Within the curiosity of equity, let me be trustworthy: I by no means performed the unique Tormented Souls. Nonetheless, a survival horror recreation within the vein of Resident Evil intrigued me. Naturally, I felt my playthrough of Tormented Souls II would provide a singular perspective. After taking part in it, I notice it’s a difficult recreation to assessment as a result of it has a mess of positives and negatives.
Enter the Survival Horror
Tormented Souls II has gamers controlling returning heroine Caroline Walker. She travels to a city known as Villa Hess so as to assist her twin sister, Anna, who sees and attracts all types of disturbing photographs which have the unlucky facet impact of manifesting into actuality (learn a synopsis of the primary recreation’s plot so that you received’t get misplaced). Issues go to shit just about instantly upon getting into the convent, the place the members of the church are purported to be serving to our protagonists. Caroline should rescue her sister from an evil cult, traversing twisted locales like stated church, a derelict mall, a fishing facility, a cemetery, and a faculty, simply to call a number of.
Credit score the place credit score is due: Tormented Souls II has a incredible atmosphere. Although character fashions are missing in graphical polish, the environments are stellar, stuffed with great use of sunshine and shadow. Gentle specifically is essential, as you possibly can die by staying in the dead of night too lengthy. Areas shift in perspective as you progress round, just like the static backgrounds of Resident Evil, and the sport even makes use of tank controls (there are fashionable controls, too, although I discover this technique makes it more durable to navigate with the altering digicam). I additionally love how maps mark off areas of curiosity, so the place to look if you end up at an deadlock. Weapons are a delight, too. In contrast to different survival horror titles, weapons are made utilizing instruments you discover in every space you discover. From the nailgun to the crossbow that fires tubes of acid, the whole lot has this “I made this gun with scrap I discovered mendacity round” high quality to it.
A Step Ahead, a Step Again
Now that I’ve obtained the nice out of the way in which, let me communicate of the sophisticated elements of Tormented Souls II. These musings all have one thing good about them, however with a caveat. For instance, enemies have distinctive, scary designs, and the bosses all have weaknesses tied to weapons outdoors of your arsenal that seem of their respective arenas. Nonetheless, fight is clunky, requiring you to battle in lighted areas since darkness is so deadly. Caroline can simply get caught or stun locked whereas capturing or smashing adversaries, as effectively, although there’s a backdash that’s onerous to grasp however provides you an opportunity to keep away from getting hit. As well as, puzzles are a blended bag. A few of them are fairly ingenious and make you are feeling like a mind surgeon while you determine them out. However others are so convoluted that you simply’ll be reaching to your telephone to lookup the answer fairly than max out your frustration.
Two issues drag Tormented Souls II down probably the most, although. The primary is the default problem. Enjoying on this mode is brutal, as enemies hit onerous and there’s a shortage of ammunition and therapeutic gadgets. Not solely that, you possibly can solely use a restricted provide of recording tapes to manually save your progress. Save factors are few and much between, and you may wager I had one enraging occasion the place I defeated a boss however died to a flying ghost enemy, shedding a strong quarter-hour of progress. Lastly, the sport is a bit too lengthy, clocking in at over 20 hours of playtime. Usually, a protracted play time presents a terrific worth, however survival horror video games are at their finest when they are often crushed in underneath 10 hours and have new recreation + incentives to encourage replays. Whereas every location is enjoyable to behold at first, they every overstay their welcome only a bit.
Flawed But Charming
Tormented Souls II is a tough recreation to assessment. For all of the issues it does effectively, there may be one other, irritating factor that stands in the way in which. However I imagine if you’re a fan of old-fashioned survival horror and insane plots, you’ll be capable of get previous the sport’s jankiness and revel in its charms. Simply select the assisted problem so you possibly can have autosaves and extra ammo and heals. It’ll prevent some ache.
This assessment is predicated on a retail copy of the sport supplied by the writer.
Janky however endearing survival horror
- Gameplay 6/10
- Vibes 9/10
- Problem 6/10
7/10
Abstract
Tormented Souls II is a tricky nut to crack. It each frustrates and delights. In case you have the endurance, nevertheless, it’d win you over in the long run.
