This is my review for Technomancer. I didn't know Martian Punk was a genre I needed until now. Step away from the g̶a̶s̶o̶l̶i̶n̶e̶ water. TWITCH: / probablyjacoblive TWITTER: / probablyjacobio DISCORD: / discord
If you buy this game right now on GoG with this link you will support the channel and there is a small chance you will gain the ability to cast force lightning in real life. af.gog.com/en/game/the_technomancer?as=1678711979
Yes! 100% this is how the game works at the highest difficulty level. Each path is good against some enemies and weak against others. Staves are the best at highest difficulty because of the mobility and aoe damage, shields for tanking one shots. You have to constantly chance stance,dodge, and rely on allies who you pick as the wiz, cleric slots.
When it comes to prices one needs to pay , don ´t - simply don ´t do it . If a friend of yours has it or other ways are doable , well , this would be acceptable choice . But then again , this game simply remains a choice out of many , if need be , cons and pros - The story of the game basically is a blue print for a dystopia that takes place somewhere in a unforeseeable future , corruption , rules are made by corporations , drugs makie people " paranoid and violent " etc. yada, yada or simply don ´t ! Boring and boring . Offers one or two good moments , and there is that - Fighting dynamics are somewhat not too precise , you can finally buttonbash your way through whatever crosses your way ( 1 button technique , and if you must ... use that trap which can be put on the floor ) It can be funny but it ´s not that entertaining to pull the weight of a storyline going nowhere . All you peops who ´d try to tell me this game knits things together in a different way : go and meta someone else , the story is BAD like MJ ´s nightmare or whatever . + frankly speaking , not that much but - they pulled it off with a small team consisting only of 20 persons . Surely a remarkable thing to do , technically speaking ... the game works , has not too many bugs and the voice acting for example ain ´t that bad in some cases or situations related . + at least it is a honest game , saying : take generously because I ain ´t got ... that much to offer . If one puts it that way , no need for trouble and I ´m out .
"It definitely had problems but in the end it won me over with it's charm"... That sums up spider games and is one of the reasons I enjoy them and is why they're a favorite indie studio of mine.
One thing I can say that's very positive about Spider is their ability to improve game to game. Bound By Flame was a pretty good first outing, though its story was pretty meh, Technomancer upped the storytelling and improved on the gameplay, and Greedfall improves on both even further. I'd argue Greedfall is their best game yet.
Mars: War Logs is actually pretty good and although it has a somewhat smaller story I liked it more. It also has probably the best iteration of the combat system apart from Greedfall. Bound by Flame was a miss-step for Spiders. It actually has better characters and the world is quite interesting but the combat is actually atrocious and the budged seems to have ran out halfway through and the game ends just as you expect it to open up. The Technomancer is my second-favorite Spider's game after Mars: War Logs and it heavily course-corrects the combat, the story is nice and a lot bigger than the other two titles and also feels completed unlike the previous ones. I'm still playing through Greedfall. I like the story and the characters although it feels a bit shallower than The Technomancer to me. The world is a lot more open and somewhat bigger but I am yet to decide if it is more interesting. The combat is better but at the same time it offers less options when it comes to actions you can do in combat and the skill tree is a lot shallower which is somewhat annoying to me as everything else is bigger. The four games feature the same RPG systems and playing them all you could see how money was almost always a limiting factor for them up until now. Greedfall was quite the success for them so I expect their next game to be actually great.
All the gripes you mentioned early weren't really a problem for me. When applying the same standards, many triple A titles with 9+ scores all over should get the same criticism, but they don't! The Witcher 3 has way more shallow combat and RPG mechanics and it's praised throughout (yes, it has stellar writing and amazing visuals). Oh and this game cost me only 5 euro's, rather than 30... This is really a studio to keep your eye on. They've consistently improved, with Technomancer improving over Mars: War Logs and Greedfall as their most acclaimed title, though stilla flawed game (it's bloated with way too much recycling of the same visual component). They could be the next Bioware (the one from back in the day when they were great).
@Michael Otten the game (mars: war logs) have a very slow start but it does grow on you. But if you hated the gameplay you should stay away from anything spider makes
@Michael Otten Then you should stay away from all spider games including their most recent (greedfall). Spider has the tendency to put guns as a skill instead of a primary weapon.
It's a pity Spiders seem to be stuck in a loop. There are studios like CDPR, who started with a clunky low-budget passion project and by the third game made a AAA blockbuster. There's Obsidian, who change presentation and scope according to their current options. And then there are Spiders and Piranha Bytes who keep using the same flawed blueprint, doing the same mistakes and never truly accomplish their grand ambitions. It's like they never learn from their mistakes.
