Review for The Touryst. Game for PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X, the video game was released on 21/11/2019 The version for PC came out on 30/07/2020 The version for Xbox One came out on 30/07/2020
Version for Xbox Series X from 10/11/2020
Finding yourself on holiday on an island, frequented only by a few tourists and on which, in addition to a small shop and a few houses for vacationers, there are only two monuments. Similar details might seem the perfect ingredients for a relaxing journey, to disconnect from routine and everyday life, instead they represent the first steps into the world of The Touryst, signed puzzle game Shin'en Multimedia which, having conquered the players on Nintendo Switch, will attempt to do the same on PC e Xbox One.
The key to The Touryst lies in the monuments
The foundations on which the signed puzzle game rests Shin'en Multimedia are, from the very first moments, particular: the player finds himself in the role of a mysterious protagonist, of whom he knows absolutely nothing except those few details that he can deduce, including his being on a trip for a vacation. The initial stage of the latter is a small island, on which there is only a souvenir shop, a few houses to accommodate tourists and two monuments, the main and characteristic attraction of the area.
To give the turning point to the apparent monotony and simplicity of the area are the latter which, despite the geometric and little convoluted aspect, hide an unexpected secret, revealed by the words of an elderly person, once an initial enigma has been solved and reached the central room. of the building. According to the man's words, in fact, i monuments scattered around the different islands have no earthly nature, but they represent single components of a single block deriving from a reality different from that known to man. The elder also reveals that the only way to understand all the aspects and characteristics of the buildings is to explore them, reach the main room and collect the central nucleus, and then bring it back to the initial monument.
A similar storyline, coupled with the presence of strange enemies, allows a The Touryst to depart, in part, from other titles belonging to the puzzle-game genre, and ends up representing a useful turning point from the point of view of pure gameplay.
A simple and immediate gameplay
The first island, beyond its simplicity, allows you to understand from the first moments of the game the intuitive mechanics at its base. In this sense The Touryst offers a fairly limited range of possibilities, leading the player to perform a series of actions that are always the same and, in a few cases, only invertible. Interaction with the environment and secondary characters, solving puzzles and entering the monuments: these are the steps necessary to reach the core and complete the "main mission".
Shin'en Multimedia has thus attempted to give a little liveliness to the gameplay by combining the latter with some secondary tasks which, listed within a small to-do-list, break the boredom a bit, which in some moments of the journey risks be heard. The efforts of the team behind the development of the puzzle game are thus able to bear fruit and push the player to proceed to the end of the journey, but they are still limited. The steps and possibilities to complete any mission are in fact very few, probably also due to the very nature of the game: both the main and secondary tasks end up being reduced to trivial interactions or solving puzzles, which can range from different degrees of difficulty but without ever being able to pose a real challenge to the player.
The aspects described above, however, must not make you lose hope: The Touryst manages to make every player's lips curl into a smile by combining these simple mechanics with other less trivial ones. In order to proceed with the search for answers on the nature of the monuments it is necessary not only to solve the puzzles and face small bosses, but also cultivate the skills of the protagonist, easily unlocked at the first island shop, Touryst Island.
Completing the secondary missions on the list and exploring the islands allows the mustachioed main character to obtain coins, which he can then use to purchase "products": a similar term should not, however, confuse you, since with the latter the shopkeeper in the area initial means real skills, including the ability to climb, run up and double jump!
An equally nice mechanism is that of the camera. Once purchased, it will be possible to use it to take photos of the monuments and, once back to the shop, resell them to get spendable coins.
At the base of it all… the cubes!
The simplicity of the gameplay is also flanked by the graphics, whose nature is rooted in the geometric - and very classic - figure of the cube. With a similar choice The Touryst manages to wink at both fans of the genre, bringing the mind back to older great titles and typically LEGO polygonality, both for beginners, thanks to its intuitiveness.
In fact, the cubes are able to best represent every facet of the different atmospheres, passing from the brilliant colors of the islands, the vegetation and the secondary characters to the gloomy and gloomy realities present in the heart of the monuments, true protagonists of the adventure. Alongside the amazement deriving from the shades of the houses, the water and the sunsets, however, there is a defect: the simplicity of the environment and the bright colors, in some areas, end up hindering the identification of objects with which to interact , leading the player to roam the world until they find potential interactions! To support the graphics there is also the soundtrack which, at the slightest variation in the atmosphere, varies in tone, adapting and generating musicality from the highest to the most profound based on the change in the area. This union makes the enjoyable gameplay even in the most difficult environments, slightly diminishing that sense of despair and frustration deriving from the monotony that end up characterizing some parts of the adventure.
The Touryst aims, with the union of captivating graphics with a LEGO style, intuitive gameplay and a certainly well-recreated atmosphere, to bring the puzzle-game genre back into vogue even on current platforms. The work done by the Shin'en Multimedia team certainly manages to bring both fans of this type of game closer together, with a nod to classics of the past, but also to newbies, but at the risk of being little varied in the long run. The game is currently available for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows PC consoles.
► The Touryst is a Puzzle-Adventure-Arcade game developed and published by Shin'en Multimedia for PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X, the game was released on 21/11/2019 The version for PC came out on 30/07/2020 The version for Xbox One came out on 30/07/2020
Version for Xbox Series X from 10/11/2020
