Torment: Tides of Numenera is a game of choices. This text-based RPG developed by inXile Entertainment is a throwback for anyone who dabbled in 90s fantasy. It looks like it was ripped straight from the unfinished pages of your best friend’s sci-fi-themed D&D campaign. You will think. You will read. You’ll choose your own path and sculpt your own story from a handful of selected scenario options.

Torment: Tides of Numenera isn’t for everyone and doesn’t have a modern sensibility. Its appeal is its ability to put together something original from the scattered pieces of dice-spinning tabletop RPG concepts dating back to the mid-1970s.

Game

You awaken to the howling winds around as you begin your journey by putting your reality together with the help of your narrator. You will be asked a series of questions (which I am sure are about creating your character and building your stats). Right after that, you’ll choose your character type and finally see your little rendered character model ready to move in an inelegant way in a top-down puzzle room. Once you are in control of your character, you will be able to interact with the world around you.

The game cycle is as follows: find what you can interact with in the room, interact with it, and move on. There are a few more “mechanics” to this (including battle), but that’s basically what you’ll be doing for the 20-40+ hours of gameplay.

How does your character behave, you ask? Bad! I played it on a PS4 and just moving around these environments from top to bottom was laborious. Torment could handle better with a mouse option on a PC, but it reminds me of Blizzard’s port of Diablo III to PS4, which works flawlessly. In other words, it can be done. Then again, this isn’t a movement game. Torment wants you to find more text and keep snorting that train of reading.

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Philip Owell

Professional blogger, here to bring you new and interesting content every time you visit our blog.