Along with the announcement that the launch would slip to 2017 came the additional announcement that anyone who backed the game now had access to the beta. I'm not usually one for early access, and for a narrative-driven game like this it's doubly foolish to jump in early, but my lust for the Numenera setting (along with a read through the (again, backer-exclusive) comic that Patrick Rothfuss did) was enough to get me to break that rule. The news that the game is content complete didn't hurt either (as is the inevitability of me doing multiple runs through the game). So last night I grabbed the game and spent three hours running around in it. I would have played more, but I had work in the morning (or more specifically I had an early call so I needed to be sure to show up on time).

Let's get the complaints out of the way first, with the caveat that this is a real-ass beta (you're supposed to submit bug reports and everything) so some of this will probably get fixed between now and 2017:

The pathfinding is not great, and my companions got hung up on walls or just gave up on following me a few times. Plus the animation transitions are a little jerky sometimes, and the player character model does not look great. The cursor also felt a little sluggish to me, although I'll confess I did not check the options too closely so maybe that's in there somewhere.

The environments and NPC design, on the other hand, are pretty fantastic. I'm crossing my fingers that they clean up some of the models so they look a little better, but no big complaints there. Also the initial character generation is done in a clever manner (from the sound of things it used to be a more elaborate tutorial intro, but they cut it down). It felt long enough to me, anyway.

That's not what I come to Torment for though - I loved the writing and all the different ways you could (mostly) avoid combat in Planescape, and so far Numenera delivers in a big way. The writing is on a whole other level from what you generally get, with lush descriptions of an alien world, and thus far all the encounters I've had at least gave me the chance to get out without having to fight. Not just that, but there are a million little touches to the world that, should you wish to explore, will usually result in an XP gain or even an item you might not have gotten otherwise. There's a lot of reading in this game, which might turn some off, but damn it is a fine thing. The soundtrack has also been shockingly good, although sometimes I wonder if the triggers are working properly as sometimes it seems to cut out unexpectedly. I really can't say enough good about the writing though, it's clever and heartfelt and makes the world feel alien in the way it needs to. I'm very excited about this game.

Anyone else checked this beta out? What do you think of it?