I have maintained for years that Planescape: Torment was the best CRPG ever made, but I never successfully played it through again. It was just such a unique experience that replaying it seemed like trying to bottle lightning.
Just fired up Numenera for the first time, and I’m a little disappointed that there is no option to turn on subtitles. I hope they will have most dialogue actually readable.
Is it fully voice-acted as well?
I’d like to get this on PS4, as my PC is utter crap, but I have doubts this plays well with a controller. Does anyone have experience?
Difficult? There’s very little combat if that’s what you are asking about. I haven’t run into any really obscure and hard puzzles yet either but who knows what I’ve missed. It’s mostly just walking around, talking with people and interacting with the environment.
Every single review mentions atrocious performance on the PS4, terrible load times, and other issues on that platform.
How crap is your PC exactly? This is a 2D game with a few 3D elements, so a broad range of machines should run it just fine.
As for gamepad controls, they are ok. I tried using the steam controller and that works well (after going from joystick move on the right pad to mouse-like joystick). I seem to be missing some functionality with it, for example I can’t hover over enemies in combat and examine their active effects, like I can with a mouse and keyboard.
It’s fine for kicking back on my chair and playing on my monitor. I don’t know about doing all that reading sitting 8 feet from a TV though…
The PC is 5+ years old and last used more than a year ago. How is it possible that it runs badly on a PS4 but an old PC would run it OK?
I actually wouldn’t be super surprised if that 5 year old CPU is better than what’s on your PS4 (assuming it started out pretty high end). Your GPU probably isn’t as good as what’s in your PS4, but this game isn’t GPU intensive. It’s using what is likely an old build of the Unity engine, which performs pretty poorly on consoles, due to CPU bottlenecks and garbage collection issues.
So if your PC has a decent CPU + some type of discreet GPU, it’ll probably run it better than your PS4. Of course I can’t help more since you haven’t actually provided your specs.
At the very least, I’d wait for a patch to see if they can improve the situation on the console before jumping in.
Steam also offer refunds, so you can always get the game on Steam and see how well it performs (Steam offers native support for your dual shock 4 gamepad too if you want to use that). If it doesn’t work, or your not satisfied with performance, you can refund, and then you’ll just have to wait for a PS4 patch that hopefully addresses these issues.
Thanks for that Kinthalis. I can’t give out any more specs, because I’m not at home. I think it is a dual core with some AMD graphics card. I’ll try out the Steam option first.
Huh. I’ve just talked to a woman who says my name is Adahn. That was the name of the person it is strongly hinted The Nameless One in Planescape: Torment used to be. I don’t think they mean to suggest that this is an actual sequel to Torment, because the metaphysics behind why The Nameless One was immortal is quite different from the premise of this game. Just an otherwise meaningless Easter egg, I guess.
I had a really bad case of misinterpreting the mechanics and put my first Edge point into Speed even though I’m a Nano. Then afterwards I realized putting it into Intelligence means all my abilities cost 1 Int less. Good thing combat isn’t all that frequent (though I had two bigger fights recently) or I’d be really annoyed.
Stealth is ridiculously powerful by the way, you can just use it in the middle of a battle and if you manage to stealth everybody the enemies will just start picking their noses instead of attacking since they have no targets left. It also consumes movement instead of action so you can attack and then stealth.
Yes, it’s an allusion to the first game, and they made it clear that this game is not a sequel, just a spiritual successor. (For one thing, the Numenera universe takes place on Earth many ages in the future. The timeline is a direct future of ours. Planescape is an alternate universe.)
However, in the first game you are decidedly not Adahn. Adahn doesn’t exist, at least not really. Every time you say you are Adahn, your alignment veers chaotic. (Because you’re lying.) If you say you are Adahn, enough, though, the game will generate Adahn and you get to meet him. But you brought him into being due to your lies.
Install the game on an SSD if you have one. The game suffers from long loading times otherwise.
gog.com’s return policy is a lot more generous than Steams. They have a full 30 days return policy worldwide.
Wow. That’s some return policy, holy shit. But is it for any reason, or only technical ones?
Technical problems only (which is still generous). From their site:
Every time I’ve attempted to replay I run into the same issue that the name Adahn first comes up when I’m given a chance to get something carved into the huge obelisk they’ve got in the middle of town. Was I supposed to have talked to somebody who mentioned the name and that’s why I have it in mind? I’ve never found out why in particular that name would be popping up.
It’s never explained why that name is significant (at least, not that I can recall). However, it is an early opportunity to lie about who you are. After all, you are called “The Nameless One” for a reason and you start out as True Neutral because your alignment is determined by your actions, not the other way around.
You have multiple opportunities to call yourself Adahn. Each time makes you a bit more chaotic.
I have it running, but not great. Loading times are fairly long, and each time I talk to an NPC there is a noticeable pause before the dialogue comes up. The first combat wasn’t very smooth either. But, it’s working, and I’m enjoying it.
One question about the Tides: is there a way to view your standing? I keep getting messages that my blue Tide is shifting slightly, but I can’t find my current ‘alignment’.
Whoa…after all the times I played Torment, I never perceived that situation (turning more chaotic). I never really read analyses or anything, either. I don’t think I chose the “Adahn” more than once or twice–I kind of assumed it was one of his first incarnations or pseudonyms. But to me, it was like saying “John Doe” or “Joe Blow.” So, I’m pretty sure I never met an “Adahn,” but that’s really cool if it happened as you say!
I did notice the “Adahn” encounter in the new game (beta), and just said “oh, nice reference.” 
If you go to the Character screen and hover over the glowing, um, broken mask thing it shows your current dominant tides. I haven’t found where you can get a full report. Right now I’m blue and gold.
I’m seeing reports that making use of Rhin requires special care. But then she becomes extremely useful by tier 3. Hoo boy. Back when I used to play Planescape: Torment, I did nearly all the fights with Nameless and Annah running around corners, hiding, and backstabbing. I made very little use of anybody else’s combat abilities. That will not be an option here. In Baldur’s Gate I depended a lot on my general familiarity with D&D 2nd Edition. Here, I’m actually having to figure out a new intricately balanced system as I go.
I’m glad this game doesn’t have that much combat or can be skipped entirely most of the time. I’ve only had two unavoidable fights so far (in the Anechoic Lazaret and the fight with Malaise), and even those I feel could have been avoided if I had a different build. My computer doesn’t handle the combat smoothly.
I like this game, although compared to Planescape:Torment it doesn’t feel so deep, but maybe that’s because I’m a huge D&D Planescape fan and know a lot about its lore. I also feel like I’m constantly in the same three areas of the game and it feels very claustrophobic. Does anyone know how many areas there are? I feel like I’m already halfway through the game, but I haven’t left the town yet.