Tormentum - Dark Sorrow - Lite

...which earned an extra rating star by preventing a huge mistake. I was shopping for a particular type of product & ready to pay for the right one. Based on its description; glowing reviews; gorgeous art; & apparent gameplay mechanics from the preview images, this game might have convinced me to take a chance on just buying without trying. Had that happened, I would have been absolutely furious rather than just annoyed; writing to Apple for a refund instead of a review. Whether playing the lite or full version, it only takes 5 minutes to see the problems. First, and for me by far the most important: this is NOT a point and click adventure game in any genuine sense of the term. It barely even resembles one, yet those precise words are used (it seems quite intentionally) in description & reviews. This game has much more in common with an idle hidden object game, interspersed with a rigidly fixed linear series of logic puzzles. These puzzles are somehow both simplistic and overly demanding. They have no coherent reason for being, no connection to what passes for the plot or each other, no elegance or meaning whatsoever. They rarely even offer a discernible internal mechanical narrative by which their solution can be reasoned out. Instead, most are best solved by brute force trial & error. As such, they comprise little more than repeated grinding halts to the game flow which neither add to nor reveal any story or clue. Just “here’s some levers for no reason, flip them up and down until something happens,” then proceed to the next nonsensical hurdle. While slogging through the tedious puzzles in hopes of discovering something, anything like the promised story/adventure, there’s really nice music. The visual art is quite proficient technically as well. Of course, both are merely competent depictions of styles already explored throughly by their original creators (e.g. HR Geiger). Yet even in that respect, the description is highly misleading. It’s particularly offensive that they’d compare this lazy, entirely derivative mess to a classic like Darkseed. That game is around 30 yrs old now, and suffered numerous bugs even when new. Yet that’s because it pushed boundaries, took risks, and was simply too ambitious for its time. This thing is the exact opposite. It does only what others have long ago mastered; the bare minimum even of that. Everything from moving around to the pointless inventory system is severely limited to the point that the only real input from the player is whether to keep moving forward along the single available track. If they’d been straightforward about the game’s nature, I’d say fine, it is what it is. But instead they go out of their way to portray it as a “point & click adventure” (false), buy &/or write themselves absurdly fanciful reviews that are clearly coming from the same script, if not the same author, and pick screenshots that suggest a far more open, explorable, PnC adventure type world/game/story than they’ve actually produced. Yet disappointing as the game is in pretty much every way, I still give it 3 stars. One is minimum, one for the music/art; one for the free trial, which almost makes up for all the misrepresentation.

JD RealWed, Aug 11, 2021

United States

This game is really amazing, great graphics and music. Good and challenging puzzles. Worth the value. Don’t hesitate to get this game you won’t be sorry, only if u don’t

JRPS67Tue, Jul 30, 2019

United States

Challenging and interesting game

bridgeanatorFri, May 31, 2019

United States

** LOWERED MY REVIEW AFTER SEEING duplicate 5-star reviews from the same people, and I also noticed that the wording of many reviews is repeated ** The graphics are amazingly awesome. I played the Lite version on my iPad. I still don’t know how I was able to get through two of the puzzles, except that I kept guessing until I got it right. The winged lady, for example, was trial and error (positioning of the mirrors and wings). There should be some degree of logic involved. Hints that are given are not that helpful at all. I would have loved paying to finish this game, but for these reasons, I will not.

danariusWed, Jan 16, 2019

United States

I’ve been playing the free part just because I know once I play the full version it will come to an end and I’m not ready for that yet. Sounds strange I know. But if the rest of the game is as good as the beginning I know I won’t be disappointed.

josiesmikeFri, Jun 29, 2018

United States

Good graphics, puzzles not too hard. Enjoyed. Still no horror. Nice game.

SpiritedTreasureFri, Sep 22, 2017

United States

Appreciate the free tryout, though. And a good bit of challenge even for a little demo. Looks to be a superb game.

EbouamfsWed, Apr 12, 2017

United States