Technomancer - action-RPG by Spiders (Mars War Logs, Bound by Flame)

[Bubbles]

Looks like I'm apt to get this on a steam sale.

Anyway, Bubbles old boy, what're the combat options we got and how good/bad're they?

Posted this in the private forum:

Spoiler

There are three base stances/trees/equipment combos, between which you're supposed to switch freely during combat:

Warrior uses a two handed staff, with a primary single target attack that has the greatest range of all melee weapons (can do slight AoE damage as well if you take the corresponding talent), a slow AoE attack on Ctrl, a fast disruption attack bound to spacebar, and a silly side aerial as the dodge on rightclick.

Rogue uses a knife and a gun, with a primary single target attack that hits extremely quickly but has minimal range (does more damage from behind with talents), a ranged gun attack on Ctrl (prone to overheating, again regulated by talents), a poisonous stab with extra range on spacebar, and an old-fashioned roll (with less range than in the Witcher games) on rightclick.

Guardian uses blunt weapon and shield, with a primary single target attack that hits extremely slowly, a raised shield on Ctrl , a shield bash on spacebar, and a short sidestep on rightclick.

The stances are complemented by the Technomancer tree, which has "mana"-consuming spells that scale off the quality of your gloves and can be customized a bit; a lightning attack that can be single or multi-target, a shield that reduces damage taken by a percentage, but reserves some of your mana pool, the backstab maneuver you use from stealth (yeah, you can only backstab with lightning) and a totally OP "force lightning" type of attack that damages and stuns everything in a cone.

Companions and enemies can also have unique weapons, like automatic rifles, that can be extremely annoying; I fought a guy whose gun could act as both shotgun and machine gun, and it was nearly an instakill if he ever pulled the tigger while I was in front of him. All guns eventually overheat however, so you have a spend at least a part of combat defensively (which can either mean dodging around with Warrior/Rogue and trying to get a few attacks in, or just raising your shield with Guardian).

Another interesting enemy type are bugs that create lightning chains between them, throw lightning projectiles on erratic paths at range, and slam their backsides on the ground for an AoE attack if you get close.

I do however feel like ranged attacks (i.e. Rogue stance and Technomancer magic) have been a little too strong in the early game based on the enemy types I've been facing; I would expect a launch day balance patch to tone down the ranged options a bit.

 

[Siel]

From french niche website :

+ Rich and detailled background
+ Story and characters well-written
+ Unique atmosphere for each location
+ Good game length and content
+ Efficient and varied combat system
+ Okay replay value
+ Choices
+ Nice panoramas
+ Noctis, Mutant valley and the finale zone
+ Oldschool end boss
+ Good OST


- Technically dated
- Cheap presentation
- Too much backtracking, not enough Fast Travel
- Lack real bosses
- The main vilain
- Too dark
- Camera issues during combat

 

[Bubbles]

I wonder if "oldschool end boss" means "can be beaten with a speech check." The game at least offers these kinds of solutions in the early side and main quests.

And "lack real bosses" must mean that bosses are scarce, because there are definitely proper boss battles in the game (as well as minbosses that are designed to be fought with one specific strategy, even on Normal difficulty).

Btw, the game's soundtrack is indeed quite catchy, and gave me a few Deus Ex vibes. I wouldn't consider it a selling point though.

 

[V_K]

So all the alternative quest solutions are dialog checks? There's no way to avoid combat through actual gameplay?

 

[Lhynn]

They do biowares shtick better than bioware on 1/10th the budget. Give them a fucking break.

 

[Bubbles]

The game is fairly limited in the amount of approaches you can use apart from combat and dialogue. Do not expect a new Deus Ex. It has sneaking and alternate entrances to bypass some enemies, but so far the "fight boss/don't fight at all" decision always seems to happen in dialogue. Sometimes that means passing skill checks, sometimes it means bribing people, sometimes it means accepting a bribe and letting something awful happen, sometimes it means remembering a password that the game doesn't write down (it's consistently old school in that regard - there's no written quest log apart from a list of objectives that can be disabled), and sometimes it means endangering countless people without a fight instead of killing one with a fight.

The game has a Gothic-style "enemies fall unconscious by default and must be killed by deathblows" system, which gives the setting a nice bit of shading; the devs want you to feel like murdering a sentient being is a major step in this system, and while the long-term repercussions of killing seem minimal so far, I still felt some hesitation in using the "kill" action on people. It just doesn't feel as casual as in, say, Mass Effect.

