Tormenture review

Tis the season for spooky games, and gamers across the globe are looking to be scared in all sorts of ways. There are loads of titles available this time of year for horror fans to enjoy, ranging from high profile games like Silent Hill 2 and Phasmophobia to indie nightmares waiting to be discovered. Tormenture is one such horror experience, which blends old school Atari bleeps and bloops with the real world in a truly unique way.

The game starts with you booting up the titular game Tormenture on your pre-NES home console. With the simple goal of gathering four precious relics to complete the game, you’ll need to guide your square dot character past spooky enemies to succeed in your quest. It’s as retro a gaming experience as you could have without getting out a dusty old console from the attic, and features only a control stick and a single button you can use to make your way through the game.

The action button is used for one purpose, and that’s to drop items which you can pick up by rubbing up against them. In an early portion of the game you’ll need to pick up a sword and scrape it against an enemy to proceed, but you’ll also find a whole lot of keys on your journey and even more unique items like magnets you can use to pull things towards you. Despite being incredibly simple the gameplay of Tormenture is actually pretty varied, and that’s before you spend time in the real world.

After defeating the first boss of the game Tormenture starts to bug out, and you switch to the first person perspective of a child sitting in their bedroom playing this spooky game. After taking the cart out and giving it a bit of a blow, you put it back in the retro console and can continue your adventure. There’s more to look at in your bedroom though, and some of it is essential if you want to progress further.

The bedroom you’re playing Tormenture in can be explored by turning in any direction with the right stick and interacting with the various drawers and toys strewn about. Initially it seems like items like a toy phone and a knockoff “Guess Who?” game won’t help you much in your quest, but looks can be deceiving. The instruction manual for the game is immediately useful, containing not only handy information about items found in the game, but also notes from past players that’ll help you figure out how to solve a few puzzles.

If this was all the interaction that happened between the real and video game world of Tormenture it would be an interesting enough experience, but not a particularly scary one. That’s not the case though, and let me tell you when I looked away from the TV screen and saw the door to the bedroom hastily close I almost needed new underwear. There are plenty more scary moments like this where the real world feels like it’s being invaded by the game that I won’t spoil, and they’re all rather brilliant.

As the game progresses the two worlds combine more and more, and you’ll start solving puzzles in the real world thanks to the game. The blend of first person escape room style gameplay and nostalgic old school horror is really cool, and kept me hooked from start to finish.

Although I enjoyed my time with Tormenture, it has one rather glaring problem that holds it back from being a spooky season staple. It is incredibly easy to get stuck in Tormenture; whether it’s not knowing how to open a door or even just where to go next, and with no hint system or help that can be obtained in game you’ll either have to bash your head against the wall when you’re struggling. Some sort of thematic and slightly sinister help system (and I refuse to count the vague and basic couple of hints a spelling toy provides) would make the game so much more enjoyable, but as it stands you’ll likely get somewhat frustrated fairly regularly unless you keep a walkthrough handy.

Tormenture is an incredibly cool and totally unique horror game, which blends two worlds to create some seriously unnerving moments. If you have nostalgia for the good old days and don’t mind getting stuck a few times you’ll love this spooky throwback, but if you’re alone playing it in the middle of the night and get spooked don’t say I didn’t warn you.