Yeah I really see a lot of Mars: War logs repetitions . A pity really. And this one was supposed to succeed MWL being a magnum opus following the aforementioned .
To me Spider as a studio can be summed up as "hey, here is a bunch of great ideas. Now lets fuck everything up". It shows in every single game they developed, and while it was somehwat acceptable in their earlier projects, you just cant pull an AAA off like that.
Spiders aren't a AAA studio, they are a AA one with only about 30 to maybe around 40 people or so depending on the game. And they seem to have done pretty well in reception from gamers with Greedfall overall despite yours and Sey Moore's personal perspective on what they have achieved. So they must be doing something right. As long as they continue to improve in different areas with each successive game, what else is supposed to really matter in that regard? Let's not pretend the Witcher has been a flawless series either, it mostly gets it's praise from a fanbase that disregards it's shortcomings, like it's wonky combat system that has slightly improved in each sequel, hmm, like another game just mentioned? And by your own admission, it took the Witcher 3 games to get to that point, and every other smaller studio is expected to replicate the same exact success? The Witcher made up for where it had less polish with writing and worldbuilding and a bigger budget later on (not even mentioning all the people that quit with each games completion due to how CDPR was run behind the scenes during those times, but no one wants to hear anything slightly negative about them being the Golden Child these days). Perhaps if Spiders were to be picked up by a good publisher and got the right budget to work with, perhaps they would be able to do more than what they have to work with as a AA studio with such a small team, but from what they have achieved, I'd say it's damn impressive with Greedfall.
@@k.s.2935 Never implied they are an AAA-studio, but i can see how it could be seen as such. Was not my intention, they are obviously neither huge or experienced enough to be one. I wanted to say that both greedfall and technomancer are trying to be an AAA experience, but fail to do so. Another thing id like to mention is that at least to me personally, Spiders' main problem is not budget at all. Their level design sucks big time in every single game (okay, i have not played greedfall, so i will not comment on that one, but it is so up to technomancer). It is boring and repetitive, which has absolutely nothing to do with budget as many indie games proven already.
@@Sey_Moore You say that as if AAA games have been in a good place for the most part lately lol, or that "AAA" signifies quality or a finished product when that clearly hasn't been the case largely. Most certainly don't feel that way. I also don't ever recall them saying they were trying to make AAA games, but working with what they have. Maybe that speaks for itself when what they are able to accomplish with little seems close to a AAA game, on par in Greedfalls case. When the majority consensus is that even with a small budget and team, they have brought something to the table that was more reminiscent of old Bioware than Bioware has been capable of with recent entries. I don't think you can really criticize fully if you haven't played Greedfall as it does show they have made successive improvements as they continue with each game. I'm not even sure why Spiders seem to garner an almost instant need to be pissed on by some when they have been around a 30 person team for a while, and maybe experience has been an issue, but fuck, people can only learn and get better right? For them to be stuck doing the same thing (as the OP was saying), it's strange when games like Dark Souls have been following the same formula with few real changes or innovations outside graphics, but dont get the same criticism. Level design was better in Greedfall, and in terms of budget, it can very much effect what extent of a world you can create in a semi open world game that goes for the level of visual quality Spiders goes for. Not something many others have that I can recall at the moment with the same constraints, but they have used feedback in those regards better. I recall they have some making of vids that may give better examples of them making the game that could shed better light on that, but I am aware that rendering and assets cost among other things.
Another fantastic review. Well balanced, honest and you have a real talent for getting straight to the small little things that really make or break a game. The shadow the hedgehog gag and the line about electric pokemon genuinely made me laugh out loud. Thanks!
Well one thing about the early reveal about the technomancers being mutants reveal, this game is an indirect sequel to the game Mars: war logs, so if you played the first game, it doesn't seem so sudden because you're already familiar with the world if you played the first game.
@@rotshepherd3817 Most people dont. Many are hypocritical and dont even realize it, we all do it sometimes. I do it too, praise one thing and hate on another even tho both do things similarly. I try to catch myself.
Honestly for me the biggest issue with the combat was that enemies seemed to dodge through my weapons. Maybe it was because I used a staff, but I saw my weapon actually go through enemies and deal no damage.
I feel this. It took me switching over to Rogue to notice that certain enemies have two automatic dodges that they usually string together with a kick/shove, or in the case of the riflemen, that devastating(on extreme) shotgun blast. They tend to do it once you've gotten a string of hits in.. Maybe to avoid stun locking. My biggest problems after realizing that were the bizarre hitboxes(especially with the leviathan) and my character randomly choosing not to heal after a dodge roll.
