Temtem Preview

Have you ever wanted to play a Pokémon style game on a non-Nintendo system? Well, you are in luck, Temtem is available now on PlayStation 5 as part of its early access program. Is it worth a try? Read on to learn more about what the title offers.

Temtem is a simple game in concept, you travel around its world collecting wild animals akin to Pokémon. However, all is not as it seems as a huge difference in this title is the MMO aspect, and although this doesn’t shake up the already well-established formula, it does add a ton of replayability. Whilst the MMO aspect isn’t too much of a feature right now it does have a huge amount of potential for the game’s later life. At the moment all the MMO aspect does is allow you to see other players walking around the game world. Temtem also features cross-play so you can also see PC players as you journey through the main story.

The port runs at a native 4K60 on PlayStation 5, and through my many hours of gameplay, I didn’t see a single drop in frames-per-second. The load times are also pretty much non-existent, and the game does handle well on a controller. However, I would have liked a few more DualSense-related features, like haptic feedback or sounds out of the controller speakers; it does seem that we will be getting haptic feedback later down the road though. There have been no server related issues and every time I have wanted to play Temtem I have had no issues connecting to the game servers.

There are hundreds of Temtems to collect, hours of main-story quests and there is still plenty more content to come later down the road. This includes things like two more game islands, 60+ more Temtems and much more. The game definitely doesn’t feel empty right now and it is only going to get better.

Temtem aims for the right audience; whilst Pokémon aims for young kids that maybe watch the series or are into cartoons. Temtem is definitely a lot more teenagers and above focused. This is apparent with things like the less cartoonish monster designs and lack of tutorials. Temtem definitely assumes you have played this type of game before and know what to do in order to progress the story.

Temtem’s combat is hugely different to other games; whilst it is still a turn-based combat system, it forces you to be more strategic with your attacks. Yes, it has all the usual clichés for the genre, like using moves that make the opponents defense fall or using a move that makes the opponent's attack drop. There is, however a cool system where unlike Pokémon, you have to use your attacks wisely as when you use an attack it takes away your stamina and if you use a move that takes your stamina below zero you will inflict damage upon yourself and potentially even knock yourself out.

The soundtrack in Temtem is also very well done, from the intense music that plays when you're in a 1v2 battle, to the gentle upbeat soundtrack while you're on your way to the next dojo battle.

The graphics in this title are very impressive - it may not blow you away like the new AAA games that are hitting PlayStation 5, but Temtem definitely stands out for me from the way that the world is designed. and looks like it’s flying on an island made of clouds, to the Temtems themselves that look stunning.

There is a huge amount of story in this release, and the devs have stated that there are another two islands coming to the game which equates to around 15 hours of story content (based on four islands so far and the story lasting around 30 hours). There are a lot more features coming to the game down the road like trading, PVP and even new Temtem based on mythical creatures.

I enjoyed my time with Temtem and I cannot wait to see what this title evolves into in a year's time. If you enjoy Pokémon games then I definitely recommend looking into this game.