Torment: Tides of Numenera

 PC
User Score
6.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 441 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 250 out of 441
  2. Mixed: 88 out of 441
  3. Negative: 103 out of 441

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  1. Althorion
    Mar 2, 2017
    6
    It’s not a bad game. But it *is* a scam.

    Numenera was kickstarted four years ago, in March 2013. It promised to become Planescape: Torment spiritual successor, to be released in December 2014 and managed to achieve a number of stretch goals. It failed to deliver on each and every one of those. Let’s start from the end. Things that were promised include player stronghold, crafting    It’s not a bad game. But it *is* a scam.

    Numenera was kickstarted four years ago, in March 2013. It promised to become Planescape: Torment spiritual successor, to be released in December 2014 and managed to achieve a number of stretch goals. It failed to deliver on each and every one of those.

    Let’s start from the end. Things that were promised include player stronghold, crafting system, an additional major city of M’ra Jolios Oasis, alternate exit from the Labyrinth to another part of the world… None of those are in the game.

    Then we have the release date, postponed over two years. One would assume that because of that game is a pinnacle of polish, runs smoothly and is bug-free. Nope. On a modern machine, having no problems running, for example, Rainbow Six: Siege at max details with optional hi-res textures from the DLC enabled in 80+ fps, Numenera’s framerate is somewhere between 30 and 50. There are multiple bugs, though thankfully nothing severe—some formatting codes in the text, sometimes you can’t turn off a pop-up and you’ll experience plenty of inventory problems, including multiplicating gear, selling things that cost you money (sic!), drag’n’drop not working… The game is fully playable, yes, but it makes you wonder what exactly programmers did with those extra two years, especially when they used preexisting game engine used in Pillars of Eternity, which didn’t have any of those problems…

    Finally, we should compare Numenera to the original Planescape. The predecessor was narrative-heavy game with seven fully-fledged followers with interesting stories; complicated, unique and weird world that was a joy to explore and interesting, philosophical overarching plot. Most of those things are still here—there’s a ton of beautifully written text, long dialogs full of interesting stories, the world has a rich lore that you can explore etc. However, one of the things that made Planescape so good and memorable were the followers. Here, you have six, but they are not nearly as interesting as Planescape’s ones. They have very little to say, which you can explore *with a single dialogue* plus occasional one-liner dropped here and there. Their quests are a joke—they can be as simple and short as one single dialogue, reveal next to no information about them and be a chore (Callistege’s and Rhin’s especially; I don’t want to go into the spoiler territory, but when one character returns to you with something that could be an epic tale, they just give you one sentence that amounts to “too much to tell, so I won’t tell anything”).

    The first one third of the game (part which you could see and explore in the beta) is great, full of life, interesting quests etc. For this part only, I’d give at least 8/10. Unfortunately, that’s the best that game has to offer and it’s all downhill from there. Locations are rushed, NPC have next to nothing to say, quest quickly devour into “fetch me this thing from two locations from here, that’s not even heavily guarded”. And then there is the ending, which boils down to “here is the list of all possible outcomes, choose the one you like the most, done”. Nothing you did before that matters but for a quick recap in the epilogue.

    The game at this point is not worth its price. It’s not that long (it took me 20 hours to beat with *all* sidequests, but I read quickly and that is the most limiting factor; conversely, original Planescape was almost twice as long), quite bugged and not that fun overall. If you like reading in your games, you’ll like it, it is really well written. It just doesn’t feel too much like a game and I feel really sold short on the promises the developer made.    … Expand
  2. AcerolaOrion
    Mar 2, 2017
    5
    Mediocre at best.
    Awful sound design, had to turn off sound effects in several areas of the game.
    Minimalistic combat. Thats probably an understatement. Combat is not a relevant/positive gameplay element. Numerous tedious MMO like quests: go to A - go to B - go to A with minimal story to them. The writing is average at best in english (more details below), the german translation is    Mediocre at best.
    Awful sound design, had to turn off sound effects in several areas of the game.
    Minimalistic combat. Thats probably an understatement. Combat is not a relevant/positive gameplay element.
    Numerous tedious MMO like quests: go to A - go to B - go to A with minimal story to them.
    The writing is average at best in english (more details below), the german translation is atrocious! Someone literally copy pasted the original text to google translator and just went with it.
    Many minor annoyances like quest relevant information is often times not put into your journal AND even though the game gives the option to have characters repeat ever IRRELEVANT DETAIL about them, There is most of the time NO OPTION to have them repeat questrelevant Information. This is an issue that is so prevalent that i believe it was a design decision.

    Let me go into detail about the writing.
    First of all im not a native speaker but i have played both Pillars and Tyranny (and many older CRPGs) and ALWAYS found the writing enjoyable and relateable.

    In this game however there seems to have been a competition between the writers about who can come up with the most complex garbage.
    Youn cant read a single line of text without a metaphor, the words used are often times ridiculously uncommon, the punctuation is as annoying as it possibly can be hindering the flow of reading, there is a TON! of useless information in each conversation and in top of they added dialect for some characters which is represented by misspelling words (which is, as any half decent writer will tell you, the worst possible way to include dialect).

