Game Review: Tormented Souls

By Al

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC

Survival Horror titles have made a pretty big comeback in recent years with the recent entries in the Resident Evil series, and there's a game that seeks to be a throwback to a time when they were all the rage in the mid-90s. Tormented Souls is a game that takes direct inspiration from early Resident Evil and Silent Hill games, as well as Alone In The Dark. It's out now for consoles and PC, and we're taking a look at it just a bit too late to be in time for the spooky season. It's never the wrong time to be scared and creeped out though, so read on to see if this love letter to a genre is a game worth picking up, or if you're better off playing Resident Evil 4 for the tenth time.

Tormented Souls drops you into the role of Caroline Walker who is investigating the disappearance of twin girls at Winterlake, a mansion-turned-hospital. As soon as she arrives she loses consciousness and wakes up naked, attached to a ventilator and missing an eye. The investigation now takes a dark turn as she's not only searching for answers, but she's also just trying to survive and find a way out of the terrible place she's walked into. The mystery of what happened to the twins always stays front and center, but you soon realize that the secret to Wildberger Hospital is far stranger than you could've ever imagined. Typical to classic survival horror games, the backstory is mainly told through diary and journal entries. There are some characters you encounter in-game, but piecing together the narrative from found documents is half the fun in a game like this. While the gameplay is most reminiscent of the first Resident Evil game, I think the story borrows more from themes found in Silent Hill. I don't want to delve into spoilers, but it doesn't take too long to realize that nothing is at all what it first appears to be. Some of the twists can be spotted a mile away, but I'm sure that most of them will take you by surprise as much as they did me. There's even an otherworldly aspect to the mansion in the form of alternate universes that can be entered though mirrors. And if you think that's going to be the only Alice In Wonderland reference in-game, you're mistaken. Simply put, the story is the strong, and most confusing, aspect of the entire game. It's the one thing that kept me going in spite of the fact that much of the gameplay felt locked to all the negative aspects of the survival horror genre.

Seriously, what is this outfit?

RIP Caroline's eye.

Exploration and item management are key to survival horror games and that's no different here. Each area opens up in a Metroidvania-style way where things progress in a far more linear fashion than you might realize at first. Items are placed about and are usually visible on-screen. Objects you can interact with, like tables you can move, are usually highlighted on-screen and I think it would've helped a lot of items you could pick up were like that too. I can't tell you how many times I backtracked through an area only to find a healing item or an ammo clip I somehow missed the first time around, but that might just be me. Early on the entire mansion is cloaked in darkness and everything is only lit by candles and your trusty lighter. Even when you eventually restore power you'll still find darkened areas around every other corner. Darkness isn't just you not being able to see either, if you spend too long in an area with no light you'll notice that the screen will start to glitch out and you'll find yourself on a fast track to a game over. It's best to always be aware of the lighting, and to be handy with the lighter if you need to illuminate the path in front of you. Since you'll be doing a lot of backtracking in the game, you'll be pleased to know that there are many shortcuts you can open up in the mansion that let you get from one area to another faster than the first time you had to. That said, Wildberger Hospital is big and it's very easy to get lost if you're not careful. Thankfully maps to every area available more or less as soon as you enter them, so always be sure to grab them when you see them. One aspect of survival horror that Tormented Souls got right is the exploration; if only it could've continued that streak throughout the entire game...

Cool statue.

Sometimes the lack of lighting works.

Part of me wishes that Tormented Souls was more of an adventure game and less survival horror since it suffers the most when it comes to combat. You can usually tell when an enemy is in a room by the sounds they make, since they usually aren't visible on screen when you first enter. You main weapon early on is a Nail Gun, and you also have a crowbar that you can use for melee attacks. When you raise your weapon you automatically aim at the closest enemy, and you can use this to figure out where the enemies are that you can't see. I'm not sure if it's an accuracy thing, or if enemies can only be properly locked onto if they're close, but most attacks will only succeed if the enemy is quite close to you. Even the weakest of enemies are fast moving, so you'll have to take them out as quickly as possible, but not too quickly as most enemies seem to have a moment of invulnerability after they take a hit. Adding to these annoyance is the fact that just about all your attacks are slower than what most of the enemies can do. This means that just about every encounter will result in you taking a hit or two unless you know exactly what to expect in a room thanks to trial and error. Everything about combat feels very cheap and unbalanced, and I have no idea why many of the game's fans online seem to praise this aspect of the game. There are even times when you'll encounter enemies in totally dark rooms where you have to light candles first in order to be able to switch to your weapons and actually defend yourself. Now with all this said, killing enemies isn't actually necessary to complete the game, but most encounters take place in areas where moving around them just isn't feasible. Add in the fact that even early enemies require an entire clip of nails to kill, and you have a recipe for frustration on your hands. Before you ask, things never really get better as the game progresses. You find better weapons just in time for stronger enemies, and you eventually can attempt a sort of save scum method of reducing damage, but it's always an exercise in patience when it comes to the action sequences.