Good review. If you liked this you will probably really like Greedfall. I know I did. They cleaned up a lot, and left a little bit of jankiness, but their world building is really unique and the quest design is pretty different too
I really liked greedfall never played this but it's 2 bucks now so why not try it and it seems its longer then I thought I just hope I can figure out a good build
Personally, I loved Technomancer. The combat was fast paced, fluid and beautifully animated. Considering, at the time, Spiders had about 25 people working on this game, they did extremely well, with about double the studio size for Greedfall. The companions in the game, although a bit lacking in story, were good and well rounded. Andrew was my favourite companion and I liked how his story tied in together with Zachariahs. I had Neisha leave me near end game in one run due to my choices. Scott was killed in a quest in another. I had no clue things like this could happen first run. I had never really experienced this prior to playing this game. The world space is beautiful with unusual music which I got to enjoy. Being a warrior was so OP when levelled up, along with Technomancy levelled up. Some of the backtracking was a pain in the backside but, unlike Dragon Age Inquisition and ME Andromeda, most quests could fit in towards the whole story, not just, go put this necklace or flowers at my wife's or brothers grave etc. The game prior to Technomancer, Mars war logs, was very limited in world space areas. Greedfall however, opened that right up with more world spaces. In all, your review is fair and truthful. Great video.
I think you mentioned some great points and yeah, I personally was pretty disappointed from Dragon Age Inquisition while Technomancer was actually pretty refreshing. Like an MMO without a Questionmarker - although it has his edges, it has certainly a charme to it.
"if you can get past the repetitive gameplay and sometimes lackluster writing, i think you'll enjoy this game" = "if you can get past the two things that make or break an action rpg, i think you'll enjoy this game" ?
Yo this game was HARD af lmfao even on Easy I gave up and didnt play for a month. Then I played some injustice2 and got an itch for reactive combat gameplay and threw this badboi on and it easily became one of my most FAVORITE games ever. Loved jumping around and dodging with the dagger. Honestly I played with everything once I got the jist of it and was honestly sad when I had explored it all and the story was done and over with. Was it perfect? Nothings perfect but for me it was close to it. Edit: I wrote this comment before I watched and laughed when you said it doesnt give a great first impression lmaoooooooooo
Man for as janky as Mars: war logs was, I weirdly enjoyed it. I was so hesitant to pick this up too, but this has kinda sealed the deal for me. So thank you!
@@Scatteredpast it kinda is, its short and VERY janky, but still enjoyable if you can put all of its faults behind and apreciate the universe and setting
I just finished the game. At first it was very heavy, it does not explain too much, but thanks to your review I decided to continue. It has many weak points but I do not regret it.
I would not expect Martin Luther to be used as an adjective for a game review, let alone technomancer. 10/10 would bring up German Protestant leaders again
I am playing as Guardian, mid-game atm (hard difficulty, first playthrough), and the experience is asinine, combat really is dogshit, the reviews were right. It has nothing to do with it being repetitive. -Basically the animations you see have f@ckall to do with how the fight actually plays out. -The game wants you to use parrying as a guardian, so enemies will have these big attack animations, giving you good timings to block, but you are not meant to do ANYTHING else. Stepping out of the way, counterattacking using a skill instead etc. all get f@cked up because the animation is not exactly in synch with what is really happening. -In addition, after wacking enemies once or twice with the mace, they will enter a dodge mode, where they backstep every single attack, until you give them enough time to initiate an attack on their own, in which case you are meant to parry it, then hit them once or twice again, rince and repeat. Problem is, especially because the arenas are small, you quite often manage to corner your opponents to the point where they have no room to backstep anymore... Aaand they still dodge the attacks while playing backstep animations despite not moving. -Your allies are completely useless. A scenario that plays very often is you managing to clear most enemies, leaving only a far-away ranged enemy for your allies to take care of, and a close-range enemy which you take on. So you're pretty relaxed 1v1ing him, when you're shot in the back. You continue focusing on your one remaining melee enemy while your two alive allies only have to deal with 1 ranged enemy and you get shot in the back again. If you turn the camera right you can see them assuming defensive stances and staying idle while the ranged enemy takes his time to reload his weapon, aim and shoot you. This happens way too often. -Combat quite often happens in closed spaces, so the camera will always manage to fuck up. -If you keep fighting even a few feet away from where the enemy group was initially stationed, they will just reset, becoming impervious to damage, fully-healing and running back to their station. And remember what we said above about enemies infinitely backstepping until you trigger their attack animation.
