I’m a huge RE fan with a soft spot for the old school tank controls fixed camera era of survival horror. There have been so many retro revivals of late but for some reason (ok I know the reason, controls) the old RE style game hasn’t had that same indie resurgence. There are some here and there that pop out but never have I seen one like Tormented Souls that looks so much like a long lost RE game, with quality visuals and that classic feel. Tormented Souls is a love letter to fans of those late 90s classics and does a commendable job of making a quality game that can stand on its own.
While Tormented Souls looks like RE, smells like RE, controls like RE, it actually isn’t really that much like RE in the inside. Beneath that RE style veneer is a game that is more in line with Silent Hill, focusing more on puzzle solving than survival. This game has no item management, your inventory is infinite and there are no item boxes. That’s pretty much the defining feature of RE and a huge part of what makes those games so great, remove that and you are left with a more passive experience where the main goal is just figure out where to go and dispatch the occasional monster. And that basically describes this game, the strength comes from the level design and the great puzzles which are far better than anything you normally find in RE games.
Tormented Souls takes place in an abandoned mental hospital that was retrofitted from a mansion. The game world is clearly inspired by RE, with its cramped corridors, maze like hallways and interconnected indoor areas. I had a big smile on my face as I explored parts of this mansion only to be blocked with a door with a key that has a mysterious symbol. Every room seems to have some device or contraption that can take an item you don’t exactly have yet. The games pace is extremely well done as sections of the mansion slowly open up in chunks which makes you feel like you are making significant progress. Each new area opens up many new paths, new monsters to battle, and more items to use on places from before. There is a whole lot of backtracking but it’s done in a smart way as many locations open shortcuts so that you aren’t exactly retracing some long trek to go back to an old location. This games mansion design can hang with the best of RE, it’s just a shame it’s missing the actual item management and danger of a RE game, it could have been so much better.
There are enemies scattered around the mansion but the variety is thin with some really basic and slow enemies that do not pose much of a threat. There are only four weapons, a melee crowbar, a nail gun (pistol), a pipe gun (shotgun) and an spark gun. There is more than enough ammo to kill every single enemy in the game (though depending on your route you may not have some at some point) so do not be afraid to fight, though I would mix in some melee hits when they are stunned on the floor to conserve some ammo. The problem with the enemies is just how damn slow and repetitive they are. Most of them just slowly lumber toward you and have some slow windup attack. There is one that spits at you that is supposed to be the easy grunt of the bunch but that spit is more dangerous than the slow attacks. In classic survival horror fashion you simple aim, this game does the RE3 auto sim thing, and unload until they drop dead.
Now I’m not going to say old RE had great combat but it had different enemy types that really were a problem, small fast ones like the dogs, killer jumping ones like the hunters, and the occasional nemesis like stalker. There is nothing like that here, enemies might as well be slow moving statues, a minor inconvenience where you might get damage cause of a bad camera angle or you misjudged how much ammo an enemy would take. Once you remove the fear of that thing lurking in the shadows that can pop out and kill you, pretty much all the apprehension about surviving gods out the window. So I ended up with a stress free horror experience. Of note there is some stalker enemy that shows up at the very end which is so pathetic it’s better to just laugh at it than go into detail on it.
Adding to the lack of threats is the fact that there is just one boss in this game, the last one. I am of the mindset that any boss, even a bad one, is better than no boss but this final boss tested that theory. The final battle is really poorly laid out puzzle fight that is a bit confusing at first what to do so I actually died the only time in my playthrough because I didn’t know what to do. That’s when I realized that’s why this game has no other bosses, causes these guys don’t know how to make one. Still I find a survival horror game with no tent pole boss moments to be kind of boring and that is an issue here.
So if the survival part of the equation is poorly executed why do I like this game so much, it’s because the puzzles are extremely well done. The game makes clever use of the examine item feature where you can look at an item in any angle and interact with it. You will have to adjust knobs, turn screws, and even set a floppy disc to be rewritable (I feel bad for all young players, they will have no clue what to do). Of course you have to use items on objects in the environment, here there are some unique devices that also have some interactive elements. Take one puzzle where you have to send gas through pipes and change valves to properly guide the flow. There are riddles in the form of images and symbols where some good old fashion logic will lead you through. There are a whole lot of them and almost all of them are better than the best RE games have to offer.
Adding to the nostalgia trip is the look of the game which makes great use of static camera but with a fully 3D environment which allows them to mess with the lighting in great ways. At the start of the game any dark area results in some magical force killing your character, so finding a light source becomes key to exploring, the first source you find is a pathetic lighter. You are defenseless with the lighter as that’s all you can hold at the time, this makes for some of the few tense moments. Later on you get a silent hill style light so you can freely attack in the dark. The later levels take place in completely dark areas only illuminated by the glow of your chest lamp really setting the creepy mood. The lighting is great and really enhances the graphics. The character models are standard unreal models but I give great praise to the artist making the environment because it totally feels like a long lost RE game with all the small details. The music also sets the perfect tone with gothic melodic tunes playing in the hallway and really unsettling music playing when in the deeper darker corners.
At about 8-10 hours long it’s a meaty survival horror game that as long or longer than most old RE games. For fans of the genre like me it feels like a game right out of the late 90s complete with tank controls (you can use a stick with normal movement if you want to play it wrong) and fixed cameras. It might not be the intense roller coaster ride of a RE game nor is it the psychological horror of Silent Hill, what it lacks in tone it makes up for with great puzzles and well designed levels. I was never bored, to me it never felt janky like so many bad clones do, this is a quality classic survival horror game and I want more of them. Tormented Souls might turn away some with its commitment to 90s style gameplay but for me it’s a great game and reminds me why I loved those games so much.
