Game News Torment Kickstarter Update #53: Beta Released

[Tigranes]

BTW, re: the companions being standard humans, perhaps this post has new explanatory power:

I think you raised a great point, but ultimately we have gone conservative on this front and are planning to keep with the basic parameters (e.g., size of character on screen, camera angle) that PE is using. Whenever we more closely keep things as they are in PE, it reduces work/risk as we have confidence Obsidian will solve whatever problems arise. This gives us more oomph to be more experimental/different in the specific areas we choose. Anywhere we deviate, there is the possibility that some aspect of the PE technology doesn't behave as expected, creating new issues to solve.

Kevin Saunders = Josh Sawyer with better PR?

Then maybe they shouldn't have made a Torment game?

Portraits are shit but that doesn't worry me too much, you can still have interesting characters with shit portraits. But meh.

 

[Prime Junta]

One of the main Numenera planks is that humans are back and they're the big majority of sentient beings. So it'd be fairly unusual to encounter a non-human you can actually relate to (a varjellen for example). Most of the nonhuman sentients are just too weird for that. The philethis standing around the circus for example.

 

[Invictus]

The potential for butthurt on this thread is unbeliavable, its like the highest concentrations of midichlorians evah!
7 pages over 3 portraits ffs
I love the Codex

 

[Blackmill]

Any one want to provide a no-spoiler beta impression? I haven't read through this thread since I don't want to accidentally learn anything about the plot or characters.

 

[himmy]

ITT I learned that the only acceptable characters in a work of fiction are straight white males or eldritch abominations from beyond time and space. Anything in between is ”cultural Marxism”.

 

[Zeriel]

One of the main Numenera planks is that humans are back and they're the big majority of sentient beings. So it'd be fairly unusual to encounter a non-human you can actually relate to (a varjellen for example). Most of the nonhuman sentients are just too weird for that. The philethis standing around the circus for example.

I'd find a sentient squid more relatable than the humans they've shown so far from Tides of Numenera.

 

[Prime Junta]

Non-spoiler beta impression?

I didn't care for the start: it's extremely info-dumpy and hand-holdy. It opens up after that though. I haven't played enough to decide if it has or will find its own voice, or remain a Planescape: Torment pastiche/homage. There's at least one questline which I find genuinely intriguing, and some of the locations are pretty cool. A lot of the quests are handed out in a heavy-handed way, and so far there's a lack of feel of a world existing on its own terms rather than having been set up explicitly for your benefit.

I'm not that far into the beta yet though, and after the initial bit which was a real disappointment it does appear to be picking up. I'll be reporting on my progress as I go.

(Technically it's surprisingly OK for a first beta build. There are a few times the UI has painted itself into a corner and I've had to reload, but no crashes or other drastic stuff. That bodes well for the final game at least.)

 

[Darkzone]

One of the main Numenera planks is that humans are back and they're the big majority of sentient beings. So it'd be fairly unusual to encounter a non-human you can actually relate to (a varjellen for example). Most of the nonhuman sentients are just too weird for that. The philethis standing around the circus for example.

I'd find a sentient squid more relatable than the humans they've shown so far from Tides of Numenera.

If you want to play a sentient squid then you should read the Eclipse phase RPG books. Eclipse phase would be a perfect material for McComb, Avellone and Ziets for an cRPG. Avellone can even play with madness there.

 

[Fairfax]

Technically I don't think it's ok. Had multiple crashes (one when the game was idle and I was checking another tab, nothing was happening), stuttering everytime it's another character's turn, random FPS drops, memory leak going up to 8gb, GPU heating up with extremely high usage when locking the framerate at 120, etc.

 

[Athelas]

random FPS drops, memory leak going up to 8gb, GPU heating up with extremely high usage when locking the framerate at 120, etc.

Sounds like your average Unity game.

 

[Zeriel]

Unity is best engine with no fault guys, no bully.

 

[Prime Junta]

Fairfax It wouldn't be OK for a released version. But it's quite OK for a first beta build.

 

[Darkzone]

Technically I don't think it's ok. Had multiple crashes (one when the game was idle and I was checking another tab, nothing was happening), stuttering everytime it's another character's turn, random FPS drops, memory leak going up to 8gb, GPU heating up with extremely high usage when locking the framerate at 120, etc.

