Tuesday, 28 June 2016

The Technomancer Review - An average action RPG.


By Sam Coles:

There are some games that I play that aren’t awful, but they’re not good they’re just a bit of a sore fest. The Technomancer is one of those games, let me make something very clear it’s not a bad game, but it is average with mechanics that we’ve seen countless times with no progression or variation. Who would have thought where a game where you can shoot lightning out of your hands could be this boring. Let’s go into more detail!

The Technomancer’s story revolves around a group of people in the titular group where they have a unique ability use electric based powers and this is not through some divine power, but through mutations they have endured. You play as Zachariah who is a fresh Technomancer going in for the final stages of his training, you will uncover dark secrets throughout the organisation as they do not act like normal humans as they are augmented to be machines. The story is your typical rookie joining up and finding out the dark secrets of the organisation this is Call of Duty levels of narratives predictable, which doesn’t mean it’s bad if it is performed well and unfortunately the voice acting isn’t consistent, on one hand it can be good and on the other it can be bad and out of place.

The game is an action RPG similar to games like Dragon Age Origins and the Mass Effect games probably closer to those games only because of the setting. You explore areas, kill enemies and collect loot the standard stuff but honestly the combat is a chore, what kind of combat is it I hear you ask? It is melee based which in theory should work but it takes far too long to kill some enemies and it has questionable hit detection as I’ve been hit by enemies even though I’ve dodge their attack and there is a huge gap between us.  What I like about the combat is that you can switch your stance on the fly which will change what weapons you can use, these can range from Staffs, A gun and knife combo or a club and shield and this keeps fights fresh which makes you change your strategy when fighting different enemy types.

For each stance and your Technomancy skill which is basically magic if it were set in a high fantasy setting. This is good being able to upgrade each section, but my problem is that there are too many upgrades yes you can have your standard stuff like increase damage and health etc. but to include passive skills that you don’t know are working or not is a bit of an irritating situation have upgrades that mean something.

Graphically the game looks good with the environments they’ve nailed the atmosphere of Mars with the underground dark bunkers to the dusty deserts of the red planet, atmosphere nailed with the visuals. The character models on the other hand don’t stand the test of time as they have stiff facial and body animation it looks like something from an early PS3 or Xbox 360 game, where emotional expressions just come across as a bit weird.


The Technomancer is not a bad game, but it doesn’t strive to differ itself from other action RPG’s it has the standard Arkham brawling system, with the predictable plot and the uninspired upgrade system. I repeat this is not a bad game, it is average maybe pick it up if you’re curious. 

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