Tormentum II

Awesome. Very unique and creative atmosphere.

Very atmospheric

Tormentum II - a point and click adventure game through a surreal world. It's another game in the same world as Tormentum - Dark Sorrow, but it follows its own standalone story. Our character David finds himself in what appears to be a simulation and wants to find a way out of it. However, it's never fully clear what is dream and what is reality, what is real and what isn't, and as we go through the story, we get more and more questions. The journey takes us through several different islands in this world, each one thematic in its own way and each one being a piece of the puzzle. It's a rich and well-crafted world, but which is also disturbing and surreal. Inhuman beings, grotesque designs, and a tangible struggle between hope and despair, where despair wins most of the time. As we journey through each island, we uncover its secrets, find out what happened there and understand what motivates its inhabitants. The game's plot and its world walk hand-in-hand, because learning about the workings of this unusual world is what drives the story forward and keeps us intrigued to keep going further. I often found myself curious what I'll witness and uncover on the next island. The game almost felt like an RPG to me, despite having no RPG mechanics. It just gave that same sense of wonder and adventure of exploring an entirely living and breathing world whilst I travelled from one location to another. This interesting world is brought to life with stunning surrealism art style, inspired by Giger and Beksinski, as well as moody music that intensifies these feelings of melancholy and despair the world is trying to convey. Basically everything that was amazing about the first game is here once again but as a bigger package with a lot more to experience. Whereas the first game was a couple of hours long, a single first-time playthrough of this one took me about 7 hours (consecutive playthroughs can be done faster once you know all the solutions). The main gameplay involves usual point and click mechanics and puzzles. Most of the puzzles are quite logical and not too difficult. The only couple of times I was a bit stuck were because I missed and didn't pick up a couple of small items that blended with the background. The game often features moral choices, which impact future events and also endings. Some of those choices don't seem to affect much, whilst others can have striking consequences for who lives and who dies and how the ending will be shaped up. In addition to this, the veiled nature of many aspects of the story and its background make it worth playing through this game more than once. As I played through the game the second time to try and get a good ending, I noticed many new details that I didn't pay much attention to the first time, and more about this world began to click into place. It would've been nice to have some more available save slots, because I often save prior to a big choice so that I can re-load that part later to check out an alternate story branch, and with only 8 slots in a game full of meaningful choices, you run out pretty fast. Also the game can be a bit intensive on your PC despite being only a 2D game, so it's worth keeping that in mind. Tormentum II was 8 years in the making and it was well worth the wait! When a game makes you want to replay it to try and get the best ending, then you know you have a gem on your hands. For anyone looking for an adventure through a dark story set in a weird and creepy world with incredible visual style, this game is highly recommended.

I'm really happy about finding this gem! Art: As a fan of H.R. Giger and Zdzisław Besinski, I really loved this dark, surrealistic world <3 Even though it’s clearly inspired by them, I still saw a powerful and unique artistic style emerging among the recognizable elements. Story/Gameplay: Much more complex than the first part. I lost track of the story a bit in the middle, but the ending totally got my attention again. The puzzles were a little too easy for my taste, but I played the game mainly for the graphics and the story, so that was totally fine with me. Also, as a German, I was totally confused when I heard a German song at that one moment (in a good way) XD

Beautiful as ever, finally smooth performance-wise. The sci-fi twist lifts the story well past the original. Easy puzzles, no pixel hunting - you come for the atmosphere and nothing gets in the way.

I loved the first Tormentum game very much and throughout the years replayed it several times. But I don't know what to make of this second installment. To me it feels more like a visual novel than a P&C adventure game. But the story is incoherent and most of the time I don't understand the narrative style. The art looks great but there is too much HR giger for the sake of having HR Giger inspired art. It clashes with the rest of the art style that does look good. I feel myself losing interest in continuing to the end and I don't see myself replaying it.

