate memory regain and experience point rewards. They were really a delight to hear! TToN also features this plus it bolts on an Item Gained panel when you find an item through dialogue. You can then mouse-over this newly acquired item in order to view its stats in a floating text bubble, without having to call up Inventory mode. I think this is a cute lil' addition.

During Crisis mode (turn-based encounter mode) certain objects can be manipulated in order to gain tactical advantages in combat scenarios. Here, one of my companions interacts with a turret and employs Might to successfully turn its valve. You can then aim the spray with a visual aid to targeting in order to inflict acid burn upon the foes caught in its cone AoE. Very, very cool.

The UI is about as bland as it could possibly be - just flat, gray panels with no character. Looks too much like a generic smartphone app. Still, there are no glaring issues in regard to its functionality, and tabs are always great for quick switching between modes. That's nothing revolutionary, though: Icewind Dale 2 employed tabs in its Character Sheet way back in 2002! (proof)

Bland.

Inventory

Bland.

Character Sheet

Bland.

Journal

Here are a few shots of the PST UI for comparison and nostalgia purposes:

Inventory and Character Sheet

Journal

^ Way better. T:ToN has one of the worst UIs I've seen.

Anyway, a few other things I've noticed:

There does not seem to be a marquee selection group bandboxing option for selecting your party on the playing field. Instead, your companions just follow along behind the protagonist; in fact, they're on you like a cheap suit and never in strict formation.

Marquee selection is standard in Planescape: Torment, Temple of Elemental Evil, Neverwinter Nights 2, and even Dragon Age: Origins featured marquee selection. Not TToN, though. Is that because it was made for consoles, too?

Moreover, you can't individually select and control your companions outside of combat mode, meaning you're always clumped together and your "rogue" can't be sent off to scout by herself.

The pathing routine seems somewhat problematic when characters are trying to make their way around placeables and other obstructions. What!? Pathing problems in an RPG? Who would have thunk it? (PST was notorious for its pathing routine.)

Pre-rendered backdrops, sprites, VFX and animations are nothing to write home about. Basically, they are on par with Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny levels of quality, neither of which broke new ground. These three games look and feel almost identical to one another (lolUnity), and PST is easily superior to that trio from an aesthetic point of view. And grittier, which is what counts for the veterans. I can't stand the glossy, overly polished look of current gen cRPGs. Everything just looks too new. To be fair, some of TToN's area design could pass for "Sigilian". Not this sort of thing, though:

Oh look, tentacles. Never seen those before. The above Sorrow sequence induced naught from me but an exaggerated yawn.

Devour Spirit and Eternal Rest in Mask of the Betrayer:

^ Way better.

Morte, Dak'kon, Annah, Grace: unforgettable PST companions. Remember the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon, the Pillar of Skulls, the Brothel of Slating Intellectual Lusts? I guess we'll see if there is anything comparable to them in TToN.

But let me tell you, Callistege and Aligern are unlikely to interest you. It doesn't help that one of the first inquiries you can make with them is the generic "What's your story?" How slack and blunt in tone is that? The initial banters are a far cry from the opening dialogues of Morte, Dak'kon and Annah. Let's hope things improve.

***

I'll never forget my first time playing Black Isle's Planescape: Torment. The year was 1999 and I'd just come off Baldur's Gate, a standard FR campaign released by BioWare one year prior. But there was nothing standard about the plot, setting and characters in PST.

Take the beginning, for example. You awaken on a slab in a mortuary and this skull floats over and starts chatting to you about the scars on your back; and, far from being mindless and hostile, the mortuary undead are happy to strike up a convo, too.

• You regain memories, such as how to raise the dead, during an emotive exchange with the spirit of a woman who loved your previous incarnation.
• You learn about "the doors" in Sigil and how to trigger them.
• You disassemble hulking skeletons with arcane lore (either through Intelligence or a tome found on a zombie).
• You disguise yourself as a zombie and play dead. 

All in the first 30 minutes. The mortuary segment is riveting, and one of the best prologues in cRPG history.

Engine aside, PST was nothing like Baldur's Gate. It was unlike any cRPG that came before or after. Maybe TToN will be unique - 18 years later - but at this stage I'm not seeing it.

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