As a fan ofPokémon, but one who’s a little burned out on Pokémon games, I was drawn to Temtem (now on Steam following ahugely successful Early Accessrun) by its promises of critter collection, coupled with new twists on old ideas. For the most part, I got what I was expecting. It’s an MMO where you collect a variety of colourful creatures and pit them against each other in 2v2 battles. Sound cute? Sure, until you get pummeled up and down the garden path by a seemingly endless procession of surfer dudes and their roided-up pit bulls.
Temtem is hard. Really hard. Don’t be fooled by the cartoony aesthetic, it doesn’t mess about. The increased complexity is a large part of that. Both you and your opponents can send two Temtem out onto the field, which complicates matters in several ways. Tems, just like their Pokémon counterparts, are of various elemental persuasions, some of which complement each other very nicely. My Saipat (an upright duck with a small sword), for instance, had an attack called “high-pressure water”, which when used alongside a fire Temtem would apply a burning status effect to the enemy.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg though. There are also stamina mechanics that often play a decisive role. All techniques have a stamina cost, nothing too unusual there, but here’s the twist: if you don’t have the required stamina, you can still use an ability, but your little buddies will “overexert” themselves. Overexertion causes a Temtem to take damage, so it’s best kept back as a last resort, because it could well be the fight-winner. I won many a battle by using a powerful ability that obliterated the enemy’s HP as well as my own - a microcosm of the brutality of the game at large.
Related:Crema Games Reveals The Full Temtem Roadmap
So there’s a lot to think about out in the field, but that isn’t even close to the most brutal thing about Temtem. The extra battle mechanics are a welcome bonus as far as I’m concerned, but at other times Temtem comes dangerously close to crossing a difficulty line, and sometimes seems to take a perverse glee in simply messing players about. If all this sounds a bit much, I recommend the delightfulNew Pokemon Snapinstead (see what we thought of itin our review).
The Airborne Archipelago is an unforgiving place. There are dozens, if not hundreds of rival trainers out there who want a piece of you. Each of the island in the archipelago is essentially a linear path dotted with trainers who challenge anyone who comes near them (at least the first time you visit it). So far so Red and Blue, but the density of opponents feels like it’s been dialed up significantly. Even traveling across Deniz, a sleepy seaside paradise where everyone wears Hawaiian shirts and cargo shorts feels like trying to sneak into Mordor without proper ID and a boot full of non-native flora and fauna.
An enemy trainer pops up every second step. The battles are fun, but HP is carried over between fights, so it doesn’t take long for your team to get worn down to the point that you have to run back to town and buy another week’s worth of healing potions. Things do get a little easier later on once you’ve had a chance to put a stronger team together and grind up some XP, but the first couple of hours are seriously tough going. You won’t have a full grasp of the mechanics, and you’ll only have a handful of Temtem to call upon, none of which will prevent the citizens of Deniz from falling over each other to be first in line to pound you into the dirt.
That’s more of a steep learning curve than a problem though, and it pretty much solves itself over time. Where I think Temtem starts to take things too far is the dojo (esssentially, Pokemon Gym) design. Once you struggle your way past the lower-level trainers on a given island, the dojo is the final challenge, and they pull out all the stops.
Related:Pokémon Developer Has A Listed Job Posting For Work On Next-Gen Hardware
Not only are the Temtem in the dojo higher level and generally in much more effective combinations, butby Christwill you jump through some hoops on your way to challenging the Dojo Master. The Quetzal dojo, for instance, has a huge slippery crystal floor. There are skates you can get later in the game that make traversing the crystal a lot easier, but you won’t have them yet, which means you can only slide along without being able to turn or stop until you bump up against a wall. You have to work out how to propel yourself through the dojo without having full control over your own movement. The final dojo, Properton, even incorporates a Simon Says-style memory puzzle that I’m embarrassed to admit took me six or seven tries to get past.
Your mileage may vary, but for the most part, I found these sections more interesting than annoying. What I did find frustrating was the game’s weird fascination with stripping me of both my Temtem and my equipment. There’s a moment in the story where you are involved in an airship crash, and you lose your hard-earned crystal skates and your surfboard (your means of traversing bodies of water). You are then arrested and also have all your Temtem taken away from you. This whole sequence felt like an unnecessary detour. You get your Temtem back in fairly short order, but it’s a while before you’ll get to see your skates or your surfboard again.
Given that the rest of the game is already perched precariously on the boundary between “meaty challenge” and “punishing grind,” I was more frustrated than anything else. When I was given my Temtem back I didn’t feel relief or joy, I felt more like I had been forced to indulge the game while it made an overlong joke at my expense.
Temtem doesn’t pull any punches. Beneath the bright and breezy aesthetic is a genuinely challenging MMORPG that should appeal to anyone who wants a Pokemon-like experience that will really put their abilities to the test. Don’t say I didn’t warn you though.
