A Point-And-Click Adventure That Would Get Three-Tentacles-Up From H.R. Giger
If the Wachowskis stepped aside and let H.R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński direct The Matrix, then we’d have something like Tormentum II. It tells the story of a metaverse developer in a far-flung future who is experiencing some technical difficulties with their server. The first few moments of this gothic point-and-click adventure has the main character scampering around their apartment block, trying to get things online again.
But reality is doing the whole ‘ripping at the seams’ thing. Apparitions appear to you in elevators and bathroom mirrors, and it’s clear that your virtual world is striving to discard that ‘virtual’ prefix. As expected, the main character takes an Alice-like tumble into the world of their creation, and has to subsequently find a way out. It’s how I imagine Zuckerberg’s metaverse would have turned out, if it was allowed to keep going for a few more decades.
Beauty Is In The Eye Of Several Horrific D&D Beholders
Tormentum II, depending on your definition of ‘beauty’, is an extremely beautiful game. For a two-man team, making a game of eight years, I couldn’t help but move from room to room and delight in being impressed and surprised by what was in there. We invoked H.R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński for a reason: it feels strongly influenced by their sensibilities, but has enough imagination to push beyond their TASCHEN portfolios. It feels like a product of their art, but grasping, tendril-like, for other inspirations.
There is plenty of memorable imagery here. An unfinished human-being is a web of nerves resting on a windowsill. An elevator is powered by a man plugged into its tubes. A painter lowers herself into a room and paints you asleep, like one of her French girls. I thought Tormentum II’s art and world would get worn after a while, either too tryhard/edgelordy or oppressive/bleak, but it did a good job of steering clear for the full length of the game. My only quibble was with its compulsion to make every female character model-like in beauty but moody. They all started to bleed into one after a while.
Somehow Tormentum II avoids being grimdark because the characters are almost entirely warm and welcoming. It would have been so easy to make them spiteful and evil, but Tormentum II does a smooth 180 and makes them friendly with the main character. That doesn’t mean that Tormentum II is soft-edged or comical – there are still moments of extreme gore and it goes to pretty dark places – but the world’s willingness to work with you means that the game is never too daunting to play.
Hard On The Outside, Soft On The Inside
I was a little surprised by the point-and-click gameplay, too. Tormentum II loves an elaborate contraption, sneaking in as many gadgets for you to tinker with as possible. Whenever I found a new one, I’d have a sharp intake of breath and wonder what convoluted solution I would need. But Tormentum II rarely, perhaps never, goes hard on its puzzles. They may look elaborate, but they’re often all mouth and no trousers: you just need to manipulate something to look like a note in your book, or brute-force commands on a console to get to a solution. Tormentum II surprised me by being, in relative terms, easy and straightforward. It’s not something you might expect from looking at a screenshot.
There’s not much of the customary point-and-click pixel-hunting, either. I would say that, in each room, there are three things to interact with on average. There might be a machine, an item that can be clearly picked up, and a note scrap to elaborate on a puzzle or give you some lore. Tormentum II doesn’t want you searching for items in the murk: it wants you focusing on other things. And the philosophy stretches to the accessibility of the whole game: Tormentum II is extremely self-evident, almost to a fault. If you need to be somewhere, Tormentum II will probably tell you. If you’ve unlocked something in another room, it will show you. There were times when I wanted it to be obscure, and let me feel clever for figuring something out for once.
We do appreciate that there’s a reason for why Tormentum II holds your hand so much. In places, it is a sweeping, large game. We don’t want to give away too much, but Tormentum II gives you the keys to its world and a large amount of freedom, and that generosity does feel good. It would be easy to get lost, wondering what is used where, so Tormentum II takes the easy route and simply tells you. It’s an understandable solution, even if it’s one that irked us on occasion.
Prone To A Bit Of Waffle
The writing is on the portentous side, but has strong moments. I’d find myself rolling my eyes at the sheer number of characters who talk around a subject, rather than directly. People are mad, distracted, living in alternate realities and generally lacking lucidity. Which can make some conversations a bit of a slog. I found my finger straying to the spacebar to speed things up, but I would regret it moments later as they told me something important. Tormentum II is a bit like that: occasionally pleased with its own worldbuilding, rambling on occasion, but then dishing out something that’s genuinely inspired.
I was never bored, though. Outside of dialogue, Tormentum II cracks on at a significant pace. You don’t have much reason to stay in a room for long, as there’s genuinely not much to do in them. So, you’re getting new horror after new horror, all in quick sequence, and it plays to Tormentum II’s strengths. The development team are at their best when they are sculpting some new grotesquery for you to experience.
There’s even an opportunity to imprint on the storytelling, with several significant, divergent choices to make – particularly in terms of what offerings you make, and who you choose to save. Most of these choices seem innocuous, offering little hint of how they might change the game. But you can achieve an ending that is very different from another player. We got a frankly terrible ending, and we didn’t even think we deserved it. We could grumble about Tormentum II being too punishing in that sense, but we’re better than that.
A Macabre Point-And-Click
Thinking back on my time in Tormentum II, I’m glad I swan-dived into its macabre world. As a point-and-click adventure, it wasn’t as taxing as I expected (occasionally a bad thing), and certainly not as bleak (mostly a good thing), but it still managed to surprise. Every time I clicked on a newly opened gate or door, I had that small moment of elation as I wondered what hollowed-out horror they would show me this time. Tormentum II never let me down: it would show me something that would make me chuckle with glee as I wrinkled my nose.
Important Links
Buy from Steam – https://store.steampowered.com/app/931060/Tormentum_II/
