Title: Video Game Review: Technomancer – A Tale Of Space Lightning Wizards
Author: Zakeroph
Recovered Author: Zakeroph
Published Date: 2016-07-04
Original URL: https://geeknode.co.za/2016/07/video-game-review-technomancer-a-tale-of-space-lightning-wizards
Wayback URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20170917161754id_/http://www.geeknode.co.za/2016/07/video-game-review-technomancer-a-tale-of-space-lightning-wizards/
Recovery Confidence: high

- Developer Spiders
- Publisher Focus Home Interactive
- Genre RPG
- Game modes Single Player
- Reviewed on Xbox One

- Available on PC, Playstation 4

- Zakeroph

- 1 year ago

- 0 0

I enjoy virtually all types of games but 2 of my favorite are Point n Click games and RPG games, so as you can expect story is a vital part to my gaming enjoyment. When I saw Technomancer I was expecting nothing less than a good Role Playing game heavily story driven and enthralling. I was not disappointed in this regard.

Storyline

[redacted] [redacted] then [redacted] [redacted] .

But on a serious note, the story so far (yes I haven’t finished it) is filled with intrigue, treachery and most of all lightning space wizards! You follow a standard RPG style quest system with a ton of side quests to keep you satisfied for quite a while. In fact, I clocked over 5 hours on this game before getting to the second city. Based off decisions you make, who you lie to and who you deliver your quests to changes rewards and future quests bringing in the whole “your choices matter” idea that so many games are introducing. I love that about games because it teaches consequence and helps develop long-term thinking in people.

Relationships develop between you and your companions from the get go and just because a character leaves the story, doesn’t mean they stay gone unless you choose the “shoot them in the face” option… haven’t really seen anyone recover from that one yet. Once a relationship has developed to the status of friendly they begin giving you bonuses to stats while they are in your party, I did maintain a good relationship with a thief purely for the advantage of using her lock picking skills.

You don’t only have to manage your relationships with companions but with factions as well as individuals within factions. At one point a major faction of the game had turned hostile on me completely but due to earlier actions I had managed to keep one of the officials on my side. They continued to feed me information and helped me destroy their own city from within!

The karma system also tends to drive my actions although I am not sure why as of yet, I have not seen any change in people reacting to me playing as a paragon but time will tell.

Overall story wise there are great twists and turns and surprises along the way that I am sure any RPG player would enjoy. If you are really experienced in story tropes there are a few things that you might have seen before but that isn’t necessarily to its determent. Technomancer strives to bring those stories to you in its own way and it is enjoyable and enveloping.

Mechanics and game system

Unfortunately, this is where the game falls over slightly, the movement system is sluggish and sometimes unresponsive, there were often times when I would be in the middle of a combo, see an incoming hit, attempt to dodge and the protagonist would continue doing his thing. Immediately proceeded by getting maced in the face and a nice loading screen. Other time the dodge would go off without a hitch, I would feel bad ass and slice and dice my enemies. I am not sure what would cause this but it is slightly frustrating at times.

Simply moving around and interacting outside of combat has its fair share of troubles too, moving a single step is difficult for the protagonist, every time you touch the left stick it seems Zach (WE SHARE A NAME!) wants to jump into a run to his next destination, which is literally 2 steps away!

Now that we have the shit parts out the way let’s look at the neato burrito stuff. As I said earlier there are a ton of different functions that each button fulfills and to be honest the way the game interprets your inputs contextually is done well.

Mechanically the game caters for different play styles without using a classic class system. Your skill tree has 4 directions and you can generalize in all 4 or specialize in 1 at first. Your technomancer abilities are your most powerful but require fluid to use, staff abilities have the best disruption (interrupt) capabilities in my opinion which is great for dealing with annoying targets. The rogue tree equips your character with a small weapon (daggers, cleavers and the like) and a gun, this spec can rip an enemy apart faster than they can often react. The guardian spec is a great spec for a tanky player who uses a shield and unleashes devastating counters. All four tracks can be used at any time, you purely choose how powerful they can be based on your play style. (Personally, I delved mostly into the staff and rogue specs depending on the scenarios)

Boss fight mechanics are really fun, there are 2 types of boss fights, big badies or swarms. Generally, the big badies come with a few adds as well and especially with the very first boss of the game, those adds are normally more dangerous than the boss itself. Mechanically speaking any person that is used to something like dark souls will have a fun time with the boss fights although, with the slightly unresponsive controls, dodging can be a more than a little frustrating.