Dynamic shadows memory leak?

 

[Howdy]

Ok ok... portrait art isn't amazing, but to anyone who's played the beta is it good? Do the conversations have the convoluted style that uncoils with deeper meaning is you explore the options? Are the items and effects as strangely abstract as say "Fanged Mirror of Yehcir-Eya"? In short, does it vibe Torment?

 

[Fairfax]

Perfomance wise it's better than PoE at least. I had the exact same PC while playing it and I couldn't hit more than 40fps in some parts of Defiance Bay.

Technically I don't think it's ok. Had multiple crashes (one when the game was idle and I was checking another tab, nothing was happening), stuttering everytime it's another character's turn, random FPS drops, memory leak going up to 8gb, GPU heating up with extremely high usage when locking the framerate at 120, etc.

Dynamic shadows memory leak?

Likely.

 

[Kalin]

Here's a serious question about those diverse rainbow kumbaya followers: can you kill the motherfuckers?

 

[Prime Junta]

Ok ok... portrait art isn't amazing, but to anyone who's played the beta is it good? Do the conversations have the convoluted style that uncoils with deeper meaning is you explore the options? Are the items and effects as strangely abstract as say "Fanged Mirror of Yehcir-Eya"? In short, does it vibe Torment?

So far, it's more Torment fanfic/pastiche than the real thing. It's been picking up though so we'll see. The opening is disappointing and nowhere close to the mad genius that is the Mortuary.

 

[Sensuki]

Sounds like your average Unity game.

When performance is not a high concern for the developer anyway.

 

[Irenaeus III]

ITT I learned that the only acceptable characters in a work of fiction are straight white males or eldritch abominations from beyond time and space. Anything in between is ”cultural Marxism”.

You are a terrible learner.

Downloading beta now. I hope I can stop playing before dawn.

Here's a serious question about those diverse rainbow kumbaya followers: can you kill the motherfuckers?

I'm asuming you can, otherwise it's a insta-0/10

 

[Lady_Error]

I didn't like the beginning of PST, the whole mortuary thing created a wrong first impression of the game. It became much more interesting and weird in a good sense once you got out.

Didn't like the beginning of Baldur's Gate 2 either, for similar reasons. That first dungeon you have to wade through to get into the actual world. I guess Fallout 2 has a similar thing where you are confined to one first dungeon.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

THATS IT

Who were the guys who made Zeno Clash?

Hire those guys Inxile.

 

[Irenaeus III]

THATS IT

Who were the guys who made Zeno Clash?

Hire those guys Inxile.

Cleve might know who is behind this.

 

[MrMarbles]

The beginning of the game is lacking the marvelous, colossal WTF of PS:T.

When I first woke up on that slab, I really had no fucking clue what was going on or what that floating skull was blabbing about, and taking apart zombies, disguising myself as one, getting stitched up by a weird yellow-eyed pointy-clawed hag, while listening to Morte's cheerful necrophilia communicated just how out-there the thing is, and introduced the crucial twists and background in an organic, "show, don't tell" way. And I didn't really find out what the hell those shadows that kept dogging me really were until damn near the end of the game.

In T:ToN however, I immediately get an infodump on The Changing God, The Sorrow, Sorrow fragments, the fact that I'm a Castoff, the Tides, attunement to them, The Order of Truth, The Cult of the Changing God, and a whole bunch of other stuff. All this before I even reach Sagus Cliffs.

In other words, the game needs a shitload more mystery.

Just like they've hurt their chances of creating an interesting character, so they've done with the setting. With a name like the 9th World we'd expect to find traces of old tech, sure, but would it have killed them to set the stage a little before stuffing the screen with gizmos and glowy bits?

 

[Excidium II]

Well you can't really compare the settings. Numanara is just a kitchen sink. Doesn't seem to have any defined world logic like the Planescape cosmology.

 

[Morality Games]

But having the spectre lay it all out to you perfectly coherently before you've even come to is just way too pat.

The primary issue is that the amount of narrative that must be devoted to the mystery of the PC's identity detracts from the writer's ability to push the genre across new boundaries. The "Nameless One" and "Bhaalspawn" can't occupy the literary real estate.

That being said, they could have probably done a bit more to patch up the weakness.