Torment: Tides of Numenera

 Xbox One
User Score
6.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 46 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 46
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 46
  3. Negative: 16 out of 46
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  1. acmichal
    Dec 30, 2019
    9
    ++ Ambitious, intelligent and touching writing, ++ Multiple ways to do most quests, ++ Choices matter a lot, ++ Very original world
    + Decent combat system, + Nice, relaxing vibe, + Visually pleasant
    - Loading screens a bit slow
    - Crashes sometimes
  2. SeTiDaYeTi
    Mar 11, 2017
    10
    A worthy sequel to the original Planescape: Torment. Intriguing, entirely nonobvious world, with a masterful writing and choices that have an impact on the environment. A lot of reading involved, as in the original and as expected. Don't wine if that's not your cup of tea.
  3. KeyboardPlayer
    Mar 10, 2017
    0
    no. no. no. no. NO!
    i'm a fan of the original torment. i was excited for this. THANK GOD i didn't back it up.
    too much dialogues. every character you meet as TONS of lines of dialogues. if someone told me this, i would have thought of it as a good thing... EXCEPT IT'S NOT. it's too much. you talk to a guy, you need to read a novel. You make 2 steps, talk to another guy: another nove. too    no. no. no. no. NO!
    i'm a fan of the original torment. i was excited for this. THANK GOD i didn't back it up.
    too much dialogues. every character you meet as TONS of lines of dialogues. if someone told me this, i would have thought of it as a good thing... EXCEPT IT'S NOT. it's too much. you talk to a guy, you need to read a novel. You make 2 steps, talk to another guy: another nove. too much. too boring. And they're all SUPER SPECIAL!
    and there are almost no animations for things that happen in the game. say, for example, the game writes "the characters makes a polite bow when you approach him"... BUT IT'S ONLY WRITTEN, NOT SHOWN. that character doesn't actually bow, it's only in the description. all the game is like that. it's a damn text adventure with backgrounds.
    "tell don't show"
    or when the game tells you that a character is "incredibly fat" but its sprite is just slightly larger than the others.
    there also are NO portraits of the characters that you're talking to. not even the most important ones.
    the game want to feel special at all times. the skill system is weird and overly complicated. cyphers are a stupid idea. all the vocabulary of the game just DOESN'T WANT SO BADLY to be like the rest, and you have different terms for things you already know. also the way you solve stuff by investing point... yeah, go on, keep trying to be original AT ALL COST: you're also being NOT FUN.
    combat is super boring and buggy.
    you can lose a VERY important skill and a companion in the city if you actually HELP HER by giving her money. and there is no warning for this, and no second tries. It's infuriating.
    this is a complete slander of the name "torment"    … Expand
  4. GamergodsFail
    Dec 15, 2017
    5
    Tides of Numenera isn't a "bad" game per se, but it's an incredibly boring one. It is literally 1% combat, and 99% walking and reading never-ending lines of text. Take what you will from that sentence. If that's your thing, then knock yourself out. I just prefer something that doesn't put me to sleep.
  5. Broyax
    Jan 28, 2018
    9
    Tourment : les Vagues de Numérata ou Numérama, Numérana... Numénara... est aussi intrigant et bizarre que le nom qu'il porte. Il s'agit du jeu de rôle le plus dépaysant et le plus étrange qu'on puisse trouver...

    Pourtant, ce n'est à l'origine qu'un projet kickstarté du petit développeur Inxile Entertainment et la suite du non moins bizarre Planescape Torment qui remonte au Moyen Age du    Tourment : les Vagues de Numérata ou Numérama, Numérana... Numénara... est aussi intrigant et bizarre que le nom qu'il porte. Il s'agit du jeu de rôle le plus dépaysant et le plus étrange qu'on puisse trouver...

    Pourtant, ce n'est à l'origine qu'un projet kickstarté du petit développeur Inxile Entertainment et la suite du non moins bizarre Planescape Torment qui remonte au Moyen Age du jeu vidéo. Il reprend la technique de Pillars of Eternity (un autre kickstarter) avec sa vue aérienne et ses personnages en 3D insérés dans des décors entièrement en 2D. Sauf que contrairement à Pillars, il s'avère bien plus agréable à l'oeil, principalement grâce à sa patte artistique résolument originale.

    Son interface est aussi plus belle tout en restant fort pratique et l'adaptation à la console de ce jeu PC s'est faite sans heurts à un ou deux détails près. Ce petit budget privilégie le texte, tout comme son ancêtre, des tonnes de textes, de descriptions et de dialogues : il s'agit qu'une qualité qui peut devenir un défaut et vice-versa... pas de cinématiques, uniquement de la lecture dans ce roman, que dis-je, ce "pavé" interactif dont vous êtes le héros (ou l'héroïne). A ce sujet, chapeau aux traducteurs (on remarque de temps à autre des coquilles et des mots oubliés dûs à la fatigue...) pour le boulot abattu.

