A Tides Of Numenera Beta Date For Backers & Steamfolk
your Torment is almost over
We already knew that a beta for Torment: Tides of Gary Numan [official site], spiritual* sequel to Planescape: Torment was due this month, but now we have a date. Or, to be precise, dates. Another thing we already knew is that original Kickstarter backers of the inXile RPG would get their clammy crowdfunding paws on the beta, but now we know that it'll update its journal to include Steam Early Access a wee bit later in January.
Jan 17th is the backer date, and Jan 26th the Steam one. Here's exactly what will be included:
"The beta will start you right in the beginning of the game and is quite lengthy for an early beta. It covers the game's introductory sequence (some of which you may have already seen in the alpha) as well as most of the first major location of the game, Sagus Cliffs. Sagus is a very old city that was built on top of ancient structures that predate the return of humanity to the Ninth World. It's split into five main districts: Circus Minor, Cliff's Edge, Caravanserai, Government Square and the Underbelly. As you might expect from a city location, it is rich in lore to discover, characters to talk with and obviously quests to complete."
There's also the above new screenshot, which does look reassuringly Planescape: Tormenty to my old eyes.
Quietly looking forwards to this one - it looks a whole lot more weird and twisted than Pillars of Eternity, but fingers crossed it isn't just Wasteland 2 with a techno-magic skin. Seems unlikely, especially given the team assembled to work on it, but with WL2 proving solid but not revelatory I'm not going to go and presume greatness from it yet.
There are some more details on the places and items to be found in the beta here, plus some new piccies.
* 'Spiritual' of course means 'we couldn't or wouldn't afford the license' rather than anything metaphysical. HTH.