Technomancer

Started playing this today and it reminds me of Mars War Logs (and Bound by Flame) only it looks really good which is amazing considering the game only takes one dvd. Combat looks pretty cool as well and the gameplay is really fun and intuitive.

There are no playable female characters this time around though but the main character can be modified to look a bit different and that's the sort of nice little things that make the game more enjoyable.

I'm not too far into the game to say anything else but my first impression is definitely positive. The introduction video is one of the best I've seen in a while and I love how it showed the different levels in Martian society.

Last but not least crafting seems as involved as it was in their other games which is another good thing.

Can't wait to play more.

It's on my wishlist.

Can't wait for my birthday.

DSOG have uploaded a custom sweet fx setting that looks a bit more vibrant and less washed out. It's definitely a matter of taste but a little more colour makes the game look a lot more like Mars War Logs IMO. Here is the link.

After Mars War Logs being one of my all time fave games and preordering the Technomancer, i didnt expect i would ask for a refund, but thats what i did.
I shall probably get it on a discount, but this kind of mainstream arse-kissing and bending over, is not worthy of my support.
Bad voice acting, you know, the kind the americans like because its not straying too far from their pathetic new movie stereotypes. Neutral voices are a must for them.
Miserable interface that tries so hard to copy all the shittiness of newish mainstream games *spit.
Clunky movement and a combat that has almost nothing to do with MWL or BbF, its a combat for the masses.
Bad bad graphics, yeah clean textures while everything else is junk, they learned their lessons from the successful games, thats what works today so i cant blame them.
Spiders betrayed their own concepts in favor of making money.
Guess it worked judging by the player reviews, good for them.

Wow, didn't expect you'd feel like that about the game. I can't say I see things the way you do as I'm enjoying the game. I'm playing with a controller so maybe it helps I don't know. The voice acting doesn't strike me as being terrible. If I had to point out one thing I'm not convinced about it would have to be the music as I feel it doesn't live up to the greatness of Bound by Flame.

Eh, i lost it, i have to admit.
The reason is i liked Mars War Logs so much, and while i did not expect The technomancer to be of same quality, i did not expect it to fall so low either.
The voice acting is not terrible, its not even bad, but i liked the voice acting in MWL better, it irritates me how people always complain about voice acting, except when its really neutral, i assume Spiders finally figured that one out....sadly.

I played a whopping 24 minutes before getting my knickers in a twist and refunding.
In these 24 minutes, i created a character that looked very similar to the default Shepard with scars, dressed similar to Shepard.
Started the story to find myself in the typical jrpg cliche....graduating cadet...sigh.

Noticed the clean textures and the complete absence of any details or clutter that would make the scenery look realistic.

What i respected a lot about MWL was how it presented two factions that were strongly resembling the political left and right, and yet they did not take sides, both were shown in all their ugliness.
In Technomancer the right wing propaganda is obvious from the start: on the background of a typical russian communist art painting, you see people in uniform beating someone to death.

Then met Sean...oh boy what did they do to his face? and to his voice?
Sean was an impressive character in MWL with a strong visual impact....completely neutered in Technomancer.

Then i go through an area where i see some horribly made shadows...seriously MWL had muddy textures, but the light effects and the shadow play was awesome, what happened here?

Then combat...i just click one mouse button and win, next combat i just click the mouse button and win...its a test i always do in games...and this one failed. I assume they got tired of people complaining how MWL and BbF had "clunky" and "bad" combat, so they made the combat doable when completely drunk or stoned, guess thats what people like nowadays...dunno.

At this point my blood pressure reached unhealthy levels, so i quit and refunded.
Its not because the game was so bad...it wasnt, but...it had nothing to do with what made me like MWL and BbF.
Spiders made just another action rpg following the rules of the day and for me thats not worthy a full price.

With the refund money i can buy Fallout 4, or GTA 5, or the new Tomb Raider on this sale and still have some pennies left to buy myself some popcorn to go with my drama

I hated Mass Effect. Never could get into it and I hate military backgrounds in games (my problem with Wasteland 2).

I don't think Sean is supposed to be exactly the same guy (yet). I don't think things are supposed to be as simple as they appear at first either. I haven't played a lot but I've got an inkling that the game works like MWL (more things get revealed down the line).

The guy getting his ass kicked is more relevant than that because he is a Rogue and the protagonist is a former Rogue. Not sure how showcasing a totalitarian state is right wing propaganda though especially considering what we learn while talking to NPCs after the tutorial once the game opens up.

Combat doesn't strike me as being so different from MWL but then the very beginnibg of the game is supposed to be a prologue/tutorial.

You see Mass Effect, many say they see KotoR and so far I'm seeing a lot of MWL.

The one thing that I don't like is some of the animations that vendors have they do look silly but other than that I feel the game has some great atmosphere even if I wish more elements could be interacted with (but it was the same with MWL).

EDIT: For the record I've been playing a lot of Witcher 3 lately and after trying to stick to that game (which I've since uninstalled -for the third or fourth time now) The Technomancer does feel like a breath of fresh air.

In any case I don't think Spiders are getting a pass with this latest game. If anything reviewers are dissing it because they find it too hard:


I wish that TB guy the best in his fight against cancer but I think he is completely clueless when it comes to RPGs and his "reviews" (which he chooses not to call reviews so he can't be held accountable for them and thus justifies not finishing the games he reviews) can be ludicrous at times (the one for Bound by Flame was just terrible and that one is probably even worse).

TB has terminal cancer, and has a few years left at best.

That sucks. Didn't know it was terminal. I can't understand why he'd waste what time he has left playing games he obviously hates (unless of course he gets a kick out of it in which case I guess it does serve a purpose).

