The Technomancer
Spiders from Mars lack Stardust
SHOCKINGLY, near-future Mars turns out to be not a great place to live. Not only have the corporations assumed the roles of states, and are fighting over water and resources (and if that’s not foreshadowing, we don’t know what is), but everybody has their face frozen in such a way that only their mouth can move.
Spiders, French developer of Mars:War Logs back in 2013, and 2014’s BoundBy Flame, has woven a new sci-fi RPG using a modified version of Sony’s popular free-touse PhyreEngine. Technically, it’s more of a hit than a miss, as the sharp output brings a brutalist art style to the fore, even if it is all rather brown. Huge halls extend into the distance without blurring, while the details of crossed hammer carvings and paintings of contented workers aren’t marred by postprocessing. It sounds like we’re praising the game for being a bit old-fashioned, and in a way we are—because everything is so sharp and clear, the choice of design motifs makes perfect sense.
There’s a downside, though. To go along with those frozen faces, the game’s characters have skin like a squash. The face we chose in the limited character creator had scars on its cheek, and we got to see every clearly-defined nuance of them as the game progressed. Soft-focus photography was invented to flatter those who didn’t want to see their imperfections. Someone needs to invent the soft-focus dialog scene.
Once you’re out in the world, there’s a lot of depth to be found. Everything has a system attached to it, with several upgrade trees, experience points, weapon/armor modifications, and a party system. Those who like to obsess over the implications of every point they spend will be in heaven, assuming heaven has other, less frustrating games to play when you need a break. The main annoyance comes from the combat. Fighting is hard on Mars, with every street gang seemingly capable of taking your character down.
This is unexpected because, as the name of the game suggests, you are a Technomancer—essentially, one of Mass Effect’s Biotics. You’ve got implants that enable you to channel electricity into your weapons, or send it arcing across the battlefield, and even though you’re newly qualified at the start of the game, you’ve still been receiving training for a while. The combat is real-time, button-mashy (using a controller is recommended), and a bit repetitive. You choose from three stances, lock on if you choose, then wade in with two attacks, plus magic powers, a dodge button at the ready to acrobatically move you out of danger. So, the fact that you end up on the floor so many times grates.
Spiders’ homage to BioWare isn’t actually bad—in fact, it’s great to see this level of assurance from an indie developer, and as we wait for MassEffect: Andromeda, it may be the sci-fi fix you’re looking for. But, if it’s an RPG you’re after, there are many games on the market with better mechanics and better stories.