Review: Toren (Computer)

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Toren: Official GBAtemp Review

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Reviewed by Tom Bond, posted May 12, 2015
May 12, 2015
  • Release Date (NA): May 12, 2015
  • Publisher: Versus Evil
  • Developer: Swordtales
  • Genres: Puzzle, Platformer, Adventure
  • ESRB Rating: Teen
  • Also For: PlayStation 4
  • Single player
    Local Multiplayer
    Online Multiplayer
    Co-operative
Toren brings poetry to life in an epic journey of growth, discovery and overcoming great hurdles. The rich, fantastical atmosphere in Toren is conveyed through colorful and highly-detailed environments. The main character ages from a mere infant to a young adolescent, creating new game mechanics and challenges for each learning experience and phase of her life.
Tom Bond

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Indie Extraordinaire

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"Oooh! Pretty sharp thing!"

Toren is Brazilian indie studio's Swordtales' first game. It's supposed to be a puzzle platformer/adventure game, and I say supposed to because in the whopping 1 1/2 to 2 hours it takes to complete the game I didn't come across a single actual puzzle, nor did I really get a chance to actually explore...anywhere in the game, so I guess it'd be more accurate to just say "Platformer" and leave it at that. 

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The game starts out with a young girl holding a sword and looking pretty badass, giving me a pretty good first impression of the game. You come across an evil looking dragon mo-fo as you continue on the linear path you're given and you try your hand at messing it up...and you fail and die. Great start, eh? You awake anew as a baby, reborn again as the "Moonchild", and are instructed to find a particular sword and ascend the nasty tower known as "Toren" to defeat the evil dragon that your past selves have (seemingly) failed to do. As soon as I'm given free reign over the Moon Child I am instantly blasted with that  "indie game" feel you get when playing a cheap indie game, and it's definitely present in the entire playthrough. 

Cheap Indie Extraordinaire

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This game feels cheap. Visually, it's disappointing. Unlike a lot of other cheap indie games, Swordtales went with a 3D style'd adventure game as opposed to 2D/8/16-bit styled, and the unfortunate side effect of choosing this style of visuals ends up making the game look like it was made in 2005, not 2015. The textures are a mess, with clipping textures everywhere, textures intersect and phase through each other in most of the game's world, the few models in the entire game have very little detail and almost kills the mood at times. 

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Toren does have a few saving graces, the story is quite engaging and the lore you can find throughout the game is quite interesting; learning about the Moon Child's role and the past that sparked the current events of the world kept me going through most of the game. The audio setup, when not repetitive, is also quite enjoyable, and the few songs in the game are put together really well and really flesh out the lackluster environments. Unfortunately, neither of the two is enough to save this game from it's glaring and abundant flaws. 

Verdict
Pros
+ Great story and lore
+ The (small) amount of audio in the game is put together well
 Cons
- Game in general is visually unappealing
- When the player has control of the camera, it's horrendous
- When the game has control of the camera, it's horrendous
- The "puzzles" are extremely simple
- There was no real exploration in the game as far as I could tell, everywhere was pretty linear
- Clunky controls, and even worse "combat" controls
2 Presentation
The very beginning of the game is presented very well...but falls flat on it's face 10 minutes after the initial tutorial, with the rest of the game lagging behind the promising beginning.
2 Gameplay
Toren's gameplay is extremely lackluster. The controls are clunky, the combat, while not very focused, is even worse, the camera controls are horrid, there are very few "puzzle" elements at all in the game, and seemingly no real "exploration" that isn't forced just kills the game.
1 Lasting Appeal
I finished this game in approximately 100 minutes, and out of the 12 achievements you can unlock I missed 3 that only appear to be related to items you can pick up. This game has very little "lasting" appeal.
2
out of 10
 Overall (not an average)
I've been contemplating the best way to word this part of my review, and I just have to think being blunt and forward is the best way to go. This game is mediocre. It's a nice first try at a game, and the story of it is pretty great, but everything else falls so short I'm forced to simply say unless you're a big fan of indie games and you don't care about quality, don't bother playing this game.
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Psionic Roshambo and chavosaur like this.
18 comments

  • chavosaur
    chavosaur
    Thus answers the question, No it is not worth $10 ;O;
    May 12, 2015
    Helder Novais likes this.
  • Tom Bombadildo
    Tom Bombadildo
    I wanted to say "probably not" in the thread, but that would spoil the surprise of the review :(
    May 12, 2015
    chavosaur likes this.
  • Psionic Roshambo
    Psionic Roshambo
    You posted too many pics, now it's a lets play :P

    I am kidding of course, I don't mind short games if they are arcade like and fun. But this doesn't seem like a Final Fight or After Burner II type game...

