Without fancy graphics or complete freedom of movement a compelling narrative is more than just good to game design -- it’s critical to capturing the heart of a storytelling experience.
Tormentum is a game that seeks to capture that blend of nostalgic storytelling era through its compelling visuals and interactive narrative; but whether or not it truly captures your attention will greatly depend on your familiarity with its genre.
In a fortress jail twisted and warped by forces reminiscent of H.R. Geiger’s famous artistic design you take the role of a single cloaked prisoner, devoid of any knowledge of why you’ve been placed there in the first place. Anyone familiar with the Point and Click game format will slide right into the action, but those new to the genre may need some time to adjust to exploration and item interaction.
Players will search their environment to see what items they may be able to interact with, or puzzles they can attempt to solve. Interaction with an object, item or NPC is done with a simple mouse click -- and interactable items usually stand apart from their environment. Some need to be obtained in unusual fashion.
For example, a door may offer an obvious exit but the key to unlock the door may be hidden away behind a specific location or puzzle. Knowing what to look for is just as important as knowing where to look. And that is the core of Tormentum: Dark Sorrow. Players will find themselves digging through skeletal remains, supernatural relics and inconspicuous bits of junk in order to make their way through the fortress prison that holds them captive. The good news is the brain teasers never really stop. The bad news? They’re all pretty much a tease.
There’s no real difficulty in Tormentum that scales as players progress, and many puzzles follow the predictable route of: Find an item, use an item, solve the puzzle, find another item. To break up the monotony items needed to solve one puzzle are locked behind another, and so backtracking and clicking from room to room quickly becomes a large portion of the gameplay. The interesting set pieces and unique nature of each backdrop help keep things from becoming stale too quickly, but anyone who considers themselves reasonably decent at problem solving may find themselves somewhat disappointed at the lack of challenge in between.
Limited NPC interaction comes in the form of quest givers (who challenge players to complete morally-questionable tasks) and general world-building narration that require players to make moral choices. These choices do help to make the game a much more personal experience, breaking up some of the usual gameplay with character narrative. To Tormentum’s credit no two areas or characters players encountered look alike, and developer OhNoo does a wonderful job at capturing the unique macabre horror of H.R. Geiger’s art. Each level is memorable in its own way, and its hard not to sit and admire each new location you unlock. The audio isn’t nearly as compelling, but instead serves as a fairly ominous backdrop to your time spent clicking away.
The end result is a game that’s a visually beautiful homage to PC classics like Dark Seed that never really tries to push beyond the boundaries of what’s familiar with the genre. Satisfied with offering up a plethora of fairly direct puzzles Tormentum instead sticks to what it knows without throwing in anything too flashy or complex at its audience. With its core story branching off depending on your actions in game a single playthrough will take close to four hours to complete at a casual pace; and a little more replayability can come in the form of exploring its alternate ending.
Anyone looking for a decent run of puzzles in a dark and twisted setting shouldn’t find themselves too disappointed in what Tormentum has to offer -- especially someone interested in experiencing a well-constructed nod to the days of PC gaming yore. Competent in the gameplay it does have to deliver Tormentum: Dark Sorrow is a game that’s held back by short length, lack of challenge and general repetition, but overall package is still enough to provide some solid entertainment as long as you know what you’re getting into.
To learn more, visit the official Tormentum Steam Page.
Game Features:
- Single Player
- Multitude of puzzles
- Beautiful art inspired by H.G. Geiger.
- A talking man-weasel
