I’ve played and reviewed a lot of retro-themed horror games over the past few years, with many choosing to revisit the feel and aesthetic of the early 3D era and using the associated nostalgia to either subvert or honour the player’s expectations. Earlier influences are more uncommon, in part perhaps to the strength of titles like Resident Evil in popular culture. Horror games can be traced back to the very beginnings of home entertainment though, with movie tie-ins based on classic scares from Texas Chainsaw to Alien. Both of these appeared on the Atari 2600 and it is this generation of consoles that has inspired Tormenture, or at least the game within the game here.
Given the power of visuals and sound design to achieve the kind of spooky atmosphere needed for a good horror game it may seem counter-intuitive to go so far back, but Croxel Studios manage to square this circle by embedding the retro game within a far more modern 3D setting that adds greatly to the feel and tone of things. You play as a young boy who has picked up a copy of Tormenture, a supposedly cursed game for the Limbo-2800, to see what the fuss is all about. As you make your way through the initially simplistic game you’ll slowly uncover extra depth and complexity, not to mention be haunted in the real world of your 80s bedroom. Some of this is diagetic within the game itself, whilst at other times you’ll be unlocking new items or clues in the 3D world.
The aesthetic here is perfectly judged for its influences and has a real charm of its own. Whilst clearly paying homage to the simplistic blocky pixels of Atari games there is obviously more scope and memory to provide character models and effects that are a little out of place on the hardware of the era. Stepping out of the game gives you a fixed perspective view of your bedroom and I worried at first that this mode would be a Five Nights at Freddy clone with constant annoying distractions and resource management mechanics. Fortunately this isn’t the case as the intrusions in the real world are far more closely connected to the inner game and the whole effect is often surprising and clever.
I’ve often complained about survival horror’s over-reliance on limited inventory and the backtracking this results in – games like Hollowbody have shown how we can move past this – so having a game where you can only carry one item at a time initially felt like it wouldn’t appeal. Surprisingly, this limitation became a key part of Tormenture’s puzzles and exploration and worked fantastically well here. You carry items by moving into them and the orientation compared to your little square pixel body is all-important. If you have a key at the bottom of your character you won’t be able to open a locked door above you toward the top of the screen. When carrying a sword you can only damage enemies by bumping into them in that direction. The limitations here directly create a need for strategy and placement – factors that are especially important in the various boss fights.
The overall progression of the game is period appropriate in its simplicity, as you must locate four hidden relics to open the final temple. This is an illusion, however, as the various areas you explore are filled with environmental puzzles and Easter eggs. While you can run through the game and reach the end relatively quickly (depending on your skill with the puzzles) you’ll miss much of the content and lore by doing so. I took around seven hours to play through and still have around a third to a half of the secrets to find – each has a related achievement, if you want to keep track. I’m not sure whether finding them all unlocks a new ending or not but the puzzles are enjoyable enough to be worth the time anyway.
Each of the four relics is protected by a major boss fight that will test the main object and ability introduced in that area. This approach gives each part a distinct feel over and above the different colour palettes used to distinguish them. The end of game boss is well designed to test all of these abilities in one encounter and is suitably challenging, although not as impossible as original games from the 80s tended to be.
Where Tormenture really shines, however, is through the intricate interactions between the game world and the bedroom setting. Not to give away too much, you’ll regularly be carrying out tasks in your room to discover new paths in the game and vice versa as you progress. For true nostalgia nerds there is even a physical in-game manual that has hints and information (like a smaller scale version of the same in Tunic).
There are a couple of minor bugs, with one entertaining one seeing the game’s Speak and Spell linked to my character movement (cue constant narration of each key press). A late game area saw me softlock myself due to glitching through a barrier without the correct item but the save points are frequent and I was able to quickly restart and continue.
