The Technomancer

The Technomancer is an enormous open-world RPG with 40+ hours of content that has an expertly-crafted world at its center. Unfortunately, it's held back by technical issues that are hard to overlook, poor narrative, and unoriginal design.

69%Game Brain Score

story, gameplay

grinding, stability

69% User Score Based on 1,845 reviews

Critic Score 55%Based on 32 reviews

Platforms

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About

The Technomancer is a sci-fi RPG set in a post-apocalyptic Mars, where water and power are scarce. As a Technomancer, a warrior with dynamic magical abilities, players explore the red planet, completing missions and making dialogue choices that alter the story. Various combat styles, crafting, and a party system add depth to this immersive, expansive title.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

69%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,845 reviews

story657 positive mentions

grinding71 negative mentions

Engaging story with interesting characters and choices that matter.
Fun combat system with multiple fighting styles and skill trees.
Visually appealing environments that capture the atmosphere of a dystopian Mars.

Excessive backtracking and respawning enemies make gameplay tedious.
Combat can feel clunky and unresponsive at times, leading to frustrating encounters.
Voice acting and dialogue writing are inconsistent, detracting from immersion.

story
2,067 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
32%
62%
6%
The story of "The Technomancer" is generally well-received, with many players appreciating its engaging narrative and character development, reminiscent of classic RPGs like "Mass Effect" and "Dragon Age." However, criticisms arise regarding pacing issues, repetitive quest design, and a lack of impactful choices, which can detract from the overall experience. While the game offers a rich world and intriguing plot twists, some players find the execution lacking, leading to a mixed reception of its storytelling elements.
- “The story is engaging, has nice twists, the companions are unique and have backstories, personalities; they are not the typical 'give me enough gifts and I will love you for no reason' companions like you see in most RPGs.”
- “The story is captivating mix of political intrigue, personal quests, and a touch of sci-fi mystique.”
- “The story is very solid, and the atmosphere is beautiful.”
- “The story pacing at the end is so off you will feel you are nearing the end but the game suddenly throws dozens of main and side quests at you at the same time making it so messy to deal with.”
- “The game likes to use previous areas for 'new' missions, which makes the whole gameplay boring.”
- “The story is okay, but it's one of those games that has so much talking, and the uninteresting kind.”
gameplay
447 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
61%
16%
The gameplay of "The Technomancer" has received mixed reviews, with many players noting its clunky mechanics and repetitive nature, particularly in combat and quest design. While some appreciate the RPG elements and character customization, others criticize the lack of depth and polish, leading to a frustrating experience marred by backtracking and uninspired mission structures. Overall, the game offers a decent story and engaging combat for those willing to overlook its gameplay shortcomings, but it may not satisfy players seeking a more refined experience.
- “I found the combat mechanics enjoyable and liked the different factions, the dialogs, the game story, the world, the lore, the gameplay, and the characters.”
- “The gameplay is solid, but also rather difficult.”
- “The combat is fast-paced and satisfying, with three melee class trees and one 'magic' class, the titular technomancer, who learns a variety of lightning-based attacks and defense.”
- “From a narrative perspective, precious little transpires within the first four hours, and the gameplay itself remains equally uninspiring.”
- “The real issue comes with the gameplay, which is incredibly repetitive.”
- “The gameplay is clunky and the story isn't very gripping in the beginning, sort of vague.”
graphics
429 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
47%
8%
The graphics of "The Technomancer" have received mixed reviews, with many players noting that while they are decent and hold up well for a 2016 release, they often feel dated compared to AAA titles. The art style is appreciated for its atmospheric qualities, though some criticize the character models and animations as stiff or lacking polish. Overall, the visuals are considered a significant improvement over previous titles from the developer, but they may not meet the expectations set by more recent games in the genre.
- “The graphics are great even for today's standards.”
- “For a game that was released in 2016, the graphics, with some inconsistencies here and there, still hold up, and the art style, while sometimes a little dark, is good.”
- “The graphics are good, have a high-end PC, it runs smooth with no FPS drops.”
- “It's very bland and even the art design and graphics are bad, especially for a 2016 RPG.”
- “The graphics are dark and grey, and in the part I played only the opening had any sunlight or outdoors at all.”
- “If I were to compare this to triple-A titles of the same styling, I couldn't recommend it as it is a bleak, ugly game with graphics that seem from a generation ago.”
music
192 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
42%
48%
10%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some praising its atmospheric qualities and ability to complement the Martian setting, while others criticize it for being repetitive and lacking memorable melodies. Many players find certain tracks enjoyable and fitting for the game's tone, but there are also complaints about the music being monotonous or reminiscent of elevator music. Overall, while some appreciate the unique and immersive aspects of the soundtrack, others feel it detracts from the overall experience due to its inconsistency and repetitiveness.
