Amid a complicated storyline and unexciting combat, Rookie Technomancer, lacks a good voice-over artiste and designer
Technomancer throws you into a desperate situation on Mars, where the water crisis has divided society into various sections. You play Zachariah, a rookie Technomancer who is on his way to becoming an officer. Unfortunately, for Zachariah, he can’t ignore the harsh realities of the divide in Mars society and decides to unravel its secrets. It is an interesting premise with an equally lengthy storyline that is marred by technical and gameplay issues.
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The game starts with your rookie in his dorm room — you get to change his look, eye colour and other visual traits. However, this exercise seems futile because, no matter what you choose, the character doesn’t seem to change too much. Once done, you can explore the dorm, look at the crafting table, talk to staff and finally head out to speak to your mentor, Sean. Indulge in some optional training exercise and head out to your first mission with Sean. It is a veiled training mission where you learn to use stealth and fight.
The combat is not particularly enjoyable. Sure, you can upgrade your weapons, powers and gear, but the fight, especially with humans, doesn’t go beyond plain brawling. Maps are another issue on this game. They are not that big, but they are made unnecessarily cumbersome by blocking paths and loading enemies in narrow gangways. That said, the game environment of Mars looks amazing, the colour and the background even the character art looks AAA.
Pity they didn’t get a good level designer or seasoned voice actors to tie it all in. It is rather unfortunate because the game feels like the developers were really trying hard to please the player by throwing everything at them. There is a lot to explore in The Technomancer, the main story clocks in around 20 hours. As an RPG, the progression module is also interesting, and there are several ways to improve your character and easily switch between skills during combat. Killing humans is frowned upon and it causes negative karma, which, in turn, affects your relationship with characters. It is a nice system, which I hope the developer keeps in its future games. The boss monsters in the game are fun, and killing them is difficult. The combat is more satisfying than any brawl. The music matches the environment and blends well with the game, so that’s a plus.
The Technomancer has a complicated storyline that has squandered its potential with poor design and gameplay. We would like to play only as one of those titles you pick up from the Steam sale for a ridiculously low price.