Torment: Tides of Numenera beta testing will open up soon with Early Access following shortly

This might come as a surprise but its been 17 years since Planescape: Torment graced the PC world and revolutionized RPG storytelling in such a fashion that very few games even today can come close.

And after all that waiting it appears we'll finally be able to take a good look at its spiritual successor, Torment: Tides of Numenera, as the beta will become available for eligible Kickstarter backers on January 17th with Steam Early Access following shortly on January 26th.

Here's a brief description of what you can expect to see in the beta, from inXile themselves:

"The beta will start you right in the beginning of the game and is quite lengthy for an early beta. It covers the game's introductory sequence (some of which you may have already seen a portion of in the alpha) as well as most of the first major location of the game, Sagus Cliffs.

Sagus is a very old city that was built on top of ancient structures that predate the return of humanity to the Ninth World.It's split into five main districts: Circus Minor, Cliff's Edge, Caravanserai, Government Square and the Underbelly. As you might expect from a city location, it is rich in lore to discover, characters to talk with and obviously quests to complete!"

As you might imagine inXile will be closely monitoring player feedback so if you plan on playing the beta its both in your, and everyone else's, best interest to provide some quality criticism in order to ensure that Torment: Tides of Numenera leaves its beta state as polished as it can be.

If you're looking to find out more about the crazy world that Torment inhabits I'd suggest you head over to the beta announcement page as Thomas Beekers, associate producer/designer, wrote a rather interesting blog post about the setting, items and elements that make up Torment's Ninth World.

As the beta draws closer expect to see more of these types of articles covering various characters, locations and game mechanics so if you want a sneak peek in to the beta that would be your best bet.

Once again, the closed beta will start for eligible Kickstarter backers on January 17th with Steam Early Access starting up on January 26th.