Temtem: Swarm is an action RPG bullet hell where you control your own Temtem amidst a horde of enemies. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Everything We Know About Temtem: Swarm
Temtem: Swarm Story Plot
Temtem: Swarm reimagines the Temtem series as a roguelike survival shooter, moving away from traditional creature-collecting mechanics. Players must survive waves of glitched Temtem while trapped inside a Temcard, using strategic gameplay to fend off relentless attacks.
Aside from the information above, little is known about the plot of Temtem: Swarm. We will update this article once more information becomes available.
Temtem: Swarm Gameplay
Temtem: Swarm is a roguelike reverse bullet hell where players take control of a Tem, tamed monsters with unique abilities, and use them to defeat hordes of enemies. Every Tem has access to skills and ultimates that can turn the tide of battle, in addition to its evolution and strengthening mechanics attached to its level system.
Co-op play is available for up to three friends. The game will also allow resource-sharing and various other synergistic mechanics in order to fully utilize its multiplayer mode.
Early Access Releases on November 13, 2024
Temtem: Swarm will have an early access release on the 13th of November, 2024 for the PC. According to its Steam page, it will come out at around 12 p.m. EDT / 9 a.m. PDT.
Temtem: Swarm Review [Early Access]
Mildly Amusing at Best
In the five years since Vampire Survivors took the indie scene by storm, bullet hell roguelikes have surged in popularity. Many developers have tried their own spins on the formula, achieving varying degrees of success.
Games like Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, Brotato, and God of Weapons managed to take this recipe and create something fresh. Temtem: Swarm is one of the latest to attempt its own twist, though, as this review will show, it doesn’t quite match the originality or impact of these titles—not even close.
Temtem: Swarm plays like a 3D take on Vampire Survivors, though not in a 3D POV, as fun as that sounds. It’s still top-down but uses 3D assets instead of pixel art. The game’s objective is simple: survive waves of enemy Temtems by defeating them, gathering EXP, upgrading abilities, and evading their relentless advance.
Enemy waves start out sparsely, but their numbers and strength increase rapidly withe every passing second. Your Temtem uses their starter weapon to fend off attackers, and they have a powerful ultimate ability with a lengthy cooldown for when enemy waves start to be more difficult.
Defeated foes drop EXP cubes, which help level up your Temtem. Each level grants a choice of three new abilities—some offering unique attacks, while others enhance existing skills in areas like damage, projectile count, or duration. Some combat skills even improve these facets automatically, independent from any additional stat changes your Temtem’s utility skills grant them.
Upon reaching a certain level, your Temtem evolves, transforming into a stronger form with better base stats, making previous and future upgrades scale better. Your Temtem is also limited to a skillset of four offensive and four utility abilities, although these can be swapped out for new skills of each category whenever you level up and choose to do so.
Throughout the map, your Temtem will encounter random events marked by blue circles, which range from survival challenges to battles with powerful enemies. Successfully completing these events rewards you with skill upgrades and Pansuns, the game’s metagame currency.
Pansuns fuel your Temtem’s progression between runs, allowing you to boost each Temtem’s base stats in the Skills menu. Every Temtem has access to a unique Pansun pool, along with a shared pool that any Temtem can draw from to enhance its abilities if you deem it necessary.
While this mechanic rundown may sound familiar to fans of games like Holocure, Temtem: Swarm manages to introduce just enough mechanical variety to avoid feeling like a simple Vampire Survivors clone—barely.
Mechanics Just Distinct Enough to Stand Out
Given its mechanics, Temtem: Swarm inevitably invites comparisons to nearly every other bullet hell roguelike. However, it does introduce some unique twists worth noting. Evolving your Temtem mid-run and unlocking new ones through eggs you find on the battlefield are welcome additions to the classic roguelike formula. Additionally, random events keep each run unpredictable, rewarding players willing to take on a bit more risk.