    In addition to that 90% of the characters in this game are special snowflakes but not a single one of them is ever fleshed out. So between the escaped pleasure Robot who has apparently met you in a previous consciousness and who gives you riddles (All of which is dealt with in only 5 boxes of dialoge). And the guy with the 3 faces who are apparently arguing but who is kind of fine but also not fine with being like that at the same time and who gives you a quest that you can finish in 1 Minute by literally just walking 7 meters and clicking a thing (all of which is dealt with in about 10 textboxes)

    I really stopped caring about all these "unique" characters. Every single one of them could be the protagonist in its own game but since not a single one of the characters is fleshed out or has anything interesting/plot relevant to say (they mostly just gibber idiosyncratic nonsense/super mega hyper science/mysticism)

    Its just bleh. The game actually managed to make me stop wanting to talk to NPCs because i knew their first line was going to be HOHOHO weve met before, also i can read your thoughts, also i am actually a robotghostninja.

    In addition to that the actual main story is incredibly short. If you skip all the pointless and annoying side NPCs you can finish the first major HUB Area in LESS THAN AN HOUR!    … Expand
  3. TidesOfBoredom
    Mar 1, 2017
    5
    First of all, this game has nothing to do with Planescape: Torment (which is what you absolutely want to play if you're looking for a truly great RPG).

    Torment: Tides of Numenera is not a bad game. I've seen much worse. But the whole "spiritual successor" thing was a scam. inXile made some very specific promises when they put the project on Kickstarter and most of those promises ended    First of all, this game has nothing to do with Planescape: Torment (which is what you absolutely want to play if you're looking for a truly great RPG).

    Torment: Tides of Numenera is not a bad game. I've seen much worse. But the whole "spiritual successor" thing was a scam. inXile made some very specific promises when they put the project on Kickstarter and most of those promises ended up on the cutting floor. Not only they kept the backers in the dark about their plans to make the game turn-based (PS:T, like all Infinity Engine games, was real-time with pause), they misled everybody with the stretch goals they evidently never even intended to implement.

    If you don't mind heavily consolized UI, forgettable music, so-so backgrounds, hideous character portraits, irritating voiceover and whole pages of redundant text, T:ToN is OK. It's perfectly playable. It's just not the holy grail inXile has been advertising all these years.    … Expand
  4. ShtKck
    Mar 9, 2017
    4
    grew up a high fan of all the infinitiy engine games. I backed Pillars. I backed Torment. I thought the new golden age of cRPGs was upon us. It had to be, these games had record funding.

    And they were incredibly poorly planned and managed. We saw some of these issues with Pillars but it's even worse with Torment. Much of the base game that was planned was cut. Entire stretch goals    grew up a high fan of all the infinitiy engine games. I backed Pillars. I backed Torment. I thought the new golden age of cRPGs was upon us. It had to be, these games had record funding.

    And they were incredibly poorly planned and managed. We saw some of these issues with Pillars but it's even worse with Torment.

    Much of the base game that was planned was cut. Entire stretch goals that we earned were cut. These cuts, while not only making the game significantly more shallow with significantly less replayability, are the antithesis of this RPG system. Go on, count how many companions shipped at launch, the laughable amount of focuses, literally no factions as we were promises, no crafting system.

    Kickstarter is allowing developers to deliver whatever they want. And that is something I'm never going to support again. If there would be a platform that binds the developers with a contract to fulfilll their promises and design targets, I would reconsider it but Tides, along with so many incredibly successful kickstarted games simply aren't delivering what they're promsing. What we paid for.

    InExile has had zero transparency about the entire thing, and will only acknowledge it after the fans make it into a scandal. Zero accountability. I am sorry I backed Bards Tale 2 and now I understand why they kickstarted the next Wasteland before this launched and blew up in their faces. Who knows how many dollars from this sinking ship they put into those more marketable games?    … Expand
  5. moonlight_shado
    Mar 2, 2017
    4
    - This is not Torment by any stretch of the imagination. Just comparing itself to the 1999 masterpiece, is anathema.
    - Extremely poor audio-visual presentation, even by indie game standards. For a 4.5 million dollar Kickstarter, this is a disgrace.
    - In spite of its rich world and lore, it utterly fails to create an emotional connection with the player or make us care about    - This is not Torment by any stretch of the imagination. Just comparing itself to the 1999 masterpiece, is anathema.
    - Extremely poor audio-visual presentation, even by indie game standards. For a 4.5 million dollar Kickstarter, this is a disgrace.
    - In spite of its rich world and lore, it utterly fails to create an emotional connection with the player or make us care about anything going on in the Last Castoff's story.
    - RPG mechanisms, character development, inventory acquisition and management are at amateur levels.
    - Meres and their sad, sad implementation. It would have been preferable to save some face and not include them at all.
    - The bitter aftertaste in players' mouths, that this was merely a tech demo for selling the Numenera world to prospective publishers for future projects. There is no game here.
    - The silently cut stretch goals of the Kickstarter campaign. In light of the project's extremely poor quality, the argument of "We wanted to focus on polish" seems even weaker. High tier backers should be furious.

    http://ragequit.gr    … Expand
  6. mindw0rk
    Mar 2, 2017
    4
    After several hours I gave up. Torment: ToN is nowhere near the quality of Planescape. While it has similar amount of texts, those texts are just boring to read which is a killer for this type of game. I wanted to like it but I felt like Im climbing on a wall of words that barely make any sense.
  7. Romanfiend
    Mar 7, 2017
    0
    "All flavor, no meat" is the best way to describe Torment:ToN.

