Finally got around to seriously playing the game and just finished it.
Turned out my earlier annoyance regarding the multiple resource pools was mostly an over-reaction; once you get a point or two of Edge it becomes practically impossible to deplete them. I only ended up resting 3-4 times over the course of the entire game, and could’ve probably got by doing it just once if I had used those full-heal cyphers. That said the game isn’t very large by RPG standards… maybe about the size of Tyranny (perhaps a bit smaller).
It certainly is Planescape: Torment revisited though. Much like its predecessor, this game rewards high Intelligence values on the PC, heavily promotes exploring every branch of every dialog tree, and allows most confrontations to be solved/avoided without engaging in combat. That last one is particularly good since (also like PS:T) combat is kind of a pain.
However it’s the gameplay as a whole that’s holding it back rather than just the combat: The character building system is lacking, with many skill/ability choices being either useless or redundant, and you never really feel particularly powerful or godlike even at max level (which is Tier 4). Attack abilities don’t do all that much damage and companions who aren’t in the party not gaining experience certainly doesn’t help either. Equipment ends up being the main source of combat effectiveness, and the variety in that department is notably lacking (while there are tons of cyphers/oddities, there are only a few interesting weapons and a highly limited armor selection). There’s not really anything to collect either aside from merecasters.
Which all adds up to this being the perfect game for people who love replaying the exact same scenario while making slightly different choices (since those choices do actually tend to affect things here). Anyone looking for a more physically engaging or mechanic-based experience however will most likely be disappointed.