    Pretty pictures though! Maybe the next game will be larger and they will use this one to fund the bigger game?
    May 12, 2015
    Helder Novais likes this.
  • sarkwalvein
    sarkwalvein
    Well, I knew you didn't like the game, but OMG those scores.
    May 12, 2015
  • Reploid
    Reploid
    2 points is not mediocre. Its fakeen horibal.
    May 12, 2015
  • T-hug
    T-hug
    Is 2/10 maybe a bit too harsh?
    May 12, 2015
  • Tom Bombadildo
    Tom Bombadildo
    If you're ok with mediocrity, maybe. But it's not a good game, there's little that's actually good to warrant any higher score. This is a review, not a feelings party :P

    But hey, opinions are opinions, you can buy the game if you want :P
    May 12, 2015
  • Bimmel
    Bimmel
    I would've wished for a more detailed description of the combat system. It seems that is one of the "main parts" of the game? Or is it the jumping since you said platformer? The only thing that I read was how horrible the visuals are. ;-)
    May 12, 2015
  • Nightwish
    Nightwish
    Tom: but mediocre is a synonym for average, and 2 is not an average grade, so there's something amiss.
    May 13, 2015
  • Psionic Roshambo
    Psionic Roshambo
    me·di·o·cre
    ˌmēdēˈōkər/
    adjective

    1. of only moderate quality; not very good.
      "a mediocre actor"
      synonyms:
      ordinary, average, middling, middle-of-the-road, uninspired,undistinguished, indifferent, unexceptional, unexciting, unremarkable, run-of-the-mill, pedestrian, prosaic, lackluster, forgettable, amateur,amateurish;


      Not sure but it seems like Tom used the word right to me? lol
    May 13, 2015
  • Nathan Drake
    Nathan Drake
    "not very good" - I think giving a game a 2/10 is almost the very essence of that phrase.
    May 13, 2015
  • sarkwalvein
    sarkwalvein
    The only phrase I can associate with 2/10 is "actually, there is a slim chance it could have been worse"
    May 13, 2015
  • Maximilious
    Maximilious
    I was going to say "It looks like you need to update your PC"... But that's just how the game looks hahaha
    May 13, 2015
  • RustInPeace
    RustInPeace
    Just today I saw playthrough of the game and similar comments were said. More of a story/atmosphere trip than an actual video game. Someone in the video said something about a companion novel. That true? It felt like comedy because I laughed at how ridiculous it sounds. Not interested in it, but what about the PS4 version? Any different?
    May 15, 2015
  • Hells Malice
    Hells Malice
    GBAtemp reviews really need to ditch the point scores. They're a mediocre and arbitrary way of doing things.
    Plus people focus on them instead of the actual review itself and take absolutely nothing from it other than potentially the authors bias.
    May 22, 2015
  • FAST6191
    FAST6191
    "GBAtemp reviews really need to ditch the point scores. They're a mediocre and arbitrary way of doing things."

    I am certainly no fan of scores (a complex opinion is not going to be accurately represented in a few numbers, scoring itself is an odd game -- see all "the 7 is average", "taking the middle path or extremes if the option is available/you use a points system that allows for it" and more besides, and they are not even all that useful as a point of comparison). However it is the way this review game is played and for where GBAtemp is at with it all the idea of rocking the boat too hard is not a great one, such a thing being the main reason I do not give scores of 6191, pi, e and all the other fun things to put in boxes when you need a number.

    If people focus exclusively on the scores then that is their problem. I mainly hope that the Verdict part having a bunch of text in a fairly hard to miss fashion causes them to consider things, I know I have to pause when writing them to try to figure out what to put in there and from what I have seen from the others I am not alone.
    May 23, 2015
  • pdensco
    pdensco
    people are mad over here they are jeloused about not having there own review and commenting cold things to others reviews
    May 24, 2015
  • Hells Malice
    Hells Malice
    You must be 11, lol. No one gives a shit about things like that. Really anyone can make a review on anything these days. Just put it on youtube, video reviews are better anyway.
    May 24, 2015