    En dépit ou grâce à cette aventure textuelle, le développeur a pu laisser libre cours à son imagination pour nous entraîner dans un monde souvent cinglé (et toujours bizarre), mélange curieux de fantasy et science-fiction à nul autre pareil. L'histoire excellente, peu avare en rebondissements et révélations, complète cet univers avec rigueur, car s'il est étrange et dingue, ce Torment reste toujours accessible et très bien expliqué.

    Tous ces dialogues et ces choix (qui sont nombreux) permettent d'éviter bien des combats, a fortiori quand on a développé ses compétences de beau parleur : c'est vraiment très appréciable. Les combats eux-mêmes ne sont pas désagréables puisqu'ils sont dans un tour par tour assez bien fichu ma foi. On regrette juste que les décors en 2D ne permettent évidemment pas la moindre rotation (Le zoom est autorisé tout de même).

    Au chapitre des doléances, on regrette les temps de chargement trop longs entre chaque zone... et surtout des plantages ! j'en ai eu 7 ou 8 en 42h... ça commence à faire beaucoup. Heureusement qu'en dehors de la sauvegarde manuelle, on a la sauvegarde rapide...

    Je me rends compte que je n'ai pas parlé des mécaniques de jeu inédites et très bien trouvées dans le mode exploration (ce qu'on fait le plus) faites d'avantages et de réserves de puissance, de célérité et d'intellect... sans compter l'influence des flux eux-mêmes !

    Un jeu décidément fascinant qui montre que le jeu de rôle n'a pas besoin d'être ouvert et immense pour forcément convaincre : l'écriture et l'inventivité, les idées elles-mêmes, c'est bien mieux que le pétrole !    … Expand
  6. Stazco
    Oct 12, 2018
    10
    If you a bit tired of modern games, and in the same time regret that you dont read books enough- this game is the answer! I enjoy reading all the stories, asking twice for each line to know some more!
    But its better to play on your native language- i usually enjoy and fully understand games on english, but this game i enjoy only in my native language (russian) - since you read a lot here    If you a bit tired of modern games, and in the same time regret that you dont read books enough- this game is the answer! I enjoy reading all the stories, asking twice for each line to know some more!
    But its better to play on your native language- i usually enjoy and fully understand games on english, but this game i enjoy only in my native language (russian) - since you read a lot here and dont want to stop if new word met.
    Great game, totally different from others, so its a big room of fresh air!    … Expand
  7. MrTusks
    Oct 25, 2022
    0
    I thought I finally found a CRPG I liked, until i got to the first city and had to go through literally two hours of exposition and side quest gathering. I even tend to like talky games, but every goddamn townsperson had to give me their whole damn life story before sending me on a generic fetch quest. That's partly on me for being a completionist, but better games tend to dole this stuffI thought I finally found a CRPG I liked, until i got to the first city and had to go through literally two hours of exposition and side quest gathering. I even tend to like talky games, but every goddamn townsperson had to give me their whole damn life story before sending me on a generic fetch quest. That's partly on me for being a completionist, but better games tend to dole this stuff out at a more measured pace. Not to mention that all objectives are pretty vague and very little direction is given, such that you feel compelled to talk to everyone simply in an attempt to grasp some narrative throughline.

    In the end it fell into a common CRPG trap: it forgot there was a game to play here.    … Expand
  8. Phuz
    Sep 4, 2023
    0
    For a text game, the writing is horrendous.

    If you find **** that reads like an exploded dictionary exciting, then you'll love it but I like stories, not Wordsmiths trying to use every word in existence to describe very little. It's one of those where it says stuff like "the body of water dragged its shimmering meniscus gently, as though God had permitted the holiest of angels to grace    For a text game, the writing is horrendous.

    If you find **** that reads like an exploded dictionary exciting, then you'll love it but I like stories, not Wordsmiths trying to use every word in existence to describe very little.

    It's one of those where it says stuff like "the body of water dragged its shimmering meniscus gently, as though God had permitted the holiest of angels to grace the surface with a puff of dandelion scented flatuence, glistening in the essence of the spirit that exuded around me."

    When a simple "I was treading water in a lake with ripples" would have done just fine.

    Total drivel, it was unbearable to read.    … Expand
  9. Awanka
    May 11, 2023
    8
    I'm coming into this from the perspective of having played Planescape: Torment when it was released, and it having a massive impact on my formative years. To this day I believe it to be the greatest game ever made. So some big shoes to fill.