The combat system, to me, feels like absolute hot trash. And the worst thing is, that i don't know why. It feels clunky, awkward and just... wrong, and i've played greedfall as well, which... i dropped that game BECAUSE of the combat system. It feels like a cheap early 2000's melee rpg. I don't know if it's the animations, or hitboxes being off, or whatever; I'm not good at describing what makes a good combat system, but this? This ain't it.
Just finished Mars: War Logs a week ago, it's much more charming than technomancer (from what I've played of it so far, I'm still in Ophir) but also more janky, the acting is hilariously bad at points, and the combat + upgrades are very simple. That being said I loved the game, I can liken it to the experience of watching a sci-fi B-movie like Riddick or Priest. Rough around the edges but compelling.
I see everyone say that this game is “deeply flawed” but I just thought the game was overall average with an interesting story that’s good enough to carry you the end and a combat system that is good and one you have to put thought into when you play it at the highest difficulty. Side rant, this is why I say it’s a good thing dark souls games don’t have a difficulty slider/settings as it would hinder the overall game’s pacing and combat. Technomancer’s combat becomes pretty strategic at the highest difficulty where in you have to use your and your allies abilities in a rock-paper-scissors (staves, shield, dagger pistol good against certain enemies weak against others) way of eliminating the greatest threats while getting good at dodging. There were several encounters where I had to sit back, pause the game and think about how I had to go about beating an encounter.
I feel the same way about Vampyr. Despite some of its repetitive and clunky combat and shallow dialogue in PCs, its charm won me over. And also much like this game, it had a very small map with a lot of retracing for side missions and other things. But I feel like at the games like these, are merely just AA games. They are not perfect, but there’s something very charming and unique about them.
I had fun with this but ran onto a bug that means I have to restart and haven't tried yet. Basically there's a quest which is supposed to bring up a timer and once the timer runs out you can continue the quest. Unfortunately for me the timer won't start for some reason and none of my saves are early enough to bypass the issue.
Thought this whole video I kept wondering why I recognized the game mechanics and setting but couldn't remember any of the story. I figured I'd already played it but forgot the story.. then you reminded me of Mars War logs. THAT was the game I actually played.
I had to check my Steam Games list myself because everything was so familiar and I HAD heard the term Technomancer before. So as of this moment I have both the 1st and last offerings from Spiders.
Great work, but I was seeing the review thinking about playing or not the game and you just slip the whole plot twist (the alies) without any spoiler alert! Something maybe to bear in mind in the future?
Good to get more understanding of a game that was either underlooked, or underlooked because it was bad. I was always interested and as someone who loves to 100% his games... It's hard committing to something i'm not hyped about.
Alright i subbed because you don't spit so easily on Spiders, i know they aren't like Dontnod but they try to make good games and i have played The Technomancer before (never finished) yes the story isn't incredible but it has a "je ne sais quoi" who makes me to play it same for Bound by Flame and Greedfall i want to play it so badly.
Haven't played technomancer and Greedfall yet. But I really enjoyed Mars: War Logs and to a lesser extent Bound By Flame. I found many reviews too harsh. Yes, they are rough around the edges and there were points were I seriously thought WTF did the developers think, but Mars: War Logs felt really unique in setting and tone and I loved the red sand everywhere, it felt amazing. I enjoyed it muuuuuuuch more than many of the AAA Titles that everyone seems to love (Borderlands, Far Cry, Skyrim,...). It helped that I literally played it with no expectations so I was pleasantly surprised. I bought them on a steam sale and forgot about it until I gave it a go a few months back. Right after I am done with my Witcher 2 replay I install Technomancer!!!!
@@zuiop9993 I hated Bound by Flame. That last ice area with the boss gauntlet ruined the game for me. War Logs was good, though, and why I finally settled in and played through Technomancer. I have Greedfall, haven't got into it just yet. Really love this company for trying to get better with every release.
@@michaelb2westgaedu If I remember correctly you get something at the end that doubles your damage, I was sooo reliefed when this happened. The ending was waaaaaay too long (If I remember correctly every region would be more enjoyable if there was less fighting). I don't really remember the end Boss though. I only seem to remember that it felt a little out of place and gimmicky, I hate it when games throw all established ways of fighting out of the window just because they want to do something special for the ending. Bound by Flames combat system can be a little bit annoying at times. Especially when you're fighting multiple opponents and you have to doge the skeletons with scythes that do massive damage while trying to finish the blue archers ASAP. There is little room to mess up and it doesn't always feel fair when you die due to strange hit detection and rolling away didn't always work as intended. Don't know at what difficulty I was playing, but yeah Bound by Flame was real rough and not as unique as Mars: War Logs. But for me it ended up being decent. Not really good, but good enough considering it is a smaller budget title. (that said I paid only around 5-10 € for it, so maybe I would've been less forgiving if I had payed full price at release).
