It's been almost four years since the spiritual successor to one of the greatest role-playing video games of all time - 1999's Planescape: Torment - was announced. But on February 28, after being in early access for over twelve months, we'll finally be able to play the finished version of Torment: Tides of Numenera. To get people excited about the title, inXile Entertainment and Techland Publishing have just released the latest trailer for the game, and it looks epic.
The cinematic story trailer explains what happened in the time before the player starts their journey as the Last Castoff, a vessel once used by a corrupted being known as the Changing God, who can transfer his consciousness into bodies of his own design. The undying deity's actions have awoken an ancient creature called The Sorrow, which wants to destroy the Changing God and his castoffs.
Early previews of the game have been mostly positive, though it gained some controversy recently when certain Kickstarter stretch goal features were dropped. But inXile's Eric Schwarz said all Kickstarter backers would receive forthcoming DLC and expansions for free, so some of the missing elements could still make an appearance.
Like Planescape, Tides of Numenera is primarily story driven, with combat taking a backseat role to its complex characters, dialogue options, and text-heavy gameplay. It was the sheer quality of the first game's writing that made it such a classic. Hopefully, its "thematic successor" will be just as enjoyable.
While these kind of CRPGs have long been associated with the PC, Numenera is following in the footsteps of Divinity: Original Sin and Wasteland 2 by making its way onto the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. We'll find out if it lives up to the hype in a few weeks time.