Tormented Souls may have one of the most generic and forgettable titles I've heard in recent memory. I've constantly kept referring to it as 'Forsaken Souls' for some reason, and even writing this review; I've noticed that I have initially titled the game 'Tortured Souls' before noticing the error. Thankfully, that is one of the worst things about this very entertaining retro survival horror throwback - a game that blends classic elements of the original Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil and Silent Hill games into one cosy bloodstained whole.
Taking place in 1994, Canadian - Caroline Walker, receives a strange letter in the post that contains a single photo of twin little girls. In the weeks that follow, Caroline begins to experience terrible nightmares, unable to stop thinking about the photo. In desperation, she heads to the abandoned Wildberger Hospital (the return address for the letter she received), hoping to find out more information about the two girls. Once there she gets immediately attacked and knocked out by a mystery assailant. Sometime later, she awakens naked in a tub full of water, with a bandaged eye, and breathing tube in her throat. After getting dressed, she checks under the eye bandage in a mirror and is horrified to discover her bandaged eye has been surgically removed! She leaves the storage room she's in and heads out into the hospital (which is situated in an old mansion). Her goal; to find the whereabouts of the twin sisters and rescue them should they need assistance.
This is very classic survival horror, it really reminded me of the golden age of the late nineties. Games have came out before that promise to be authentic returns to survival horror roots, but they often feel like they are missing something essential for the nostalgic feel. Despite some small issues, I loved my time with Tormented Souls thankfully. The mansion setting of course reminded me heavily of the original Resident Evil, and is of comparative size to that game, with my final completion time being around 8 hours. The game is populated with grisly horrors, all of which fit the hospital vibe in their own twisted ways. ghoulish creatures with gas canisters strapped to their legless torso, zombies with blades for arms, and blending of corpse and surgical apparatus. There were also three boss fights, though two of these were against enemies that later join the roster of common enemies. The final boss was neat, requiring puzzle solving and combat blended together; the only one of the bosses that actually stood out. As a note; without going into spoilers; the boss in the game that resembles something from Evil Dead II is invincible, something I wish I had figured out before wasting most of my ammo on the blasted thing. If I had just left the room I would have made the back half of the game a lot easier! Enemy design works when the enemies are hidden in darkness, sometimes in well lit areas they can become a bit goofy looking. Character design mostly failed here; Caroline herself looks great, but other characters encountered had an exaggerated cartoon look to them that pulled me out the immersion on occasion. The less said about the voice acting the better, maybe they were going for a cheesy Resident Evil tone with over empathising each word, but the delivery really pulled me out of the experience.
I first thought it was weird that a hospital would be inside a mansion, but that was explained to my satisfaction in a file I came across. The same happens with why the enemies look like they do. Nothing revolutionary, but was nice to have some lore about that. The mansion is full to the brim with puzzles that need to be solved, from cryptic door locks, to memory repetition puzzles, riddles, and items you discover that need either combining with one another, or used in the environment. Getting around the mansion is like solving an intricate puzzle lock, the puzzles here, while not hard, still are decent enough to give you a rush of dopamine when you solve them.
The mansion's design includes many secret doors and unexpected short cuts, with the detail appropriately hellish. At every turn there are corpses and body bags, literally hundreds encountered during my play through. Special mention to the choice of fixed camera angles, as well as the tremendous lighting that was especially effective in the basement sections.
The game starts off feeling like Resident Evil, but increasingly takes on the feel of a Silent Hill. It starts with tiny sections that feel like the Silent Hill 'Otherworld', then the back half of the game increasingly takes on a more cosmic horror feel. I enjoyed this mix of the grand daddies of the survival horror genre, their blend worked fantastically. The game's plot wasn't particularly engaging, but it served it's purpose. Much of the story for what happened at the mansion comes from diary entries you find dotted around the place, with hints of Fatal Frame II to it. You have to assume Caroline is illiterate, as she always seems very surprised from revelations that had already been revealed in easily obtained diaries. I recall one time around six hours in where Caroline responds with shock to something I had literally found out about within 15 minutes of starting the game by reading a diary entry!
Some of the item management can be fiddly. Thankfully, you have an infinite carry space, rather than limited, and the game sees fit to split key items and gameplay items into different sections in the item screen. You unlock maps of the floors in the building as you play, though weirdly when you bring up the map screen you have to manually locate the map you need rather than it bring it up automatically. The game world is also very dark, this is used in a gameplay way due to darkness causing instant death should you be in it for too long. You come to rely on a lighter (with seemingly infinite fuel) to see where you are going. The only problem is that you can't use your weapons while holding the lighter, nor can you use without, as it restricts you from using them when its pitch black. Neatly used as part of some of the puzzles, with areas of the mansion blocked off by stationary enemies that you can't attack in the dark. You only get access to four different weapons throughout the game, at least it tries something different but having a much more D.I.Y feel to them. Your primary weapon is a nail gun which was quite weak, my favourite came to be the shotgun apparently made out of pipes. Of course, ammo, health, and even save reels are all in short supply, by games end I did have plenty of those save reels stored away. Saving is needed as being old school there are not any checkpoints. Should you die, then you will have to reload your last save. There were definitely a few soul destroying times when I realised all too late my last save was a long time ago.
Tormented Souls was a frequently stressful experience. I was always really hesitant to use healing items, ammo, or to save my game as I was always nervous about how limited these items all where. I liked how the enemies just lay dead where you killed them for the rest of the game, it makes returning to previously explored areas much more chill, as well as make it feel like it wasn't a waste to kill them first time around. The unsettling looking location is the best thing about this game, the story didn't really resonate much, maybe due to the exaggerated voice acting, but the environments were nightmarish and there were some well placed jump scares to be had in them. The old school tank controls and fixed camera angles might not be for everyone (I had forgotten how annoying it was to battle an enemy just off screen), but for those wanting a return to the glorious early days of survival horror, Tormented Souls was an excellent adventure, albeit, not a perfect one.
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