The best way to think of Tormented Souls 2 is as an atmospheric experience above all else. That was the case for the first, too, but the developers have doubled down on it for the sequel, and that’s playing it smart. The atmosphere is definitely Tormented Souls 2’s strength.
It bills itself as a homage to the horror of yesteryear (again, just as its predecessor did). This means tight corridors with a focus on creating an uneasy claustrophobia for the player. It means static camera angles, like Resident Evil was particularly famous for back in the day. It means tank controls, a retro approach to gameplay that horror moved away from years ago. You can use more modern controls, but given the static cameras and tight spaces, I actually found the tank controls to be superior, and they fit better with the game’s thematics.
It also means measuring out every resource you find, from limited quantities of weaponry right through to limited save files. Yes, again, there is an autosave option, but the developers really wanted you to carefully weigh whether you use one of your few save tapes when you reach a safe room… or try pushing on just that little bit further.
And it means breaking up the action with some rather obtuse puzzles, involving combining items, finding clues, and then doing a bit of trial and error when it comes down to it. This one particular element I didn’t care for, but then that’s coming off the back of Silent Hill F, which really set a new bar for how to integrate thematically appropriate puzzles that both test players without being annoying about it.
Probably the biggest issue I have with Tormented Souls 2’s puzzles is that your inventory never really shrinks. In many other games, you’ll get the stuff you need to solve a puzzle, and when the puzzle is solved, the items get tossed away. Thematically, this can seem strange (why would you ever throw away bolt cutters when you’re in the middle of a zombie plague?), but it makes sense to save the players from carrying around stuff they don’t need. In Tormented Souls 2, the developers decided to make many items usable more than once. Sounds great and creative in theory, but trying to figure out the combination of items to solve some of the later puzzles can get very cryptic, and that can slow progress down to a crawl.
I do think some horror developers forget that if the puzzles are too challenging, then unless there’s also a monster chasing you around as you try and solve them, the intensity of the horror takes a nose dive as you are in a de facto safe environment. So that starts to undermine the suspension of disbelief. The puzzles didn’t destroy Tormented Souls 2, thankfully, but they also didn’t help.
What Tormented Souls 2 does really, REALLY well is set a scene. The set design is immaculate, with the darkness that surrounds most environments being more than just claustrophobic – it comes across as downright threatening (and indeed if you enter an area that’s too dark, you’ll be dead if you don’t get back out immediately). Monsters are similarly intimidating and grotesque. Not subtle – oh, no, nothing’s subtle about Tormented Souls 2 – but they work as a homage to the kinds of beasts and villains you used to fight back in the days when survival horror was not a Hollywood blockbuster in scope.
The developers have significantly increased the scope of Tormented Souls over the original, too. That first game took place in a single location. This time around, you get the haunted mansion (or, convent, really), but then you get to head out and also explore other who’s who of horror locations, like a shopping mall and hospital. There’s always a risk when horror becomes larger in scope that it’ll lose its intensity, and the original Tormented Souls was certainly intense in its design. Thankfully, while Tormented Souls 2 is roughly double the length (and should take you around 15-20 hours to play through) the developers don’t let up on the adrenaline, and the moments where you’ll find respite are few and far between.
Another thing that I loved that really built the strong thematics behind the game is that, even on the easiest difficulty level, you will not have enough ammo to brute force your way through the game. Melee weapons are weak, and enemies tend to take quite a few shots to be taken down. The very first enemy you’ll meet will almost certainly reach you and cause you damage on the easiest difficulty level. Health recovery is also scarce, so you’re going to spend a lot of time (and likely die a few times) trying to work out how to get from point A to B while avoiding enemies where possible. It’s tense stuff, and it’s probably something that a less brave publisher would push on the developer to address, as it flies in the face of how modern horror should play so as not to put players off finishing it. However, from my perspective as a fan of the early years of the genre, it’s good, well-planned, thoughtful survival horror.
The developers did spend a lot of time on the gameplay and atmosphere, and it’s just as well that it was time well spent, because the narrative is just terrible. Admittedly, it’s been a while since I played the first Tormented Souls, but I don’t remember it being this bad. The pacing is the biggest problem, with just about every cut scene coming across as something written to get the cut scene out of the way as quickly as possible. Efficiency in writing is a virtue, but efficiency can also get to the point where the narrative integrity starts to break, and you’re left with a minimal sense of character and situation. Unfortunately, that’s what’s happened here. As much as I enjoyed making my way through the game, I wasn’t being given enough about the characters and situation to really care for them.
Additionally, there are some rank amateur storytelling mistakes. Take the start of the game, for instance. We’re introduced to the two sisters at the centre of the plot on a train ride to the convent, and that’s well and good enough. A few scenes later, however, we’re told that they’re “twins”, which is odd since there is a massive height and clear age gap between them. Furthermore, what little we do get out of these opening cut scenes, we’re told pretty clearly that Caroline (the protagonist) is intensely protective of what we assume is her little sister, in a very big sister way. So everything we’re told leads to the assumption that they must be older sister and younger sister, and while this would be fine to subvert, the narrative doesn’t explain this. The word “twin” is just dropped on you to be confused by.
All that said, while a poor narrative is normally a deal breaker for me, I did enjoy the ambience and atmosphere enough to get over it. I was just disappointed because, again, I don’t recall Tormented Souls’ narrative being quite this jarring.
Tormented Souls 2 is the kind of horror game you like to see from independent developers. As a clear passion project that is willing to push back against “best practices” to maintain the creative vision, it’s here for people who have fond memories of the formative years of survival horror, while also looking very modern. It’s by no means perfect, but the clear enthusiasm that went into it – and the fact that it’s so atmospheric – makes it compelling.
