Okay, so the spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment is officially out now. The normal gaming review sites are giving positive reviews but I'm hesitant to trust them to warrant a purchase at the moment.
I trust steam user reviews more so than critics' reviews.
Here's a recent negative one:
Backed this game. Was REALLY excited for it. I kept my spoilers to a minimum...and in doing so apparently missed my chance at getting a refund. Which, to be clear, I would have certainly done had I realized how bad of a shape this game was in.
To start, there has been a MASSIVE amount of cut content. Not JUST Kickstarter Stretch Goals, as many people will insist, but also cuts to the core game. Cuts to the fundemental rules set the game is built upon (aka, if you're familiar with how the PnP Numenera game works, there are MASSIVE cuts to that rule set).
Further, there are other major issues with the game. These include truly ugly character models/animations (although the rest of the game looks quite nice), an extreme imblance in the importance of different skills/abilities/classes/companions/etc (saying much more than that would be super spoilery, but, simply put, if you choose X, Y, and Z there can be no need to replay the game, as you'll have seen basically everything in a single playthrough, where as if you choose A, B, and C instead, you'll see about a 4th of the game's content, max, even if you're SUPER dilligent), unnanounced timed quests (aka quests you can fail by taking too long IRL to do them, with no indication that you need to do them in a timely manner), and relatively short playtime for a RPG of this price.
Finally, some other things to note, smaller, less important things, but bothersome things nonetheless include but are not limited to voice acting for the female player character that is probably the worst I've heard from any game in years, certain static images (like loading screen images and such) being the wrong resolution regardless of the resolution you set (resulting in things like "loading tips" being off screen), the inability to lock the mouse cursor to a single monitor in multimonitor setups (even in fullscreen), the lack of a boarderless window mode, the fact that you can die in the text-only intro of the game and get a game over screen, and many, many other small problems (including performance issues...which this game should have even a little).
Combine all this with what I feel are many poor design decisions that happened in the middle of development and had I know what was coming, I certainly would have asked for a refund back when I had the chance. Sadly, as this was a Kickstarter game for me (aka I got a CD key) I cannot get a refund through Steam, even though I've barely used it at all.
All in all, this is not the game promised, it's a shell. The broad strokes are still there, and if all you want is a interesting choose your own adventure story with the (VERY) occasional, boring, rote turn based combat mixed in, than this will probably suit you just fine.
But if you want the game promised in the Kickstarter or if you want a Numenera experience on the PC, this is NOT the game you want and you'll likely end up very disapointed.
Doesnt matter how good a games story or rpg experience is if the gameplay makes me want to tear my hair out. After all at the end of the day it is a 'game' im playing so the gameplay has to at least be decent if only so i can tolerate it.
The mechanical aspects really need polishing. The combat is buggy has hell. I´ve had problems with getting stuck in combat mode after the fights ended, at one point the PC didn´t responded to any commands forcing me to load a previous save and companions simply stooped following me and telling them to leave the party and then adding them back didn´t work.
Yeah I never got into Planescape cause of the combat and cause I found the dialogue kind of bloated. I haven't really followed this one at all but I'm simply not interested in throwing away 45 euro on a game anymore. I love cRPG's but do I love them enough to warrant that kind of price tag? Nope. Unless it is an Underrail sequel or Age Of Decadence sequel. So while I will probably buy this game at some point unless I hear something really good to warrant 20 euro then I'll simply wait for it to go down to 15 euro or not buy it at all.
Is there a day 1 patch for this game yet?
More negative reviews cause why not?
I don't recommend this game for now, it is too unpolished, unfinished and cut.
The cut content is huge, like 3 cut companion for a total of 6 instead of 9, a city has been removed, more important, there is a game mechanic called focus, there were about 40 planed, and if I'm not mistaken, only 3 foci makes it in the final game.
There is lot more cut content, check on google.
I said unpolished because the game has a lot of bug and is not very stable, the dialogue are not fluid and sometime require time to display the next reply. A detail, that matters to me : the female character portrait doesn't match the 3d model (because the portrait has changed during beta, but not the 3d model), it's an immersion breaker for me.
For the unfinished part, it's about Inxile saying that there will be patches with new content, to complete the game and add cut content. So a lot of people think there will be a Director's Cut, like for Wasteland 2. I hope so.
I'll came back to play it and eventually change my review for the probable Director's Cut in a few month.
Was there really that much content removed? What the fuck is going on over there at InXile? They need to learn how to fucking scale their shit down to a manageable level instead of trying to overdevelop it. I'd rather have a smaller but far better structured game that doesn't feel like it is lacking anything vital than a bloated rotten whale.
