The Technomancer
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Rating Summary
Based on 69 critic reviews
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Score Distribution
Unscored Reviews
Top Critic
Top Critic
. The story is enjoyable enough to push forward but it’s not going be something you look back on fondly in a few weeks. The Technomancer‘s plot and characters are just not that interesting.
If The Technomancer were more unique, many of its flaws could have been overlooked, but with so many similar games available at better prices it's hard to recommend what ultimately feels like a budget RPG.
Scored Reviews
Top Critic
The Technomancer is a complicated old-school game, but its content is very rich and it features a complete combat system and a well developed atmosphere during the whole story.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Top Critic
The Technomancer tries hard to grab some originality in a very congested genre market. While it doesn't always stand out on its own, it does enough with a familiar formula and a solid story to make it more than worth your time. The Techomancer's tale is certainly one worth telling.
The Technomancer is a formidable recommendation to players searching for engrossing adventure and gameplay, despite its rough edges and odd technical eccentricities.
At its heart, The Technomancer is an inspiring attempt at what open world action RPGs can be. It doesn’t always succeed at what it tries to do, but its ambition often makes up for its missteps.
Top Critic
The team writes intelligent, worthy scenarios and narratives, and then they do the best they can to build gameplay to support that concept. Spiders never quite gets there with executing to vision, but I don’t mean this as a backhanded complement; I genuinely appreciate what this team does, because it’s unique and interesting and I wish more developers had the gumption to try something like The Technomancer.
Top Critic
The Technomancer tries its best to be a lot of things at once, and as a result, it’s good at most but great at nothing. Not much about the game stands out as must-play, but it’s a good recommendation for RPG-loving friends who are looking for a sci-fi/steampunk RPG to play. I enjoyed my time with Zachariah on Mars, and when I got hooked, I was absolutely, 100% hooked. However, I know most people won’t be patient with a game for that many hours to get to that point, especially with how unforgiving the combat is.
Top Critic
The Technomancer is an enormous open-world RPG with 40+ hours of content that has an expertly-crafted world at its center. Unfortunately, it’s held back by technical issues that are hard to overlook, poor narrative, and unoriginal design.
With a unique cast of characters, shared gear, an emphasis on crafting for gear upgrades, and a deep and complex combat system The Technomancer is a surprising newcomer in a genre that is normally populated with games featuring mages, dragons, castles and the like.
Top Critic
The Technomancer is a well made action-RPG and the best title released by Spiders so far, thanks to the additional polish and increased size of the game's content. Just don't expect to be able to explore a massive world like those in Fallout 4 or The Witcher 3 or you may be disappointed.
Top Critic
With its enjoyable narrative and fun quests, The Technomancer is certainly worth playing, even with its bland visuals.
Top Critic
Technomancer makes a valiant effort to be the next big open world RPG and comes close to achieving it, but in the end it feels like the developer was trying to fit too many things in to one game.
Top Critic
While The Technomancer is not the first and won’t be the last title to have a different price tag based on platform (PC vs. consoles). At a cheaper price point on Steam (and just about everywhere else that sells digital PC games), the game’s jank can almost be forgiven at the lower price point, especially when coming from a small independent studio. Sure, there are parts of the game that I do not enjoy, but when you compare this to many AAA and full-priced games that have come out recently, The Technomancer includes much more bang for your buck. On console, however, that is another story altogether. As a full-price $59.99 game, I find it a bit harder to recommend the game on consoles until it can be purchased for a discounted price.
Top Critic
And every now and then, the feeling of playing a classic BioWare RPG from a decade or so rises to the surface.
Top Critic
All in all The Technomancer is a fun little adventure which will definitely grow on you. It’s from the school of RPGs which are engrossing despite their laundry list of flaws. There’s much to be said for a small team like Spiders chipping away at a hideously involving and expensive genre, and for that they should be congratulated. It doesn’t have the polish of a Mass Effect 3 or Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but The Technomancer sure has a lot of heart.
Top Critic
A very ambitious action-RPG in The Witcher style, which sometimes convinces but in other aspects is still a bit immature.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Top Critic
Overall, The Technomancer is a pleasant experience thanks to the great looking and intense combat. This could be the perfect game to add to your collection after a slight price drop.
Spiders Studio has escaped its own shadow with The Technomancer. While the game is not perfect, and isn't a match for the kings of the genre llike Mass Effect of The Witcher, it still can be enjoyable.
Review in Czech | Read full review
Rough around the edges, but still a fun romp for those looking for varied RPG settings.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Top Critic
Whilst it’s commendable that there are technomancy skills as well as three fighting styles at your disposal… the fact that the combat is so clunky and frequently unbalanced means that it’s best to just settle on one at the outset and stick with it
Top Critic
While it would be interesting to see the results of making the opposite storyline decisions, I won’t because that would mean having to relive moments where I wanted to throw my console out the window.
Top Critic
It�s far from great, but sometimes just being good really is good enough.
Top Critic
If you’re not a gigantic fan of the genre, I can’t really recommend The Technomancer.