    I should point out that I am one of the original backers from 4 years ago and loved the Original Planescape Torment - having played it a dozen times at least. The original Torment was reviewed by the New York Time which felt that it should be elevated to the status of literature due to the depth, beauty and originality of    "All flavor, no meat" is the best way to describe Torment:ToN.

    I should point out that I am one of the original backers from 4 years ago and loved the Original Planescape Torment - having played it a dozen times at least. The original Torment was reviewed by the New York Time which felt that it should be elevated to the status of literature due to the depth, beauty and originality of the writing - and I completely agree - the writing was that good.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/27/technology/game-theory-a-universe-where-ideas-can-trump-actions.html

    Not so much the sequel, Planescape Torment: ToN. I am not sure where to begin with all the problems this game has.

    1) Poor NPC introduction and character development. During this game I really reached a point of not really caring at all about my fellow companions. Mainly because there wasn't really anything compelling to care about. If you look at the original game, each companion is introduced to you from a space that matches who they are. Morte you meet in the beginning after you awaken in the Dusties mortuary. Fall-from-Grace in the Brothel Of Slaking Intellectual Lusts, Anna-From the Shadows you meet in the Beggar Kings domain surrounded by shadows and thieves, Nordrom is found in a tainted Modron construct and so on... They are all incredible well-voiced and have distinct opinions and personalities as well as extensive backstories that you have to dig out. They also are linked to you through a unified theme - that of being broken and/or creatures that defy their own nature. In ToN I felt the companions were just kind of there - not much to the backstory nor are they all that important.

    2) Way too much flavor without substance. There was just an exhaustive amount of shallow flavor interactions with this game that didn't have a whole lot to do with the main story. Although this feels like more a result of the universe - the Numenera - which is everywhere. The whole point of the Numenera is you never find out who made any of it or what its original purpose is/was - which can be fun in small doses but this game is lousy with that sort of thing. It just becomes one exhausting and unfulfilling interaction after another - wondering if this strange thing is important (usually not).

    3) Show don't tell - this has been said many times and it is spot on. This just doesn't feel like an RPG - more of a story we are being told and we have to click the screen a bunch to get to the next part. I lost count of the number of times the writing devolved into telling us what we should be experiencing and what we should know instead of showing us what is there to see and letting us figure it out. The original Planecape has been called literature - and I agree - it definitely hits that bar. ToN is barely storytelling - and at the juvenile level at best.

    4) The combat is terrible, boring and confusing. It actually ends up being a blessing that combat is so rare in this game (although it shouldn't be if the game was well made), because it is really unsatisfying. Thankfully mostly you can skip it.

    So basically there is a lot more but it comes down to this -it's pretty clear that the real genius behind the original Planescape Torment was Chris Avellone - who was not present on this project. Thankfully Chris is working on Divinity Original Sin 2 - so I have that to look forward to but I am done with Brian Fargo and InExile Entertainment. Wasteland 2 was just as weak and tedious story-wise as this title and its clear they don't have the writing chops to offer anything worthy of the titles and legacies they are pilfering just to make an extra buck.

    Skip this game and everything else form InExile - they are talentless hacks - all of them.    … Expand
  8. PMPB
    Feb 28, 2017
    9
    Like a lot of gamers who played Planescape: Torment when it released back in 1999 I was really excited to see if inXile Entertainment could provide us with a worthy successor. That they managed to actually do it is a testament to their love of the original game, isometric RPG’s and their undeniable talent. Torment: Tides of Numenera features writing that rivals the very best the genre hasLike a lot of gamers who played Planescape: Torment when it released back in 1999 I was really excited to see if inXile Entertainment could provide us with a worthy successor. That they managed to actually do it is a testament to their love of the original game, isometric RPG’s and their undeniable talent. Torment: Tides of Numenera features writing that rivals the very best the genre has to offer and it has the kind of satisfying ending other games can only dream of. It provides a lengthy campaign with little filler, engaging characters, replayability and is nearly bug free. It could have used some more combat and hopefully the cut stretch goals appear in some form via DLC or expansions. I really enjoyed my time with the game and it deserves to stand tall among the new crop of top notch isometric RPG’s.… Expand
  9. TheThirdEye
    Feb 28, 2017
    10
    When I first saw that Planescape: Torment, a game that shaped my outlook and expectation of games to come, was getting a spiritual successor I was worried. TToN has surpassed expectations and left me completely satisfied. This is a game that rewards and encourages the curious. This is a cool, sweet drink in a desert of games where story is only barely there because it is required. This isWhen I first saw that Planescape: Torment, a game that shaped my outlook and expectation of games to come, was getting a spiritual successor I was worried. TToN has surpassed expectations and left me completely satisfied. This is a game that rewards and encourages the curious. This is a cool, sweet drink in a desert of games where story is only barely there because it is required. This is art.

