Developer: Spiders
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Platform: PC, Xbox One, PS4
Tested on: Xbox One
The Technomancer – Review
Seeing the human race is obsessed with knowing and seeing everything, it’s only natural that the galaxy is slowly being explored more and more. Mars has always been linked to alien life, and even now it still serves as a source of inspiration for sci-fi stories. The Technomancer also takes us to the red planet, which has been colonized by human life, but what should have been a paradise, quickly turns into a dystopian nightmare. While monsters roam the planet, it seems that once again our own race commits more than enough atrocities against those not able to defend themselves properly.
Story
It has already been 200 years since humanity has colonized the red barren lands of Mars. While things initially seemed like a great step for the human race, the current society is a horrid nightmare, where big corporations control the limited water resources the planet has. If a controlling organization wasn’t bad enough, the planet is filled with enormous monsters which lurk in the shadows, and humans that have underwent mutations. The Technomancers are considered the elite version of the human race, but they are also being used by the military to complete petty tasks and oppress the people. You, Zachariah are one of these chosen people, currently undergoing his initiation to become part of the military. It becomes rather clear that the current ‘government’ of Mars isn’t all what it seems to be, and justice is only a hollow word nowadays.
While the story has a rather fixed flow of main events from here on out, you also get to decide a lot of your actions, which are either good, but don’t end up giving you that much extra pocket change, or those that will make you lose karma and thus influence the people around you. Seeing you’ll have to plow through a lot of text if you want to properly learn what is going on, this game is not for those who expect quick and flashy action.
Graphics
Even though the game looks fairly good, it’s clear that it’s well within the capabilities of our current generation of consoles. While the environments are rather detailed, they lack some additional clutter to make them seem like inhabited areas. Nonetheless, the backdrops are fun to look at, even if you have to backtrack quite often through these same areas. It’s mainly the characters and monsters that leave us with mixed feelings. The characters and monsters never truly look bad, but they feel a bit underwhelming when looking at the power of the current wave of consoles. It’s mainly the facial features that feel quite static and unfinished. Seeing this is a game where a lot of dialogues occur, the latter will become painstakingly annoying as the game progresses. For instance, seeing a hostage situation where the hostage and both the attacker are standing relaxed with their arms next to their bodies isn’t what we’d call a very convincing scene.
Sound
The Technomancer has a decent soundtrack, albeit one that remains on the background for the most part. The music only seems to kick in properly during combat sequences, simply to add an extra edge to the battle of life and death. In the end it’s the voice acting that makes this game very appealing. Overall the game is filled with tons of qualitative voiced dialogue which lifts up the entire game.
Gameplay
Underneath the Mars theme of The Technomancer lies a fairly standard action RPG, which tries to add a few original quirks to the mix. Overall, you’ll be roaming around the red planet, albeit in rather delimited areas, completing missions, leveling up and expanding your arsenal of Technomancer powers, weapons and skills.
Seeing the game uses a rather original and slightly complex combat system, the game starts off with making sure you get the hang of the basics. The game offers you three fighting styles, namely one with your trusty staff, a guerilla type fighting style with knife and pistol and last but not least, a more defensive one with mace and shield. All of this is supported by the use of your Technomancer powers, which are basically the equivalent of magic in other similar games. The addition of these fighting styles makes the combat interesting and refreshing, as you can handpick which style you wish to use for certain occasions. Nonetheless, fighting in this game feels somewhat sluggish, especially considering the amount of enemies you’re often battling at the same time. This takes away a bit of the fun of the different fighting styles and sometimes makes, what could have been the most fun aspect of the game rather tedious.
The overall diversity of things to choose from when leveling up is quite massive. Not only will you be able to invest skill points in the different fighting stances and abilities, you’ll also be able to choose more passive traits such as strength, agility and other basic stats. Last but not least, you’ll also be able to crank up your charisma, lock picking skills, looting bonuses, etc. This means that there are three different upgrade menus, all utilizing their own upgrade points. Thanks to this, there is a decent amount of character customization.
Different stances and different weapons also mean you’ll have to keep track of your gear quite diligently. Add in the fact that you’ll also have to gear up your party members and you’ll have a rather complicated gear system. It’ll take some time to get used to, but it’s a fun feature of the game to mess around with.
During your playthrough the quests are properly marked on the map, even though you’ll often regret that you don’t have a proper mini-map, but this doesn’t mean that the game is easy. Even on the easiest difficulty, you’ll have a hard time winning all your battles, even at the beginning of the game. Be sure to save a lot, as the game allows you to save your game wherever you are.
Conclusion
The Technomancer is a fairly standard A-RPG in the whirlpool of similar games and while it adds a few fun quirks to the mix, things stay fairly standard. Nonetheless, the fighting styles add an interesting layer to this repetitive game, allowing for some variation. If you’re into Mars-themed games with a dystopian future intertwined, this game does have some entertainment value.
The Technomancer - Review,
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