 

[Doktor Best]

Bubbles

As "it has backtracking" has become a quite usual complaint morons use as soon as a gamemap doesnt consist of a tube, which implies that you have to run through certain parts of the maps more often than once, can you tell me if its actually a valid complaint? Does the quest design send you around unnecessarily?

 

[V_K]

No puzzles, I guess?

 

[Bubbles]

Bubbles

As "it has backtracking" has become a quite usual complaint morons use as soon as a gamemap doesnt consist of a tube, which implies that you have to run through certain parts of the maps more often than once, can you tell me if its actually a valid complaint? Does the quest design send you around unnecessarily?

So far, the game doesn't send you around unnessessarily; it simply doesn't have fast travel points, with all that implies. If you're sent to meet a contact in the slums, then you actually have to walk there, and then walk back when your business is done - that can easily mean a minute of walking for one quest. It's not as annoying as it was in Anachronox. However, there's an argument that this is a bit too old-school, and that you might just as well do it like AoD and instantly travel to every location.

The game is also a bit devious in the way it paces out side quests; whenever you hit a certain point in your main quest progression, your old contacts have new developments and new quests to share with you. That means that you will have to revisit your contacts every few hours. Or more simply: where other games might have linear "quest grazing" progress, The Technomancer starts in a three-area hub that gets updated rather than expanded. I could see that being tiresome for some players.

I think backtracking might become a bigger problem once the game forces me through combat zones: the respawning could make that very annoying very quickly. But I'm not at that point yet.

 

[Bubbles]

No puzzles, I guess?

I doubt it. The game isn't terribly challenging in general, especially since many skill checks are percentage-based, so you can often just reload and retry. Some skill checks are unlocked by skill levels though, and lockpicking is also strictly determined by skill level. That's about as "hardcore" as the game gets; the interesting stuff is weighing off quest decisions and seeing how much you can improve/ruin somebody's life.

 

[Bubbles]

Just got a 300 MB launch day patch; game should unlock on Steam shortly.

 

[Paul_cz]

Thanks bubbles for the impressions. I abandoned mars war logs because it started to bore me, this seems a bit more interesting.

 

[Bubbles]

Yeah, the game is rough and clearly on a tight budget, but it's not boring or monotonous.

The patch doesn't seem to have changed much - the sneak ability is now bound to a new default button, and at least one "I've changed my mind!" quest option has been removed from the game, even though it was already fully voiced. I wonder if they removed it because changing your mind was nonsensical, but actually more profitable than just going with that option from the beginning (good sign), or simply because it was buggy somehow and couldn't be fixed (bad sign).

 

[Bubbles]

First Steam review:

I wish there was a conflicted mode for games like this.

Is it bad? Not at all!
Is it good? eh, debatable.

It's a RPG on mars that has one hell of a world and story, and brings it together in the style of mass effect or dragon age, though with a smaller scope and budget.

The game does an amazing job in three aspects: The world and story are phenomenal. It feels like a real word, where you are experiencing a tiny story in a grand whole. With creatures that have evolved from who knows that have come from an earth that you’ve not had contact with for quite a few centuries. With the hard environment of mars taking center stage of the story. This is greatly helped by some amazing world and level building.

While the voice acting leave something to be desires in some situations, it does a good job overall, and the varied characters in the world feel like they belong. From scavengers and mutants to the giant grasshoppers on steroids.

Further, the combat mechanics are phenomenal. The light switching between stances, clean actions with technomancy abilities and combat moves with matrix style slowdowns when something cool happens. I love it a lot. Especially the lack/rarity of guns in a sci-fi game brings a lot to the table I didn’t expect. Character customization is also pretty good and flexible, though not very unique.

Where the game fails is the movement through the world and graphical fidelity of the title. Taking away control for canned open/close door animations, or jumping up and down ledges is bloody annoying and takes away momentum from the user. The interactivity with the world and NPC animations also often leave something to be desired.

The crafting and gear also leave a bit to the imagination and can only be described as “barebones and “functional”.

Also the game performance for its graphics is a bit subpar, not bad, but it’s a bit heavy handed indicating less than stellar optimization. There are also a bunch of bugs, which the developers have said they are working on, but we’ll see what time brings.

Overall a very enjoyable RPG experience if you can live with some of the drawbacks the game has.