- “The game's soundtrack complements the Martian setting perfectly, immersing you further into this intriguing world.”
- “The music is unique and captivating.”
- “The soundtrack is great; the voices are even better, and the sound effects are responsive and give you clues for area-awareness, especially in combat.”
- “The music ranges from bad to middling.”
- “Unfortunately, the dialogue, voice acting (particularly the main character), and the music are all so bad that they're killing the vibe.”
- “The music is uninspired.”
atmosphere
108 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
55%
40%
6%
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its immersive and compelling design, effectively capturing a gritty, futuristic Martian setting that enhances the storytelling experience. While some reviews note inconsistencies in execution and gameplay, the overall ambiance, complemented by a fitting soundtrack and unique art style, creates a captivating environment that many players find engaging. Despite some criticisms regarding combat and technical issues, the game's atmosphere remains a standout feature that draws players into its world.
- “The atmosphere and characters are somewhat intriguing, but 10 hours in and I haven't gotten to anything really interesting yet.”
- “Breathtaking environments, a great story, atmosphere, and deep characters made this game a real experience.”
- “The atmosphere of the game is absolutely incredible - it's gritty, but it's not depressing; there's a feeling of hope through the locations.”
- “Unfortunately, it lacks atmosphere and features a few annoying elements.”
- “Dead environment, no atmosphere at all in any of the areas.”
- “It just lacks some atmosphere throughout the middle.”
grinding
72 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
1%
99%
The grinding aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it tedious due to excessive backtracking, repetitive enemy encounters, and fetch quests. While some enjoy the combat and find it engaging, the overall experience is often marred by the need to grind for levels and resources, leading to a sense of frustration and monotony. Despite these criticisms, a few players appreciated the game enough to push through the grind, suggesting that enjoyment may depend on individual tolerance for repetitive gameplay.
- “Almost no grinding; however, spawns are fairly quick, so there's still a bit of fighting while traveling.”
- “The game then becomes a repetitive, grindy mess, constantly having you backtrack to already explored areas, which are now 100% hostile to you as well, meaning you have to fight the same enemies over and over and over again.”
- “Got tedious around the 2nd chapter and downright boring running back and forth between cities for various quests with the same monsters respawning time and time again in the same places.”
- “The combat is fun but again when it hits later points in the game it's just boring, having to fight the same guys again and again because of a bad respawn system is tedious.”
stability
66 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
3%
97%
The game's stability is a mixed bag, with many players reporting significant bugs and glitches that can disrupt gameplay, including game-breaking issues and graphical anomalies. While some users experienced smooth performance without major problems, the overall consensus highlights a lack of polish, with frequent minor issues that detract from the experience. Despite its fun elements, the game's technical shortcomings are a common point of frustration among players.
- “Runs great, looks beautiful, and plays well.”
- “I bought this because of the Steam Deck, and it seems to run just fine and then just freezes no matter what version of Proton I'm using, so that's unfortunate.”
- “The biggest reason for the low score is that many people (including myself) have been halted in their quest to finish this beautiful game due to literal game-breaking glitches that inhibit progress.”
- “Despite an interesting hook and nice cutscene videos, the game is unpolished and buggy.”
character development
41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
37%
56%
7%
Character development in the game is generally praised for its depth and intricacy, offering a variety of skills, attributes, and talents that allow players to shape their characters meaningfully. While many reviews highlight the engaging story and well-defined personalities of characters, some note inconsistencies in development depth and pacing, with a few characters lacking significant growth. Overall, the character development system is seen as a strong aspect of the game, providing a satisfying blend of customization and narrative engagement.
- “Great story with in-depth character development and personalities.”
- “Overall it is somewhat rough around the edges but fully fulfills its purpose; the game tells a unique rich story with lots of charm, the environments are amazing, character development and lore is captivating and well defined.”
- “Character development is well done - for instance in the skill tree you can choose your style and combine many abilities/passives to your preference.”
- “Technomancer doesn't seem to have figured out whether it wanted to go for the freedom of decision, or a story-driven character development, and with the current hybrid-ish solution it just feels like it fails at both.”
- “Some characters have no character development over the course of the game and it has parts that are written quite badly.”
- “I think the issue so many people have with it is that they compare it too much to Mass Effect's incredible storyline, graphics, characters, and content, as well as the flexibility in choices and character development.”
optimization
39 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
28%
54%
18%
