Torment Torment: Tides of Numenera Thread

[cvv]

Honestly, guys, why is this game flopping so hard?

The reviews were fine, especially the PC ones. I think overall they were better than the ones for Wasteland 2. The game had a lot of publicity behind it, clearly more than Wasteland as well.

So what seems to be the problem? Is it the weirdness of the setting? Is it isometric RPG fatigue? I'm really hesitant to say it's codex shitstorm that made much of a difference.

First of all, didn't PST flop commercially as well?

As for Codex - you can clearly see most people here hate the game because of the portraits. Mystery solved.

And as for Steam - well Steam is Steam and TToN is a niche, weird, text-heavy, combat-light, turn-based game. Not too much to add here either.

 

[undecaf]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Torment/comments/5y7ymi/i_want_more/deo0iqj/

You want more? Drop us a kind review on Steam and convince others to buy the game.

(but seriously, we're glad you like it)

I am torned about this; not sure if this flops hard as it seems it will be good for future games.

It definitely isn't going to be good if it tanks completely. Chances are the lesson to learn here ends up being the wrong one, and shit's only going to get worse for everyone (what ever people might think of inXile and their practices and what ever their product quality thus far, it's one of those few studios that at least tries).

 

[hexer]

Just when did this:

Become sexier than this:

Damn, what a downgrade from those BG1 portraits.
They definitively spoiled us back then.
Miss the old days.. when the positive shock from game's quality was of the same order of magnitude as that accidental hit in the nuts at the high school sports field.

 

[Seari]

It would be bad for the genre, if it wasn't for Obsidian doing a similar game with very positive results. Isn't good for the future of turn based RPGs though.

 

[ga♥]

First of all, didn't PST flop commercially as well?

Could you guys stop repeating this nonsense ad nauseam.

TORMENT WAS PROFITABLE! THIS PROBABLY WON'T!

Also the logic behind this argument is simply bad. A lot of games are flops, do this make them classic? NO

 

[FeelTheRads]

lol indie

lol story rich

lol rpg

 

[J_C]

They are generic people.

You mean they are very good portraits done by a competent artist. Yes, I agree.

They look very good as regular people (well with the exception of the glowing eyed one), but visually they are generic. Of course AoD being more grounded, I didn't expect rainbow colored portraits.

Honestly, the TTON portraits are also regular people, just with some colors on top and weird hairstyles. Not sure what your point is.

My point is that the TTON ones look more unique.

These people are all unique with their diverse and personal quirks:

These regular people have that uniform look some of you seem to dislike:

What do you think?

I like the quirky ones on the top better than the fascist nazies. At least they don't commit genocide.

 

[hexer]

that Greek reviewer's diss from day 1 is still unparallelled
who woulda thunk he was right about everything

Yeah, I doubt those 10/10 reviews were honest.
I hate corruption and dishonesty generally.
You can maybe trick me once, but never again.

 

[J_C]

First of all, didn't PST flop commercially as well?

Could you guys stop repeating this nonsense ad nauseam.

TORMENT WAS PROFITABLE! THIS PROBABLY WON'T!

Also the logic behind this argument is simply bad. A lot of games are flops, do this make them classic? NO

TTON's budget (for the most part) was already covered by the KS, it will be easily profitable by some margin.

 

[ga♥]

First of all, didn't PST flop commercially as well?

Could you guys stop repeating this nonsense ad nauseam.

TORMENT WAS PROFITABLE! THIS PROBABLY WON'T!

Also the logic behind this argument is simply bad. A lot of games are flops, do this make them classic? NO

TTON's budget (for the most part) was already covered by the KS, it will be easily profitable by some margin.

Cool.

Still the retardness in "Torment was a flop too so this means this is a great game" remains.

 

[J_C]

Seems to be at a steady as well

Fucking stop looking the main score on Steam, it shuts out all the Kickstarter backers whose vote doesn not count in that. If you scroll down and look at all the votes you get a higher number, around 76%. It won't turn the game into a sounding success but at least you get a realistic number, not some skewed statistics.

 

[Lacrymas]

PS:T was critically acclaimed back then, as opposed to Numanuma now.

 

[hexer]

LOL, that Greek review is hilarious..

"When a game from 1999 has higher production values than yours, you know that you have a major problem."

"Don't get too excited. Most of those skills are here in a purely decorative capacity."

"Aren't soundless interactive novels awesome? And aren't they even better when they don't really have any connection or bearing to your overall gameplay experience? YOLO BROZ."

http://ragequit.gr/reviews/item/torment-tides-of-numenera-pc-review-english

 

[J_C]

We need an article on the state of portraits in CRPGs, after the excellent one about the state of writing.
Darth Roxor, can we count on you?

Just when did this:

Become sexier than this:

One can't argue about this. what a shitty portrait compared to the beauties which were made for the classics.

 

[Lurker King]

They are generic people.

You mean they are very good portraits done by a competent artist. Yes, I agree.

They look very good as regular people (well with the exception of the glowing eyed one), but visually they are generic. Of course AoD being more grounded, I didn't expect rainbow colored portraits.

Honestly, the TTON portraits are also regular people, just with some colors on top and weird hairstyles. Not sure what your point is.

My point is that the TTON ones look more unique.

Uniquely bad.

 

[Sigourn]

Have you played Wasteland 2?