That said, these innovations don’t quite elevate the game above its competitors. The skills feel generic next to the quirky weapons in Vampire Survivors, the tactical guns in DRG: Survivor, or the melee combat of God of Weapons. Utility skills are essentially stat boosts dressed up to seem complex, but they boil down to simple number increases.
Ultimately, Temtem: Swarm lacks the intense power fantasy of its peers, focusing too heavily on the character rather than the arsenal of abilities, which typically drives the thrill in this genre. The result is a game that feels serviceable but doesn’t quite capture the exhilaration of facing down waves of enemies—not as well as it should, anyway.
Just a Bit Too Slow for its Genre
The main issue holding back Temtem: Swarm is its pacing, which, while subtle, significantly impacts the gameplay experience. The game simply feels too slow to deliver the thrill of battling wave after wave of enemies.
This sluggishness isn’t about actual time passing, but rather the sense of progression. Enemies are just a bit too tough, upgrades feel a bit too weak, and it takes a bit too long for your Temtem’s ultimate to charge. These small delays add up, dragging each run down so that even a 15-minute session feels like an endurance test.
On the upside, Temtem: Swarm doesn’t share this slow pacing in its metagame progression. Unlocking new content is refreshingly quick, and it helps that there’s a lot to unlock in this game if you manage to put in the time.
Plenty of Content to Unlock and Skills to Upgrade
Temtem: Swarm offers a treasure trove of unlockable Temtems, each featuring skill trees with over 30 nodes that open up new upgrades and abilities. If you manage to complete a few runs, you’ll have more than enough Pansuns to gear up your Temtems with lasting enhancements.
Each run also unlocks new skills—both combat and utility-based—as you hit certain milestones like high scores, fast run times, or boss defeats with specific Temtems, which introduces fresh possibilities for future runs.
However, for all this variety, there’s a sameness that hangs over it all, like different shades of gray in a monochromatic painting. Each option is unique on paper, but in practice, it all blurs together, lacking the punch needed to make each choice truly distinct.
There aren’t risky builds or odd, run-changing skills that would warrant more thinking than a cursory survey. It’s all just numbers and stat increases. Unfortunately for Temtem: Swarm, the shortcomings don’t end here.
Lacks Any Real Challenge
In a roguelike or roguelite, the worst offense isn’t being outright bad or excessively hard—it’s being too easy. These games are meant to push players to the brink, challenging them enough to feel rewarded with each retry.
Unfortunately, Temtem: Swarm falls short of that thrill. Its low-health elites, predictable bosses, and lack of enemy variety make it feel more like an entry-level bullet hell roguelike, lacking the depth and difficulty that keep players hooked. At this point, I don’t even want to beat the game, I just want to unlock new skills and see what else I can unlock with them.
The multiplayer aspect of Temtem: Swarm doesn’t add enough to shift the game’s overall impact. While it’s nice to experience the game alongside others, it doesn’t bring any meaningful change in pace or variety that would elevate or detract from the game’s overall experience.
In the end, it feels like just more people engaging in the same meandering, bland gameplay—a missed opportunity to introduce a fresh layer of excitement or challenge that might have made multiplayer a memorable addition.
Just Meh in Every Way
Mediocrity is the core issue with Temtem: Swarm. It doesn’t excel at anything, but it also doesn’t fall flat in any glaring way. The experience hovers just above average, without a single high point to cheer for or frustrating low to spark real engagement. Plenty of games earn attention by pushing boundaries—either excelling or failing spectacularly—but Temtem: Swarm remains firmly in the middle, lacking the distinction to push in either direction.
Despite its best efforts, Temtem: Swarm ends up being only mildly amusing, a game that’s easy to play but hard to remember.
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Temtem: Swarm Product Information
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| Title | TEMTEM: SWARM |
|---|---|
| Release Date | November 13, 2024 (Early Access) |
| Developer | Crema, GGTech Studios |
| Publisher | Crema |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Genre | Action, Bullet Hell, Roguelike |
| Number of Players | Single Player with Co-op |
| ESRB Rating | TBA |
| Official Website | Temtem: Swarm Official Website |
