Despite the typical tropes of its genre, Torment's world is in many ways more sci-fi than fantasy. Your character awakens amid the wreckage of advanced civilisations and you are slowly introduced to "The Ninth World" - a society built on a mix of medieval politics and scavenged technology. Many of the items you make use of are poorly understood relics, their original purposes forgotten.

Travelling through this strange world, you uncover a multitude of stories, characters, artifacts and locations which reveal more of the intriguing lore and legends from the past, the present, and even other dimensions entirely.

Mechanically, the game revolves around your character and a party of up to three companions. Each member of your party has three core stats (Might, Speed and Intellect), and these serve as point pools which can be spent to increase success chance on corresponding skill checks and attacks: breaking down a door with Might or pickpocketing with Speed, for example. Combat generally takes a back seat to dialogue and skills (depending on your choices) but is handled well with interesting abilities and set pieces.

As one might expect from a party-based CRPG, each of the 7 available companions has their own backstory and corresponding quest. These are relatively simple but heartfelt stories that often present you with moral choices that are genuinely difficult.

Aside from the companion quests, most optional quests still have some link back into the core plot. In general it's more focused than many entries in the genre, but this helps to prevent side-quest overload. My first playthrough took ~40 hours and concluded satisfyingly.

As someone who bounced off Pillars of Eternity because of its length and rather standard fantasy setting, Torment was both shorter and more interesting. My one criticism would be that it becomes a bit too easy towards the end - challenges don't keep pace with character advancement, particularly if you are doing the side-quests,

[h1]An enjoyable CRPG with a unique setting and smart mechanics[/h1] Despite the typical tropes of its genre, Torment's world is in many ways more sci-fi than fantasy. Your character awakens amid the wreckage of advanced civilisations and you are slowly introduced to "The Ninth World" - a society built on a mix of medieval politics and scavenged technology. Many of the items you make use of are poorly understood relics, their original purposes forgotten. Travelling through this strange world, you uncover a multitude of stories, characters, artifacts and locations which reveal more of the intriguing lore and legends from the past, the present, and even other dimensions entirely. Mechanically, the game revolves around your character and a party of up to three companions. Each member of your party has three core stats (Might, Speed and Intellect), and these serve as point pools which can be spent to increase success chance on corresponding skill checks and attacks: breaking down a door with Might or pickpocketing with Speed, for example. Combat generally takes a back seat to dialogue and skills (depending on your choices) but is handled well with interesting abilities and set pieces. As one might expect from a party-based CRPG, each of the 7 available companions has their own backstory and corresponding quest. These are relatively simple but heartfelt stories that often present you with moral choices that are genuinely difficult. Aside from the companion quests, most optional quests still have some link back into the core plot. In general it's more focused than many entries in the genre, but this helps to prevent side-quest overload. My first playthrough took ~40 hours and concluded satisfyingly. As someone who bounced off Pillars of Eternity because of its length and rather standard fantasy setting, Torment was both shorter and more interesting. My one criticism would be that it becomes a bit too easy towards the end - challenges don't keep pace with character advancement, particularly if you are doing the side-quests,