Tormentum II

+ Vibe

Tormentum II is, above all, a truly masterful piece of storytelling. The studio took its time with this second installment, and you can tell in almost every scene that behind the dark world—reminiscent of Giger and Beksiński—lies a well-thought-out story. Pro + However, anyone who dives into the game should be prepared to think critically. The various plot threads intertwine, and it takes some concentration to understand how the individual events are actually connected. Especially toward the end, the story picks up again in a way I hadn’t expected, providing a fitting conclusion to the whole experience. I was slightly less impressed by the puzzle design. Compared to the first game, the puzzles this time around are generally rather undemanding and no longer require the same level of mental effort as before. That’s a shame, because the trickier puzzles in the first game were a major part of its appeal. Nevertheless, this doesn’t detract much from the overall impression, as the narrative carries the game well on its own. Con - I particularly like how Tormentum II handles the events of the first game. Depending on how you interpret the story, it works both as a prequel and as a sequel—which is a remarkable achievement for a standalone story. You don’t need to have played the first game to enjoy this one, but you’ll be rewarded if you have. In the end, it was a real joy for me to discover the different endings on my own. Tormentum II deserves great respect precisely for this—for the team’s willingness to devote so much time to a story like this.

I'll leave a positive evaluation because I wish there will be a third installment, BUT... there are things to fix... The obvious one: way TOO MUCH TALK!!! FFS... With no animation and no voice acting, it becomes really boring; that cuts the immersion and the rhythm... Other than that, still a huge fan of the art and the music; the global atmosphere is good too (though not as oppressive as the first installment; that's a bit of a shame...). The puzzles are OK. The story is... meh... Nothing really original, a bit confusing from time to time. For that, I really preferred the first game: you had to get out of your prison and... that was it! Imagine yourself what could have happened to your character to find himself in such torments , no need to wrap it in a complicated story... All in all, it was OK, but I really hope the brothers will work on a third entry, without the boring talking, and get straight to the amazing atmosphere they created in their first game.

[b]Tl;Dr:[/b] Highly atmospheric, good length, and decent puzzles. Get it if you liked the first. Had no issues on Steam Deck. ---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☐ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☑ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☑ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☑ Average ☐ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☑ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☑ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☑ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10 ---{ Author }--- ☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template

Amazing!

Honestly even though there was a lot to like about this, I think I preferred the first game. The two main issues for me here were that firstly, it was fairly unclear what types of choices we were making and whether something felt right or not - very very ambiguous which meant it was hard to maintain a consistent pattern of choices - and this worst of all meant I didn't even care about my choices towards the end of the game. Secondly, sadly, I felt it dragged on a bit too long - I was actually trying to rush towards the end at one point. Which hurts to say because normally I love these types of games. The art and music are incredible - no arguments there. I still recommend this to fans of the genre. But something didn't quite click for me with this one.

I don't remember Tormentum 1 so I'm not going to compare the two games. [h2]Pros 🙂[/h2] 🖼️ The game is all about visuals. All those Giger-esque and Beksiński-esque sceneries were really cool, even thought all those skulls, skeletons and other macabre visuals sometimes felt a bit forced. 🎷 The music is surprisingly good too. I's like to point out the Frozen Fortress theme, which is especially great. 🗺️ There is a map that can speed out up the travelling around the world. 💾 Manual save slots. Great tool for achievement hunters. I'd like to have more than nine though. 🧩 Puzzles. Quite easy but decent. [h2]Mehs 😐[/h2] 🎮 The gameplay. It's not bad per se. It's not very good either. There were almost no clever, logical item interactions. Everything was mostly about inserting a magical item into a magical slot. ❔ There's a certains choice halfway through the game that completely changes the endign of the game. Except you dont know it when you make the choice. It would be nice to somehow warn the player that this is the choice that changes everything. [h2]Cons 🙁[/h2] 📖 The story. I don't know, maybe it's just my English sucks. Every dialogue felt co cryptic, so convoluted that halfway throught the game I was completely lost about what is actually going on. 💬 No way to speed up or skip the dialogues. Clicking through every sentence gets quite tedious when hunting for achievements and alternate endings.