In our recent review of the PS5 version of monster-collecting MMO Temtem, reviewer Charlie Coleman said, "It’s currently in Early Access, but even in its current state, Tentem is shaping up to be a worthy contender to rival the long-running Pokémon video game series." I've never played a Pokémon game before, but I do like a good MMO, so I decided to give Temtem a shot. I recruited my son Aidan, who has far more experience with the Pokémon franchise than I do, and we took a crack at the opening hours of Temtem earlier this afternoon.
Before starting this session, I spent about 90 minutes grinding to build up my starter Temtem in the opening area, hoping that I would make them more useful in battle. My efforts only helped incrementally. Though Aidan and I were able to cruise through the opening battles, we perhaps progressed too quickly and flew too close to the metaphorical Temtem sun. We were soon in over our heads.
By the end of our play session, we were forced to seriously debate as to whether we should continue forward, or retreat with our tails between our legs to the previous town. We ended up retreating (wisely, I believe), scurrying back to town and scraping at the bottom of the barrel of our squads as one Temtem after another fell in battle. By the time we made it back to town, we were each on our last Temtem, and they only had slivers of their health left. We cut it awfully close. It was both intense and hilariously funny. Check it out here:
Playing Temtem with my son was a lot of fun. We had a good time learning the Temtem ropes, and I'm certain that we will be going back into the game for more punishment later this week. Keep an eye on Gaming Nexus for more sessions as the week goes on.