Numenera (because this game should have never been named "Torment" and that sacred prefix will ideally be forever erased from the players' collective consciousness as having anything to do with the present game) gloriously fails in delivering each and every one of the things inXile promised during its Kickstarter campaign, back in the mists of 2013, when Kickstarter's magic high was still going strong. Each and every one. But let us, like a proper disaster assessment squad, pack up our equipment, gather our team and bravely go forward to investigate how Kickstarter's brightest hope, forever condemned the platform's "sure-fire" credibility for delivering "the great games, like we used to play".
[edit 2]
Is this seriously the character screen?
...
It's soooo ugly... I thought Wasteland 2's character screen was bad but my god this looks godawful.
[edit 3]
This gave me a good hearty chuckle:
"...choose to play as uber-aggressive, autistic little orcs..."
[edit 4]
All right, I read the full RageQuit review. TToN sounds like a fucking horror-show. But if that's the case, why is it so highly rated on Steam? Can anyone back up that review's claims? Cause I didn't exactly care much for Planescape Torment in the first place and if this one is this inferior then there is no way I'm buying it.
Just wait for sales so you don't need to bother with juggling the "reviews" about which ones are more correct and which ones less.
Someone will no doubt come tell you the greek guy is 100% right, the game is full of fucking jew shit and cum, and another will come and say the contrary. And you're none the wiser.
If you weren't into PS:T, you're probably not too much into this one either. Combat is very different, but the game is otherwise quite similiar (on the general level), from bloated convos and pacing onwards.
Eh... I think I'll give Planescape another go at some point and see if I can get into it again since I already own it. If I don't then I suppose this simply isn't for me, even if it was good. :/
Yeah I never got into Planescape cause of the combat and cause I found the dialogue kind of bloated. I haven't really followed this one at all but I'm simply not interested in throwing away 45 euro on a game anymore. I love cRPG's but do I love them enough to warrant that kind of price tag? Nope. Unless it is an Underrail sequel or Age Of Decadence sequel. So while I will probably buy this game at some point unless I hear something really good to warrant 20 euro then I'll simply wait for it to go down to 15 euro or not buy it at all.
Is there a day 1 patch for this game yet?
More negative reviews cause why not?
I don't recommend this game for now, it is too unpolished, unfinished and cut.
The cut content is huge, like 3 cut companion for a total of 6 instead of 9, a city has been removed, more important, there is a game mechanic called focus, there were about 40 planed, and if I'm not mistaken, only 3 foci makes it in the final game.
There is lot more cut content, check on google.
I said unpolished because the game has a lot of bug and is not very stable, the dialogue are not fluid and sometime require time to display the next reply. A detail, that matters to me : the female character portrait doesn't match the 3d model (because the portrait has changed during beta, but not the 3d model), it's an immersion breaker for me.
For the unfinished part, it's about Inxile saying that there will be patches with new content, to complete the game and add cut content. So a lot of people think there will be a Director's Cut, like for Wasteland 2. I hope so.
I'll came back to play it and eventually change my review for the probable Director's Cut in a few month.
Was there really that much content removed? What the fuck is going on over there at InXile? They need to learn how to fucking scale their shit down to a manageable level instead of trying to overdevelop it. I'd rather have a smaller but far better structured game that doesn't feel like it is lacking anything vital than a bloated rotten whale.
Numenera (because this game should have never been named "Torment" and that sacred prefix will ideally be forever erased from the players' collective consciousness as having anything to do with the present game) gloriously fails in delivering each and every one of the things inXile promised during its Kickstarter campaign, back in the mists of 2013, when Kickstarter's magic high was still going strong. Each and every one. But let us, like a proper disaster assessment squad, pack up our equipment, gather our team and bravely go forward to investigate how Kickstarter's brightest hope, forever condemned the platform's "sure-fire" credibility for delivering "the great games, like we used to play".
[edit 2]
Is this seriously the character screen?
...
It's soooo ugly... I thought Wasteland 2's character screen was bad but my god this looks godawful.
[edit 3]
This gave me a good hearty chuckle:
"...choose to play as uber-aggressive, autistic little orcs..."
[edit 4]
All right, I read the full RageQuit review. TToN sounds like a fucking horror-show. But if that's the case, why is it so highly rated on Steam? Can anyone back up that review's claims? Cause I didn't exactly care much for Planescape Torment in the first place and if this one is this inferior then there is no way I'm buying it.
This is not Torment by any stretch of the imagination. Just comparing itself to the 1999 masterpiece, is anathema.
I have yet to play the game but from reading reviews from steam and professional reviews, this seems to be incorrect because it is apparently in line thematically with PST.
Spending points instead of stat-checks made me kek, tho'. Game so far looks like a gamedesign freakshow. Too bad quests are more, how to say it... normal.
BTW... portraits can't be changed and we stuck with this no matter what gender was choosen.
Kick starter backer here. Never was a big fan of Torment either Mr Fish.
