It’s fair to say a good portion of the survival horror fandom still yearn for the halcyon days of fixed-camera classics - I don’t need to mention which ones. And there’s plenty of recent homages to just that: Song of Horror, Alisa, Murder House, Dawn of Fear, The Medium, Post Trauma, etc. Tormented Souls, with a story as generic as its title, is neither the best nor worst of them.
In its favour, the fixed camera gameplay and combat are pretty solid, appropriately challenging in moments of confinement with a monstrosity trying to tear you up. My hottest take is that Tormented Souls boasts some of the strongest puzzles we’ve seen in horror gaming for a long time: some puzzles are the standard ‘find a thing that wouldn’t normally combine with this other thing but somehow combines anyway and does something cool’ type thing and others involve hopping into alternate mirror dimensions and even a bit of time travel to alter the state of the real world. The sound design is also rather accomplished, evoking the oppressive soundscapes of the first Silent Hill game. The score is good and, while not always perfect, can be unsettling - the music that plays when the ‘stalker’ monster is near had me spinning around and immediately running back.
My only gripe, beyond the voice acting that leaves a lot to be desired, is the aesthetic coherence: while I appreciated the cluttered ‘lived-in’ design of the setting, it’s sort of ugly? Maybe this is just my personal preference as a purist for Silent Hill’s stripped back design where emptiness creates ambiguity and unease, but this place leans into the curious over-design of a steampunk fantasy world. Or is it just me? In other words, this game, which somehow gets away with placing some of the all-time classic disturbing paintings (The Nightmare, Judith Beheading Holofernes, etc) in its world, does not manage to conjure any unique visceral horror of its own.
Lots of strong elements but there’s certainly room for improvement. And if there’s any lesson Tormented Souls’ upcoming sequel should learn, it’s that homage can only get you so far.
In its favour, the fixed camera gameplay and combat are pretty solid, appropriately challenging in moments of confinement with a monstrosity trying to tear you up. My hottest take is that Tormented Souls boasts some of the strongest puzzles we’ve seen in horror gaming for a long time: some puzzles are the standard ‘find a thing that wouldn’t normally combine with this other thing but somehow combines anyway and does something cool’ type thing and others involve hopping into alternate mirror dimensions and even a bit of time travel to alter the state of the real world. The sound design is also rather accomplished, evoking the oppressive soundscapes of the first Silent Hill game. The score is good and, while not always perfect, can be unsettling - the music that plays when the ‘stalker’ monster is near had me spinning around and immediately running back.
My only gripe, beyond the voice acting that leaves a lot to be desired, is the aesthetic coherence: while I appreciated the cluttered ‘lived-in’ design of the setting, it’s sort of ugly? Maybe this is just my personal preference as a purist for Silent Hill’s stripped back design where emptiness creates ambiguity and unease, but this place leans into the curious over-design of a steampunk fantasy world. Or is it just me? In other words, this game, which somehow gets away with placing some of the all-time classic disturbing paintings (The Nightmare, Judith Beheading Holofernes, etc) in its world, does not manage to conjure any unique visceral horror of its own.
Lots of strong elements but there’s certainly room for improvement. And if there’s any lesson Tormented Souls’ upcoming sequel should learn, it’s that homage can only get you so far.