However, you cannot have your lighter and a weapon equipped simultaneously. To combat this, you make use of a lighter. Also, being in pitch darkness will very quickly kill you. The latter is fairly effective, but clips of nails are in short supply. A crowbar (which is a weak melee weapon) and a nail gun. That’s because for the bulk of the game you only have two weapons at your disposal.
Or, if you’re confronted by enemies, you panic and make a mad dash to the nearest exit. Instead, you’re drawn by the camera to move a certain way. The fixed camera angles are very cinematic, but it also means there’s no camera control to player movement. Yet Tormented Souls is clearly developed by a team that have mastered the craft.Īs hinted at earlier, Tormented Souls works with conventions that shaped Survival Horror. Genuine horror is a difficult thing to get right. It’s the first game I’ve played in a long time that made me feel as apprehensive to proceed as those aforementioned titles once did. But what Tormented Souls achieves is greater than that.
It feels (largely) slick and responsive to play. At times it really is wonderful to look at. Tormented Souls looks like a modern title. What stood out to me was just how effective the staples of vintage Survival Horror can still be in manipulating fear and tension. Victims every bit as much as they are hostiles. Pained creatures fused with wheelchairs or IV stands. The enemies are amalgamations of the human body and surgical structures. The hospital/mansion is a maze of mystery, the corridors of which you’ll need to familiarise yourself with to survive. Instead, it’s a place where people are butchered in aid of some wretched cause. More than merely telling the story through writing and dialogue, the setting itself shows that Winterlake Hospital is not a place where people are treated. As with classic Survival Horror games, through reading these diaries you find clues and unearth the depravity of this diabolical hospital. As you progress, you meet a rather unsettling priest and find diaries scattered around. Once Caroline puts her clothes on, the rest is up to you. Clearly the victim of some awful surgical procedure. You awaken, naked in a bath with a tube down your throat and an eye missing. A handwritten message on the back beckons Caroline to visit. One day, she receives a picture of twin sisters from an old hospital. The story starts by introducing our heroine – Caroline Walker. That said, it does so in its own compelling way. From the outright gross to the deepest of chills, Tormented Souls captures what makes Survival Horror so fantastic. The atmosphere is thick, the fear is full-on and the setting itself uses Playstation 1 era techniques to command your emotions. Sticking to the use of fixed camera angles to elicit fear in the player, Tormented Souls also attempts to adapt to a modern gaming landscape. For those seeking a traditional horror game, akin to Resident Evil, Silent Hill, or Alone in the Dark, this title came with that classic formula. Originally, Tormented Souls was released in August 2021.
A grotesque adventure that pulls you into its mystery from the moment you begin. This makes for a frightening, claustrophobic journey through an old hospital with dark secrets. However, Tormented Souls also adheres to the fixed camera perspective of older titles in the genre. Detailed backgrounds, complex puzzles, limited supplies, and backtracking are all present here. Tormented Souls, by Dual Effect, aims to utilize the core mechanics of Survival Horror but with a modernized twist. Survival Horror had its “golden age” in the 90’s, following a strict set of conventions and tropes.