Torment: Tides of Numenera Catch-All

I honestly wasn't super fond of the intro. First you're forced to choose your gender without any context whatsoever, which meant that I immediately quit and started googling about the game to make a decision. Then you land in this place that's just wall to wall weirdness, but it didn't fit for me with the setting (countless eons of risen and fallen civilizations). Like how was so much working forgotten stuff just all there in one place and not buried by the sands of time? Sigil makes a lot more sense as a place where living, functioning weird stuff is all there overlapping.

Then the game immediately forces you to choose between the two companions you meet at the start, which makes them both come off as not great choices (I decided to go it alone because F that drama), and FINALLY, as soon as I got into the town area I had multiple issues with savegames being lost, so I had to replay lengthy conversations multiple times.

I'm going to go back to it and I'm sure I'll get hooked at some point, but that's because I know and like a lot of the writers (I did kickstart the game, after all). If I were going into the game cold I'd probably have shelved it forever.

On sale on Steam for $17.99 - ends Dec. 4th.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/27...

I wish I thought I would find time to play it but I know in my heart I wouldn't

I finally was able to start this game, and almost immediately got the Terminal Velocity achievement. Heh.

So this thread hasn't been touched in months, so I apologize in advance for phoenix-ing it. However, I'm just starting Torment, and have a weird nitpick with it. Here's the skinny:

I'm only about 5-6 hours in. Still in Sagus Cliffs. Have a few party members, some side quests to tackle, but have not yet left to fight anything since I'm still wandering around the various districts of the town talking to everyone and soaking in what this game is about. I really loved the '90s Planescape: Torment game, so I'd not rushing anything.

I feel that a ton, and I mean A TON, of the NPCs and characters I meet are incredibly well written. None of them feel trope-y, almost all have amazing backstories, and they all feel well loved by the writer that designed them. However, I feel like none of them tie together into the main game, the world, a side quest, or the main story as a whole. It is driving me insane. These little pillars of awesome feel inconsistent with a cohesive full game. Is this just how the Planes are? They are random and slapdash due to their nature of being "portals" for other worlds? The characters and the designs of the world will be drastically different because a lot of people are visitors and travelers?

For example, I met someone in the Underworld that is apparently a golem being controlled by a family member back at their home, and they can't say certain things without the golem interrupting them. It's a really interesting concept, it's completely out of left field, yet it doesn't seem to be a side quest or further exposition I can squeeze out of it. Why is she controlling the golem? Why is the golem trying to keep secrets from me? Why does it yell random stuff in ALL CAPS?

Am I wrong in feeling like the writers were all put into separate rooms, told to write some great ideas for NPCs, and then they were just thrown into the world without some storyboard way to connect at least a bit of it?

I don't need every single random Joe walking around the Government Square to be a side-quest trigger, but there is so much interesting stuff being thrown at me that I swear they would all significant in another PC RPG, or at least a major side quest. In Torment? So far, nope. They are there just to give a little flavor but not any answers.

Vrikk wrote:

So this thread hasn't been touched in months, so I apologize in advance for phoenix-ing it. However, I'm just starting Torment, and have a weird nitpick with it. Here's the skinny:

I'm only about 5-6 hours in. Still in Sagus Cliffs. Have a few party members, some side quests to tackle, but have not yet left to fight anything since I'm still wandering around the various districts of the town talking to everyone and soaking in what this game is about. I really loved the '90s Planescape: Torment game, so I'd not rushing anything.

I feel that a ton, and I mean A TON, of the NPCs and characters I meet are incredibly well written. None of them feel trope-y, almost all have amazing backstories, and they all feel well loved by the writer that designed them. However, I feel like none of them tie together into the main game, the world, a side quest, or the main story as a whole. It is driving me insane. These little pillars of awesome feel inconsistent with a cohesive full game. Is this just how the Planes are? They are random and slapdash due to their nature of being "portals" for other worlds? The characters and the designs of the world will be drastically different because a lot of people are visitors and travelers?

For example, I met someone in the Underworld that is apparently a golem being controlled by a family member back at their home, and they can't say certain things without the golem interrupting them. It's a really interesting concept, it's completely out of left field, yet it doesn't seem to be a side quest or further exposition I can squeeze out of it. Why is she controlling the golem? Why is the golem trying to keep secrets from me? Why does it yell random stuff in ALL CAPS?

Am I wrong in feeling like the writers were all put into separate rooms, told to write some great ideas for NPCs, and then they were just thrown into the world without some storyboard way to connect at least a bit of it?

I don't need every single random Joe walking around the Government Square to be a side-quest trigger, but there is so much interesting stuff being thrown at me that I swear they would all significant in another PC RPG, or at least a major side quest. In Torment? So far, nope. They are there just to give a little flavor but not any answers.

Glad to see someone posting in this thread!

I get what you mean about the seemingly disjointed nature of the NPC's and some areas. To the dev's credit, it seems to be pretty true to the source material (the Numenera tabletop RPG) which I've been reading up on before going back into this game in a deep dive.

Whether knowing that makes it better or not, that might be something you'd ask Monte Cook, the creator of that particular game world. I do think that feeling you get is part of the intention of both Cook and the devs; the place IS supposed to feel odd in that manner. Maybe not, though?

@ Vrikk

Felt the same. Also, never finished.. yet. It's a great little collection of short stories though.

Recreational Villain wrote:

@ Vrikk

Felt the same. Also, never finished.. yet. It's a great little collection of short stories though.

I want there to be more to the stories though. For a game that is so drenched in writing to convey most of the action, there seems to be a lot of Chapter 1's in these characters' stories, but nothing beyond the teaser.

It's. Driving. Me. Bonkers.

I lust for more exposition.