The optimization of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players experiencing smooth performance on high-end rigs, while others report significant frame drops and high CPU usage even on capable hardware. Many users noted that the game is poorly optimized, leading to choppy gameplay and technical issues, despite its impressive graphics and overall decent performance on lower-end systems. Overall, while some players found the game well-optimized, a substantial number highlighted serious optimization flaws that detracted from the experience.
- “Performances are generally quite good, which is important as there is a lot of dialogue. Even if you skip through after reading, you will be hearing a lot of talking.”
- “The graphics are gorgeous, and playing everything on high on a GTX 670, I can say this game is very well optimized.”
- “No crashing, no stuttering, and no long load times.”
- “The major flaw of this title is its poor optimization, so you need to have godly hardware for the game to not drop frames in most areas.”
- “Adding insult to injury, the game suffers from really poor optimization and overall performance, with several settings really slamming the experience to unpleasant levels.”
- “I'm running a 4GHz i5-2500K paired with a GTX 780, and the CPU usage in towns was often in the 90% range on all 4 cores, GPU was 100%, and the strain was causing it to throttle down, which further hampered performance.”
humor
32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
94%
6%
The humor in the game is a mixed bag, with many players finding the unintentionally bad voice acting and awkward animations to be hilariously entertaining. While some characters deliver genuinely funny lines, others fall flat, leading to a blend of cringe-worthy and amusing moments throughout the gameplay. Overall, the humor adds a unique charm to the experience, though some players feel it could be more consistent and refined.
- “It's actually hilarious, to be honest.”
- “The lipsyncing is off, the faces of characters contort in hilarious ways during speech. I've spotted a few typos in the subtitling, NPCs simply materialize right in front of you throughout the numerous hub worlds, but nothing game-breaking.”
- “Good story, funny conversations, decisions, skill trees, crafting, a little bit of transhumanism - all served properly for me to enjoy.”
- “I have my opinion about recent humanity when I see that uncontrollable, bad, unfunny meme games get positive reviews while a gem like this receives mixed feedback.”
- “The side characters and companions that tag along are equally boring, aside from their unfunny one-liners.”
emotional
31 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
84%
16%
The emotional aspect of the game receives mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the touching character development and impactful dialogue, while others criticize the lack of emotional depth and payoff in relationships. Many feel that the emotional scenes are undermined by awkward animations and predictable storylines, leading to a disconnect from the characters and their struggles. Overall, while there are moments of emotional engagement, they are often overshadowed by repetitive gameplay and a lackluster narrative.
- “They are treated as slaves in this society, and their plight forms the emotional backbone of the story.”
- “Watching how the plot develops and what happens to certain people was really touching.”
- “I feel there is a simple, but heartfelt, story being told here, and in such an ambitious scope.”
- “I literally only played for 15 minutes before realizing this is a horrible clone of a game with an uninteresting and boring story.”
- “The technomancer and spiders are a case of 'if it's broke, why fix it?' The same issues that M:WL and BBF had are still present here: boring story, broken combat, bare-bones crafting, ugly graphics, a useless party, and a boring uninspired leveling system creates an experience that either leaves me snoring or disgusted.”
- “The game was rather repetitive, with a boring story and combat that randomly ranged between 'boring for a child' to 'move on over Dark Souls.'”
replayability
29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
10%
72%
17%
Overall, the game's replayability is a mixed bag among reviewers. While some players appreciate the potential for different character builds and story decisions that can lead to varied endings, many express disappointment with the linearity of the main plot and the lack of significant changes in outcomes, resulting in limited replay value. A few users noted that the game could be replayed for achievements or different play styles, but overall sentiment leans towards a lack of compelling reasons to replay.
- “Finally, the role-playing aspect of the game boils down to conversation trees and multiple methods of completing quests, which adds some replayability to the game.”
- “Like Mass Effect, there's replay value in taking different characters with you on the same missions during a new playthrough.”
- “The game can be replayable for a good amount of different decisions that can change the ending.”
- “You can't get all the achievements with one playthrough, and sadly I can't consider this game replayable.”
- “Not much replayability to be honest, the outcomes don't change much.”
- “Unfortunately there isn't much, if any replay value.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Reviewers suggest that while the game may not be AAA quality, its pricing reflects a limited budget, and they appreciate the effort and passion behind its development. They recommend waiting for a sale to get the best value, especially when comparing it to other titles that may prioritize profit over quality.
- “The monetization model feels exploitative, pushing players to spend more than they should just to enjoy the game fully.”
- “It's frustrating to see so many features locked behind paywalls, making it hard to enjoy the game without spending extra money.”
- “The in-game purchases are overpriced and often feel necessary to progress, which detracts from the overall experience.”