The Technomancer

The world building is interesting enough but its not enough to carry all its other elements.

“You, who has witnessed the secret with your own eyes, who, in your heart, knows the knowledge that he bears is true… and has understood that this knowledge could cast our kind into an endless pit of despair...”

The timelines of Mars: War Logs and The Technomancer wrap around each other. This game begins some time before Mars, and ends after its resolution. This dynamism offers the player a new way to experience the hostile existentialism of the Red Planet, and its inhabitants, the struggling, forgotten children of Earth. Among the elites of humanity’s diaspora are the technomancers, a group of super soldiers whose ranks we join as lieutenant Zachariah Mancer. His induction is hounded by Colonel Viktor Watcher, the ruthless authoritarian leader of Abundance’s military state, who believes that the secrets of the cloistered technomancers are the font of everlasting power on Mars.

The Technomancer assumes a high political tone, but never comes off as preachy; instead, it encourages us to think about our own convictions and place in the world. In sharp contrast to the faceless ecclesiastical tyranny of Aurora that we see in Mars, Zach’s saga confronts the propaganda of a recognizable regime. Aurora’s virtue names are replaced by a codified set of professional surnames, representative of the rigid caste system under which Abundance’s society groans. We follow Zach across Mars’ cities and through its ravaged shadow paths on his sacred duty as a technomancer: to preserve the secret, and reestablish contact with the Earth, to return the intergalactic exodus back to its roots. This story of humanity’s perpetual struggle with itself is told through four schools of fast-paced, reactive, and powerful combat, spanning a vivid, surviving, devastated planet whose populace dares to hope for a better future.

TL;DR?

It is truly a struggle to articulate the beauty of this game without spoilers, but I owe it to everyone who reads this to let them discover everything on their own. Spiders’ Mars saga doesn’t neatly fit into any genre delineations – it is sci-fi, political horror, post-apocalyptic, and fantastical, all at once – and this diversity does it many favours. The Technomancer is, first and foremost, a roleplaying game, and navigating the finer elements of that genre in such a beautiful muddle is a unique experience.

PROS
+ Predictably – the characters. Many mainstream, modern games lean heavily on the action aspect, to keep the player excited and engaged. Spiders’ games, however, acknowledge the importance of the character drama. It is hard to get someone to care about the piece of media they are consuming if they are not connected or engaged with the protagonist and their friends. While the overarching narrative of The Technomancer is much larger than Zach himself, we only care about it because we care about Zach and his companions. It is this humanizing impulse that runs through all of Spiders’ games that make them so endearing.
+ The story is a strong assessment of power, humanity, and all its subsequent trappings.
+ Easily has the best combat of Spiders’ generational run of RPGs. The staff is unbelievably fun to play with, and its animations are satisfying and beautiful. You feel its every hit as Zach gracefully pirouettes with it. The nail gun and dagger are satisfying and fluid, and the animation for the Guardian’s shield unfurling scratches my brain.
+ Every class – Warrior, Rogue, Guardian, and of course Technomancer – plays and handles differently. You can swap between the melee classes with a quick keystroke, and use your technomancy in any stance.
+ Reactive combat.
+ The crafting system. Being able to see each modification and understand how it benefits you in the game has always been a hallmark of Spiders, and it is in The Technomancer where this truly comes into its own.
+ Your choices actually matter. Your companions remember what you say and what you do, and you can lose them, befriend them, or fall in love with them(!). It’s up to you.
+ An atmospheric masterpiece; environmental storytelling takes the starring role as you navigate abandoned colonial ruins, discover desiccated corpses, and scavenge supplies, and the engaging electric-yet-rustic soundtrack is by none other than the Olivier Derivière.
+ Iconic Spiders monster design.
+ Satisfying exploration.
+ The karma system is intriguing. You can fall victim to your want for serum – water, currency – but at the cost of human life… and it will affect your path.

CONS
- It can refuse to run on certain multicore computers. I have an i7 processor and never had an issue, yet other people couldn’t get it to stay open.
- Similar to Spiders’ other works, the camera can be a bit finicky at times when you lock onto an enemy, especially in a confined area.
- Cameras in dialogues are likewise awkwardly placed – we are close to Zach, but his companions are metres away, yet sound like they’re right by his side.
- While the combat in The Technomancer is the most approachable of all their games, it is also the most luck-oriented, especially on higher difficulties; you can handily deal with some groups of enemies, while other groups of those same enemies will bum-rush you and force you to reload.
- Act 1, while important for establishing the story and introducing us to Zach and his circumstances, feels a little protracted compared to the other acts.
- The penultimate boss is underwhelming, from both a game-play and story standpoint.

