Techland has released Torment: Tides of Numenera for PS4.
Though I’ve never played Planescape: Torment, the mold from which Torment: Tides of Numenera is formed, I recognize the significance it and its brethren CRPGs have had on the gaming landscape. I remember with great fondness the original Fallout games and Baldur’s Gate which fall into the same vein as Torment. Those expansive worlds were brought to life with player choice, dice roll outcomes, and lots of text.
Torment: Tides of Numenera makes no attempt to wedge itself into the current staple of action RPGs like The Witcher and Mass Effect. It’s a game born from a Kickstarter that was quickly funded by people who wanted something as close to Planescape as they could get. Because of that, it’s not a game for everyone, especially those looking for a briskly paced romp. But after scratching the surface—and a lot of reading—Tides will likely transfix you.
“What does one life matter?” This question is at the forefront of Tides and will be posed and answered constantly. Taking place a billion years into the future on Earth, now referred to as the Ninth World, players will come across the remnants of civilizations and species long gone. From hulking machines to mystical objects, the Ninth World is a curious place where every new sight holds a question of what great battle or humble life existed there; a lost memory of a forgotten time.
Players exist in the Ninth World as the “Last Castoff,” a human that, moments before the game began, served as a vessel for the Changing God. Instead of a hero with the fate of the world bearing down on your shoulders, you are simply the discarded waste of a person seemingly greater than you. Countless years ago the Changing God found the path to immortality by putting its consciousness into a constructed body. When that body has served its purpose it becomes a Castoff while gaining its own consciousness, despite being a temporary hunk of discarded flesh.
You are not a traditional hero by any means but that’s a major part of Tides’ intrigue and appeal. To give further purpose, an entity referred to as The Sorrow is hunting down any existing Castoffs and the Changing God. What is your purpose? Why are you vividly recalling memories of past lives? Who is the Changing God? While the Last Castoff’s plight is a fascinating tale to play through, they are just one entity in Tides’ world full of living, breathing characters.
Nearly every character you interact with in a new town has a story. For a world a billion years old, it’s appropriate that a deep history exists in every corner and I found myself constantly wanting to know everything. Developer InXile Entertainment managed to take a simple interaction with a number of realistic and surreal characters and give them their own lives and stories. These are not simple quest-givers that offer a few lines of text; these are individuals who prove that one life can matter a great deal. You are encouraged to speak with everyone, to be curious about the world. This is reflected in the newborn nature of the Last Castoff and you as a player soaking up the game’s lore.
In many ways Tides seduces you with the details. From the small room the game starts in to the larger towns I found myself scanning for things to interact with, not because I wanted loot but because I didn’t want to miss anything the world had to offer, trivial or not. The environments are gorgeous and intricate, telling as much of a story as the characters in them. There are times where players can choose to be a passive observer or actively seek out the answers to questions they may have. Being invested in Tides’ world and character building is important because the game is dense with text. Keep in mind that you will be reading chunks of dialog and description for minutes or hours at a time. There are few moments where audio kicks in to narrate a character’s words but when compared to sheer amount of unspoken text, it clashes. I won’t say that it’s overwhelming because I enjoyed what I was reading but do acknowledge that actually playing the game is a lot like reading a book at times. But this is a good book, and one where you don’t want to skip any pages.
Combat is the weakest element of the game because it feels trapped in the mechanics it was founded on. I find it incredibly rewarding to be able to talk your way out of most situations where a fight could break out. Just as rewarding is the fact that Tides makes failure a probable scenario where you may meet a character or gain insight that could only have been reached through failure. After a somewhat confusing but appropriate character creation segment, players will be given pools of points to invest in skills. Invest in intellect and you can talk your way out of fights or persuade characters to give you more information. Invest in strength and you have more opportunities to succeed in actual fights or brute force past obstacles.
Actions you want to perform have a dice roll success rate and the only way to increase the odds is to invest a point into completing the action. You can invest one of your own points or one from your companions. Not only are most of the companions a joy to have around, they help spread the wealth of spendable points. However, those who focus on intellect builds may talk their way out of a lot of scenarios but will also be out of luck if fighting needs to be done. Points are only refilled at certain intervals or through the use of a rare item. It’s only at these intervals does Tides really impose a limit on players. Because I love games where I can talk myself out of a situation, I was often not strong enough for some required combat situations. And ultimately, I just preferred exploring the world rather than fighting in it.
The way your actions shape how other characters and the world reacts to you. A decision the Last Castoff makes can literally change the Tides of the world. Selfless acts are represented by the gold tide where impulsive or often brash actions influence the red tide. How you shift these tides is represented in how others talk to you and how the world shapes itself around you. It’s just another element that shows the care that went into making a world where players can lose themselves in.
Torment: Tides of Numenera asks a great deal of players who wish to plunge into its depths. Here is a game that pays homage to the past while also trying not to stray too far from it. Combat definitely feels stilted because of its reliance on tabletop rules. But because those rough patches are only sprinkled throughout the game, it’s not enough to harm an incredible core experience. Working your way through Torment: Tides of Numenera can feel like a daunting task but with enough investment, it will be paid off time and again.
Reviewed for PS3