I'm not much of a fan of sports games, but this one really piqued my interest. However, from the start, there were numerous bugs and problems that had to be worked through. The tutorial is vague on some instructions, making it very hard to progress, and doesn't explain a lot of the rules of the game. For instance, the tutorial does not tell you that you can ONLY pass the ball immediately after picking it up or receiving it. If you move once you have the ball, you have to run it. While it mentions running the ball as an option, it never states that it's your only option once you move. Between the lack of information provided in the tutorial and other little bugs that severely affect the nuance of this game, I am unimpressed and disappointed. It can be fun to watch, but not so much when struggling to play with a genre I'm not overly familiar with and random bugs and unexplained rules.
Toren is a brilliant action/adventure title from a first-time developer. Pleasant scenery and a good soundtrack combined with adequate game controls and puzzles that are just hard enough to be challenging, yet, not annoying make for an enjoyable gaming experience. Pros Excellent music Very pretty visuals Approriately challenging puzzles (not too hard that a casual gamer can't accomplish them, and not so easy that a better gamer won't enjoy them) Adequate controls (sure, they could be better, but they aren't bad) The game sort of feels like a work of art; excellent visual themes combine with intriguing, enigmatic narration Relatively bug-free (I encountered no particular bugs or crashes while playing this. The usual rendering issues that this game experiences are nothing new, nor unique and aren't particularly jarring or common) Cons Some poor camera decisions for some stages May take you a few times to figure out the trick on some boss fights This game should have been longer. I feel as if the tower was significantly shorter than I had hoped and that I didn't get enough time to fully enjoy the theme of watching the main character grow up and develop Should you buy this game? In my opinion, this game was well worth the money. Not particularly expensive and a game that should be enjoyable for most gamers who aren't too elitist to enjoy this first round entry into the gaming industry from a small developer. Credit where it's due, this game is amazingly well-done and relatively free of game-breaking issues considering this.
