I'm not much of a cook. It's not the incompatibility of utensils and trotters, my prohibitive height or inherent dread of ovens: you need focus when you cook and mine wanders all over, given a few minutes' reverie. I make mistakes, is what it boils down to. Mix up ingredients, keep things baking too long (or not long enough); add the wrong spices, or – okay, I'll come clean – "sample" the goods to an excessive extent... One time, I even baked a pound cake with jello instead of pudding. Very colorful. Sadly, unfit for consumption...

So, on the downside, food I make is a toss-up, edibility-wise. On the flip, though, it gives me unique insight into why The Technomancer is such a "meh" game despite, seemingly, all the right ingredients.

A 2016 action-RPG by Spiders, a French studio with 15 years' clout, The Technomancer puts you in the shoes of Zachariah – a fledgling corporate enforcer on Mars (with special powers and a conscience) who is convinced he is on the right side of history until the 30 hour plot proves otherwise.

The presentation is the game's strongest suit. From the well-directed, somberly narrated cutscenes, atmospheric graphics and fluid (if a bit choppy, in places) animation to the intuitive UI, The Technomancer is very easy on the eyes. And with a soundtrack arranged by Olivier Deriviere (an award-winning composer who scored Vampyr, GreedFall, Dying Light 2 and A Plague Tale: Requiem) and competent effects, it won't grate on your ears, either.

The writing, while not that original, is competently assembled, with a varied, likeable cast, intriguing plot and fairly fleshed-out lore. The characters behave like real people, the situations are believable without being overly dramatic and the world has that lived-in feeling to it that good game worlds oughta have...

Honestly, if The Technomancer was a film or an interactive novel, it'd be pretty darn good. Unfortunately, it's a game — and it's in the gameplay where the production falls particularly flat.

Well, maybe "flat" isn't entirely fair: the gameplay is perfectly serviceable — just not on the order of magnitude you would expect from a game that looks this good. There is simply a mismatch between how the game appears and how it plays and I think it's in the contrast of player expectations versus reality that Spiders shot themselves in the foot.

Take the combat system. On top of his "shocking" special powers (pun intended), Zach has access to three "combat styles": knife and gun (fast and at a distance); mace and shield (slow and tank-y); and staff (group). Between the three styles, you are meant to be able to defeat any enemy in the game... Unfortunately, you can't specialize in just one: as each style is meant to deal with a specific type of enemy (and enemy groups are seldom homogenous), you have to quickly switch between the three during every battle, which looks weird (imagine a guy juggling five weapons mid-fight); and plays more like a hectic rhythm game than an action-RPG.

The realities of Technomancer combat also heavily influence character development. Should you specialize, NPCs that can complement your shortcomings aren't immediately available (and, honestly, once they are — don't do that much good); which forces you to sprinkle points across all disciplines to make each at least somewhat useful... Which works, sure, but also results in the game dictating player choice — and not the proper way around.

Or the crafting, which is limited to weapons and armor and quite shallow — with just a few models for each category, a limited amount of upgrades and scant visual differentiation between modified equipment and its stock source. It's better than nothing, I guess, but I wouldn't call an extra rivet that adds 10% damage exciting or impressive.

Or (and this is the biggest offender by far) certain parts of the plot, where Spiders' phoned-in solutions stick out like zip ties on a '63 250 GTO. There's quite a few, but two are foremost in my mind.

The first, is the romance sub-plot, which – initially – seems perfectly competent. You meet three intriguing NPCs with well-written dialogue who can end up sending your character those sort of signals. You chat a bit, find out more about them, run some NPC-specific errands (ah, romance); the mutual interest peaks and— Nothing happens.

Oh, there's a cutscene alright, but it feels rushed, tame and hardly commensurate. And once it's over and the screen fades to black, the characters don't act any different with the only change, presumably, being a code flag (named, I'm guessing "you did teh sex") getting checked.

Remember how, in Baldur's Gate 2, you would stress over every interaction, second-guessing yourself on whether you got it right? How the momentum built slowly, cresting in a drastic event (like Anomen's turning or Jaheira's sudden departure); and final, eventual requital of the finer feelings? How, even once the romance was established, the characters would continue interacting with the PC in a personal, meaningful way? This is 45, 50% of that. You get the feeling that, if Spiders made Baldur's Gate, a romanced Anomen or Viconia would just totter around spouting "uh huh" and "how interesting."

The other, is the conclusion of the game. Since the entire plot builds up its culmination, you would rightly expect the final quest of The Technomancer to be something difficult, grand and multi-staged — like Mass Effect 2's suicide mission, for example, or FFVII's ultimate confrontation with Sephiroth (who just. Won't. Die.)... Instead, what you get is a rote runaround and then (drumroll) a quick-time event with some big, random monster that kills you is you miss a keystroke, forcing you to start the sequence over. It's that mismatch I mentioned earlier: at most meaningful moments, the game just lets you down...

Between the unique and intriguing design, the gorgeous presentation and the shallow, repetitive gameplay, it almost feels like Spiders blew all their time and budget on the front end and then scrabbled to finish the project the fastest way they could.

Which is a shame, because The Technomancer has a lot of good elements. The characters and story are neat and worthwhile, the design has that singular French-ness to it that no other country can pull off and the game itself isn't bad – there's just not enough of it.

If you want to experience a truly unique world and a decent story (and don't mind putting up with uninspired gameplay and poor mechanics), grab The Technomancer when it's on sale. Just don't go in expecting a proper, well-made game.

The ingredients may all be there, but – as cakes go – this one needed more time in the oven.

Pig Recommends:

• -keeping an eye out for Spiders; although the studio struggles with style over substance (Steelrising, their latest outing, has — once again — been praised for the setting and lore, but panned for gameplay), GreedFall (the game they made after The Technomancer) seemed like progress, of sorts (same issues — fewer of 'em); with GreedFall 2 slated for 2024, I'm hoping they can finally get over the hump and Get Things Right;

• -if you like oddball settings with surprisingly decent stories, try Elex by Piranha Bytes; like The Technomancer, it's not without issues (my all time favorite comment about it described the game as "a glorious dumpster fire"), but the gameplay is slightly deeper and the world infinitely more expansive and complex; also, it marries fantasy and science fiction, which is always a plus in my book;