Reviews// The Technomancer

Oh, Spiders, how I was hoping this was going to be the one! I've just stopped and turned The Technomancer off, possibly for the last time, and decided that I've played enough to deliver a verdict.

I have a massive soft-spot for the developer Spiders, their games are always teeming with ambition and heart, but either through budget or other means they always miss the mark, usually by the skin of their teeth, and it is heartbreaking.

The Technomancer is no different. There are some great ideas and concepts in this game that almost get it right...

But first, what is it? The Technomancer is set on Mars. The colonies there have been cut off from Earth for a long time, so long it seems that a large portion of the populace views it as a story and nothing more. You play as a young man called Zack who has just completed his officer training within an elite group of warrior monks, the titular Technomancers, who have electricity-based powers that are magical in appearance. These powers make them a feared and solitary bunch who get the short end of the stick and are used as living weapons by the military.

Things inevitably go wrong for Zack because this is an action RPG set in a dystopian future centred on a water war. The story itself is one of The Technomancer's strong points - it is nuanced and feels grounded in the setting. However, the voice acting is bland and the actors themselves sound bored with what they are reading or, in the case of Amelia, aggressively overstated in her foul-mouthed attempt at being the spunky cast member.

The use of language in Spiders' games has always been a bugbear with me. They use swear words as a sign of how 'mature' their games are, but that isn't how language works and feels forced when bolted on to an already less-than-stellar script.

Gameplay suffers from problems that have also plagued games like Bound by Flame. The first is the momentum of Zack when you are moving him around. Instead of stopping or turning when commanded there the game prioritises finishing the current animation, resulting in the character wobbling around when you try to position him to interact with a door, character, chest or anything else, having the hit box for most objects you can interact with not working when you accidentally plant your face in to a door is infuriating.

Next up is combat. It works and can feel really satisfying as long as you ignore your companions dying really quickly on any difficulty above easy (something which caused me to rage quit on an early boss battle). Even though you can swap between the different classes/fighting styles, it is advisable to find the one you are comfortable with and stick with it. This does limit the variety of combat choices, but it will also save you heartache, and from having to redo long fight sequences. There is a stealth system, but it's useless. No stealth takedowns - instead you scoot your be-socked feet across the carpet to give the enemy a surprise static shock that they quickly shrug off.

At the start you have a character creator that enables you to swap your face, hair style and colours around. No option for a female protagonist though. You then get to spend points across three different levelling up systems. You get a skill point every level, this allows you to purchase new combat skills; then you have attribute points, which are every five levels. These boost whichever class you are focusing on. And finally you have talent points that you get every three levels that increase your proficiency in things like crafting, charisma etc. I could be wrong on the spread of these various points, but the point is that the system is bloated and feels utterly out of place.

The one area where Spiders has stepped up its game is in the environment art department. There are some gorgeous looking locales in this game, even when they are covered in grime. They take what should be a bland environment like Mars and layer on these levels of history with wall murals depicting propaganda or scenes from what life may have been during peacetime.

There is a downside: the location maps are huge and sprawling, but empty. There isn't any fast travel between local areas so you'll find yourself backtracking a lot, but at least the map screen is clear when there is something new to go check out or how to get to an objective, although some of those objectives can be obscure when you are standing right in front of them.

I always want to love a new game from Spiders. I truly believe they have what it takes to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with RPG giants like Bioware, but they aren't there yet. The Technomancer has flashes of greatness that are swiftly snuffed out by poor choices, bad directing or acting and recycled systems from their older games that were already broken. This is an AA effort that strives for triple-A heights and misses, if you've played their games before and could forgive them their flaws then you'll probably enjoy this.

Pros:
+ Gorgeous environments and atmosphere
+ Interesting lore...

Cons:
- ... that is marred by shoddy acting
- AI companions are useless on normal or higher difficulties
- Running through massive maps for little reward
- Horrendous character momentum issues

SPOnG score: 6/10