I'm curious. Is anyone playing this? I slogged through the beginning, but with PS:T EE I have little incentive to continue. It just doesn't hold a candle to PS:T in terms of characters, atmosphere and dark humor.
I have it too, but the deal is they say they're going to add 3 NPCs and some other content soon, and I figured it'd be better to wait until all that is done with before I go through it.
I've played about 10 hours of it which is roughly a third from what I hear and it's... good. A pretty nice spiritual successor to PST and faithful in ways I think that matter.
The good: It's very well written for the most part.
The story is pretty intriguing. I definitely am interested to play more to learn about the history and nature of the protagonist.
The maps have been pretty damn great to look at.
I really admire just how much the designers leaned into providing non-combat solutions to just about every situation in the game. The game system itself is free-form enough to really make it all work pretty well.
The bad: While well written, it's also quite over-written... I think in the attempt to match the quality of PST's script, they may have overdone it with the density of writing. There are almost no breezy or concise conversations in the game and unfortunately a lot of the time I've found myself a bit lost in the text.
I also don't think the setting is nearly as intriguing as Planescape. Numenera is a real kitchen sink place where just about anything that can happen, does happen. In a way this matches nicely with the "belief can change anything" nature of Planescape but so far I've felt like the setting doesn't have a lived in sense or established history. The nature of the setting means that it feels like almost every 10 foot space could have come from a different place or time so it all ends up in a slurry of weird where nothing really stands out which is the opposite of how I feel Planescape is.
The ugly: Combat is still bad. The Crisis system is more interesting than PST's simple adaptation of AD&D rules but it's also slow moving and feels really restrictive when you treat it at the surface level and want to smash through your problems. I feel like a combat focused playthrough of Tides of Numenera would be excruciating.
That said, I believe every possible combat in the game has a non-combat way to resolve it, be that using an object in the environment or talking with your attackers so if you play the game to its strengths, the combat might not be bothersome at all.
In summary, I think if you have a deep love for PST, I'd absolutely give Tides a shot. Don't expect it to be as good as Torment but it's definitely worth it.
I'm curious. Is anyone playing this? I slogged through the beginning, but with PS:T EE I have little incentive to continue. It just doesn't hold a candle to PS:T in terms of characters, atmosphere and dark humor.
I'm about 30 hours in. I really like it. Other than name I see little reason to compare the two products. I like them both, What made Numenera enjoyable to me was the moment I started treating the untangling of the narrative and game world as the rewards instead of the game mechanics. I'm of the opinion that the game would have been better had they stripped the combat system all together, as it seems to imply a whole different style of game.
Haven't bought it yet. To be honest I am afraid it will have tons of text without actual reason.
The same complain I have for Pillars of Eternity. There is too much text for no particular reason. Describing accurately the setting is not an excuse. PST does the same with a plethora of narrative tricks making reading enjoyable and engaging.
I've completed ToN, and I would say that it is very good, despite not gripping like the original did. It's more of a slow burn. It's biggest problem for getting drawn in is the boringness of the starter companions, but there are a couple of better companions later on. I agree with most of the other reviews (such as the one in Wild Surge) so I won't say much in addition. It is a lot of text. But it is good text, worth taking the time to read properly. I found increasing the text size helpful in that respect. But it feels more like a choose your own adventure game-book than an infinity engine game.
One genuine oddness that struck me: the game has really nice swimming animations. But they are used in one tiny section that is skippable, and could have been done without. Is that where the development time and money went?
Comments
The good:
It's very well written for the most part.
The story is pretty intriguing. I definitely am interested to play more to learn about the history and nature of the protagonist.
The maps have been pretty damn great to look at.
I really admire just how much the designers leaned into providing non-combat solutions to just about every situation in the game. The game system itself is free-form enough to really make it all work pretty well.
The bad:
While well written, it's also quite over-written... I think in the attempt to match the quality of PST's script, they may have overdone it with the density of writing. There are almost no breezy or concise conversations in the game and unfortunately a lot of the time I've found myself a bit lost in the text.
I also don't think the setting is nearly as intriguing as Planescape. Numenera is a real kitchen sink place where just about anything that can happen, does happen. In a way this matches nicely with the "belief can change anything" nature of Planescape but so far I've felt like the setting doesn't have a lived in sense or established history. The nature of the setting means that it feels like almost every 10 foot space could have come from a different place or time so it all ends up in a slurry of weird where nothing really stands out which is the opposite of how I feel Planescape is.
The ugly:
Combat is still bad. The Crisis system is more interesting than PST's simple adaptation of AD&D rules but it's also slow moving and feels really restrictive when you treat it at the surface level and want to smash through your problems. I feel like a combat focused playthrough of Tides of Numenera would be excruciating.
That said, I believe every possible combat in the game has a non-combat way to resolve it, be that using an object in the environment or talking with your attackers so if you play the game to its strengths, the combat might not be bothersome at all.
In summary, I think if you have a deep love for PST, I'd absolutely give Tides a shot. Don't expect it to be as good as Torment but it's definitely worth it.
But soon hopefully.
The same complain I have for Pillars of Eternity. There is too much text for no particular reason. Describing accurately the setting is not an excuse. PST does the same with a plethora of narrative tricks making reading enjoyable and engaging.
Maybe I will buy it after I finish Tyranny.
I've completed ToN, and I would say that it is very good, despite not gripping like the original did. It's more of a slow burn. It's biggest problem for getting drawn in is the boringness of the starter companions, but there are a couple of better companions later on. I agree with most of the other reviews (such as the one in Wild Surge) so I won't say much in addition. It is a lot of text. But it is good text, worth taking the time to read properly. I found increasing the text size helpful in that respect. But it feels more like a choose your own adventure game-book than an infinity engine game.
One genuine oddness that struck me: the game has really nice swimming animations. But they are used in one tiny section that is skippable, and could have been done without. Is that where the development time and money went?