    --Garth Holden    … Expand
  10. Chomag7
    Mar 1, 2017
    6
    LOW BUDGET! This is what the game screams at you as you play it. First thing you will notice is that there are no cutscenes whatseoever, and the only thing coming anywhere near the notion of "cutscene" is the narrating voice that appears here and there. Another thing is that, unlike Planescape: Torment that had an assortment of cookie and bizarre companions, in ToN there are only boringLOW BUDGET! This is what the game screams at you as you play it. First thing you will notice is that there are no cutscenes whatseoever, and the only thing coming anywhere near the notion of "cutscene" is the narrating voice that appears here and there. Another thing is that, unlike Planescape: Torment that had an assortment of cookie and bizarre companions, in ToN there are only boring humans, there aren't even any Minsc and Boo nor some pompous Anomen, just boring, forgettable humans voice acted by the same crappy British voiceactors that you can hear in each and every low budget title. Obviously, making more playable models and with interesting personalities and proffesional voiceactors would have cost...you know...MONEY, and InXile just didn't have the funds for such fluff content.

    But let's say you get over all of the above. Another problem with this game is the...BOREDOM! Honestly, 99% of this game involves walking and talking to various NPC. Combat is almost entirely optional, there are no trash mobs to speak of and no elaborate dungeons. I think there is one small dungeon, though. Obviously, I didn't expect Diablo nor would I want a Diablo, but this game is nowhere near Baldur's Gate nor even the old Planescape: Torment in terms of combat content. In fact this game is more Adventure than RPG, and is more related to Monkey Island than to Planescape: Torment. It's quite ironic considering how many weapons and armor vendors are in the game, who turn out to sell stuff you barely ever use if at all, as you can easily talk your way out of each and every potential combat situation, and the only unavoidable combat is against the final boss.

    Unrelatable game universe. I dunno, this is an issue for me. The game's universe is so...BIZARRE! I'm always irritated when game developers make up strange names for regular things or make up entirely new and almost unpronouceble names (right, Obsidian?!). In ToN, get this, a warrior is not a warrior, it's a..."glaive", a mage is not a mage, but a..."nano". Seriously|!? Your universe is strange enough, did you really have to make up weird names for regular things?! Also the game has a ton more things that barely make any sense. If you thought the universe of Planescape: Torment was strange at times, you ain't seen nothing yet.

    I don't even know why do people say the game is related to Planescape: Torment. It has absolutely no connection with that game other than the interface. It's not the same universe, it's not the same story, there isn't even any mention of characters from Planescape: Torment, everything is entirely new, and the only reason they say it's the spiritual successor of Planescape, is to sell the game.

    Don't be fooled, guys, this game is extremely OVERHYPED!    … Expand
  11. night4
    Mar 1, 2017
    4
    Initial impressions: The game is TELLING me all about all kinds of events, past and present, but it's not SHOWING me much of anything. I wasn't expecting insane graphics, but even Baldur's Gate had a little graphic to go with, say, the dream sequences. There's so much nothingness here.

    I read, and if I wanted to read a book, I'd do just that. I'm playing a game because I want more than    Initial impressions: The game is TELLING me all about all kinds of events, past and present, but it's not SHOWING me much of anything. I wasn't expecting insane graphics, but even Baldur's Gate had a little graphic to go with, say, the dream sequences. There's so much nothingness here.

    I read, and if I wanted to read a book, I'd do just that. I'm playing a game because I want more than just text. So far this feels rather disappointing, but I'll update if I can make myself play again and it improves.

    Edit: Played more, lowered score from 6 to 5.

    I really don't understand the need to create a completely new vocabulary for everything. "Crisis" for "battle," "esotery" for "spell," "glaive" for "warrior," etc. A few here and there would be fine, but it's like I'm being forced to learn a new language, and I've constantly got to translate what they're talking about into terms I know.

    Along those lines, the game absolutely BOMBARDS you with technical mechanical details at character creation without doing much to explain any of it. I just know I'm going to have to restart after playing a few more hours and regretting my initial choices, which is disappointing.

    Edited again: Lowered from 5 to 4.

    The music is terrible, and the characters are ugly.

