How Torment: Tides of Numenera brings the reactivity of dialogue to combat
Torment: Tides of Numenera features encounters called Crises which are designed to make combat feel as flexible and varied as its dialogue.
One of the hard problems of modern RPGs is that the battle system rarely lives up to the reactivity of the rest of the game. You may have dozens of options in dialogue and quests, but when it comes to combat, players often feel obliged to stick to specific character builds and tactics (the holy trinity, for example) instead of exploring all the options available to them.
InXile is hoping to avoid this, giving players many paths through encounters. In the video below you can see a couple of variations on a Crisis encounter, wih very different paths through a single battle.
Tides of Numenera has big shoes to fill, as its spiritual precursor, Planescape: Torment, is one of the most acclaimed RPGs of its time - maybe of all time.