The first puzzle I talked about.

Is this Tetris?

Next up are the puzzles. Now I actually found that most of the puzzles are rather intuitive and require to pay attention to the clues found in documents or writing around the mansion. There is a big sense of accomplishment when you clear a puzzle, and some of them also feature big level set pieces that are impressive to look at it. Many of them also require closely examining inventor items, combining items together, and even using things like weapons in ways you didn't know you could. The first puzzle is a good example of how things go when the game is working smoothly. You have a lock that needs a combination, and through a journal entry you learn that the time the stopwatch is at is the key to solving the puzzle. This combines reading clues in found documents, using and manipulating inventory items, and then taking all that you learned to the puzzle itself. It's a great way to combine gameplay elements, and I wish that the entire game was like that. The odd thing though is that the puzzle difficulty seems to ramp up as the game goes on. This may seem like an obvious thing to expect, but I'm not sure it is exactly. Increasing puzzle difficulty isn't something like giving you stronger enemies and better weapons to fight them, it usually means that the solutions to puzzles slowly become more obscure and esoteric. There are actually several puzzles that I'm still unsure how you're supposed to figure them out in-game. I'm not afraid to admit that there were a couple solutions that I just gave up on and looked online for, and I was amused to find people say that they stumbled onto the solutions randomly, and were just as stumped as I was regarding how they were expected to solve them without help. Now I don't want to make it sound like all the game's puzzles are like this, they're not, but there are enough of them that it kept me from continuing to like the game as much as I did early on. I guess that's a big takeaway for Tormented Souls in general, even in areas where the game excels, there is always something that keeps it from hitting perfection.

Get used to this screen.

My biggest annoyance...

One of the biggest problems that permeates everything about Tormented Souls is the fact that it takes its early Resident Evil and Silent Hill inspirations a bit too seriously. Tank controls aside, there's the fixed camera angles, the item and ammo management, and worst of all, a limited number of saves. The developers seem to have forgotten that even later Resident Evil and Silent Hill games did away with most of these things, and the ones that had them were far more balanced than Tormented Souls could ever wish to be. I had to replay large sections of the first part of the game multiple times because of the limited saves thing alone. There is no autosave, so if you die you have to load whatever your last save was. Save points come in the form of reel-to-reel tape recorders that require said tapes to use. This is similar to the ink ribbons and typewriters from the first Resident Evil, but in that game you get multiple uses from each ribbon and the save points are placed more conveniently. Tormented Souls actually gets a bit easier as it goes on, but this almost feels as if the developers are trying to weed out casual players in the first couple hours. Between this, the fact that you need an entire clip to take out any enemy, the infrequency of healing items, and enemies attacking you from off-screen, it almost feels like they focused on the wrong things about classic PS1 survival horror to bring to the modern era. A simple google search of the game will show you that I am far from the only one complaining about these things, and there is a small cabal of hardcore players (and the developers themselves) who stand by it under the guise of being faithful to the Resident Evil and Silent Hill inspirations. I advise everyone to replay those games though and take note how differently they handle these things, because Tormented Souls plays more like those kaizo ROM hacks that are difficult for the sake of being difficult. There's a good game here, but the front-loaded difficulty will put off most from ever seeing it.

I hate the crawlers.

I want a computer like this.

Since we're picking the game apart a bit now, let's talk graphics. I played this game on the Nintendo Switch and I must say that it looks a little rough there. I'm willing to assume that this is a Switch-only issue, but I wanted to mention it nonetheless. With that said, I never really noticed cared about the graphics being a bit low-res while I was playing the game. Everything looked suitably creepy, and I actually found myself liking the visuals for the most part. The monster designs look great, and so is the level design for the most part. There is a bit of sameness to the location since most of the game takes place indoors, but that's not really a fault of the graphics per se. Talking character design, I must say that I'm not exactly a fan of Caroline herself, especially her main outfit. The whole dress with giant bows on the front and back, big boots, and a leather jacket everything, looks out of place at best, and someone's personal fetish at worst. That's only a small thing though, there's a much bigger issue when it comes to the game's visuals, and that's the lighting. Since much of the game requires you using a lighter to light the way, it goes without saying that darkness is a thing that is meant to be experienced here. There is a brightness slider within the options that tries to convince you that everything is supposed to be dark, but I cranked that thing all the way up and still had a lot of trouble seeing what was going on half the time. This is made all the more annoying as several rooms you enter start out completely dark, while others are brightly lit from the get-go. It's like a Zelda game that requires you to light up a room, but with far worse controls and menus making it a chore to do so. My big takeaway here is that there's a lot of great visuals to take in, but I can't help but wish that the developers actually let us see them from time to time.