Overall Score 7.9
While Tormented Souls looks like RE, smells like RE, controls like RE, it actually isn’t really that much like RE in the inside. Beneath that RE style veneer is a game that is more in line with Silent Hill, focusing more on puzzle solving than survival. This game has no item management, your inventory is infinite and there are no item boxes. That’s pretty much the defining feature of RE and a huge part of what makes those games so great, remove that and you are left with a more passive experience where the main goal is just figure out where to go and dispatch the occasional monster. And that basically describes this game, the strength comes from the level design and the great puzzles which are far better than anything you normally find in RE games.
Tormented Souls takes place in an abandoned mental hospital that was retrofitted from a mansion. The game world is clearly inspired by RE, with its cramped corridors, maze like hallways and interconnected indoor areas. I had a big smile on my face as I explored parts of this mansion only to be blocked with a door with a key that has a mysterious symbol. Every room seems to have some device or contraption that can take an item you don’t exactly have yet. The games pace is extremely well done as sections of the mansion slowly open up in chunks which makes you feel like you are making significant progress. Each new area opens up many new paths, new monsters to battle, and more items to use on places from before. There is a whole lot of backtracking but it’s done in a smart way as many locations open shortcuts so that you aren’t exactly retracing some long trek to go back to an old location. This games mansion design can hang with the best of RE, it’s just a shame it’s missing the actual item management and danger of a RE game, it could have been so much better.
There are enemies scattered around the mansion but the variety is thin with some really basic and slow enemies that do not pose much of a threat. There are only four weapons, a melee crowbar, a nail gun (pistol), a pipe gun (shotgun) and an spark gun. There is more than enough ammo to kill every single enemy in the game (though depending on your route you may not have some at some point) so do not be afraid to fight, though I would mix in some melee hits when they are stunned on the floor to conserve some ammo. The problem with the enemies is just how damn slow and repetitive they are. Most of them just slowly lumber toward you and have some slow windup attack. There is one that spits at you that is supposed to be the easy grunt of the bunch but that spit is more dangerous than the slow attacks. In classic survival horror fashion you simple aim, this game does the RE3 auto sim thing, and unload until they drop dead.
Now I’m not going to say old RE had great combat but it had different enemy types that really were a problem, small fast ones like the dogs, killer jumping ones like the hunters, and the occasional nemesis like stalker. There is nothing like that here, enemies might as well be slow moving statues, a minor inconvenience where you might get damage cause of a bad camera angle or you misjudged how much ammo an enemy would take. Once you remove the fear of that thing lurking in the shadows that can pop out and kill you, pretty much all the apprehension about surviving gods out the window. So I ended up with a stress free horror experience. Of note there is some stalker enemy that shows up at the very end which is so pathetic it’s better to just laugh at it than go into detail on it.
Adding to the lack of threats is the fact that there is just one boss in this game, the last one. I am of the mindset that any boss, even a bad one, is better than no boss but this final boss tested that theory. The final battle is really poorly laid out puzzle fight that is a bit confusing at first what to do so I actually died the only time in my playthrough because I didn’t know what to do. That’s when I realized that’s why this game has no other bosses, causes these guys don’t know how to make one. Still I find a survival horror game with no tent pole boss moments to be kind of boring and that is an issue here.
So if the survival part of the equation is poorly executed why do I like this game so much, it’s because the puzzles are extremely well done. The game makes clever use of the examine item feature where you can look at an item in any angle and interact with it. You will have to adjust knobs, turn screws, and even set a floppy disc to be rewritable (I feel bad for all young players, they will have no clue what to do). Of course you have to use items on objects in the environment, here there are some unique devices that also have some interactive elements. Take one puzzle where you have to send gas through pipes and change valves to properly guide the flow. There are riddles in the form of images and symbols where some good old fashion logic will lead you through. There are a whole lot of them and almost all of them are better than the best RE games have to offer.
Adding to the nostalgia trip is the look of the game which makes great use of static camera but with a fully 3D environment which allows them to mess with the lighting in great ways. At the start of the game any dark area results in some magical force killing your character, so finding a light source becomes key to exploring, the first source you find is a pathetic lighter. You are defenseless with the lighter as that’s all you can hold at the time, this makes for some of the few tense moments. Later on you get a silent hill style light so you can freely attack in the dark. The later levels take place in completely dark areas only illuminated by the glow of your chest lamp really setting the creepy mood. The lighting is great and really enhances the graphics. The character models are standard unreal models but I give great praise to the artist making the environment because it totally feels like a long lost RE game with all the small details. The music also sets the perfect tone with gothic melodic tunes playing in the hallway and really unsettling music playing when in the deeper darker corners.
At about 8-10 hours long it’s a meaty survival horror game that as long or longer than most old RE games. For fans of the genre like me it feels like a game right out of the late 90s complete with tank controls (you can use a stick with normal movement if you want to play it wrong) and fixed cameras. It might not be the intense roller coaster ride of a RE game nor is it the psychological horror of Silent Hill, what it lacks in tone it makes up for with great puzzles and well designed levels. I was never bored, to me it never felt janky like so many bad clones do, this is a quality classic survival horror game and I want more of them. Tormented Souls might turn away some with its commitment to 90s style gameplay but for me it’s a great game and reminds me why I loved those games so much.
Overall Score 7.9