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Once upon a time, there was a RPG built on a third party engine using AD&D ruleset and the obscure Planescape setting. It was weird, sometimes hard, and inaccessible, and sold far less than contemporary games like Diablo and Baldur's Gate. But over time it developed a bit of a cult status as gamers realised that following genre norms was actually quite boring, and the quirkiness of the game began to capture people's enthusiasm. And it kept selling, slowly, but continuously over time.
And people started to ask: what about a sequel. Or remake. Or something. Anything, like Planscape: Torment.
And savy kickstarter beneficiaries InXile noticed.
There was no way the setting could be used again - license issues. There was no way the old engine could be used again. There was no way even the ruleset could be used again.
All these problems could be fixed.
A previous kickstarter project had funded the creation of a new pen and paper RPG game/setting: Numenera. A world where forgotten technologies and 'magic' combined. Another previous kickstarter had funded Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity, a more traditional old school fantasy RPG in the vein of Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale. Obsidian's development class showed and they created a magnificent game engine to go with their game.
So InXile took all these elements, and combined them with writing - lots of writing - to produce a game in the vein of PS:T once more.
How is it so far?
Good. Evocative. Flawed. Much like PS:T itself.
The setting and environments are stars of the show. Much like PS:T, the scope for fantasy that 2d-prerendered backdrops and text descriptions give is used to very good effect, if you don't mind the old style of reading a lot. The characters are interesting, though not up to PS:T standards, rather more like other 'good' RPGs like Pillars or Divinity: Original Sin, despite the credentials and expense that went into creating them. And the storyline of the game is similarly good, but more Baldur's Gate 2 quality than PS:T. Music and sound are excellent.
There are several niggles. While the ruleset is more internally logical than the AD&D behind PS:T, the 'gameification' is quite in your face. This is a good thing if you are producing a game to recreate the experience of a pen and paper session, but Numenera is too new a setting for many to be looking for that. This extends to the combat, which puts the game into a turn-based mode, allowing the ruleset to shine through, but distracting from the fluidity of the experience that Pillars managed. To its credit, much combat can be bypassed, and nearly all combat scenarios have alternative means of resolution - perhaps instead of defeating all your foes, you can simply activate 3 generators in the area to bind them. The problem is these have so far failed to really bring all that much extra to the game play - where Divinity: Original Sin allows you to creatively use the environment and abilities to your benefit, it gives you the freedom to do as you choose and doesn't flag possibilities, Tides unfortunately restricts combat alternatives to one or two defined options, and then lists them as objectives on the side of the screen. As a result, it can feel like you're just following a recipe, rather than gaining satisfaction in figuring out a way to win the situation through your own ingenuity, which both Pillars and Original Sin manage to do a better job at.
But.. it's still worth playing. Where Pillars of Eternity and Divinity: Original Sin built on and extended the games that inspired them (and both deservedly have sequels in the works), Torment: Tide of Numenera doesn't quite reach the same heights as PS:T, let alone extend it. However, it is a more accessible game, and it captures the flavour of PS:T better than anything else out there.
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