Seriously Sam?
Serious Sam: Tormental isn’t the typical Sam Stone adventure; and I just became a fan with game number 4. (read my review here) Tormental see’s Sam and friends in the mind of the series villain; Mental. (Tor-Mental…get it? Torment Mental; You get it.) A lot of the humor is mental based, ala Psychonauts. While not as nuanced as the humor in that series, what is on display in Tormental is 100% on brand with Serious Sam and that is a great thing as the writing and comedy are by far one of this game’s highlights.
If you’ve played any number of the recent bullet-hell rogue-lite games that have released over the years like Enter the Gungeon, then you know what to expect here. Tormental begins with players controlling Sam, but he is only one of a number of unlockable heroes. Serious Sam: Tormental also offers same-screen co-op play which is fun on paper but just adds to the overall chaos that the screen becomes when fights get hot and heavy. Each level players tackle will have waves of enemies thrown at the player to cut down with a vast assortment of firearms that will unlock along the way. As progress is made through each level there are hidden (and some obvious) chests to discover, as well as mods to guns that will add elemental damage, or make the gun a split shot; which will fire off bullets in multiple directions. Levels of course will end with an epic (I use that term loosely) boss fight, which if vanquished will reward the player with better gear and loot.
MSRP: $11.99
Platforms: PC
Price I’d Pay: $11.99
Combat in Serious Sam: Tormental has lots of options which are cool at first but players will quickly learn they aren’t the most efficient way to clear levels. Being a twin-stick shooter, firing a weapon and aiming is tied to the right analog stick while movement is handled via the left one. There is a jump that gets some use for some light platforming, as well as a dodge that serves a double purpose. Not only can it be used to get out of the way of an oncoming attack, but if an enemy receives enough damage, they will begin to glow yellow. When this happens players can roll into them and cause a “Brutal” melee attack which will kill the enemy and detonate them causing some splash damage to surrounding foes. There isn’t anything thing here that is earth-shattering or new when it comes to the combat in SS:T, if you have played games in the genre before then you know what to expect.
The real issues begin to arise during combat when players screens are filled with lots of colored orbs and explosions. It becomes almost a game in itself to locate your character among the chaos; and then add a co-op partner in the mix and it becomes downright impossible. While the combat can be fun that joy quickly devolves into panic as you search the screen to figure out which colored object you are. This isn’t anything that is inherently an issue with just *this* game though, I think this is something that all bullet-heel shooters suffer from and frankly the fans of those games feel like is part of the challenge, which is cool if that’s you; its just too tough for me.
Graphically speaking Tormental isn’t going to any awards but it doesn’t really have to. The series itself has never taken itself too seriously (pun intended) and for Sam and the team to be depicted in this blocky art style works here; especially when you consider they are literally fighting against someone’s imagination. Played from a top-down perspective, the twin-stick/ rogue-like shooter has graphics most in common with Minecraft Dungeons, but uglier. Aside from being very colorful there isn’t really anything special about the art design here. Like I said earlier though, due to this being in Mental’s mind I kind of think the lack of graphical detail intentional but perhaps in an effort to be meta they perhaps went too far for the joke to land.
It’s not that Serious Sam: Tormental is a bad game, its just one that doesn’t do anything new. In an already increasingly crowded market for indie, rougelite games this one is bound to be missed simply because it doesn’t do anything new to push the genre forward. Of course, the opposite side of that is that it doesn’t really do anything negative either, it is a solidly made top-down shooter. Sure, it adds some of the trademark humor that the ‘Serious’ series is known for, but aside from some laughs the gameplay was pretty simple over all. While the game does have a ton of unlockable’ s available to those that desire to chase them down, it’s not enough to really add anything new or exciting to the already established gameplay loop. Luckily the game is retailing for only $10, which feels about right. In this case you most definitely are going to get what you paid for, no more and no less.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