Graphics

First off I will start off to say that I liked the look of the game, it isn’t Uncharted 4, it doesn’t bring all the boys to the yard. It still looked good. Speaking of the overall look of the game, it looks last gen. I don’t care, though, I don’t only play games that imitate real life, and sometimes I don’t mind my video games looking like video games.

The stuff that did actually bother me was at times the game is way too dark, to the point that your TV/monitor may as well be off. There is a flashlight built into the game but mechanically speaking, it sucks. The speaking animations are off-putting and unrealistic to the point that makes you wonder why people are carrying golf balls around in their mouth.

The animal design and the universe design in general is interesting and I find them very unique and creepy (in the best way).

Sound and music

Let’s not beat around the bush, the voice acting in this game is pretty bad, some characters worse than other and due to the way character relationships work based off charm checks and the like you may have one line from a superior shitting on you for one thing and immediately after that they are consoling you cause your dog died (there is no dog, this is just to illustrate the point). Now I understand they built the conversation very modular to accommodate all the different options and routes people may take so I can forgive that. On that note, Anton Rogue is my very favorite voice actor in this game and his snide approach to the protagonist gets me giddy.

The background music is decent and adds to the atmosphere of the game, contextually changing to battle music and back to normal run around music as a modern game should. The change in depth and tone of the sound during slow-mo critical attacks is a feature that I can’t say got old. In fact, multiple critical attacks in a row just felt so epic and that change in sound made it all the more enjoyable.

I enjoy virtually all types of games but 2 of my favorite are Point n Click games and RPG games, so as you can expect story is a vital part to my gaming enjoyment. When I saw Technomancer I was expecting nothing less than a good Role Playing game heavily story driven and enthralling. I was not disappointed in this regard. Storyline [redacted] [redacted] then [redacted] [redacted]. But on a serious note, the story so far (yes I haven’t finished it) is filled with intrigue, treachery and most of all lightning space wizards! You follow a standard RPG style quest system with a ton of side quests to keep you satisfied for quite a while. In fact, I clocked over 5 hours on this game before getting to the second city. Based off decisions you make, who you lie to and who you deliver your quests to changes rewards and future quests bringing in the whole “your choices matter” idea that so many games are introducing. I love that about games because it teaches consequence and helps develop long-term thinking in people. Relationships develop between you and your companions from the get go and just because a character leaves the story, doesn’t mean they stay gone unless you choose the “shoot them in the face” option… haven’t really seen anyone recover from that one yet. Once a relationship has developed to the status of friendly they begin giving you bonuses to stats while they are in your party, I did maintain a good relationship with a thief purely for the advantage of using her lock picking skills. You don’t only have to manage your relationships with companions but with factions as well as individuals within factions. At one point a major faction of the game had turned hostile on me completely but due to earlier actions I had managed to keep one of the officials on my side. They continued to feed me information and helped me destroy their own city from within! The karma system also tends to drive my actions although I am not sure why as of yet, I have not seen any change in people reacting to me playing as a paragon but time will tell. Overall story wise there are great twists and turns and surprises along the way that I am sure any RPG player would enjoy. If you are really experienced in story tropes there are a few things that you might have seen before but that isn’t necessarily to its determent. Technomancer strives to bring those stories to you in its own way and it is enjoyable and enveloping. Mechanics and game system Unfortunately, this is where the game falls over slightly, the movement system is sluggish and sometimes unresponsive, there were often times when I would be in the middle of a combo, see an incoming hit, attempt to dodge and the protagonist would continue doing his thing. Immediately proceeded by getting maced in the face and a nice loading screen. Other…

Video Game Review: Technomancer – A Tale Of Space Lightning Wizards

Video Game Review: Technomancer – A Tale Of Space Lightning Wizards

2016-07-04

Zakeroph

Total - 7.5

75
7.5

If you enjoy RPG games but wished you were a space lightning wizard then this is the game for you!

User Rating: Be the first one !

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Article Tags:
action · adventure · Roleplaying Games · Story Driven · Xbox One

Article Categories:
Games · Video Game Review
