Temtem: Swarm is a survivor-like bullet heaven with cute creatures to evolve out now

Available now in Early Access, survivor-like bullet heaven Temtem: Swarm is another game entering the crowded but popular genre from developer Crema. Note: the developer provided a key.

Based on the massive popularity of Vampire Survivors, but in the world Crema created for their online creature-collection game Temtem. Check out the gameplay trailer to see what you're in for:

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Since it's unfinished, I'll reserve final judgement for when it is but they say it's going to be in Early Access for around a year while they add in more content. Based on what's there right now though from the time I've played, it's a visually welcoming and action-packed game that's easy to lose track of time with.

The addition of online co-op is nice so you can take down the swarms together, and dead players get a ghost to move around with and get revived, so as an online co-op game it can be pretty great too. No local co-op though, which seems like a big missed opportunity considering it would be a perfect game for it. It's not just a multiplayer game though, to be clear, it's all playable solo.

However, it does suffer from being not quite unique enough I think. If you've played a few of these survivor-likes by now, I don't think it's going to particularly sway you over just yet, but as an entry into the genre it does a great job to be entertaining to play. I actually love the the ultimate abilities of the Temtem that visually look awesome when you get to fire them off.

Smashing through the crowds in the image above as Baboong (evolved from Smazee) with their ultimate ability, which spawns two spinning boulders you can swing around is definitely a highlight. Love watching them spin through a big wave. Juicy.

Evolving your character into their next stage is a good addition too, seeing them grow and change visually with a statistics buff and animation, but I was hoping there was a little bit more to it than just that. Seems like something else that could have been expanded upon, to give you more of something else when you evolve, like an additional power. Although, that said, you can entirely skip the evolution to pick a different upgrade but still, evolution's feel like they need something else to them.

There's a Synergies system included too which is where if you pair up certain abilities with specific gear, will turn it into something more powerful. It's not very well explained though. When you play in co-op it also makes it more interesting, as if your co-op partner has the required gear it will also work.

Outside of running around and blasting through it, there's also a pretty decently sized meta-progression system to unlock all sorts from new techniques to use in the battles to specifically upgrading each Temtem directly. This is the key to the game, getting you to play more and more to expand what you have access to. I'm not overly keen on the Temtem meta upgrade system as it is right now though, with lots hidden behind specific "Kudos" (like challenges) without telling you what they are. You just have to play to discover whatever the challenge is. If they made that clearer, I think I would enjoy it more so I can know what I really want to work towards for each Temtem to play as.

It works great on Linux using the latest Proton 9.0-3 and performance on Steam Deck has mostly been fine too. Some text is a little bit small, which I found even on a big TV was also a bit problematic. Too many developers are still putting out games with small text, and that's quite annoying. Valve gave it a Deck Playable rating.

For now it's a tentative recommendation because it looks good, plays well but it really feels like it's missing some special sauce to hook me in like other similar games have. I'll keep checking back though with major updates. It really does have some of the best visual and character design in the genre though.