Top Critic
The Technomancer is an ambitious sci-fi RPG limited by the realities of budgets. Fun and intriguing, but lacking polish and certain genre staples.
The Technomancer is the equivalent of a cheesy 90's sci-fi action flick mashup; think Steven Seagal's Under Siege meets Jesse Ventura's Abraxas: Guardian of the Universe all set in the dusty red planet of yesteryear's classics like Total Recall or Dune. For as grand as that sounds, fans of past Spiders titles may be a bit disappointed in the lack of varied gameplay between titles. Others that are new to the universe may be a bit let down by the lack of depth, yet carried along by a decent supporting cast, an interesting and fun if trope-y story, and stellar world-building. While Technomancer may not be deep, overly fulfilling, or entirely sophisticated, it does contain an abundance of charm. Charm not unlike your favorite campy films of years gone by.
Top Critic
The setting is great, but weak combat and limited choices stop this RPG from going anywhere fun.
Top Critic
The Technomancer is a jack of all RPG trades, master of none.
Top Critic
The Technomancer's big sci-fi ambition is marred by its lack of polish and botched execution in a couple of big areas. It won't win any awards on the presentation side of things, but the core gameplay nevertheless elevates it and delivers some fast and chaotic fun. It's just too bad that the overall package wasn't able to come together as well as it could have.
Top Critic
Spider has one of their biggest and best looking games and solid mechanics as well. Yet even with those elements in play, the rest of the game can’t keep up to that standard. I would recommend Technomancer only to those extremely interested in the setting and going into it full well knowing that this RPG has issues.
Top Critic
The Technomancer isn’t anything to write home about, but if you’re willing to overlook its flaws, this is Spiders’ most compelling world to date. Their vision of Mars is one that would be worth exploring even with its rough edges, if not for the sheer imbalance of a combat system that persistently drags the experience into the dregs of frustration. Spiders isn’t short on interesting ideas, it’s just the execution.
Top Critic
Technomancer is a great mid-tier Sci-Fi RPG. Those waiting patiently for Mass Effect: Andromeda might find their appetite satiated for the time being, but those wanting a flawless AAA experience will be left frustrated. The depth of the game is extremely admirable and well-handled, the influences are well placed without being beaten to death, and the game overall straddles the line between good and fine.
Top Critic
If you’re a fan of other action RPG’s such as The Witcher or even Dark Souls, then Techomancer may be just the game for you. Despite some rough edges, Technomancer does more good than harm, it just suffers from doing too much during certain elements and not enough with others. Despite that,the journey is very enjoyable and that’s all that matters in the end. Read more at The Outerhaven: The Technomancer Review (PC) http://www.theouterhaven.net/LHv94
Top Critic
The Technomancer has some interesting hooks but falls by the wayside. With more time, polish and a lot more heart, it could have been something more but this vacation to Mars is imminently uneventful and forgettable.
Top Critic
It’s hard to surmise whether The Technomancer and its faults come by way of financial or otherwise creative pitfalls, because there are some interesting and rather enjoyable moments to take out of both the game’s easy-to-access combat system and the rather nostalgic return of a colonized Mars seen through the eyes of an 80’s motion picture.
Top Critic
A true jack of all trades, The Tehnomancer's impressive visuals don't make up for its lack of engaging combat and inability to set itself apart from other games in the genre. It's a mashup of many other open-world RPGs that is produced by a smaller developer than any of them; it sets itself up for disappointment.
Top Critic
The Technomancer has frustrated me a lot over the last couple weeks, because I really enjoyed the world that Spiders created and wanted to get to know the characters more, but the constant choke points and combat inconsistencies make me want to stop playing. The story and certain characters make up for that in some way, and the romance dialogue that I pursued made up for some of the more disappointing characters. That said, I feel that with a little more work, a lot of my issues could have been fixed before launch.
Top Critic
Your enjoyment of The Technomancer is going to depend on whether you're willing to overlook the things it doesn't do so well. The story is fascinating, but you have to deal with characters that are dull and not worth remembering. The combat system is rather deep, but you'll have to be much more proficient due to the lack of intelligence displayed by your AI companions. Finally, overall dull look and bad audio choices detract from the elements that genuinely look good, such as the skin on each character. Like Spiders Studio's previous works, The Technomancer will find an audience among those who don't mind sampling from the ambitious French house, but others may want to play other available action RPGs before trying this title..
Top Critic
'The Technomancer' is not without its merits, but can’t quite find a place for itself in the RPG/action field. It is clear what Spiders was trying to do and I don’t fault them for it - their creation has the potential to be something special. In this current form that’s all it is though, just potential.
Although almost every aspect has been done in more depth elsewhere, its narrower scope allows the game to stand up well as a title for players to just sit back and enjoy without being overwhelmed like the big budget titles have the propensity to do.
Top Critic
With The Technomancer, we have a game trying to be a sprawling sci-fi adventure while paradoxically not trying much at all.
Top Critic
Decisively average, The Technomancer can be an amusing role-playing experience thanks to its combat system, provided you are ready for constant repetition baked in a sub-par shell.
