28th March 2017, 10:58 PM
So it took a month, which is way too long, but the Torment boxed Kickstarter reward games have finally shipped, and mine arrived today. And... hmm. Well, the outer box of the Collector's Edition version is pretty nice -- it's a big box with a simple but nice design on it. There isn't as much inside as the size of the box suggests, though -- a lot of it is just air and some cheap paperboard parts blocking off part of the box.
Inside is:
- The game on a DVD in a little folder, with the Steam key and DLC (backer costume) key on a piece of paper also in the sleeve. The disc version is not DRM-free, it requires Steam. As I said about PoE though, while a DRM-free disc option would be better (through GOG perhaps?), that's not all bad -- see PoE's patch/addon issues in the DRM-free version. Having a disc copy of the game is nice regardless. There is one issue though, on the sheet of paper with the keys they got them backwards -- the game key is the one labeled "DLC" and the DLC key is the one labeled "Game". Heh.
- The game soundtrack, in a paper/cardboard case with some nice art on the cover. Mark Morgan did the games' soundtrack, so it's fantastic. This is nice to have.
- A hard-bound artbook, showing off some of the really good artwork for this game. Torment: Tides of Numanera has some really fantastic art done for it, and you see quite a bit of it here, which is great... except for one thing: the art book is smaller than it should be. Seriously, make the pages in this thing bigger! For the kind of money this cost, you really should get a bigger artbook than this. That would justify the large box too, instead of having no point for using such a large box.
- A manual, titled the "Torment: Tides of Numanera Travel Guide". It's not especially long, at 36 pages, but it's on decent-sized paper, similar to the size of the artbook except in length, but the original PS: Torment didn't need the largest manual either, so this is probably as much as you need. It's a nice manual with some good background information about the game and Numanera world in it.
- And last, a nice cloth map. This is a sizable cloth map, larger than other ones I have such as the one from the regular edition of Wasteland 2. Good stuff, this at least is all around pretty nice.
- Additionally, probably because of some of the prerelease complaints, they gave backers some points in their Kickstarter rewards store, which I used to get the Torment: Tides of Numanera poster for "free". The poster is large and has a nice if monochromatic image from the game on it. It's not some of my favorite art from this game for sure, but it is weird in a way that it quite fitting for a Torment game. Written in small print all across the poster are the names of many backers. You don't notice it from a distance, but it's a nice touch. This poster is pretty cool and definitely helps a bit with the value proposition here.
So overall what do I think of the backer reward here? Basically, it's good, but could have been better. It really is not a good look when there is another collector's edition, the one from Techland for the European PC/console release of the game, which costs less and has more extras, such as a statuette and metal token thing. This does have the poster and cloth map as exclusive extras, so there are plusses to each and in some ways I probably like this more as I am not a statue collector but do sometimes like posters, but still, they could have done a little more here. Even so, I'm not really disappointed, for the most part this is a nice package. It's overpriced, but most games you get by backing them on Kickstarter is going to be overpiced versus buying them later once they release, which is one of the major reasons I've cut back significantly in backing Kickstarter stuff over the past year or so. It is nice to have helped fund this game, and I got some neat stuff from that.
As for the game itself... well, I decided to wait for the physical version before playing it (and was fine with that decision), so I've finally installed it now. Haven't actually played it yet though. :p
Inside is:
- The game on a DVD in a little folder, with the Steam key and DLC (backer costume) key on a piece of paper also in the sleeve. The disc version is not DRM-free, it requires Steam. As I said about PoE though, while a DRM-free disc option would be better (through GOG perhaps?), that's not all bad -- see PoE's patch/addon issues in the DRM-free version. Having a disc copy of the game is nice regardless. There is one issue though, on the sheet of paper with the keys they got them backwards -- the game key is the one labeled "DLC" and the DLC key is the one labeled "Game". Heh.
- The game soundtrack, in a paper/cardboard case with some nice art on the cover. Mark Morgan did the games' soundtrack, so it's fantastic. This is nice to have.
- A hard-bound artbook, showing off some of the really good artwork for this game. Torment: Tides of Numanera has some really fantastic art done for it, and you see quite a bit of it here, which is great... except for one thing: the art book is smaller than it should be. Seriously, make the pages in this thing bigger! For the kind of money this cost, you really should get a bigger artbook than this. That would justify the large box too, instead of having no point for using such a large box.
- A manual, titled the "Torment: Tides of Numanera Travel Guide". It's not especially long, at 36 pages, but it's on decent-sized paper, similar to the size of the artbook except in length, but the original PS: Torment didn't need the largest manual either, so this is probably as much as you need. It's a nice manual with some good background information about the game and Numanera world in it.
- And last, a nice cloth map. This is a sizable cloth map, larger than other ones I have such as the one from the regular edition of Wasteland 2. Good stuff, this at least is all around pretty nice.
- Additionally, probably because of some of the prerelease complaints, they gave backers some points in their Kickstarter rewards store, which I used to get the Torment: Tides of Numanera poster for "free". The poster is large and has a nice if monochromatic image from the game on it. It's not some of my favorite art from this game for sure, but it is weird in a way that it quite fitting for a Torment game. Written in small print all across the poster are the names of many backers. You don't notice it from a distance, but it's a nice touch. This poster is pretty cool and definitely helps a bit with the value proposition here.
So overall what do I think of the backer reward here? Basically, it's good, but could have been better. It really is not a good look when there is another collector's edition, the one from Techland for the European PC/console release of the game, which costs less and has more extras, such as a statuette and metal token thing. This does have the poster and cloth map as exclusive extras, so there are plusses to each and in some ways I probably like this more as I am not a statue collector but do sometimes like posters, but still, they could have done a little more here. Even so, I'm not really disappointed, for the most part this is a nice package. It's overpriced, but most games you get by backing them on Kickstarter is going to be overpiced versus buying them later once they release, which is one of the major reasons I've cut back significantly in backing Kickstarter stuff over the past year or so. It is nice to have helped fund this game, and I got some neat stuff from that.
As for the game itself... well, I decided to wait for the physical version before playing it (and was fine with that decision), so I've finally installed it now. Haven't actually played it yet though. :p