    I can't help but wonder where all the money went if this game was so well-funded. I didn't back this game, but I still feel betrayed by inXile.    … Expand
  12. przemeks1982
    Jul 19, 2019
    4
    An interactive book which cost 4 million USD. Where did all the money go to? This game is hardly a game - 95% of it is reading, and maybe 5% is actual action. Instead of seeing things actually happen you read descriptions. You don't get to feel, or experience stuff - just read what the authors wanted you to see/know at this point. I dont mind a good read, but when I sit to a computer toAn interactive book which cost 4 million USD. Where did all the money go to? This game is hardly a game - 95% of it is reading, and maybe 5% is actual action. Instead of seeing things actually happen you read descriptions. You don't get to feel, or experience stuff - just read what the authors wanted you to see/know at this point. I dont mind a good read, but when I sit to a computer to play a game I just expect it to be a game not an interactive book. Especially that the quality of the writting is not that good. The authors fail do deliver an interesting story. You get a lot of boring graphography, which in my case resulted in skipping most of the text. The whole experience was boring, tiring and frustrating. This game is nowhere near the original Torment. I really regret to see another kickstarter funded ripoff.… Expand
  13. ihavacoolname
    Mar 26, 2017
    7
    Before I say anything else, I should say that I can recommend this game. It's pretty in more ways than just the visual; it challenged me to question the motivations behind my decision-making paradigms and behind my moral reasoning. I especially appreciate the way that it enhanced my perspective on loss. I see loss as being much more personal now; in particular, I am more apt to think ofBefore I say anything else, I should say that I can recommend this game. It's pretty in more ways than just the visual; it challenged me to question the motivations behind my decision-making paradigms and behind my moral reasoning. I especially appreciate the way that it enhanced my perspective on loss. I see loss as being much more personal now; in particular, I am more apt to think of loss in the broader context of the experience of the individual who has taken the loss. My ideas about what makes things worth it and what makes things meaningful have similarly shifted because of this game, and I have stronger, less heavy-handed, and ironically simpler convictions now. I think that taking the game seriously will do that. Tl;dr: The game mostly succeeds in giving players the opportunity to enrich and sharpen their perspectives on Torment's themes.

    Those were the best things I have to say about T:ToN. What follows is basically a set of caveats to modify the impression that the above things might leave.

    The story's overall arc is better than most good games I've played but is still slightly disappointing; there isn't enough buildup and the climax is weak. That might be partly because the game is so short. I wanted to see more of the Ninth World - three to five times more, minimally. The experience wasn't satisfying enough because of the length.

    There were a lot of themes that could have been developed much more thoroughly. There were pieces of the lore that alluded to high technological mysteries that were never fully explored, so the game never felt epic in the way that it promised to feel. It also lacked cohesion; the different things that the player occupied themselves by doing were somewhat unrelated to the player's main pursuit. The pacing in the endgame didn't make much sense, but it was fine elsewhere.

    If the game had been longer; maintained roughly the same quality of the content that I saw; and used the greater length to develop the story more and give the player opportunities to do greater things and shape their place in the Ninth World, the game would have easily been an 8.5/10.

    The graphics are pretty but limited by the 2D isometric style. The combat is a chore, although it is better than Planescape's, thankfully, and it (the combat) is functional. I should mention that I ran this on a bleeding-edge consumer rig with a gtx 1080, 32gb of 3000 mhz ram, and a 4.0 ghz 6700k intel processor. Others have reported technical issues.

    I was fairly entertained all the way through, but I often found myself wondering why I was doing what I was doing in the game. A lot of things felt like distractions that I, personally, would have blown through if I were the last castoff. In that sense the game felt slightly too long - padded - for what it did, as it delayed giving you certain answers. I feel that it should have been more ambitious - in other words, that it should have had a denser and longer story. I actually said "lame" out loud when I realized the game was over. I was disappointed that it was over, which is good, but I did not feel satisfied, which is bad. If the game were a paper, it would have been half the length that it should have been and had a rushed concluding paragraph. Before you realize that the paper doesn't really finish, you will probably enjoy it and think it's fairly good.

    Alright, that's basically it. 7/10.    … Expand
  14. zzzdnk
    Jul 16, 2019
    4
    It might have been a decent novel but it fails both as a game and as a legacy of Planescape Torment. Halfway through I lost interest in doing any of the side quests and by the end I couldn't care less about the main story either.

    I didn't get any sense of closure upon finishing it at all. Hardly anything is explained, everything in this game is caused by "forces beyond comprehension".    It might have been a decent novel but it fails both as a game and as a legacy of Planescape Torment. Halfway through I lost interest in doing any of the side quests and by the end I couldn't care less about the main story either.

    I didn't get any sense of closure upon finishing it at all. Hardly anything is explained, everything in this game is caused by "forces beyond comprehension". Blah.

    I sincerely regret wasting my time and money on this game.    … Expand
  15. BackstabberDC
    May 23, 2017
    7
    Unfortunately, this is not what I expected from Planescape Torment spiritual successor. The game is far from bad, it's fun, there are many options and huge story, so don't think this is a bad review, it's just that if you want Planescape Torment 2, this is not it.
  16. BlakeArius
    May 28, 2017
    5
    For $45 this game is currently not worth it. The writing is good but not amazing like planetscape. The combat feels simple and dull compared to pillars or even tyranny. For me and many others i get complete GPU related system crashes every 25 minutes or so on average on a 980gtx.
    If you've played everything else similar and it's on sale and they've fixed this near game breaking bug I'd    For $45 this game is currently not worth it. The writing is good but not amazing like planetscape. The combat feels simple and dull compared to pillars or even tyranny. For me and many others i get complete GPU related system crashes every 25 minutes or so on average on a 980gtx.
    If you've played everything else similar and it's on sale and they've fixed this near game breaking bug I'd recommend it, otherwise, wait. It's currently worth 6.0/10 but with issues fixed and a better price i'd give it a 7.8, Pillars of eternity i'd give a 9.0 and 9.6 for planetscape for reference.    … Expand
  17. Kelembribor21
    Sep 13, 2019
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Comparison with legends like Planescape Torment and Baldurs Gate are detrimental to evaluating this very flawed game , which has glimmer of greatness.

