Torment: Tides of Numenera Reviews
Love it or hate it, Tides of Numenera is a worthy follow-up to Planescape: Torment, but an experience that’s unlikely to win over fans reared on modern games.
The result is a game that packs meaning into almost everything you do. It doesn’t surpass the emotional heights of its late 90s forebear, but Numenera’s incredibly distinct world and unique approach to gameplay offer something really untraditional to sink your time, thoughts and choices into. For RPG fans this is super exciting, and will be sure to entertain across multiple playthroughs over dozens, if not hundreds of hours.
The game reveals itself as a sympathetic view of an imperfect world without a clear road to peace.
Torment Tides of Numenera is an ambitious RPG with superb dialogs, but it has the bitter aftertaste of a incomplete game. It's an intersting experience, but not enought to be a must-have RPG.
Review in French | Read full review
Weird and wonderful, this unique rpg is definitely worth your time.
Ultimately, it’s an excellent game that delivers an engaging story, and that’s what’s expected and desired from Torment: Tides of Numenera. Sometimes it’s clunky, and other times it is sluggish, but mostly it’s an engaging game that rarely disappoints. If only everything was this way.
The rich narrative and quest design in Torment: Tides of Numenera makes it a suitable spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment. Along with the tidal system, and the different conversation options, there is plenty of reasons for multiple playthroughs. You can find yourself spending countless hours reading lore and chatting with companions and random townsfolk.
Ultimately, Torment: ToN offers a very compelling balance between deep gameplay, accessibility, and character-driven story. While it may seem overwhelming at first to those unfamiliar with the genre, it nurtures a sense of exploration and quest. Failure in your quests is often just as interesting as success, and that the entire adventure is closer to twenty hours than forty makes it more reasonable that you'll finish and replay it again.
Torment is a niche title for those who want to left click between pages of a book.
I seriously can't speak highly enough of the world this game presents. I found value in every corner I poked my nose into. Its people, its creatures and its oddball take on what society could be like in a billion years places Torment among the best of its kind. Torment's world has a lasting appeal. Much like a good book you've closed for the last time, you're left with a sort of bitter understanding that you'll never experience it for the first time again. So, you settle for seconds.
Enchantment, delight, even love, and somewhere between a pinch of anger and frustration - that was my 30 hours with Torment: Tides of Numenera. The ability to complete the game without a fight, dozens of ways to perform tasks, the impact of our actions on the surrounding world, and the storyline (with a slightly disappointing finale) should lift up score. Unfortunately, the technical layer of the game effectively destroys the good impression.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Let's face the elephant in the room: Planescape Torment this is not. Still, we're talking about a very deep and rewarding CRPG that borrows some mechanics and game design choices from its famous ancestor and tries to walk a different path, making the player read and dialogue instead of mindlessly fighting. A good pick for old time D&D players, but the crown is still held by Pillars of Eternity.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Torment is the purest expression of Infinity Engine RPGs we will ever see in the modern age.
The weight of expectation could have proven too much, but inXile has delivered a remarkable narrative experience which deserves to be savoured.
Amazing writing, an interesting yet gritty world to explore and a charming set of characters. All this, united with the unique set of mechanics, make Torment: Tides of Numenera a must play for most RPG fans, whether or not they've played Planescape: Torment.
To sum it all up, Torment: Tides of Numenera is an amazing game set in a unique and easily recognizable setting. It has a very steep learning curve and a lot of complexity to the systems. Adding the sheer amount of information thrown at the Castoff, the game might be overwhelming for a new player. The companions are well written and varied in their behavior and reactions. Many NPCs are memorable and quest text quality is befitting of a book. In short, Numenera is a decent successor to Planescape: Torment and pays respects to the classic games of the genre.
Torment has flaws but none that will stop me from considering it a great RPG.
Torment: Tides of Numenera is well worth the wait. It combines the lore and fantastical setting of the Planescape universe with well-written characters and a tout narrative. For all the reading you'll have to do, there's an enchanting universe in store.
With frustrating tech, unappealing appearance and a lack of quality of life streamlining, Torment: Tides of Numenera might actually be my biggest gaming-related disappointment since I bought an Atari Jaguar. Some of the complaints mentioned here, especially exploration (wrongly as load times weren’t this bad), could be leveled at Planescape: Torment, but many years have gone by with many new ideas to make gaming experiences more engrossing.