Would You Like To Experience Three Minutes Of Torment?

I myself experienced three minutes of torment just moments ago. It's always a nightmare when my girlfriend heads into the bathroom before I can get in there for my first wee of the morning.

I felt much better when I experienced a different sort of Torment - a proper in-game look at the next RPG from Wasteland 2 creators inXile. It's fascinating to see how Tides of Numenera is trying to evoke its spiritual predecessor Planescape: Torment without, in fact, being a Planescape game.

Do bear in mind that this stuff is apparently "pre-alpha", so may or may not be representative of what we get on our PCs sometime next year.

The oppressive music, the twisted yet ornate architecture, a touch of bio-horror, the UI around the dialogue boxes, and the focus on lots and lots of words. So much so that a thoughtful YouTube man has written "if i wanted to read id go open a book lol" underneath the trailer.

Perhaps he should do that. The rest of us may instead take comfort from seeing that Numenera does seem to contain many of the key touchstones of Planescape: Torment, including a generous excess of text-based decision-making.

So much ultimately depends on whether the tale and the characters can fascinate, and move, and unnerve, of course, but I'm mightily glad to see that this isn't just a reskinned Wasteland 2. I'm looking forwards to playing this. Hell, I'm looking forwards to reading this.