Platform Reviewed: PC
Platforms Available: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Developer: Spider
Release Date: October 21, 2016
MSRP: USD 59.99
RPG. Also, known as a role-playing game(as defined by Google)is a game in which players assume the roles of varying characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making or character development.
These games have been around for many, many years and have been entertaining casual and hardcore gamers alike. Taking them to unknown places and giving them a good feel on how it is to be someone else or to take lead in someone else’s story. I for one, am an avid fan of RPG games and all the more if they’re set in an open-world kind of gameplay which allows me to roam around and interact w/ the environment from small rocks to large scale buildings and/or enemies. It gives me that kind of satisfaction and eye-gasm (if there is such a word) that no other gaming style could and ever will.
One such game I happen to come across with is ‘Technomancer’. The 5th RPG installment from Spiders Games, a gaming company who has been making RPG games for eight years to date and is published by Focus Home Interactive.
A branch out from a game they previously developed – Mars: War Logs, Technomancer is set on the Planet Mars, 200 years after it has been colonized and somewhat domesticated specifically during the times of the War of Water. The story revolves around a rooky Technomancer named Zachariah and how you (who controls him) will make life-changing decisions that may lead to a widespread revolution by disclosing the truth about how the earth got destroyed or choose to keep it in the shadows and maintain world peace (or mars peace, you pick).
As you start the game, you get sucked by the intricacy of the world Spiders has created for the player to explore and immerse themselves in. The colors are vibrant, the effects are stunning and everything else were just downright WOW! Compared to its predecessor, the planet Mars in Technomancer is bigger a few times over and not only that, it also promises the player more hours of gameplay which could span up to 50 hours (and up) including the side quest missions! (Reminds me a bit of Witcher3 already).
You get to explore different cities and interact with characters from within them. The story is engaging and leaves the player captivated for hours on end as well. The dynamic dialogue system in the game allows the player to be the author of the game’s ending in itself leading us to five different endings depending on which course we select and navigate on from there on in. Weapon and armor crafting and enhancements encourages you to farm like there’s no tomorrow. From this standpoint, you can almost say this is one helluva game!
Though the above statements may have the game look like it was touched by a Goddess, there are still some areas this game sorely needs to improve on. First, the skill points allocation. Yes, we appreciate webbed skills as well as endless torture of decisions on where to place each stat point on which skill tree, but webbed doesn’t mean a LABYRINTH of skill trees to upgrade. I had a hard time deciding (more than the usual dilemma that is), since you need to really stretch out the possibilities on what you need to do. And that’s not the end of it! Next is the combat style, for me it lacked imagination and the repetitive stances on each subclass (Guardian, Rogue, Warrior or Technomancer) made it painful to watch every single time as the game progresses.
In contrary to how superb the world of Technomancer was made to be engaging, the characters the player interacts with lacks of it. Everytime I talk to an NPC/humanoid, their faces were lifeless or lacked the right emotions thereof and looked like the animator got lazy and decided to just make the mouth move (when talking) while the rest of the NPC’s face remained lifeless. (Zombie alert!).
Navigation within the game was such a chore because there were times that their so-called GPS disappears which would force you to blindly navigate a certain area until you either die of boredom (figuratively speaking) or totally abandon the mission altogether. Hell, even getting the bounty from the quartermaster gets tedious if this happens. And to top it all off, the way the enemy difficulty was set-up is just crazy! No matter how you level up a certain skill/stat, the opposition almost always manages to kill you on sight, (which can be frustrating at times, I tell you). No matter how strong you think your technomancer is, if you’re not careful it could trip itself and die from fighting one of those inverted mosquito-looking insects who travel in packs. (Yes, it’s that scary).
To bag this all up, I’m giving this game a solid 7/10. I’m a visual gamer by nature and I always get excited whenever I play a game that boasts larger-than-life based graphics. Graphics that’re so good you could almost taste it. But then again, this game’s cons tend to drag the game down to a certain level that is hard to be pulled up by just mere visuals. That being said, this game still has a looooong way to go in terms of RPG superbness!
This review is based on a review copy provided by the developers/publisher.