Reflections

After I finished The Technomancer for the first time, it haunted me. The horror of being stranded so far from aid, at the mercy of megalomaniac corporations whose currency is water and secrets, unlocked some sort of primal unease deep within me. Even those characters whose loyalties splintered from the corporations only served themselves and their own interests. While I personally find the gameplay of every Spiders installment to be great, the story and its dramatis personae are what I always tend to remember the most.

Zachariah is a sharp contrast to Roy. Instead of a renegade, we are a young officer, struggling to find our role on the seismic political stage of Abundance. We approach this world not through the point of view of a jaded POW, but through the fresh eyes of a cadet, who is discovering the rot and ruin of his childhood home in real time. Experiencing this disenchantment with Zach, rather than inheriting it as we do with Roy, we are privileged to see another side of Martian society. This is in no way a denunciation of Roy’s story and character, but rather a testament to the dynamism of Spiders’ storytelling. The overlapping of Roy’s journey and Zachariah’s struggle offer a better understanding of the lay of the land. That Zach is impacted by choices that Roy made thrusts us into an environment that is living and unforgiving. The flora and fauna of the rolling Martian wastelands may be alien to our eyes, yet the underpinnings of the perpetual struggle for power and our morally cannibalistic impulses is laid bare. This game is fast-paced. engaging, and an unforgettable journey that serves to reflect on the realities of human nature. In sharing Zach’s disillusionment, we are encouraged to think about our own beliefs, and how we would navigate injustice and hopelessness while trapped in a cage. The themes and ideas that undergird The Technomancer are close enough to our own reality to remain confronting.

Final Verdict

Overall Rating ★★★★★
Story ★★★★★
Gameplay ★★★★★
Graphics ★★★★★
Sound Design ★★★★★
Replay Value ★★★★☆
Difficulty ★★★★☆
PC Requirements ★★★☆☆
Game Length ★★★★★

[quote]Visit Damsel Direct for more gunpowder, magic, and chaos.[/quote]

its kinda boring.

People expect that every game like this should be as good as ;
- Witcher 3
- Mass Effect 2
- Uncharted 2

For the sake of comparison....the games I mentioned are like a Michelin star gourmet meal.
And this game here is like a fat juicy burger with fries and a can of Coke.
Not the best in the world....but still very juicy and delicious if you're not an elite customer i guess.
It took me 36 hours to finish and sometime in the future I'm going to replay it for the sake of seeing different endings.
Give it a few hours to grow onto you and you will have an experience to remember.

This game starts out slow, but it reminded me of Deus Ex. But as the story progresses things get complicated which reminded me of Mass Effect. It's a complex story with many twists and turns and a good amount of choices that ultimately shape the endings (There's a couple). I think that this is a great game that I will add to my list of "must play".

it's not perfect but I've had a lot of fun

The blandest of games award goes to The Technomancer.

There's NO CONTROLLER SUPPORT even though the game says it has. CRASHED upon starting the game. What a waste of money.

although the story's progression was a bit unusual, it was quite good. the combat felt a little odd, but i loved the game

This game is absolutely awesome. It has a ton of lore and doing side missions is actually enjoyable as you discoverer even more stories. Uh and also you can do Snoo Snoo ;)

Unfortunately the world map creates the illusion the game world will be huge. But actually there are not too many different locations. Doing missions will often times route you through maps you have visited a few times already. But also this makes the world feel more connected as you do not visit a city once and never return. So this is fine by me.

The combat mechanics are a bit clunky especially if you play the tank build. But somehow you get used to it. At the beginning this is more of an issue as only a few hits can knock you out. Not that later one you can't get hit with a few fatal attacks. But the character is more robust so one Missmanagement isn't as bad. Actually there was a time where unironically I was like "Oh, I died. Didn't see that coming".

The plot is also worth it. No spoilers here don't worry. But it takes some nice turns through the game.

I played it entirely on Steam Deck and it ran very well. 30 - 50ish fps which I deem playable. Playing on battery will make it drain in less then 2h though. Even with fps limiters enabled.

Anyway I can't believe I waited this long to actually play the game. Also I can't believe ppl talk so little about this and the community Wiki is rather emtpy to say at least.

