The Technomancer Review

A techno-disappointment….

Game: The Technomancer
Developer: Spiders
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Reviewed on:

(Review code provided by publisher)

Let’s start with a bit of background shall we? The Technomancer is a spiritual sequel to that of Mars: War Logs. Remember that? No, neither do I and in all honesty, it doesn’t really matter if you played the predecessor or not. With it being developed by Spiders, I was quite looking forward to what The Technomancer would bring me, especially after their last title, Bound by Flame was quite enjoyable. They promised that The Technomancer would deliver so much more, yet in all honestly, failed to deceive more than anything else.

I’ll start off with the story. You are given (no, actually forced) to take on the role of Zachariah, who yes you have guessed it… is indeed a Technomancer with special skills. Based on the planet mars, Zachariah quickly finds himself betrayed by his own people and and sets on a mission to find a link between Mars and Earth. It’s quite a complex story and one that takes a hell of a long time to get into.

I say forced to take on the role of Zachariah… this is because in many RPG games that I have played, you are given the option to shape your own character, even rename and re-gender in some instances. This is not the case with the Techomancer. The customisation tool at the beginning is very basic stuff indeed, not the sort of depth you’d come to expect and appreciate from other games in the genre such as The Elder Scrolls and The Witcher series.

One thing that I could appreciate with The Techomancer was the combat options on offer. The game allows you to pick between three stances depending on which play style you want to pick. At your disposal, you are given the choice of using a pistol and dagger, a shield and basic club for more defensive players or if you want to go all out, a hefty staff for the attacking players. These of course can also be mixed in with your electric powers as a Technomancer, which in turn abilities can be used as long as the appropriate magic bar is filled up.

Whilst the combat options are great, unfortunately, the technical difficulties that the game endures during battle makes it quite painful to watch. Combat often felt clunky to me, never really giving me a sense of appreciation when going into battle with my enemies. I tended to stick with an attacking approach and use the staff throughout my playthrough of the game, and didn’t really feel like I had to switch between in any situation. It would of been nice for the game to force me to switch up my playing style but unfortunately, that was not the case. Another thing I picked up on was how difficult some missions were. Although not quite Dark Souls style (I don’t fancy paying out for another controller!), it has to be said that the number of times that I was fully outnumbered was quite unhealthy. Attack is the best form of defense I know but it seemed like my finger was on the dodge button far more than I would of liked.

Of course, whilst I have moaned about the bad points in The Technomancer, it is still an RPG at heart, and who doesn’t love one of them to pass a few, what, hundred hours away right?. You travel towns with more than enough side-quests at your disposal to keep you busy for the long term. You can also level up your abilities, skills and weapons as you move throughout. Unfortunately, I didn’t really feel like the leveling up and skill allocation system was as deep as normally like. There are skill trees which you can upgrade for all of the stances, but like I said previously, I was only really focusing on the staff/attacking stance, leaving the others feeling redundant. Many others may feel like they want to power up all three evenly, but the game doesn’t really make you want to do that.

Whilst the game does look good, you can’t really compare it to the likes of The Witcher 3 or anything like that. For me, there were many times that the visuals just felt dull, and didn’t really leave me feeling like I was playing a high-powered PlayStation 4 title. The voice acting also left me feeling rather underwhelmed. Often I felt like the characters had no emotion in what they were saying whatsoever, leaving me feeling disjointed from the overall story. The story is the most important thing in my opinion, and if the voice acting doesn’t deliver what is expected, a disconnection can be felt between user and game.

VERDICT

Unfortunately, what started with promise and hope left me feeling rather bored and deflated. The Technomancer isn’t a terrible RPG in any means of the word, but it just doesn’t deliver on what other great games in the genre have before it. The first few hours of the game left a sour taste in my mouth, and an RPG shouldn’t do that; it should grip me from start to finish. Praise has to go for the imaginative, on-the-fly combat, but Spiders must focus getting the technical side sorted with a future patch. The Technomancer doesn’t get a recommendation from me sadly, there are far better and cheaper alternatives on the market.

5/10