#Torment tides of numenera beta update#
#Torment tides of numenera beta full#

Sometimes, it delves into the more conventional aspects of RPGs though – and right now it’s worse off for it. In videogame terms, it’s more like an adventure game than a traditional RPG, with its long, meandering – but intriguing – conversations and esoteric puzzles. That’s not surprising, since Numenera is actually the setting of a tabletop RPG, created by D&D game designer Monte Cook, which “focuses on story and ideas over mechanics.” The sometimes obtuse rules of D&D have been replaced with philosophical concepts and surrealism, making it a less fussy, though undeniably stranger, system. 'Playing Tides of Numenera feels like playing a great tabletop RPG, where the Game Master favours narrative over action-packed lootfests and dragon-slaying. 'The more time I spent wandering the streets of Sagus Cliffs, the more baffled I became. 'There are bugs and missing features and an ugly UI to contend with, but restarting didn’t faze me in fact, I probably needed that second run-through of the introduction so I could soak it all in. These are personality quirks, opinions and events that have already taken place rather than simple numbers on a sheet.'

'Some of your decisions will impact your ability pool, broken up into might, speed and intellect, but it feels more like you are rapidly constructing a person rather than a traditional RPG avatar. 'As introductions go, Tides of Numenera’s is dense. Again, the article is spoiler heavy.Īnd again, I will copy parts that are NOT spoilers:

Pcgamesn has given an Early Access review. That’s what I wanted to see from the beta, and as long as inXile is serious about taking feedback on board for its bugs and distinctly wobblier bits, I’m pretty confident the final product won’t disappoint.'

#Torment tides of numenera beta full#

'Time alone will tell whether or not it boasts the philosophical edge or deep characterisation that helped Planescape cut deep and sink in its talons, but this opening section at least promises an adventure full of personality and fun ideas. Instead of just rolling on a stat, as in the D&D model, you spend points from these pools to make challenges easier – to intimidate, to repair an item, to recall someone or something from the past, or whatever else awaits.' The twist is that each character has three skill pools, Might, Speed and Intellect. There’s no character customisation beyond gender, combat seems pretty rare so far (focusing on the heavily scripted Crisis system rather than random skirmishes), and most encounters are handled through dialogue and skill-checks. Like Torment, Numenera leans further towards adventure than RPG in many ways. 'The mechanics it sets up are at least interesting. 'Easily my favourite thing about Numenera is its sense of personality – something I personally found very lacking in its closest Kickstarter competitor, Pillars of Eternity.' 'It is possible to entirely skip the hugely scripted, complex encounter just by bluffing your way past.' This slice of the game is buggy as heck, suffering from dialogue tree glitches where you know of characters before meeting them and similar scripting errors, and with its first real combat sequence – using the Crisis system – so broken that I’ve still not managed to play it properly.' 'When inXile calls this a beta, they definitely mean beta. 'This is the perfect setting for a Planescape style game.' This is probably a little disappointing for fans, since inXile had previously hinted at a 2016 release, but it's probably what's best for the game.Rock, Paper, Shotgun has taken a look at the beta. Check out some of the game's newest images in the gallery below.įor more on Torment: Tides of Numenera, check out one of the game's more recent trailers. If you contributed to the Kickstarter, you can play though the game's first act by loging onto the Torment website with your backer account and visiting the reward's page. (E3?) This also means that Torment won't release this year, so the team expects to ship the product in early 2017.įortunately for backers, the game's beta is now opening up to everyone who contributed to the project and not just those from the higher tiers. Expect to learn more about the publisher soon. Unfortunately, this also means that the game's localization process could take at least six months, so the studio has teamed up with another publisher to help with the financial burden.

#Torment tides of numenera beta update#

In a recent Kickstarter update from inXile founder Brian Fargo, we learned that Torment's script has over 1 million words, which means it's a beast. The Kickstarted-funded RPG Torment: Tides of Numenera is now content complete, but inXile still has a bit of work to do on the project before it ships.