Also it may be no Mass Effect but it has some resemblance imho. Decisions also change the outcome of the story to some extent. Not as much as I hoped. Not like "Will delivering the weapons to A influence if B will live or die?" Which would have been nice but it's not to this extent.

A hidden gem, one of the better euro janks I've played

Is good. It could have been better if the combat wasn't so annoying. Nice graphics, nice gameplay, nice story.

Technomancer has a lot of potential, especially in its combat, mission complexity, and overall design. But too many aspects fall flat - stiff voice acting, a cookie-cutter (early-game) story, dated textures, unnecessary loot and crafting clutter.

The combat looks great, with fluid animations and a strong foundation, but often feels unresponsive, queuing up inputs instead of reacting instantly, which takes away from the enjoyment.

I don’t dislike the game, and that’s what frustrates me most. It has the bones of something great, but too many small issues pile up. It just needed more time in the oven.

good game just freezes alot.

A hidden gem. Very well made and played game, both in mechanics and story.

Great battle system! Not a fan about the storytelling line of work.

Tl;dr Very mediocre and repetitive.

Janky but very fun game

fun...mars

Huh, this game won't play on any rig with more than 4 cores. Never thought I'd need to check a game page for maximum system requirements but here I am with a digital paperweight.

Literally cannot play without editing your computers Core and limiting it to 8 or lower. Shit design.
-Got a newer computer to play more games on it and now cannot play this game due to literally getting a better system.

Yet another defunct game. What is with developers abandoning their games and leaving gamers to try to figure out ridiculous workarounds to solve core issues. This game has a "multithread" issue which requires me to boot my PC in 4 cores or less because my computer is too advanced by having more than 4 cores? This honestly makes no sense. This is the second Spiders game I wanted to check out on PC, for modding to improve an otherwise mediocre game based on most reviews I've read, but the developers seem to really be failing in more than just the quality of the gaming content, but also in fundamentals of game distribution and accessibility.

Why would anyone want to spend hours trying to troubleshoot and search for solutions to play a game when they could just play a better game that is optimized and accessible to the masses. I play games to enjoy them, not to find workarounds and half-baked solutions to a developer issue. Unfortunate, because I want to support small RPG game developers as that is how many of the greats started out. I'll have to see if they can fix this sort of thing with future games I suppose.

man this is bad

The Technomancer is a fun unique sci-fi RPG from Spiders, before their success hit Greedfall, you can see this project is the one they learned a lot of lessons to improve on and release Greedfall. However, having played both games, I do feel the story,the characters and the atmosphere of Technomancer is overall a lot more interesting for a sci-fi junkie like me. It has all the basic elements of an action RPG, a voiced protagonist that has to make choices, establish relationships with companions, and make the right choices for the best ending. The only limitation on this one is that the protagonist can only be male, which does limit its audience in a genre that appeals a lot to gender choice protagonists.

You can tell it is Spiders (a non triple A Studio) first big rpg project, as the game is pretty janky in some areas where it could have used more time and budget to polish the game up. This includes a hit and miss combat that can get repetitive with enemies respawning as you go back and forth the same areas to complete quests, and some animations in the cinematics that could use more work. That said, the effort to create a great RPG is still there, and given its age, it still is a pretty playable and engaging enough story that lets you enjoy the experience despite the game’s shortcomings.The atmosphere and level design for example is quite interesting and each area feels quite alive, there is a lot of love put into transporting you to the world of this game. The story is also divided into chapters and it shifts things up in the world with each chapter, creating an impact on the world and companions. Companions are also quite unique from each other in their designs and their personal quest, each one feels essential to the story.

Not only will you do missions for companions to establish good friendships with them, but you can also romance these companions. Overall I was quite impressed with the romance system, the game’s pretty clear when you are attempting to pursue a romance or not, unlike Greedfall which I thought was confusing how to initiate a romance with Vasco for example. In this game however, all 3 romance options are significant plot relevant characters that make a lot of sense. I was particularly impressed by Andrew’s romance, how close together the bond between him and your protagonist is, given that most games put the “gay option” as an afterthought, that is certainly not the case here. So both the two female love interests and the male interest are overall solid options you won’t feel like you're missing out on from picking one over the other.

