I was really looking forward to trying Tormented Souls as a fan of fixed-camera survival horror, and I was pretty disappointed by how rough around the edges it felt. I’d be tempted to compare it to Yooka-Laylee as a relic of game design from the 90s that has been prettied up with contemporary graphics, but I think that’d do a disservice to very design choices from that era that turned hardware limitations into strengths. Tormented grasps the form but not the function of these decisions, so while the ambience is similar to, say, the RE1make, a lot of that gives way with poor encounter design.
For example, the camera tends to obscure enemies present in a room, first cuing you to your presence via sound cues, which is a technique used effectively for tension by many classic survivor horrors that’s made fair by a good auto-aim system that alerts you to where the danger is. Tormented’s auto-aim is far less functional, requiring such a close proximity to trigger, and with camera angle changes mapped at such awkward areas, that I would run blindly directly into enemies. Also, this game’s filled with cramped corridors that make evasion of enemies impossible, necessitating combat and in a way, that’s actually less tense than having the option to avoid fighting. I never really had to engage in the quick-decision making and the fear of my risky choice not paying off, while in this game, I felt expected to blow my load at every enemy, and blow I did.
Issues like these aren’t really catastrophic but it’s hard to not think “man I wish I was playing Resident Evil”. I enjoyed the experience at parts, I actually do commend most of the puzzle design for being fairly balanced and as mentioned, when it was just exploring the hospital without enemies, there was an uneasy atmosphere I found effective, if not as strong as the games that inspired it. Some of the enemy designs were also really neat and freaky when they weren’t ableist! I’ll take what I get from this but I do wish we could get a fixed-camera survival horror game that doesn’t feel as archaic as it actually is.
Note: I played the PS4 version which is actually kind of crap. Get it on a more powerful system if you can.
For example, the camera tends to obscure enemies present in a room, first cuing you to your presence via sound cues, which is a technique used effectively for tension by many classic survivor horrors that’s made fair by a good auto-aim system that alerts you to where the danger is. Tormented’s auto-aim is far less functional, requiring such a close proximity to trigger, and with camera angle changes mapped at such awkward areas, that I would run blindly directly into enemies. Also, this game’s filled with cramped corridors that make evasion of enemies impossible, necessitating combat and in a way, that’s actually less tense than having the option to avoid fighting. I never really had to engage in the quick-decision making and the fear of my risky choice not paying off, while in this game, I felt expected to blow my load at every enemy, and blow I did.
Issues like these aren’t really catastrophic but it’s hard to not think “man I wish I was playing Resident Evil”. I enjoyed the experience at parts, I actually do commend most of the puzzle design for being fairly balanced and as mentioned, when it was just exploring the hospital without enemies, there was an uneasy atmosphere I found effective, if not as strong as the games that inspired it. Some of the enemy designs were also really neat and freaky when they weren’t ableist! I’ll take what I get from this but I do wish we could get a fixed-camera survival horror game that doesn’t feel as archaic as it actually is.
Note: I played the PS4 version which is actually kind of crap. Get it on a more powerful system if you can.