The game brings these elements across well; even
mundane items like healing potions are presented
as esoteric items, and all items have distinctive
flavour text. There’s no vendor trash- items that
have no practical use are given full descriptions that
practically beg you to contemplate what the object
might have been.
The vast majority of your interactions with the
world are carried out through dialogue trees and
menus, whether you’re using an object or talking to
one of Torment’s many and varied characters. Skills
that affect dialogue choices or actions are helpfully
highlighted, as are choices that will require some
kind of attribute test. Clear use of colours and shaded
text help keep the interface clean and the text easy to
follow, though the font size might make reading all
that text a bit tricky on a TV for you console players.
The interface is simple and retro in style, but if it ain’t
broke, why fix it?
Whilst Torment’s story doesn’t quite pack the
emotional punch of Planescape: Torment, it
does bring together a fascinating story full of
unpredictable twists, creative twists and startling
revelations. It’s at its best when delving into
theological and philosophical topics, providing
interesting ideas without ever coming across as
self-indulgent or pretentious. Its cast of characters
is interesting, and your companions -all of whom
are entirely optional, and can be easily missed -
include an amnesiac orphan, a woman surrounded
by ‘echoes’ of herself from alternate realities, and an
albino assassin, to name just a few. Each has their
own backstory that you’ll uncover through progress
and discussions with them, and each will comment
on other events as you encounter them, making
them feel much more involved in the story than
companions in RPGs often do.
encounters, Torment opts for a series of event-based
fights which it calls a ‘Crisis’. These Crises usually have
specific objectives and don’t play out as standard ‘hit
all the enemies until they die’ fare; you’re encouraged
to make use of objects and features in the landscapes
to make each fight a little easier. All of this works, but
it does butt its head against Torment’s rather long-
winded combat interface, which sticks to a classic
turn-based format where each character gets a move
and an action. This works fine, but the large numbers
of enemies and long animations often mean you’re
often waiting several minutes between turns. To make
matters worse, the large character models and special
effects often obscure some details, which coupled
with the fixed camera and lack of confirmation for
actions can result in easy mis-clicks and unintended
movements or actions. Fortunately, most Crises can
be avoided, either through stealth or persuasion, and
the difficulty isn’t so punishing that you’ll ever feel
too hard done by, but it can be frustrating.
So what will Torment: Tides of Numenera’s legacy be?
Whilst its hard to imagine that it will have the lasting
impact of its predecessor, it definitely deserves a place
alongside it. It might not have bettered the original,
but then, how could any game compare against 20
years of expectation? That it comes anywhere close
is an achievement in itself, and judged on its own
merits, Torment is a powerful, imaginative RPG
with a fantastic premise, a wonderful setting, and a
riveting story to tell. 9/10
The Torment Legacy
Released back in 1999, Planescape: Torment
made waves with its powerful storyline and for
challenging typical RPG conventions - there
are no goblins, elves and orcs to be found, and
your character is an immortal. It wasn’t a huge
commercial success, but the plot, characters,
and concepts at the heart of the game won it a
passionate, if small, audience. At its core the game
challenged the player to answer one question:
What can change the nature of a man?
Less satisfying is the combat, which is thankfully
quite rare. Rather than a constant stream of random
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