    Mostly too much it relies on written text that with deliberate confusing narrative takes away from immersion especially in some important moments.

    Mechanic of combat, meres and use of skill mechanic attempts during dialogue, are not very satisfying, crisis moments are usually very simple or rare compared with huge amounts of descriptive trivial texts without lot of essence.

    Game could have done with some different fleshed out locations , like real Eternal War described in one of the meres, use of more of great trailers like story trailer, when talking with characters their portrait should be visible, some more voice would be needed in important dialogues, gear is really limited ( character can't wear headgear or interesting sets, no customization of voice, appearance or portrait, companions can't change much of the gear) and many quests or characters who start interesting turn really lackluster in the end.    … Expand
  18. mountnview
    May 20, 2017
    5
    I loved Torment and was very excited about someone creating a classic RPG around the same concepts and lore. Especially since these games aren't getting developed anymore. Numenera just over complicated everything that was good and fun about the original game - character creation is complicated and poorly explained. Skills stats and abilities aren't fully elaborated to the gamer. The storyI loved Torment and was very excited about someone creating a classic RPG around the same concepts and lore. Especially since these games aren't getting developed anymore. Numenera just over complicated everything that was good and fun about the original game - character creation is complicated and poorly explained. Skills stats and abilities aren't fully elaborated to the gamer. The story is good, dialog is good, and sure you have to read but that would be fine if game play was not so poorly executed. Bottomline if you want a complex "choose your own adventure story" this is great if you want to play an RPG just get "Torment" enhanced edition. To the developers if they read this --- we want to support games like this so keep trying!… Expand
  19. yavi
    Jul 5, 2017
    4
    This game fails to deliver on any of its promises and is a mediocre, reading-based experience. Its not strictly bad for an kickstarter non-aaa production, but it fails in every single comparison to the original - yes, even graphics are worse.
    You will read a lot of text, as the most advanced cutscene animation is *character walking*. You will need aother soundtrack, because the game has    This game fails to deliver on any of its promises and is a mediocre, reading-based experience. Its not strictly bad for an kickstarter non-aaa production, but it fails in every single comparison to the original - yes, even graphics are worse.
    You will read a lot of text, as the most advanced cutscene animation is *character walking*. You will need aother soundtrack, because the game has one that is below random flash game quality. You will wonder how a game like that can have loading screens everywhere after Skyrim, Like really, every small room.
    You will be thankful that you can avoid combat, as its so pointlessly boring.
    I can bash and bash it forever - but it has some fair writing, a bunch of nice ideas and a very promising first quest hub with a few story pieces worth reading.

    Get it on some 80+% sales if you want, not worth more.    … Expand
  20. Asderout
    Jul 22, 2018
    4
    Deceived expectations, cut out content and no respect for players, it's all about Fargo's fake.
  21. mal957
    Jul 13, 2022
    2
    The only thing they had to nail is the story. And (surprise) is BORING! endless walls of pretentious text doesn't make a compelling story.
    The rest of game is just bad.
  22. Shamansdrum
    Jul 3, 2020
    4
    What a waste of backer's money this game is. Personally I'm a huge fan of both pen&paper Planescape and Numenera. Therefore I was very enthusiastic throughout the whole development process of this game. After finally playing it I realized that developer's promise about walls of text written for the game rang hollow. Turned out it was not quality writing. It's almost sad how uninterestingWhat a waste of backer's money this game is. Personally I'm a huge fan of both pen&paper Planescape and Numenera. Therefore I was very enthusiastic throughout the whole development process of this game. After finally playing it I realized that developer's promise about walls of text written for the game rang hollow. Turned out it was not quality writing. It's almost sad how uninteresting it is. Plus the game is badly optimized for both pc and ps4 - huge framerate drops . Better go play Disco Elysium.… Expand
  23. DeusXCom
    Mar 5, 2017
    7
    Wow, this one is hard to review. I'm a huge CRPG fan and original Torment is still to this day one of my favourite games of all time, so I was hyped for this. I loved all the new projects that resurrected the genre including Pillars Of Eternity, Wasteland 2, Shadowruns, Tyranny... But this one is where I'm the most conflicted.

    First, the good. Story, writing, dialogs, all of it is    Wow, this one is hard to review. I'm a huge CRPG fan and original Torment is still to this day one of my favourite games of all time, so I was hyped for this. I loved all the new projects that resurrected the genre including Pillars Of Eternity, Wasteland 2, Shadowruns, Tyranny... But this one is where I'm the most conflicted.

