The Technomancer

The Technomancer does deliver on the aspect of an engaging narrative; we are presented an interesting and diverse world of different ideologies, politics and beliefs which all clash within the population of Mars. There is a sense this story pays homage to many classic sci-fi novels from the 1950s which tackled issues of wealth gaps, racism and culture clashes. The Technomancer has an impressive world with a large amount of depth and culture to immerse you in. I enjoyed grasping the politics, the daily struggles and those who face the harsher moments such as the mutants and those who suffer prolonged exposures on the surface.
Where the game does fall short is with several factors such as the lifeless/disconnected nature of the characters and the how plot itself unfolds rather blandly. While the story is complex containing interesting themes and questions to be asked, the manner in which the story plays feels generic. The morale choices lack impact and the plot never truly raises the stakes to make it gripping. The lack of an emotional attachment is also due to a serve lack of personality in the characters.

The game is plagued with dull facial animations and a lifeless, non-organic nature which isn’t helped by the subpar voice acting. You do get to customise your protagonist’s features and control his choices, but overall these choices seem to do very little for his personality and the customisation is basic. What did bug me the most was not having a choice in gender, feels very 90’s and a little dated to keep it to just a male lead. It’s a shame for most of the game, much of supporting cast just don’t evolve with the player. Unlike Mass Effect where relationships can be strengthen or broken with a choice in the game, The Technomancer just sets up team mates who are just one trick pony with single minded personalities that either like or dislike you throughout no matter what the outcome.

While the game’s visual presentation is good, with great attention to detail on the various locations and wild life, the sound design is a major flaw in presentation. The soundtrack is uninspiring and rather irritating as we’re fed for the most part constant repetitive beats and dull tones that just feel lazily put together.

In terms of gameplay, the world is engrossing enough to make you want to go and explore while different areas of The Old Dome and Mars look great with their own characteristics and little touches to make them unique. While the game is impressive for its quantity of missions and bringing random events into play, the quality is often questionable. Most missions feel more like single, disconnected events that just don’t evolve in scale and often suffer from harbouring a repetitive and simple format. Most of the time it’s pinned down to talk your way out of a situation, pay money or just kill everything.

Thankfully the RPG elements are much more engaging as there is enough to keep players invested in the diverse upgrade system along with the compelling skill trees. You’ll have an insightful understanding in how to progress your character and with a great sense of freedom to do so. There is an impressive amount of loot and weaponry to arm yourself and your team mates with. The only negative impact of this progression is how most of the time you feel weak against the opposition, even at a high ranking you just don’t feel the bad ass you should even with good stats and great gear. This could be linked to the poor combat as well, but more on that later.

Morale choices are interesting as you explore the notion of the blurred line between good and evil. Yet the depth lies more with the faction’s aspect showing what effect your choices on people. While this may hold more complexity than Mass Effect as it doesn’t really state clearly who is good or evil, but in terms of stakes and effect it feel minimal. There is another aspect which holds back The Tecnomancer in terms of balancing the stats for morale. Killing or draining your fallen enemies will result in gaining one bad karma point each time. While courageously saving deranged, drugged filled soldiers from causing harm to others and themselves will see you get the same amount of karma points for more work. It sounds like a silly complaint but it makes no sense and discourages players to consider a good path as it’s restricted so heavily and offers no real gains for your good attentions. It would have been better to leave the Morale out and focus on the Factions aspect as this had more substance overall in the game.

Combat is melee focused and what The Technomancer does offer again is variation and choice in your fighting style. You have three distinct fighting styles with perks you can obtain over the course of the game; ensuring players can change their fighting methods around or pick one that suits them the best. Yet the manner of combat feels clunky and awkward due to the camera angles and often it’s dull, relentless where there’s no excitement or tactics within fights other than hammering the two attack buttons and cast a spell. But the biggest problem is the unbalanced nature to fights where you will be outnumbering most of the time and out gunned with little hope in the fights due to slightly lower than average AI partners. Even with good stats and gear, you’ll often struggle even against standard enemies.

The Technomancer shows promises in the beginning but slowly the cracks begin to show more and more until you realise that this game feels very dated. Ten years ago, this would have been a decent contender with Mass Effect but now it feels sluggish and old. Mass Effect holds a grasp with players due to its scale of action, likable characters and high stakes played out in the morale choices. The Technomancer lacks the depth or engrossing gameplay elements to make it more engaging. It’s generic and stale and after playing and seeing the faults only get bigger, it may leave you with a bad taste of Sci-fi RPGs.