The best RPGs are those that engage the player while laying out the story; it’s more than just making the ultimate swordsman or filling up a stat sheet. In pen-and-paper tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons, the best campaigns are spent talking. It’s you engaged in discussion with the Dungeon Master to see how much he’s willing to budge for you with your perception or persuasion rolls.

That kind of gameplay is what some of the RPGs of today have forgotten, however, with Torment: Tides of Numenara, it looks like the genre is in good hands.

There’s so much to do in the world of The Bloom even without drawing your weapons. Sure, the game can be fun if you’re just hacking and slashing at foes, but there comes a time that that feels boring. That’s why Torment gives you other options aside from just using brute force.

Part of the reason behind those options is the large number of conversations where choices and skill checks need to be made. The well-written dialogue within the game makes all those choices much more interesting. For example, whether you’re negotiating to free a slave, there will be conversation choices that will test your character’s strength, intelligence, and speed.

Each skill check is associated with each stat. Within each day passing in the game, each member of your four-man party will be receiving Effort points that can be spent to improve your characters’ chance of succeeding in a given task.

For example, you’re going fishing, and you’re looking for a relic. While doing so, the game will be coming up with your success rate based on a speed check; the higher the stat, the better the base chance to succeed. But if you want to make that fishing trip a sure thing, then you take advantage of your effort points.

It can be tempting to keep using those effort points over and over, but when you stop thinking and keep winning the rolls you want, you might not be able to get the rolls you really needed, and when that happens, a Crisis event can begin (or a turn-based battle if you prefer).

Every turn in that Crisis requires constant checks from your characters to de-escalate the situation.

All of that sounds absolutely amazing, and with the best gaming laptop from Sager Notebook, you’re going to have a swell time in The Bloom.