The Technomancer
A MARS A DAY HELPS YOU FIGHT, BRAWL AND SLAY. NO MATTER HOW good or bad your game is, when you’re taking on epics like Mass E ect with only a fraction of the budget, you surely deserve a little recognition just for trying.
Action RPG e Technomancer is not the studio’s rst crack at the whip. Back in 2013, Spiders pumped out Mars: War Logs, a tale of powerful water guilds ghting it out a er a century of trouble for the human race on the red planet. It wasn’t especially well received, but that doesn’t appear to have perturbed the French studio one bit.
ree years on, and e Technomancer tells the story of... well, powerful water guilds ghting it out a er a century of trouble for the human race on the red planet. is is o cially a sequel, though you’d be forgiven for thinking it a remake.
You control Zachariah, a ‘Technomancer’ just learning his trade for one of the planet’s most potent corporations, Abundance. ese sci- mages are a bit like low-grade Jedi; able to control electricity and summon it in attack in lieu of the Force, while also boasting a mastery of combat (but sadly unable to call upon Natalie Portman for a quick picnic date on the hills of Naboo). Your ghting style is split into three approaches — warrior, rogue and guardian — which can be alternated in the middle of battle, though in truth e Technomancer seems to encourage players to pick a style and stick with it.
Fighting is what you’ll be doing most of, with levels guiding you through locked-o section a er locked-o section, each one populated by scavengers hunting for the planet’s resources, or some arachnid-like local monsters intent on tearing up humanity’s mark on Mars’ surface. Combat, though quickly rather repetitive, is well balanced, with as much focus put on dodging attacks and stepping away from the action as actually taking the ght to your rivals.
A button basher this is not. Less slick are the story elements. Plot progression feels forced, with cut-scenes interrupting gameplay without warning and rarely delivering anything that couldn’t have been li ed from pretty much any science- ction franchise post- Alien. Character movement feels equally clunky, with party members o en appearing like they’re having a t on screen. Just to top things o , the facial animations struggle throughout, with lip movement rarely having any relation to the words coming out of a character’s mouth.
ese are all relatively small niggles, however. When it comes to gameplay, it doesn’t really put a foot far wrong — but that’s largely because it takes so few risks. RPG elements revolve around upgrading your abilities and cra ing items from resources found on oored rivals, while there’s more than a hint of Bioshock about deciding whether to kill the fallen in exchange for their health-boosting serum, or leave them be.
Other than that, however, it’s all a little harmless. Spiders deserves a certain amount of respect for rebounding from criticism of Mars: War Logs and carrying on regardless, but e Technomancer makes no real progress and feels more like a rehash than a step forward.