    By god, it almost pulls it off. The setting and world-building of Numenera is just as strange and creative as Planescape. The writing is of an    I'm coming into this from the perspective of having played Planescape: Torment when it was released, and it having a massive impact on my formative years. To this day I believe it to be the greatest game ever made. So some big shoes to fill.

    By god, it almost pulls it off. The setting and world-building of Numenera is just as strange and creative as Planescape. The writing is of an extremely high quality and originality, and if it isn't quite as good as Planescape, it's also not that far off.

    The actual gameplay, especially the combat, is quite dodgy, but that can also be seen as an homage to the original. You can almost think of these games as visual novels, since there is a LOT of reading, and combat is often optional, and there are items you will find in the game called merecasters, which are literally short visual choose your own adventure stories. The missions play out like quirky vignettes or moral plays, and are less of the go here and kill 10 bandits variety.

    The setting of Numenera is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. It is a fantasy sci-fi world that is so far in the future, that it's like the past again, except with robots and tech-mages. If you've read any of the Jack Vance Dying Earth genre of books or Gene Wolfe, you will be on familiar ground. It is very weird.

    The only real downside is that the game is somewhat buggy. The prolog combat section bugged out on me forcing a restart. There was also a combat sections with 20 "peerless" robots that was terribly designed with bad AI. The game crashed maybe a dozen times throughout my 65 hour playthrough. I can only imagine how unstable it must have been at release.    … Expand
  10. RTCWFAN
    May 6, 2023
    8
    If you can live with a mediocre fighting system, you get one of the best stories in gaming so far. Definitely worth checking out. Overall rating: 8.2.
  11. RatchetClank111
    Sep 5, 2022
    4
    This game can be simply summed up as not enough action, and too much dialogue.

    ~ For me I don't mind some dialogue, as I've played games like Pillars of Eternity (although I think that game has a bit too much dialogue sometimes), but this game completely has way too much dialogue. It's interesting as the game was built/used pillars of eternity engine/design, and that's clear, but    This game can be simply summed up as not enough action, and too much dialogue.

    ~
    For me I don't mind some dialogue, as I've played games like Pillars of Eternity (although I think that game has a bit too much dialogue sometimes), but this game completely has way too much dialogue. It's interesting as the game was built/used pillars of eternity engine/design, and that's clear, but Pillars of Eternity actually you know had combat, sadly which this game completely lacks. I don't recommend this game unless you really just want to read texts and maybe it's a good story, but most players won't see the story as they'll probably quit the game in the first few hours, like I did.    … Expand
  12. Kirbyisthebest
    Aug 14, 2022
    6
    Do you want to read a choose your own adventure book? This is the best way to do it. I really like in RPGs like Dragon Age or Fallout or Skyrim when you get to take a break from combat action and contemplate tough choices that affect the world. Torment is JUST THOSE PARTS, and its really well done. If you like those parts too and you enjoy reading, this is a great time so far, I'm taking aDo you want to read a choose your own adventure book? This is the best way to do it. I really like in RPGs like Dragon Age or Fallout or Skyrim when you get to take a break from combat action and contemplate tough choices that affect the world. Torment is JUST THOSE PARTS, and its really well done. If you like those parts too and you enjoy reading, this is a great time so far, I'm taking a long time with it because I'm reading way more than I have to because its a cool story. There can be some fighting if thats the story you want, but its not really the draw, no big explosive cutscenes, but very fun and artistic and deep world to play around in and explore and take a vacation in.

    Edit: Nevermind, they ran out of money and rushed the ending of the game. Its the beginning of a really cool game though, shame, what a waste    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

56
#56 Best Xbox One Game of 2017
62
#62 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2017
52
#52 Most Shared Xbox One Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. MondoXbox
    Apr 27, 2017
    80
    A deep and highly complex RPG, with a huge fantasy/sci-fi world and great freedom for the player.
    Read full review
  2. Official Xbox Magazine UK
    Apr 2, 2017
    50
    A fascinating break from the RPG norm let down by terrible performance problems. [April 2017, p.92]
  3. Worth Playing
    Mar 21, 2017
    80
    If you can live with the technical hiccups, Torment: Tides of Numenera is one of the more fascinating RPGs for any platform. The setting is fantastic, with enticing environments and loads of lore to flesh out this RPG world. The focus on dialogue and non-combative solutions is refreshing, especially since the combat can be too simplistic. The game offers many possibilities since there are multiple solutions to any quest. At the same time, the absence of a journal to record things is a disappointment, since the lore can be too deep, and mechanics like the Tides can be rather obtuse. For those looking for something offbeat in their RPGs, Tides is certainly worth checking out.
    Read full review
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