Sometimes the primitive nature of the movement of still images can be chilling in its own right, but more often than not, it just comes off as cheap. Its stilted animations don’t exactly do it justice. Where Tormentum stumbles a bit is in motion. Otherwise, the spider grabbing it was comical. The low-budget animation in this scene was saved only because the human figure was creepy enough to be distracting. Some weary, gravelly-voiced denizens would have smoothed out a lot of rough edges and probably have brought these issues to light. The English text is somewhat awkward and not always in tune with the rest of the game’s tone, often taking an oddly lighthearted approach. Tormentum is completely devoid of voice acting, which I feel would have added a lot to the game’s world had it been tastefully voiced. Most of the sonic impressions put on you are reverby mechanical grinds and fleshy squirting sounds. Music is sparse but effectively atmospheric, aside from the credits rather abruptly opting for a metal song and negating the preceding four hours of atmosphere. This backdrop was particularly effective because prior to this screenshot, a cult could be seen descending to the altar.Įverything is drawn with a warbly, smudgy brush that I’m not able to define in words. Its original creature designs are interesting, especially a race of long-necked, winged humanoids called “Icari” (plural for Icarus!), who covet eggs more than anything in the world and stare at you with completely glazed eyes. The art is beautiful, and consistently fascinating to look at. Let’s just get this out of the way, since it’s the game’s main selling point and what’s definitely going to draw the vast majority of people to it over any of its other features. Where Dante’s Inferno was a deliberately and shockingly twisted depiction of hell, Tormentum takes that same mission statement and applies it to a point-and-click adventure game set in an oppressive, nightmarish wasteland. It’s the same sort of thing Dante’s Inferno was going for. Tormentum – Dark Sorrow is a game that revels in its boundlessly dark imagery and compelling surrealism. Maybe it’s for the best, as a plague of mainstream games that are even more troubling and confusing than they already are isn’t something I’m clamoring for, but it’s still something I appreciate seeing when it comes along. Surrealism is something I admire, Dante’s Inferno being one of my favorite games visually, and though the style sees some success in smaller titles, “mainstream adoption” isn’t exactly in its vocabulary.
I certainly didn’t read it, but the title posed an interesting question. It may have been Rock Paper Shotgun that recently posted an article along the lines of “Why Isn’t There More Surrealism In Gaming?”.
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