If you liked the first game, it might be that you also like this one. But it might also feel like a downgrade. In the second game of the series you play as David, a game developer in a distant future who can't even leave his house without breathing masks. The future is sad and dark, but we don't get any time to learn more about it anyway because David soon finds himself in his own game which he developed: eerie figures are everywhere, the player feels as though reborn inside an H.R. Giger painting, and I almost lose myself in the—at times—truly detailed and grotesquely beautiful drawings of the landscape or the objects surrounding David. The game's graphics represent a truly successful evolution. As for the music... nothing really stuck in my mind. Only one song managed that: around the middle of the game, you encounter a painter and a track that strongly reminded me of Rammstein. Yet, when I searched for the lyrics (which are in German—hence why I remembered them so well), I found absolutely no results. At first I thought the developers had used an AI tools; the vocals bear a striking resemblance to those of Till Lindemann (Rammstein's lead singer), and the music and lyrics do, too. But a developer in the comments pointed out they used a song from Eric Zion that is just very similar. Thanks for pointing that out and for the nice answer! (*review edited because I dont want to draw false assumptions) I also found it disappointing that the game's puzzles are far too easy. While the visuals create a genuinely spooky atmosphere, I felt that the puzzles don't feel like traditional point-and-click mechanics at all ( so many of them are minigames and sliding puzzles which could have been solved by an eight-year-old). Unfortunately, after a while, the story failed to win me over completely. David is not a likable character; he barely reacts to the world he is exploring, taking everything in stride with a shrug that is practically non-existent. The characters he encounters are almost all interchangeable, falling into three types that differ only in appearance: 1) beautiful, slender women who look like they stepped out of a Luis Royo painting; 2) grotesque creatures lacking human heads; and 3) random guys that wear more clothes than any women in the game. None of the characters are memorable or interesting. The in-game choices feel arbitrary and have little real impact; however, since the plot is neither well-written nor engaging, I remained indifferent to it all. In-game conversations often feel bloated and lacking in substance. Grand words are frequently used to say very little. Unfortunately, the world-building is truly poor: the world David finds himself in neither feels authentic nor invites exploration, asall the visuals appear uniformly gloomy and highly repetitive after just an hour. The setting is unrelentingly bleak and lacks variety, which unfortunately undermines the sense of suspense. The constant mystical conversations, vague allusions devoid of substance, and numerous simple puzzles left me feeling disengaged. Overall, the game falls short of genre standards despite its intriguing premise: it lacks typical point-and-click mechanics (yes, there is an inventory, but all puzzles are solved within the immediate vicinity, and the solutions were often so obvious that I felt patronized). There are no dialogue options, as David speaks only to himself (without ever really saying much of substance). Minor choices lead to different endings, though I didn't have the inclination to play through the game more than once. I cannot recommend this game. It lacks good puzzles and feels more like a visual novel than a point-and-click game. It completely lacks the charm of a good story.

Я долго думала над оценкой этой игры и, по правде говоря, решение было непростым. Но все же мое решение склонилось к "нет", чем к "да". Моментами было интересно, моментами очень затянуто и скучно. Плюс, что игра закончилась именно на этапе, когда уже хотелось ее закрыть. Если бы игра продлилась еще немного больше, то я скорее всего не доиграла бы до конца и удалила этот проект с компа. Необычно, в чем-то уникально (хотя игр на тематику лавкрафта уйма) и все же за это "плюс". Но ужасно затянуто и очень бесило медленное срабатывание скриптов, когда становилось непонятно: то ли я неверно выбираю вариант, то ли игра туго соображает. За это минус. Как итог моя оценка получилась нейтральной. Тогда почему же я поставила палец вниз? Дело в том, что я пошла по варианту плохой концовки, но на всякий случай у меня остались сохранения остальных двух путей развилки. Так вот после титров, ЖЕЛАНИЕ ПЕРЕПРОЙТИ сохраненные варианты НЕ ПОЯВИЛОСЬ, я их посмотрела на Youtube.