Top Critic
The Technomancer had aspirations to become a noteworthy RPG, but fell short due to some poor decisions in key areas. Good ideas were muddled by poor execution, and the result is an experience that won’t keep players tuned in for very long.
Top Critic
The Technomancer isn’t necessarily a bad game, it just isn’t a good one.
The Technomancer presents a decent story line that's hard to enjoy as it's hidden behind an average world and cumbersome combat.
Top Critic
I was never engrossed, enticed, or even entangled in The Technomancer’s web of dystopian dreams. It’s competently made – there’s been far worse games reviewed on TSA recently – but what felt mildly interesting in trailers turned out to be perhaps the most boring science fiction adventure I’ve ever played. Make of that what you will.
Top Critic
The Technomancer, like Bound by Flame before it, tries to be too much like the genre leaders instead of finding its own way, and ends up falling short of the mark.
Top Critic
The Technomancer offers up a couple of highs and a few too many lows. Its approach to open ended gameplay is appreciated and its combat is fun enough for the first ten hours, but the game eventually loses steam and its story is nothing worth shouting about. To make matters worse, technical problems harm the experience to the point where you'll find it hard to care about the characters during what are supposed to be emotional scenes. There's certainly something here for forgiving RPG fans, but for everyone else, we can only advise caution when it comes to this rough Martian adventure.
Top Critic
An uneven slab of Mars adventuring, The Technomancer carefully straddles the line between never really being good while never falling into being bad.
Top Critic
Good for a fight, dull for everything else
Top Critic
Not good but not awful, The Technomancer serves more as a showcase for the future potential of Spiders than a game worth playing on its own merit.
Top Critic
The Technomancer has plenty to offer for fans looking to return to the world of Mars: War Logs but for anyone looking for a AAA experience, The Technomancer isn’t worth a $60 price tag.
Top Critic
The Technomancer is, after all, a video game. It had time, energy, heart and soul put into it. It never feels lazy, and it never feels like a cash grab. It just never manages to feel inspired or fun. In fact, it manages to be frustrating more than it is fun. Perhaps you'll find a nugget of charm underneath all the tedium. Unfortunately, The Technomancer only really manages to feel bland, if not devoid of life all together.
The Technomancer is an overwhelmingly average title, filled with questionable design choices, and agonizingly painful, roller coaster-like difficulty.
Top Critic
All the little reasons The Technomancer is worth experiencing, all the little moments where the vision of a better game shines through, aren’t quite enough to justify choking down its shortcomings.
Top Critic
Although The Technomancer is full of promise and seems like a pretty cool game at first, it all falls apart when you actually play it.
Top Critic
Honestly, I’m disappointed that The Technomancer couldn’t deliver. I want to like it so much! The seeds of an excellent game are there, but they just haven’t been tended to a level that really needs to be played. Hopefully Spiders will patch the game to improve some of the difficulty wall issues and this will become a more enjoyable experience, but I don’t think it’s a must-play for now. Overall it feels like an atmospheric step forward for the developer, but a mechanical trip backwards. Until that gets sorted, the red planet can wait.
Top Critic
Just what the world needed, a sequel to Mars: War Logs!
Top Critic
I honestly believe that the team at Spiders wanted to deliver the very best game that they are capable of producing and sadly I think that is exactly what they have done. The Technomancer is not a bad game, but it is devastatingly mediocre.
Top Critic
The Technomancer’s not even actively terrible. It’s just completely forgettable. Come for the Brutalist architecture, stay because you’ve got nothing better to do with seventeen hours of your life. And that’s a low bar, here.
Top Critic
I highly recommend playing this game with a controller of some kind, especially if you are playing on the PC like I did, as it makes the game feel more fluid as the combat system is generally just a serious of non-sensical button mashing, think Tekken but with customisable boots.
Fans of Mars: War Logs might enjoy exploring more of Spider’s dystopian Mars, but I honestly couldn’t recommend The Technomancer to newcomers looking for a sci-fi RPG. Its poor combat balance, dated animations, and predictable storyline result in a game that really could have been so much more, but ends up being uninspiring.
Top Critic
In fairness to The Technomancer it is consistent and by that I mean consistently disappointing.The Technomancer ticks all the boxes of a AAA game, but lacks the polish of its peers and does little to stand out as an RPG. Yes, at times the game can really shine. Mainly when you're admiring scenery from afar. This is the part that annoyed me the most. Obviously time was spent to make the game pretty, but at what cost? The writing is predictable and cringe worthy and the combat is boring and dry. Somewhere beneath its surface lies a polished game. Its unfortunate the flaws are so deeply ingrained within the game that they cannot be ignored and it breaks the immersion.
Top Critic
Derivative setting, dull NPCs, and clunky combat make The Technomancer an exemplar of lost potential
Top Critic
Developer Spiders’ Technomancer had the potential to be a great role playing experience if it weren’t for its many problems. The combat, while plentiful and entertaining when using technomancy, feels stiff with an over reliance on dodging and ineffective stance system.
Top Critic
The developer's ambition to make a triple-A title without the resources of a larger studio gets the better of them.