    First, the good. Story, writing, dialogs, all of it is superb. It's probably the best story of all the previously mentioned titles and in this field it really holds the candle to the original Torment. Another amazing aspect is the uniqueness of the world and the weird factor of everything. Not really a fantasy, not really a sci-fi, something weird in between. Creating a really special experience and atmosphere. Unlike most others, I liked the visuals, the backgrounds of the world and Mark Morgan did a decent job with the music, recreating that special Torment feeling a bit with reverbed pianos adding some new fresh flavours. I love the game for all of this and it was a great adventure.

    But then, there is the bad. Combat is absolutely terrible. Whoever thought that making this full turn-based is a good idea was just wrong. It made certain amount of sense in Wasteland2 or Shadowrun, with the cover system, snipers, grenades and it all felt like an X-Com light, all good. But here it's just annoying, it slows the game to no end, there is no way to outplay your opponent by skill, by the actual gameplay, it's all about stats and most importantly it's not FUN at all. And the final nail in the coffin - the bugs. Combat is completely and utterly glitched, Enemy characters stops doing anything, unable to progress the game, some battles overheat the GPU and a few solid freezes to top it off. I had to restart final battle like 10 times to progress further, without the option to save doing everything again, forced to suffer these horrendous combat mechanics. Ugh, price of being naive/hyped and buying the game on release I guess. Fortunately most fights can be avoided and solved via dialogs, so in the end I had like 6 fights in the entire game, which might be another massive let-down for some.

    Also, one of the most important parts of any RPG - character progression, is a complete fail. While I liked the fact that it tried to do something different with stat edges, efforts and so on. Everything else just falls flat. No good new weapons, spells are very few and mostly useless and cyphers ended up being just a junk that you collect and overload your characters with.

    Speaking of characters, that's another disappointment, most characters here are totally bland and forgettable and unfortunately I didn't really found any sympathies to my companions either, which is really bad especially if you compare them to the original Torment which had one better companion than the other. Thinking about it. You don't even really have much choice here, I just played the game with the same 4 guys I found in the first city and never met anyone else that would be interested or interesting for that matter. Zero to little voiceover doesn't help either. These games always had only the important parts voiced, but here it goes to the extremes of lackluster, I just wonder where all the budget went.

    Considering relatively short length. It took me around 40 hours to finish it, doing everthing, which is not bad, but feeling-wise, especially in the second half it felt a little rushed and unfinished. In The Bloom where I thought I'm somewhere in the middle it was basically the end.

    That said, despite so many bad aspects, I still love the game for it's story and the feelings it gave me. Story is fantastic and reading is what you will be doing here 90% of the time. It almost feels like this is more of a gamebook (especially the merecaster parts), and interactive reading experience, not a full RPG package. Considering what it promised to be and considering presenting itself as the most funded kickstarter RPG, it ultimately might feel like a disappointment for many. Disappointment that I actually loved playing through with absolutely fantastic story in a unique world, but still a disappointment. 7/10    … Expand
  24. thicc
    May 17, 2017
    10
    Don't listen to the idiots on steam. If you don't like reading, Torment is not the game for you. There are literally dozens of rpg titles out there with refined combat systems and great looking UI to choose from if those are your primary concerns. If you're looking for immersive world building, story, and compelling moral decision making tied together with very well done writing with a lotDon't listen to the idiots on steam. If you don't like reading, Torment is not the game for you. There are literally dozens of rpg titles out there with refined combat systems and great looking UI to choose from if those are your primary concerns. If you're looking for immersive world building, story, and compelling moral decision making tied together with very well done writing with a lot of love put into it than this will be perfect for you. Keep in mind the CRPG genre is a throwback nostalgia genre. Don't come into it expecting the latest Bethesda game. It kept me up at night and I literally could not put it down. Great experience.… Expand
  25. iBalkanizze
    Jun 9, 2017
    4
    YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO ADD TEXT TO YOUR GAME NOT GAME TO YOUR TEXT
    A reading simulator with very little combat (4/10)
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let me say: I'm a big fan of these sort of games but this one just left me unsatisfied and disappointed. 1. This game is mostly about READING walls of text - even if you try to skip    YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO ADD TEXT TO YOUR GAME NOT GAME TO YOUR TEXT
    A reading simulator with very little combat (4/10)
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Let me say: I'm a big fan of these sort of games but this one just left me unsatisfied and disappointed.

    1. This game is mostly about READING walls of text - even if you try to skip reading, you can't - and there's just too much TEXT - it slows the game down to a halt and most of is not even interesting or crucial even though the writing is good

    2. COMBAT is really shallow or should I say inconsequential - and there's very little of it

    3. GRAPHICS are outdated, art style is good though. Character models look like crap

    4. You call this a climatic ending?

    5. There is enough content here to warrant a WAIT FOR DEEP SALE approach but you really, really need to LOVE reading
    .    … Expand
  26. kamaroff
    Oct 25, 2017
    6
    This is not RPG, it's more like an illustrated book with bad quality story-line. I'm quite disappointed that i payed a full price for the game which doesn't worth it.