Played 4 hours of beta, 2 hours of release game so far.
My thoughts are for now that its well written and the quests are good. For the type of game it aspires to be choice is pretty prevalent and not forcing combat like Planescape did is nice. However so far, wasteland 2 made a much better first impression. I will straight up I loved wasteland 2 as much as the OG fallout games. A proper successor thru and thru even with a few rough edges. I really liked Pillars and Tyranny both of which also had good first impressions even if I hated the combat. (hate real time with pause, it fucking sucks)
This im a bit more shaky on. The Speed/Brains/Might thing is kinda weird skill check system. I prefer actually having proper skill checks. And honestly its mostly reading as you can pretty much mostly avoid the combat. I just wish there was a bit more gameplay to it as the reading is getting abit tedious as gorgeous as the environments are.
Here are a few thoughts I have gathered from around the web.
Very rich world and setting, ripe for use in other games, preferrably not with "Torment" in their title or similar pretenders' claims.
A few, tragically too few moments in the Bloom, speak of the game that may have been, back in 2013.
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.
About 60 minutes into the game and I can't unhook myself from conversation trees.
We start off with huge infodumps. Mr. Writer commands you to know everything from the start!
1. Where are we what is this place?
2. Who is the Changing god again?
3. So you say I was born when the Changing god left but why am I not dead?
4. Before I woke, I was in some kind of dreamlike labyrinth with a glowing specter.
5. If falling from the sky didn't kill me, is there anything that can?
I feel like all of these the player should answer for himself through exploration.
I don't think inXile are in touch with reality, why would you release something like Torment for consoles? It makes no sense. Game is going to get compared to PoE a lot, and that I believe is going to be ultimately the cause of very low ratings. PoE is just that much better, probably because the devs didn't have to try so hard to be edgy because Torment .
Been awhile since I played a game so shit I felt like throwing up, last was Fallout 4. So the metascore is going to bomb because of the console port? The irony of fate.
"That thing is unstoppable, but you stopped it!"
One of the last times we spoke, Brother None sort of implied to me that Deep Silver lost out on the Wasteland 2 physical distribution deal (and that they're generally not doing well)
Theory being that the same will happen with Techland...
Performance is an absolute dogshit, I have a pretty powerful laptop that runs most games more or less without problems, but I get 5-10 fps in the very first location that consists of untextured hexagons. Nothing more to tell, since I can't be bothered to play through this slog. Can't even get properly disappointed.
Yes, that area is notoriously bad for performance, the rest though seem to run more smoothly than PoE. Loading times are much better as well.
Infinitron: Spoke with Brother None frequently when the combat system decision was made. As far as I can tell, they just preferred turn-based. Brother None personally despises RTwP and he must have lobbied strongly against it.
I raised the possibility once that they'd gone with turn-based because it's simpler to design/implement than RTwP. He seemed dismissive of that idea.
Techland has big fanbase of console-only gamers. People in Poland were swapping their kickstarter pc version for console version and buing consoles for this game. Those are 30+ y/old who played IE games on release. I have no idea why they are doing it. One explanation I heard was that "PCs are for work, consoles are for games". Recently people were asking when Torment's iOS port is coming. When Techland's local branch published some PC exclusive (Stasis?) they were crying for weeks about being neglected.
Maybe it's the same in other countries and they had researched it or Polish market is enough to break even, maybe they wanted multiplatform release for sake of having one.
I've noticed that a few people around the net are denouncing the Ragequit.gr review for the game because "the author expected another Planescape: Torment and judges the game too harshly" and "he bashes the game but gave it a relatively high score, therefore the review sucks".
It's funny because I remember people were denouncing the Ragequit.gr Fallout 4 Review when it came out because "the author expected another Fallout 1-2-New Vegas and judges the game too harshly" and "he bashes the game but gave it a relatively high score, therefore the review sucks".
Denouncers gonna denounce. A lower-than-average-scoring review rubs people this way for some reason.
If there's one thing I've learned from Kickstarters it's that a game's pre production can be enormously misleading. You go from Avellone/Cain/Sawyer's PoE with low intelligence dialogue responses to Josh Sawyer: The Game. You go from Wasteland 2 written and designed by the guys who made the first game to Wasteland 2 written almost entirely by some Warhammer Fantasy author (Nathan Long).
I will eventually buy it but I really wish Obsidian made this game instead. I wish I had the game so I could properly judge it. Last comment makes me worried about if it will run right on my toaster. PS4 version? *cringes*
It should be said I mostly compiled negative impressions. I learn more that way.
And this just in: Torment is the top seller on Steam. Kudos inXile. Now do better.
Been awhile since I played a game so shit I felt like throwing up, last was Fallout 4. So the metascore is going to bomb because of the console port? The irony of fate.