On the PC technical side, I didn’t have issues personally, but I am running my computer under Windows 10, so that might have helped avoiding some of the issues I saw reported on the reviews. Overall, I think this is a decent experience to have if you're looking to try more different RPGs in the style of Greedfall or Bioware games in general. Playtime depends on how many side quests you decide to do or not. My playtime here is based on doing all companion side quests, a decent amount of sidequests to make factions happy, but didn’t do every single one, and of course completing the main quest. You can probably finish it without doing much sidequests in about 15-20 hours, which is still a pretty good chunk of time for how cheap you can get this game under 10 dollars or less during sales on steam.

Game was ok, nothing special by any means. There was a few things I didn't like and ill just mention those.

1. Companions are terrible in fighting 98% of the time.
2. There is so much back tracking between missions and levels its beyond annoying. So do your best not to forget anything or go the wrong way.
3. Sometimes your health potions like to disappear in the middle of a boss fight causing you to restart and this is super annoying when the boss is almost dead but then so are you.
Those are my only 3 complaints.

If you have a decent multi-core cpu the game will simply not launch.
Do not buy unless you have an older cpu/PC

It would be nice if there was a warning on the steam page about the incompatibility with modern PCs.

game and that you can have driverent out come

disappointingly, this game would not run on my new laptop with 12 cores running windows 11 and 32gb ram so i cant comment on game play

9/10 шедевр от французов Spiders (продолжение игры Mars: War Logs) c отличным нелинейным сюжетом, продуманными диалогами (в качестве минуса — отсутствие возможности пауз или лога для повторного прочтения), хорошей разносторонней системой боёв и почти открытого мира (увы, бектрекинга в квестах многовато).

Большинство критиков дают минус игре за несовместимость с компами выше 11 Windows и более 8 ядер, хотя второе и можно уменьшить в BIOS и "сложность" прохождения. У себя никаких багов не наблюдал, кроме временных афк-NPC, мешающих проходу. Проходил сразу на Hard сложности, что вполне подойдёт для геймеров средне-высокой опытности или знакомых с играми от этих разработчиков (Bound by Flame и Mars: War Logs). Но можно и взять минимальные уровни, если больше хотите насладиться сюжетом в духе Mass Effect или Detroit: Become Human.

Mars. The Red planet. Water is the most precious resource and who owns it - owns the planet. Four major water corps. are in an endless power struggle for it. You are The Technomancer - a "spearhead" of the army, who is in possession of powerful electrical abilities . Complete your training to become a full member of the The Technomancers and bound your vows to them : to always protect the secret and seek to contact Earth.

This is really overlooked, but great RPG! i am blown away from how amazing the world, the lore, and the story is. I am quite frankly astonished that more people haven't heard of it. it really do deserve more hype. Yes it's a little buggy, but even with that the RPG elements shines through! and the atmosphere is amazing! The game is a little bit janky, but full of heart. so get the game! it goes on sale all the time!

don't buy this if your pc runs Win 11 and has more than 8 cores

this game won't run on my i7 12th gen processor

buyer be aware!

is there a fix? yes, if you are willing to go into bios and reduce cores used to 8

no game should ever require that you change your pc bios to reduce cores used

i wish i could play this game on pc, its looked really fun when my son played on the xbox. maybe i'll try it on the xbox since it doesn't work on my pc.

Better combat than Mars: War Logs but still very fun

I like this game first few hours was bit hard but then I figure out fighting secrets very very nice gameplay, Good story reminds SW the old republic

Not an easy question to answer with Technomancer. Would I recommend it?

Overall, it was a pleasant experience so I would say yes but there are some issues that could hinder some folks' enjoyment of the game. The combat is relatively simple, repetitive and there is a wild amount of backtracking expected of you, provided you're looking to complete most of the quests, both main and side stories.

With that said, I did enjoy the overall story here. It was interesting enough to keep me going and I was curious to see where it would all lead. The companions were all different and had their own thoughts and opinions so it was fun to play through their story archs. There are plenty of choices to make that influence your ending which is voiced by the main character at the end.

If you're looking for an RPG to dive into akin to Dragon Age or Mass Effect and you're a fan of cinematic RPG's, you'll likely have a decent time. Especially, if you've played most of them out there by now.

Hope this opinion helps you make a decision!

PS: If you have more than 8 cores on your CPU you'll need to reduce them to 8 or you will not be able to play the game. I recommend following this guide here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2951759425

Clunky and unplayable, full of bad design choices (eg enemy fully heal immediately if you move away from their area, so watch where you dodge)

Do not buy this game if you have a processor with more than 8 cores... It won't work, I just learned this the hard way...

