Tormentum - Dark Sorrow
Overview
Tormentum is a point-and-click adventure featuring the dark works of H.R. Giger and Zdzislaw Beksinski, in a world with many details and the darkest lore possible. Featuring easy-to-complex puzzles, from good or evil choices to pick, guide our protagonist through the land and its inhabitants to regain their lost memories in the search of a statue located far away. Only two endings await at the end of the journey.
Story
Our unknown hero wakes up trapped in a zeppelin, along with a rodent knight. In a quest to find a mysterious statue of an angel, the hero gets captured and imprisoned in a castle. A knight servant warns them of their failure and their soon-to-be punishment. The hero manages to escape after tinkering with the old mechanism of the prison gate. What follows is a series of events where the hero can choose to help or become hostile as they explore the castle and its guardians. Their objective remains set on stone: escape and travel to the land with the mysterious statue seen in their visions.
Gameplay
Tormentum is a point-and-click adventure played from a 2D perspective, with our character in the scenario as we interact. Hovering the mouse makes the cursor glow, indicating an interaction or transition to another area. Most of the time the game zooms into the item on the ground for a better look. Our character comments with every action, such as we are missing something or An item is incorrect (text colored yellow). To move from room to room, door icons are placed, unless the entrance is currently blocked. The room camera sways as we move the mouse.
To the left of the screen there’s the notepad. Any drawing or clue will get copied exactly right into the notepad, eliminating the need to copy it yourself. During a puzzle/minigame, the game focuses on a small window, but you can still access notes or your inventory. Only when a puzzle is finished may you use a key item. Puzzles are plenty and vary from swapping pieces one by one, mixing colors, changing shapes, rearranging pieces, etc. There are no hints in-game other than the clues in the notepad. To the right of the screen is our satchel with all the items gathered. These can be used either in a puzzle screen or in the world.
Many inhabitants of the world can be approached by the hero, some offering items in return for a favor, others asking for help. Unbeknownst to the hero, each choice has consequences, left or right, whether it will take a life or destroy something, or spare a life and side with good deeds only. Every choice is mandatory for progress. There will be differences in a playthrough, but the ending of the journey remains the same. You will be judged with every moral choice at the end. Our character won’t die, however; if there’s any danger surrounding a door, the hero will warn that the path is blocked.
The game can be saved manually, although only one save before the previous is replaced, allowing you to choose a different outcome. Steam achievements can be earned based on our choices, the endings achieved, and whether we did not open the notepad at all.
Audio & Graphics
The game renders similarly to a browser Flash game. FPS are locked at 30, without any drops (though it might affect older machines). The landscape is surprisingly well drawn, the best feature of the game. Music tracks fill the ambience correctly wherever you go, ranging from solemn to grim.
Pros & Cons
Pros-
Grimdark, point-and-click adventure inspired by the best genre games.
Plentiful puzzles to solve.
Moral choices to shape the world as we want.
Cons-
Some of its puzzles might become ambiguous, without many hints to direct us.
Rating: 8/10
If Dark Souls had an adventure like this one…