    Better buy POE, dos, dos 2, Tyranny.
  27. Soujirop
    Mar 7, 2017
    7
    Due to a simplified character creation and progression, lackluster combat mechanics and quite annoying bugs scattered here and there, the overall experience will certainly not be as good as what you will get from other modern cRPGs like PoE and Tyranny. But if we were to talk –solely- about an interesting plot and well crafted party members, Tides of Numenera could very well be the rightDue to a simplified character creation and progression, lackluster combat mechanics and quite annoying bugs scattered here and there, the overall experience will certainly not be as good as what you will get from other modern cRPGs like PoE and Tyranny. But if we were to talk –solely- about an interesting plot and well crafted party members, Tides of Numenera could very well be the right choice. A pity that these two elements that constitute the best part of the game, are buried under moderate-quality, often tiresome, walls of text.… Expand
  28. Abyssal_Winter
    Mar 5, 2017
    7
    Some good, some bad. In stretches the writing is great, but overall, I failed to develop much empathy for the companions and the ending felt highly contrived. I am not a fan of the mechanics, either. Some of the art (portraits, character models) just felt bleh compared to the environments. Lest I sound too critical, I did enjoy the game, but it does not live up to its predecessor in mySome good, some bad. In stretches the writing is great, but overall, I failed to develop much empathy for the companions and the ending felt highly contrived. I am not a fan of the mechanics, either. Some of the art (portraits, character models) just felt bleh compared to the environments. Lest I sound too critical, I did enjoy the game, but it does not live up to its predecessor in my opinion.… Expand
  29. GreenFire
    Mar 29, 2017
    6
    Although I'm a die-hard fan of PS:T and pledged my support as soon as the TTON project appeared on Kickstarter, I can honestly say I approached this game with an open mind. I mean, when the game finally came out I wasn't really excited (it's hard to stay excited after a 4-year wait), I didn't expect or even want it to surpass or compare to PS:T (love of your life is by definitionAlthough I'm a die-hard fan of PS:T and pledged my support as soon as the TTON project appeared on Kickstarter, I can honestly say I approached this game with an open mind. I mean, when the game finally came out I wasn't really excited (it's hard to stay excited after a 4-year wait), I didn't expect or even want it to surpass or compare to PS:T (love of your life is by definition unsurpassable), I was only hoping the team that once brought us a unique and timeless classic would again give us sth imaginative and thought-provoking to enjoy. Alas, I was (maybe unsurprisingly) disappointed.

    The theme is familiar enough - immortality and lost memories/identity, but the story of the Las Castoff (and all the other castoffs) feels like ill-fitting clothes - crude and poorly made, thrown on you for want of anything better. The companions are a characterless bunch who you never know or care much about (and who don't have much to know about anyway, their backstory being so threadbare). These are the biggest let-down of TTON because from the people who created PS:T you'd really expect nothing less than great story, great characterization and great dialogs. Instead we have a lot of writing that tries too hard to be "deep," and very little about the characters, events, surroundings, etc. to actually explore by ourselves.

    At 30+ hours for my first playthrough (which is likely to also be my last, since the game has little replay value), I guess I can't really say the game's too short, but it did come as a big surprise when I realized the "final showdown" was imminent - like, What? This is it? This is what we have waited years for, and what the inXile SNS feeds never tire of telling us is loved and raved about by the media?

    As an early backer, I paid $28 for the game, which is about 60% of its current price, and which, incidentally, is what I feel the game is like - about 60% of what it could and should have been. And which is why I'm giving it a 6 out of 10.

    (First submitted 11 March 2017, 10/14 ppl found this useful; after editing to correct a few typos, the count starts from 0 again...)    … Expand
  30. froko
    Mar 26, 2017
    6
    Writing was lacking in substance, not entirely intuitive story arcs/ content exploration where a seemingly promising line of enquiry through an initial conversation would just fizzle off into nowhere.

    RPG mechanics and combat mechanics were underwhelming. This would be an acceptable indie game made on a smaller budget, but given the time and amount of funding, the quality of the game    Writing was lacking in substance, not entirely intuitive story arcs/ content exploration where a seemingly promising line of enquiry through an initial conversation would just fizzle off into nowhere.

    RPG mechanics and combat mechanics were underwhelming.

    This would be an acceptable indie game made on a smaller budget, but given the time and amount of funding, the quality of the game is nowhere near acceptable and refunds should be offered    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

55
#55 Best PC Game of 2016
44
#44 Most Discussed PC Game of 2016
17
#17 Most Shared PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 72 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 57 out of 72
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 72
  3. Negative: 1 out of 72
  1. RPGamer
    May 29, 2017
    50
    What Tides of Numenera offers is a rich experience in learning lore and then making a final multiple guess at the ending, all the while never being fully satisfying in terms of presentation. There's more playability to this take on this game, but it might be better off being used for a title that has far less baggage.
    Read full review
  2. Games Master UK
    May 19, 2017
    92
    Wonderful writing, deep quests, and the ability to truly shape your character make for a quality RPG. [Apr 2017, p.78]
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Apr 18, 2017
    100
    Great RPG depends mainly on the conversations and colorful bizarre world into which it takes you …while it is not focused on combat and other traditional elements. [Issue#273]
See all critic reviews »