Other than that the game is nothing like its trailers and the gameplay forces you to give yourself a soft lobotomy of some sort.
- The combat system requires you to play with a controller if you want to play it for more than 20 hours.
- There is no point in playing anything other than the pistol and dagger. and yet you will be rewarded with gear for other choices pretty much all of the time.
- The plot pushes what it wants so look up the results because the save mechanics are BS.
- LEARN TO SAVE AFTER EVERY DIALOG DECISION OR COMBAT ENCOUNTER!
- The crafting system is a joke.
- The gear system is a bigger joke.
- You can ignore the "talent tree" until you max out a "talent". Don't expect the Charisma or Traps/Lockpicking to do anything until Lvl2.
- Stealth doesn't work. You can crouch run at Lvl3 and the enemy gets triggered if you're within 1.5m of them. That is also the only distance the back stab attack prompts up.
- You level up through grinding fights and grind you must if you pick up wrong "Talents" and "Skills" for a specific mission.
- You finished a fight? Loot anything that is lootableone body at a time, become over encumbered sell your goods, earn no cash, repeat. Eventually you'll remember to put on that +1 crafting tunic and craft what little premium material you can and that very, very, very costly upgrade will grant you a 5-10% bonus to something.
- Your choices will matter later for a specific location and that's about it.
- The karma system is an insult to any other game that attempted to make one. Kill an enemy for a mission, -1 karma. Do 20 odd side missions, +1 karma. What does it get you? Who knows... Even the internet can't decide.
- NPC's are either complete morons, boring as bread or well spoken and sophisticated creatures no matter what faction they are except the bugs.

Overall either watch a playthrough or buy something else.

constantly crashes on startup

It sure is a Spiders game, with all the flaws they can't seem to shake off. But it's solid, and the characters are endearing. Don't expect a super-reactive triple-A game, mak epeace with the respawning mob encounters, and accept some clunkiness in dialogue options (characters talking about things that the player hasn't discovered yet, companions greeting you cheerily right after a traumatic event that should warrant at least a custom dialogue option... AND nobody comments on you starting a romance. What friend group wouldn't rib you at least once?), and you'll have a nice time. I'd rather reccommend it on sale, though.

As an aside, there's a LOT of typos and even misspellings in the subtitles. Kind of off-putting that nobody bothered to fix them so many years after release WHILE the studio still actively uses the same engine. It's not like it's pathcing in new dialogue or quests, just some text strings...

I'd recommend it if you can catch it on sale for a few bucks. The game isn't a bad game, but I found myself annoyed with having to constantly backtrack with no fast travel between different parts of the city.

The slow start made it difficult for me to get engaged enough to feel like putting up with the constant backtracking and no fast travel. Still worth checking out if you've got a few bucks and a bit of patience.

I wrote a review for this already, and I'm not sure why it disappeared, but I love this game. It's weird and refreshing though imperfect. The companions and setting are very interesting. It's got some similar flaws to Dragon Age 2 in that the zones are linear/repetitive and the combat is similarly repetitive. But it is satisfying. It's a weird one but worth playing if you are looking for a companion focused RPG to play. Spiders tries a lot of new things with their games, but keep that older magic from the golden ages of Draogn Age Origins alive. It's no DA:O or Mass Effect but it scratches an itch in a way no new Bioware game ever will again.

Okay, here's the deal; buy it on sale or throw the full price on it. You'll get enough entertainment out of it. It's a mid game.

It's ok game and a clear improvement from its prequel "Mars War Logs". The graphics and combat got better, story is still serviceable with a little twist in the end.
I got stuck one time not because of difficulty spike but because I thought I run out of quest to do and the quest active makes me wait. Then I saw an exclamation icon but its not highlighted that should be the one I have to do. I don't know why the game did it I thought I encountered a bug. They dev really have to work with their quest pacing and look at their some questionable game design. Also I don't know why they hard lock talents and abilities while not on skills?
Some dialogues also kind of drag on and just make me wanna skip some lines just to get on with the game.
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.
Overall its mediocre game with mediocre story up to you if you wanna waste some time on it.

I really enjoyed it. The setting is beautiful, the storyline is interesting and engaging, and it's actually a fun game!
Contrary to other reviews, it does work on multiprocessors (only had one crash in all).
Yes, some parts are tedious and you end up running like an idiot from A to B encountering the exact same bunch of enemies (looking at you, Underworks), and yes, the combat is occasionally completely haphazard and random, which makes it frustrating. But all in all, it's a good game, and if you can bag it on sale, don't hesitate!