The Technomancer is a game about power, and it mostly delivers on the promise of that power. The problem is that the promise comes wrapped in a story that doesn’t know what to do with itself, and a combat system that feels less like a revolution and more like a reskin of what came before. On PS4, PC and Xbox One, it asks players to fight, talk, and explore a Mars that has been left behind by humanity. It rarely succeeds on all three fronts at once.
Trailer, via IGDBcom.
Mars As A Ruined World
The setting is the game’s strongest asset. Mars is a wasteland of broken cities, ruined outposts and strange alien life, and the art direction sells it with confidence. Dust storms roll across the horizon, rusted towers loom over empty streets, and the color palette shifts from red to orange to gray depending on where you stand. The world feels lived-in in a way that many games in this genre miss entirely.
Exploration rewards curiosity. Side quests lead to hidden locations, and the map fills in slowly as you travel. There are fast-travel points scattered across the landscape, which helps when the main path sends you backtracking across familiar ground. The game also lets you fly freely through the air, and the freedom that comes with that movement makes some of the larger open-world spaces feel genuinely vast.
Combat That Promises More Than It Delivers
The Technomancer is built around a skill tree that lets you specialize in three primary abilities: magic, blades, and guns. The idea is that you can build a character who fights the way you want to, whether you’re casting spells, hacking enemies with a blade, or laying down gunfire. In practice, the system is shallow enough that most builds converge on a similar shape within a few hours.
The telekinesis ability is the standout mechanic. It lets you pull enemies toward you, push them away, and lift objects to block attacks. It’s clever, and it feels distinct from the standard mage trope of throwing fireballs. But the other abilities don’t hold the same weight. Guns feel generic, and blades feel like a slower version of melee combat in most other RPGs.
Boss fights rely heavily on these mechanics, and they’re where the game’s ambition shows its cracks. Some encounters ask you to switch between telekinesis and guns mid-fight, which is fun in theory. In practice, the camera struggles to keep up with fast movements, and the difficulty spikes often come from the interface failing to respond as quickly as the enemy attacks.
A Story That Can’t Decide What It Is
The plot follows a young technomancer named Ajax, who lives in a community of people who have lost their connection to the ancient technology that powered Mars. He gains the ability to wield that power again, and the game spends a lot of time explaining why that matters. The writing tries to balance epic space opera with intimate character drama, and the two tones never quite meet.
The dialogue is often stilted, with characters delivering exposition-heavy lines that sound more like lore dumps than conversations. The cast is thin, and the supporting characters exist mainly to deliver quests and fill out the world. Ajax himself is a blank slate, and the game never gives him enough personality to make his journey feel personal.
There are a handful of moments where the story finds its footing. A late-game twist involving Ajax’s past lands with real weight, and the final act pushes the narrative in directions that feel earned. But those stretches are rare, and they’re surrounded by long periods of wandering and grinding that feel like filler rather than character development.
Performance Across Platforms
The Technomancer ran well on PS4, PC and Xbox One at launch, though the performance varied between platforms. Load times were generally quick, and the frame rate held steady during combat. The game is demanding on PC, and players with weaker hardware might experience stuttering during busier encounters. On console, the frame rate dipped slightly during large battles, but it remained playable.
The presentation is solid. The lighting is effective, and the character models are detailed. The audio design is competent, with a score that leans on synth and percussion to sell the sci-fi setting. None of it reaches for greatness, but none of it drags the game down either.
Where It Falls Short
- The skill tree offers variety on paper but converges quickly in practice
- The story struggles to balance spectacle and intimacy
- Boss fights are fun ideas that suffer from poor camera work
- The world is large, but side content is often repetitive
These weaknesses add up. The Technomancer is a game that knows how to make a good idea look better than it plays, and it repeats that trick across its runtime. The result is a game that’s often fun to play but rarely memorable.
The Technomancer is a game with a strong identity that can’t quite live up to its ambitions. Its Mars is a wonder to behold, and its telekinesis mechanic is genuinely clever. But the combat loop grows stale, the story loses focus, and the pacing suffers from too much padding. It’s a game worth playing for a weekend, but not one you’ll return to after the credits roll.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
