Well, I tourysted all the touries that could be toured. And, despite the fact that none of those are actual words, except maybe the last one, I stand by that statement. And much like any actual vacation I’ve ever taken, it was largely enjoyable, with a few gripes along the way.
Man, The Touryst is a good-looking game. Apparently the 4K video is actually rendered at 8K and then down-sampled and whatnot, but regardless of whether or not that’s accurate, it’s still a surprisingly pretty game considering it’s just a bunch of blocks.
It’s largely a pretty casual and relaxed game, which is probably why I was able to stick with it the whole way through. The player plays as a (presumably) middle-aged guy going on the vacation of a lifetime. He wanders from island to island and partakes in pretty much any activity he comes across. He plays soccer, wins a surfing competition, plays drums with a bunch of Simoans, provides music for a dance party, goes scuba diving, mining for gems, you name it and this guy’s done it.
What is missing though, and maybe it’s intentional, is the guy’s back story. He seems pretty willing to do anything, it almost comes off as kind of a bucket list. Is he dying? Did he just get divorced? Is it like Joe vs. The Volcano? Whatever this dude is running from, he’s living like it’s his last day on Earth (and considering the end of the game, it pretty much is.) All I’m saying is the guy just gives zero fucks about anything and there’s got to be a reason. It’s like the entire game is his last meal, and he’s savoring every single bite.
Overall, the game was pretty enjoyable, but there was one aspect of it that annoyed the fuck out of me, and that was the horribly, horribly designed platforming. 3D platforming by its nature is a tricky bitch to nail down, but it’s 2021. Veteran developers have had plenty of time to figure it out, and new developers have decades of excellent games to refer to in order to know what to do and what not to do. The Touryst is a good example of what not to do. The reason for this is the isometric nature of the game, and even though you can rotate it and zoom in or out, you still seem to find yourself in an awkward camera angle when it seems the most crucial.
There is a shadow below the man, so you can somewhat gauge where he’s going to land, but if you’re spacially challenged like I am, you’ll think you’re jumping toward the “10 o’clock” position, when actually it’s between 11 and 12, and he’ll end up plummeting to his death. Sometimes you’ll be able to rotate the camera a bit, which helps a little, but you’re still largely guessing where you’re jumping.
This minor gripe becomes a major source of contention later in the game though, namely in two areas, the mine and the final temple. The mine sees our tourist dropping from platform to platform using a rope. There is nothing below him but the blackness of the abyss, and the adjustable camera angle is limited, so there is a ton of guesswork involved and a frustrating amount of trial and error. There are ten floors of madness to endure before you’re finally at the bottom and can claim your reward.
The other area, the final temple, consists of a series of jumping puzzles where our tourist has to leap from floating glowing orb to floating glowing orb. These orbs are also floating over the abyss, so it’s a bitch and a half not only jumping and landing on the orb, but it’s also a fun time actually determining where the fucking orb is in the 3D space so that you can actually attempt to jump to it. The entire key to 3D platforming throughout the entire history of 3D platformers is making the objects exist in the 3D space in a tangible and relatable form. The relationship between that platform and other objects in the environment will determine how easily identifiable it is. The brain works in a very specific way in this regard, and it’s really, really easy to fuck with it. Just look at an M.C. Escher drawing. He understood how light and shadow can seriously fuck over your brain’s ability to make sense of a 3D space, and he did it, regularly, with a pencil. So if you’re designing a 3D platformer, and you want it to be effective, there are certain rules you must abide by if you want it to be successful. The Touryst momentarily breaks those rules, whether purposefully or by accident, and those segments are easily the worst in the entire game.
Everything else about the game was great, and there’s a lot of room for a sequel. I just hope they figure out their jumping mechanic next time.
