In the same vein as its spiritual predecessor Planescape Torment, the highly anticipated Torment: Tides of Numenara aims to give players the tools to solve problems without always resorting to bashing the other guys’ heads in.
So-called Crisis encounters in the game will allow players to enter tun-based combat, but still be able to choose non-violent options on their turn; you may decide to attempt to persuade your enemy to surrender, or make use of the environment to turn the tables.
These options all tie into each other in very interesting ways. In the example shown, the hero and his companions come up against a band of mercenaries. Rather than just passing a skill check and being able to intimidate them all into surrendering, the situation dynamically changes depending on your actions; kill the leader of the group and each member will react in their own way, kill his minions and the leader may try to negotiate. The hand-crafted nature of each Crisis scene makes things feel a lot more like a table-top RPG encounter, where swinging your axe at someone - even someone who’s attacking you - isn’t always your best option.
”As we move forward,” says lead Crisis designer Jeremy Kopman, ”we’ll be making each Crisis a hand-crafted scenario where we can offer high-levels of reactivity, shifting states and human-feeling AI behaviours in every encounter.”
It’s a nice reminder of how promising Torment: Tides of Numenara looks, even in its current early-Alpha stage. You can head over to the game’s Kickstarter page for a more in-depth look at Crisis encounters.
