Tormenture Review (Swamp, Ritual, Scathe Zombies)
I like horror games, I like old games, I like retro games, and I like "meta" games. This game seemed like it was a sure win for me, but I could not enjoy myself playing this game and have asked for a refund.
I find the game to be "retro" in the sense that there is extremely little information given to the player about what to do, and the puzzles are difficult because it's difficult to understand what is happening or what the player is being presented with.
To give an example of a frustration of mine, and maybe some light spoiler warnings here so be warned, in the forest I found an item that looks something like a yellow extension cord or power cable. Perhaps this goes to the old television set I found on the other side of the map? I bring it there, with no result. Perhaps it's a fragment of one of the relics? I bring it all the way back to the main area where the monuments are, with no result. When the game is reloaded, this mystery item goes back to its starting area but for some reason my character's map, which gets notes for all the different items and doors and things of that sort, does not make note of this and I don't have the ability to make custom notes (other than obviously using pen and paper externally). This seems like it's designed not to be solved, rather than be an interesting puzzle.
Furthermore, puzzles blocking actual progression can be frustratingly difficult. I was not able to figure out what to do to continue in the forest at all. Maybe I'm just not that intelligent, or not patient enough, but frankly if the solution requires hours of going between Atari 2600-style rooms to try different items (which I must carry one at a time) in different areas then I'm out. It's just not fun, especially when there are rooms in the intervening space between the edges of the map which, even after solving the puzzles to get through them the first time, are constant breaks in your movement. For example, there is a room in the forest where two worms spread poison as they move back and forth. Each time you enter the room, you must wait for the slime trail to dissipate before you can move past the worms. There is no shortcut after you do this the first time, and yet you might need to pass through the room multiple times. Perhaps this is meant to be "retro game design" but really it's just poor game design and detracts from the flow of playing the game.
This game seemed like it checked all the boxes for a game I'd like to play, but I can't recommend it. It's not really clever or well thought out, and honestly I can't understand a lot of the praise I've seen for the game so far.