That probably makes the game sound better than it is for the Codex audience; I'd say the game's biggest problems so far are a lack of complexity in the non-combat stats and some consequences that aren't properly reflected in dialogue (i.e. pissing somebody off enough to turn all his followers hostile, but still being able to speak to him and get the default dialogue options).

 

[Excidium II]

Does it show nipples?

 

[abnaxus]

Is combat copy pasted from Bound by Flame?

 

[Bubbles]

Does it show nipples?

Just some silly looking prostitutes and occasional swearing so far:

Is combat copy pasted from Bound by Flame?

http://i.imgur.com/AxJDUO1.jpg

Posted this in the private forum:

Spoiler

There are three base stances/trees/equipment combos, between which you're supposed to switch freely during combat:

Warrior uses a two handed staff, with a primary single target attack that has the greatest range of all melee weapons (can do slight AoE damage as well if you take the corresponding talent), a slow AoE attack on Ctrl, a fast disruption attack bound to spacebar, and a silly side aerial as the dodge on rightclick.

Rogue uses a knife and a gun, with a primary single target attack that hits extremely quickly but has minimal range (does more damage from behind with talents), a ranged gun attack on Ctrl (prone to overheating, again regulated by talents), a poisonous stab with extra range on spacebar, and an old-fashioned roll (with less range than in the Witcher games) on rightclick.

Guardian uses blunt weapon and shield, with a primary single target attack that hits extremely slowly, a raised shield on Ctrl , a shield bash on spacebar, and a short sidestep on rightclick.

The stances are complemented by the Technomancer tree, which has "mana"-consuming spells that scale off the quality of your gloves and can be customized a bit; a lightning attack that can be single or multi-target, a shield that reduces damage taken by a percentage, but reserves some of your mana pool, the backstab maneuver you use from stealth (yeah, you can only backstab with lightning) and a totally OP "force lightning" type of attack that damages and stuns everything in a cone.

Companions and enemies can also have unique weapons, like automatic rifles, that can be extremely annoying; I fought a guy whose gun could act as both shotgun and machine gun, and it was nearly an instakill if he ever pulled the tigger while I was in front of him. All guns eventually overheat however, so you have a spend at least a part of combat defensively (which can either mean dodging around with Warrior/Rogue and trying to get a few attacks in, or just raising your shield with Guardian).

Another interesting enemy type are bugs that create lightning chains between them, throw lightning projectiles on erratic paths at range, and slam their backsides on the ground for an AoE attack if you get close.

I do however feel like ranged attacks (i.e. Rogue stance and Technomancer magic) have been a little too strong in the early game based on the enemy types I've been facing; I would expect a launch day balance patch to tone down the ranged options a bit.

 

[Bubbles]

First negative Steam review:

I couldn't get past the movement and combat controls. The world feels dull and not very compelling. Fans of Mars War Logs will likely love this game and find it fun but after all the RPGs we've gotten lately, it feels like this game belongs in 2014.

Oof, knives out!

 

[abnaxus]

Did Cyanide work on this game too? Those different stances are kinda similar to how Game of thrones RPG classes worked.

 

[Bubbles]

Did Cyanide work on this game too? Those different stances are kinda similar to how Game of thrones RPG classes worked.

Not officially, but the game "borrows" quite a few "inspirations" from other titles - not to bad effect, mind you.

 

[Xeon]

Wonder if one day they'll make a spy game with spider's working on the RPG elements and Cyanide working on the stealth.

 

[Excidium II]

Best action RPG since Risen 3?

 

[V_K]

Not officially, but the game "borrows" quite a few "inspirations" from other titles

Are those "inspirations" ME, DS and Skyrim or is there something I missed?

 

[Bubbles]

So far, I've noticed Deus Ex-ish music combined with a "secret police out to get you!" plot, Witcher 2-style talent trees, a KotOR-style "morality meter", a DA:O-ish initiation scene complete with the revelation of a horrible secret, and a version of the knock out/kill system from the Gothic games. Where do you see the Skyrim influence?

The dialogue system also reminds me of the old list-based systems with over a dozen options at a time; it's a list based system with nested options, so you select "factions", then the factions pop up, and you can select which faction to ask about. It's purely an optional lore delivery mechanism, though; crucial dialogue options are aways at the top of the first list.

 

[V_K]

Well, they did promise an open world, which in contemporary gaming landscape defaults to Skyrim.
I haven't played it, obviously, it was just a feeling I had from the screenies/trailers.