This is actually a gd game. Its not a AAA so don't expect that. Bottomline: it's a gd game for $20. I've been mulling over whether to attempt routing and see if it can be a speedrun. But this reviewer over looked a MAJOR plus to this game: the music. The audio and music is awesome. I don't know how he overlooked that. Just look up the sound track and sample it - it's amazing. Here's my fav track The Canyon level has one of the best music I've ever heard in a game: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NpsJ3XiKdvk.html
Seeing as this is coming from Spider studios, I see the same formula albeit expanded a lot and with more conventional paced plot in Greedfall, which btw I actually like quite a bit. One thing to note though is the skill system is still somewhat simplistic, but lends itself very well to the pacing of the story.
Definitely going to check this out. Greedfall was the first game I played from Spiders and it was absolutely phenomenal. I blasted through the whole thing in less than two days because I could _not_ put it down, the story was so good. I initially played it through Game Pass on PC but ended up buying the physical Gold Edition for Xbox because I liked it so much.
For me the only negative issue I had with this game is that halfway through the game it turns into a walking simulatior. Very repetitive very fast but the story kept me from going fully insane.
I found it interesting that you felt the story in the opening, specifically the secret of the technomancers, was oddly paced. Dragon Age Origins does exactly this same thing in it's opening mission and I've never heard a complaint about it.
I'm confused as to what you think the purpose of an RPG character is, but dude I'm a nobody living a shit nobody life so all my RPG characters are about full-on power fantasies wherein my PC is unlike me powerful and has agency to change the world. So they should be maxed out, all else is a waste of my time. If I want limits I'll stick with real life, games are about fantasies.
sometimes reviews just don;t matter, look up any game that has bonus content/dlc pre-order, and you'll always find the idiots complaining they didn't get this or that because they didn't check their mailbox in game
I downvoted this video. Because there's too many spoilers. While it does give attention to this game, it also removes experiences for those who plays it for the first time after watching this. It is possible to make a review without pointing to specific story details. Otherwise good review, but have to downvote.
This is pretty well put together review, but right after you said "I like to avoid spoilers" you dropped what seemed like a bunch of spoilers and also got too specific (spoilery) in some of the "cause and effect" elements of decision making for my liking. So, the good news is, I enjoyed your presentation enough that I didn't *close* the video, but the bad news is that I did skip passed some of your sections because I felt that your definition of spoiler was clearly quite different from mine. It's also worth noting that spoilers hit harder in a game where story is supposed to be a selling point, as well, since you're taking something that is *more important* to the experience than if were non-narrative driven. Just some thoughts to consider. Good luck on your future vids. :)
Excellent review thank you, new subscriber here. I did buy this when the game was released but didn't put much time into it. Will definitely check it out again.
is it really that hard to just not talk in the most uninterested and boring way possible, you might as well have just used text to speech for the entire script of this video, at least that would be more fun or at worst, irritating but not boring at least. Or how about, using text!
when the skill/attribute system came up i immediately thought of "greedfall", same goes for some of the other things you mention here. greedfall has a really intriguing world, but the level design is pretty bland and repetitive, whole buildings almost 1 to 1 copy/pasted throughout the world, almost no really memorable landmarks/points of interest and there is a severe lack of enemy variety. it's by no means a bad game.....somehow...., hard to explain. technically it's solid, although way from remarkable, and while i enjoyed it well enough for some time, it got boring relatively quick. and at some point during the last third of the game i just wanted it to end already. i don't regret buying it, unlike 2 other games by spiders (mars: war logs & bound by flame), but i could also have well lived without playing it. anyways, i also played "of orcs & men" and (why am i doing this to me?) after seeing your review, the core problems seem to be persistent with their games (and "bound by flame" also had a few more problems on top of that). to come back to "greedfall" (and to an end), now thinking about it and the feelings i had while playing it, the one most prominent was that of sadness due to wasted potential, like when thinking this could have easily been so much more. hope that makes kinda sense to anyone reading this.
Well, when they are a smaller AA studio without a huge budget, how much can one expect? They progress slowly, but with Greedfall they showed a much better level of polish, so maybe with the largely positive feedback that game received, they will improve even further with their next title. That and if they were to get a bigger budget or were to be picked up by a descent publisher.
