BENGALURU : As much as Temtem calls itself a multiplayer creature collection RPG — much like an MMO Fantastic Beasts, a few minutes into the game you will realise what exactly that means — a mix of Pokémon and Club Penguin. I believe the double ‘Tem’ in Temtem symbolises two concepts. The first Tem represents Pokémon. The second Tem represents the originality in Temtem. Jokes apart, the innovative aspect lies in the fact that this is online, and that it is also an affordable Pokémon-type available on the PC as opposed to the cultish Nintendo releases.
The online aspects of the game mean little in this current early access version. Unless I convince a few of my friends to go co-op with me, the current version is filled with many reluctant players who seem unwilling to play a competitive battle, or even accept my friend request.
I have always liked the Pokémon games. So I find hardly any complaints with Temtem in its current form too! What I would like, however, is a handy crowd-sourced dictionary that will help me reconcile the terminology used in Temtem with its Pokémon equivalents. I have gotten so good at the type-based strategy in Pokémon that learning how to win Temtem would require a massive vocabulary change. For example, ‘Gyms’ are now ‘Dojos’, ‘Pokéballs’ are now ‘TemCards’.
The novelty of Temtem also lies in the fact that none of the Temtem are particularly powerful over the other. The roster of creatures is still quite small, and there is no way (yet) of determining if the ‘untamed’ creature lurking in the tall grass is rare and powerful. The familiarity that we have with Pokémon — the types and the skills are lacking and it makes playing Temtem rather unsettling.
There is also a complex breeding system, a complex attack system (the fights we have with trainers we meet on our journey aren’t easy challenges even if you have a level-ed up squad), and creatures that look cuter than they do on Pokémon. Once the game gets out of early access, I am looking forward to doing some profitable trading and participating in humbling battles. I rate the game a cliché Tem out of Tem.