Tormented Souls‘ puzzles will likely prove a sticking point for some as they are extremely convoluted - sometimes in an enjoyable way, but often in a frustrating ones. The voice acting feels like a knowing callback to the awkwardness of ’90s voiceovers, but the squirreling away of diaries is a strange - it doesn’t feel like being able to understand the story is a feature that should be locked away from all but the most dedicated players. It’s rare to see a story improve so much over the course of being told - I started off thinking that I knew what was going on, but the longer I played, the more interesting it got! It’s held back only by some stiff voice acting and difficulty in finding a few key diary entries that explain the story’s finer points. Speaking of the story, while things start fairly basic - creepy hospital, monsters, an evil god - it twists and turns to unexpected places and wraps up in a very satisfying manner.
It’s not an ideal balance, but after spending an hour learning the ins and outs of combat, I found it worked well enough to get me through the story. There’s plenty of ammo available, as well as countless vials of injectable morphine that Caroline uses to salve her wounds. Fortunately, the developers seem to understand just how difficult the combat was going to be and balanced it with that in mind. If Caroline didn’t auto-target whenever the ‘ready weapon’ button is pushed, this would be unplayable. This setup is bad enough without taking into account enemies that can spit venom at the player from offscreen. This makes fighting enemies in narrow passages an incredibly dicey proposition - they’ll either be visible 30 feet away with plenty of time to aim and shoot, or they’ll be hidden from view until they’re already attacking. It works well enough, but when she’s walking down hallways the camera moves with her, generally level with her torso, with the edge of frame being roughly a yard from her feet. In open areas the camera will be placed in a few different corners (generally looking down at the action) with the camera following and switching to a new angle as Caroline moves out of range of the old one. Tormented Souls‘ third-person camera takes a little getting used to, mostly because it’s simply not suited to the narrow hallways that fill the hospital where Caroline spends her time. Caroline can carry everything she finds with her, and considering that most key items don’t disappear after being used, she can count on having a packed inventory by endgame. It also takes a cue from SH in item management as players won’t have to worry about limited inventory slots or finding item chests. While the fancy setting and claustrophobic, backtrack-intensive puzzle design brings The first Resident Evil to mind, Tormented Souls‘ following camera, deformed mutant enemies, and glimpses into a corrupted ‘otherworld’ demonstrate that Silent Hill 1 and 3 are its main sources of inspiration. In the process, she winds up clubbed over the head, dumped in a bathtub naked, and has her right eye removed! Worse? The hospital she wakes up in is overrun with hideous mutant monstrosities. She has no idea what the notes is referring to, but she feels compelled to check it out. Set in a creepy hospital on an island off the coast of British Columbia, Tormented Souls stars Caroline Walker, a young woman who receives a letter containing a picture of twin girls along with a note asking why she abandoned them. Tormented Souls goes after all three of these markets with its extreme content, baffling riddles, and combat that will absolutely wreck the uninitiated. They want titles that push, that puzzle, and of course, games that punish. As videogames claw their way towards global domination with ever-more accessible titles aimed at the largest possible audiences, there’s a small cohort of developers and fans who yearn for older experiences. The ’90s survival horror throwback genre becomes bigger every year. WTF There are ranged enemies in a fixed-camera game. LOW A puzzle completely unplayable to people with hearing issues. HIGH Finding out how Caroline lost her eye.
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