So far I'm enjoying Torment. Game says I've been playing for three hours, but I did ALT-TAB a few times to check on the Codex. It's been interesting so far, and I enjoy reading the dialogue slightly out loud with different accents to make it more interesting. Not being a native English speaker means I can potentially read an entire paragraph, but completely skip on the meaning of it if I'm not paying attention.

Like I said, it's enjoyable. Just one real fight in two and a half hours, and even then it was just the tutorial. By comparison, I'm pretty sure I had at least a handful of boring encounters in W2, and it was uninspiring map after uninspiring map. The art is just so much better in Torment, and the lore is engaging. Three hours is a lot in my case, considering PoE didn't keep me engaged this long. So yeah, don't give your money to Fargo.

Comment aside on how it is funny that in these three hours Torment is already a much better RPG than Fallout 4. Then again, it isn't saying much... It's better than Wasteland 2, but barely: being able to surpass skillchecks with your companions is stupid as hell, though I got rid of those early.

This is why piracy is alright. If I had bought the game on Steam, I wouldn't have been able to refund it due to my playtime.

 

[cvv]

that Greek reviewer's diss from day 1 is still unparallelled
who woulda thunk he was right about everything

Yeah, I doubt those 10/10 reviews were honest.

Because all the 0/10 are? People never get butthurt over some petty shit and then start actively trashing the game all over the webz to "punish" the devs like the aspie manchildren they are?

 

[an Administrator]

Divinity: Original Sin had better companions imo. Even Jahan looks like a very well-written character compared to most companions in TToN.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Think it's getting to Fargo now, prob best to ignore this stuff

 

[Darth Roxor]

At least they don't commit genocide.

they commit cultural genocide

 

[Goral]

lol
I've created a thread (on inXile forum) criticizing Torment for SJW propaganda (giving examples) and they've deleted it and gave me a warning (Zombra specifically). Political correctness uber alles.

Edit:


There were 4 replies before it got deleted.

 

[Ivan]

Finished! Sagus Cliffs took me about 20 hours, and The Bloom felt longer than Sagus. Finally clocked in at around 40 (didn't reload much to try alternate paths, except for the endings).
I didn't feel like the game needed any more companions, though some of them really do suck, Tybir, Alligern AND Callistege pale in comparison to Erritis, Rhin and Matkina. The epilogue is quite nicely done.

expanded thoughts

Spoiler

There's a lot to live up to when claiming to be the successor to Planescape: Torment. TTON suffers from a weak first half that's plagued by an excessive amount of descriptive text and dialogue for unimportant players in the story. There's such inundation of irrelevant information that I recall sighing whenever I laid eyes on yet another named NPC and wondered, "oh, I wonder what wacky stuff is going to come up now." Additionally, there simply aren't enough quests that take advantage of the society and culture presented to the player. The Levy quest is a great example of a quest that reinforces the setting, yet very few quests do so. Thankfully, The Bloom's content is much better than that of Sagus Cliff's.

Comat: typically a shallow affair that boils down to spamming your one-time-use cyphers against your stronger foes. climactic battles are particularly poor due to how long it takes the AI to complete its turns

UI: it's a shame you can't modify the interface at all, given how much Inexile touted its inclusion in Wasteland 2. the icons for the menus are obtrusive and get in the way of looking at the world. one pet peeve I had was when completing checks, even if you had a 100 percent chance of success, the game pauses for dramatic effect, EVERY TIME. it was cool the first hour, when you're getting your bearings, but after that it's just obnoxious

Sound: there's a severe lack of environmental sounds, particularly in Sagus Cliffs. A lot of effort went into the Bloom's soundscape, which makes me believe the project was mismanaged. Voice Acting is also an issue, particularly because there's so little and yet some of it is pretty bad (e.g. Alligern). It's pretty baffling how they didn't include VO for the main players of the narrative, especially considering that the game opens with a voiced narrator that never chimes in again.

TLDR: Should you check this out? Yeah. Some companions, the music, and The Bloom alone, make this worth a playthrough. TTON complements Mask of the Betrayer nicely as titles that aim to scratch the Torment itch. Its legacy, however, will be that of a title that was sold on lofty promises that were ultimately too much to live up to. What we have is a solid title that raises more questions about its development than its own narrative.

I'd only replay the game to see what I missed, mainly: being a dick to Rhin, seeing what Erritis does to pay off his debt, and interacting with Inifere's merecaster. Thankfully, it seems to me that you can really fly through the game if you know who to talk to and just make a nano. Not surprised to see that some people breezed by this in under 20 hours.

 

[Parabalus]

lol
I've created a thread (on inXile forum) criticizing Torment for SJW propaganda (giving examples) and they've deleted it and gave me a warning (Zombra specifically). Political correctness uber alles.

Copy it here, show us your goods.

 

[Jarpie]

I think one of the reasons why it's not selling, beside inXile pissing off core audience with simultaneus console versions is the marketing and trailers. They spell out the fucking story in the trailer, if they'd left enough to be a mystery and for players to find out, I think there'd be more positive buzz around the game.

 

[Neanderthal]

Any good scrappin in game? I'm one o few who liked Torment combat an preferred a better built Nameless than usual gimped one folk go for, so is there owt to match battle wi Many As One, Moridor's Box demon, or Alley o Dangerous Angle thugs? Also any big axes to cleave folk wi.