I've found a more balanced review that is worth watching:


The guy does bring up Bioware games in reference to Technomancer and I can relate to some of the things that he says (which is nice because I usually have a pretty hard time agreeing with reviewers).

I'm having a ridiculously great time with this game. I've finished the first chapter and the story is picking up nicely. My guy is level 21 and he is starting to kick some serious ass. The game has things that I've been wishing for ever since I've started playing crpgs back in the late 90s. In certain ways it reminds me of the good time I had playing the first Fallout back then. It has the same sort of postapocalyptic atmosphere with a dash of cyberpunk dystopia and desperation and just a hint of comic book vibe. It reminds me of Dune and Total Recall but also manages to conjure images of pulp vintage scifi. I've read reviewers complaining about characters resorting to melee instead of guns but they missed the point. This game is not about high tech stuff, it's more like Mad Max with a Cyberpunk art direction and I'm loving it!

I do like the sound of Technomancer.

Rob was on Steam just before the sale stopped. I'm crossing fingers and toes.....

It's still on sale (15% off) for a few more days. I got the retail version because I had a 10 euro voucher for the store next door. It's definitely an indie game but considering the budget and their manpower I'm really impressed they've managed to pull off such a big project. They say the game has three times more quests than Bound by Flame had and after playing the first chapter I believe them. I'm not saying all the quests stand out (some are pretty generic) but I've had to face some difficult choices and that's what I really like when I'm playing a crpg!

The real problem (depending on the way you look at things) is that you have to pay attention to make sense of the lore otherwise it's easy to miss out on some important background information and find the whole thing confusing (the game tells you stuff at its own pace for better or worse). I would not recommend this game to players who are used to skipping through dialogues (there is no in game encyclopedia to keep track of all the tidbits you gather in game).

The very beginning is rather slow which is both good and bad. It's good because you can ease up into the character and get your bearings without things getting hectic for no reason (which happens to be the case a bit too often with games) but it doesn't make for a strong first impression which means that many players may end up feeling it's too boring (definitely their loss). I've enjoyed it but I've also enjoyed things picking up down the line and it took me almost 15 hours to go through the first chapter (but I like being thorough and only failed two quests -some quests are on a timer and it does create a true sense of urgency which is a welcome change imo).

I've maxed out the Technomancer line and now my guy can take out regular mobs with one blast. I like the fact that levelling up makes such a difference in game. It feels great.

Joinable NPCs are as good as in Bound by Flame or Mars War Logs. The only drawback is that you don't get the really good ones right away. I won't post spoilers so I won't elaborate but I really like what they did.

There are some subtle references to Mars War Logs during the game. All in all after more than 20 hours I'm still enjoying the game. The only thing that is getting old is the backtracking but I guess it's because of the low budget and it's something we already had in their previous titles.

I really like how quests work in this game. You can pick up any quest, the great thing is that it doesn't force your hand. You're still given the opportunity to opt for a non violent solution or double cross the quest giver. Ever since Fallout 1 and 2 I've been looking for a game that didn't force me down a certain path just because I considered accepting a job (which is what quests amount to in CRPGs). It's a breath of fresh air and seeing the consequences of some of your decisions down the line is very satisfying. I'm pretty sure I'm going to give the game another run once I'm done with my current character just to see how differently things can play out.

I've finished the game with a level 41 character and while it doesn't look like the game has a level cap you can't max out everything (which is a good thing in my book).

Apart from too many areas being reused (a budget issue I wager) the whole game was really satisfying to me. I didn't even mind all the fights with spawning mobs although in some parts that was starting to get old.

The ending included some interesting choices (like MWL) and I love how they tied things up with the epilogue. All in all it reminded me of the time I first finished Fallout 1 and the sense of having played through a great story that came with the epilogue.

I think I'm going to start over just to see how things could play out differently. It's the most fun I've had with a crpg in quite some time.

I've finished a second playthrough on hard difficulty with a shield build and going for a tankish character made for a much different style.

I've been able to go for different choices since the game doesn't allow the player to see everything in one playthrough and I've enjoyed it a lot.

Bottom line it's one of the games I've enjoyed the most since I've played MWL.

I still have to play a staff master or a full time rogue but for now I'm going to take a break.

RPG france posted a new interview of Jehanne Rousseau (co-founder and CEO of Spiders) in which she explains a lot about her work and her sources for inspiration. I find it really interesting that she does some of the writing for the games Spiders develop and I find even more interesting that she is so open about budget constraints and her love for pen and paper rpgs and larping.

I've looked around for a good interview of her in English and I've managed to find this one on rpgwatch:

http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article?articleid=287

She refers to many classic games in her interviews but also a few more recent games. In the French interview she ranted a bit about level scaling and she also complained about dragons in Skyrim (something BZ will probably relate to).

http://www.rpgfrance.com/dossier-10462-1-interview-jehanne-rousseau-spiders-the-technomancer-partie-1

In any case it makes for an interesting read and I think that the pnp background may explain some of the focus on actually playing a role and being immersed in such a fantastic universe which is probably what sets the Technomancer apart from other crpgs these days.

It also explains some of the things Kaay disliked so much about the game, like the necessity for the voice acting to suit the American public...

Some French players are pretty angry because the game doesn't come with French voice overs but that's understandable considering the costs (especially considering how expensive it is to develop games in France). Personally I never understood the point of having a fully voiced protagonist in a crpg, in my opinion it only takes away from the experience but apparently these days if you don't conform to the norm you risk getting even more criticism.

The good news is that according to their publisher they're not losing money with the Technomancer and that's a relief considering how it's been received by so called professional reviewers who have absolutely no idea what an rpg is.