Tormentum: Dark Sorrow - EN

For a long time I was wondering if I should write about that game and is it worth it. In the end I decided it is and here’s why.

Tormentum is a horror point and click game made by the small indie developer “OhNoo!” that was successfully funded on indegogo and published on 4th of March 2015.

Why so indecisive?

I generally like point and click games, but with few exceptions (Night of the Rabbit, for example) for me they are light games suitable for killing some time. That's why when I started playing Tormentum I didn’t plan on writing this, but then the game struck me, its dark charm, its great art...

The story

You awake...the floor beneath you is moving, you open your eyes...you're in a cage beneath an airship...your memories...they're gone... 

You're hooded man who remembers almost nothing, but is now captured and is flying toward his prison. Your task is to learn what happened and why you're accused of being evil.

Gameplay

Tormentum is a classic point and click - you see item on the ground, you pick it and put it in your inventory, after that collect few more and later use them to unlock the next part of the game. From time to time you solve logical puzzles and talk with different characters who will give you tasks and items. 

The game has good length of around 2-3 hours and it has three different "realms" which are very distinctive in their environment and art.

But in its core, as I said already, it’s a classic point and click nothing less and nothing more.

The Charm

What made me willing to write this review is the art of the game and the atmosphere that it creates. It’s unbelievable how much the good art can improve a game. 

According to the official site of “OhNoo!” Tormentum features more than a 100 hand drawn pictures, done by Piotr Ruzskowsky and inspired by H.R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński.

From the beginning it’s clean that the game is going for a dark setting with the fire rain, you being accused of evilness and the little information that you gather from the other passenger of the airship.

But Ruzskowsky's art is what turns this rather clichéd story in a haunting and horrifying experience that successfully passes to you the feeling of desperation, sadness and loneliness.

Good addition to the game is the ability to make choices that change the end of the game. Through Tormentum you will have to choose to whom to give different items and while this does not change much the course of the game it leads to one of the two possible endings. Your choices will be either Bad or Good, but in-game you will be led only by your own sense of justice to decide which is which.

Conclusion

Tormentum is dark, grim and haunting experience about the choices that people do in their life and the consequences coming from those choices.

The game is a great choice for those who are looking for a good point and click adventure mixed with amazing dark atmosphere and don’t mind some moral lessons.

But please, don't approach Tormentum if you're looking for action or jump scares, you will not find those here.  

Links:

Official site

Steam