An example of a diary entry.

Damn, that dude is a UNIT!

Sound is another thing that seems to have taken a bit too direct an inspiration from the original Resident Evil, namely when it comes to voice acting. I hesitate to use the term "acting" since everything here is pretty badly done and more than a little cringe worthy at times. I can only assume that this was done intentionally, but it feels like an odd thing to carry over especially since no one really seems to ever fully commit to 100% cheesy line deliveries. Thankfully there isn't a whole lot of voice acting for much of the game, but what's there will have you wishing it was text only. I have very little to say when it comes to music as there seemed to be very little of it in game. Much of the game goes by silently, or with only the simplest of melodies playing. There are tracks for encountering enemies, and for certain scenes and rooms, but I often found myself waiting for music to actually play so I'd have something to talk about here. Even the atrocious soundtrack from the Dual Shock Edition of the original Resident Evil would've been welcome here so I'd have more to add. Rants aside, I will say that the music works when it does appear, it's just that its inclusion seems to be a rarity. Not all is lost in the sound department though as the sound effects are all surprisingly well-done. The scrapes, drags, and cries of the enemies are anxiety-inducing enough that I often wanted to go back through the door I just came from. They're a nice touch to an otherwise mixed bag of sound design.

We all need some HELP sometimes.

Same girl, same.

I don't think anyone is a fan of tank controls, but I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't fun at times playing with them again. My biggest issue is that the game doesn't seem to remember that most of the original Resident Evil's early enemies were slow-moving zombies. The first enemy you face in Tormented Souls is a fast-moving enemy in a wheelchair that also has a long-range attack. You do have a dodge of sorts, but its timing is so finicky that I rarely bothered with it. Also, since the dodge only goes straight backwards, and not to the side, it doesn't protect you if the enemy just keeps moving forward. Oh, and like I said already, some of them have long-range attacks. You also have to deal with reloading, switching weapons in the menu only, and only being able to heal from within the inventory screen. I can get behind the combat being a clunky mess for the sake of being "retro", but why keep all the clunky menu things? There are enough unused buttons that weapon cycling and healing item usage could've been done without having to go back and forth into the inventory screen. Also, everything seems weirdly delayed in general. I know that old-school survival horror games didn't feature the tightest of control schemes, but this just feels... off somehow. I'm not sure if it's the animations themselves that have to clear before the next can take place, or if there really is a general input delay, but most of the time I took damage it felt like it was due to the game not being able to take in all my inputs at once. That, or I was being hit by something I couldn't even see, but we already discussed that issue earlier. There definitely is a sense of nostalgia with some aspects of the control scheme, but this is probably the part of the game that could've benefitted from adding in some modern conveniences the most.

What does anything mean?

Dinner is served!

I had a lot of trouble playing Tormented Souls. I was stuck more than once, and I eventually resorted to looking up a walkthrough for some of the more obscure puzzles. The game is balanced in a weird way, and the overall progression and difficulty is all over the place. It's a far longer experience than the games that inspired it, but I can't help but wonder how much of that time was spent replaying sections because of limited saves, or by being stuck and unsure of what you're supposed to do next. I had a lot of fun with it, but I have to say that Tormented Souls is nearly ruined by its own insistence of sticking to classic tropes that have aged badly. That said, I was surprised to learn that it currently retails for only $19.99, and I must say that that's the right price for a game like this in my opinion. It's not for everyone, but if you're a fan of the first Resident Evil, the first Silent Hill, or maybe even the Alone In The Dark series, then this is for you. Everyone else might be too annoyed by the game to see it through to the end.

For More Information on Tormented Souls:
https://pqube.co.uk/games/tormented-souls/

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Story: B+
Gameplay: C-
Graphics: B-
Music/Sound: C
Value: A

Overall: B-

Pros:
+ A cool throwback to PS1 survival horror classics like Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
+ The general creepy atmosphere, and dark storyline and setting, make this one of the creepiest survival horror titles in a long while.
+ Some of the puzzles feel well thought out, and the atmospheric storytelling in some of their placement is spot on.
+ The alternate reality mirror sections are a nice touch.
+ While not always perfect, the fixed camera angles and tank controls scratch a specific nostalgic itch.
+ Priced surprisingly well for the amount of game you get.

+/- Surprisingly graphic and gory for a game with only an M Rating.

Cons:
- The opening section of the game is extremely hard due to the limited saves and item placement.
- Clunky controls, and shockingly strong enemies who can attack you from off-screen, make this a very frustrating experience at times.
- While darkness is a key focus of the game, there are long stretches of the game that are hard to make out unless you have the brightness cranked all the way up.
- Some of the puzzles have very obscure solutions, and there's a general lack of direction for much of the middle of the game.
- Seems to borrow just as many negative elements of retro survival horror elements as good.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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Yes, it IS almost Christmas!

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