Tormented Souls 2 Review
Rating:
Recommend!
Available on:
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Steam, Epic, GOG)
Tormented Souls 1 released in 2021 developed by Chilean based Dual Effect and published by PQube introducing us to the world of Caroline Walker, a young Canadian girl, and the horrors that follow her family. Tormented Souls 1 released to generally favourable reviews, it felt like it was riding the line of Indie and AA alongside it’s commitment to reinvigorating the fixed camera angle survival horror genre of games that was made popular by the Resident Evil series, the unique setting and the games fixation on make-shift weapons really helped solidify the game as one that was memorable for me and was very pleasantly surprised when Tormented Souls 2 was announced at the Future Games Show in 2023 allowing Dual Effect to revisit Caroline Walker and her sister continuing their story as they enter into a whole new world of horror.
Tormented Souls 2’s protagonist is the same as the first game, Caroline Walker, she is taking her sister Anna to a covenant in hopes of understanding and helping her sister who has been going into trances and drawing creatures of horror, which is understandably making Caroline worry that something is happening to her sister, not knowing who to talk to about the situation resulting in her going to Villa Hess. Upon arriving, Caroline and her sister, Anna, are welcomed and given their rooms with everything seeming like it could be going well, that is until Caroline hears Anna’s scream from down the hall, upon reaching the source it turns out that the nun’s of this convenant lead by an allusive Mother Lucia had actually planned on abducting Anna for their own purposes (that are described later in the game) and Caroline has played directly into their hands, being knocked out. Waking up in an infirmary with needles in her skin, Caroline once again must brave the horrors of the night to rescue her sister.
The newest standout mechanic for me has to be the ability to dodge, while aiming if you press Square/X on the controller Caroline will dodge backwards
The gameplay that Tormented Souls 2 employees is very much similar to the first but with quality of life improvements for instance complete darkness will still kill you so you need to make sure to have the lighter with you previously you’d have to switch to the lighter in your menu, but now you can now set 4 items that can be quick swapped, this helps massively when you’re needing to switch from the lighter to the a weapon for defence. We’re also introduced to multiple different melee weapons, which reminded me of the classic Silent Hill’s melee weapons implementation, as you make your way through the game you’ll be given a hammer, a crowbar and a sledgehammer, all of these having uses in environmental puzzles while also being used for defence as well, the hammer being fast but lacking in power, the sledgehammer being slow but powerful, and the crowbar sitting nicely inbetween the other two options. Any classic Resident Evil fan will know the power that a melee weapon gives you when you see a knocked down enemy, and Tormented Souls 2 is no different in that regard. The newest standout mechanic for me has to be the ability to dodge, while aiming if you press Square/X on the controller Caroline will dodge backwards, doing this doesn’t feel necessary but as you go on and into boss fights you’ll want to employ this as much as possible, the reason for this is because it gives you invincibility frames, the timing felt a bit weird for me but once you get used to it then you’ll make use of this a lot during the bosses of Tormented Souls 2.
Taking a further look at the combat it’s pretty much what everyone comes to expect from a classic survival horror game, you can use tank controls on the d-pad, or use more modern controls on the analog stick, aiming at an enemy will autolock onto it if they are within range. You’ll also come across a range of weapons, as I mentioned earlier there are 3 melee items but ranged weapons will be the main way of defending yourself, you’ll have access to the classic pistol (in the form of a nail gun which has become a staple of the series) and a make-shift shotgun, alongside this you’ll get an automatic nailer which is more like an submachine gun, a crossbow and a handcannon which is more like a magnum in strength and rarity. From my playthroughs you’ll need to make use of all of these weapons even on the normal difficulty, after completing the game you’ll be given access to the hard mode or aptly named “Tormented” difficulty where enemies have more health, ammo is rarer and save items are lower in number, this is a mirror to the “Assisted” game mode where you’re given autosaves bypassing the save item requirement, enemies require less damage and you’re showered in ammo even going so far that if you enter the “Danger” state your health will slowly recover to the “Caution” state which is a good entry point for people that just want to see the story or are worried about the game being too difficult.
At first the map will be confusing but having ran through it multiple times figuring out where an item is next required you’ll begin to navigate entirely through instinct, the map will be a useful companion until that time though. The biggest worry for players looking forward to Tormented Souls 2 had to be the puzzles, but I’m happy to report that they are extremely well thoughtout and solving them feels very rewarding. Tormented Souls 1 was very much like this as well, but there were some outlier puzzles that I thought were infuriating and requiring a large leap in logic to understand what the game wanted me to do, the best examples I can give was the key combination doors where some of the solutions felt very abstract and the operating room table puzzle, I could not get that one for the life of me and had to look up the solution and even after looking at that solution I don’t see how it was meant to be solved.
Thankfully, there aren’t any puzzles like that in Tormented Souls 2, that’s not to say that the puzzles aren’t challenging, if anything I found them on the more challenging side than easier side. There were some puzzles that I struggled in figuring out but after figuring them out I felt they were understandable and often it was me missing or overlooking some piece of information in cases where I would give up and look up the solution I could work back from the solution and understand the hints the game had given and it was often a failure from my own line of thinking and not from what the game had presented me to help push me to the solution.
The only slight negative I found is that during cutscenes I felt the models didn’t look as great especially the facial animations
Graphically Tormented Souls 2 is great, the character models look good while playing, even smaller things like the running animation I felt were a huge upgrade in fluidity and how natural it looked and the use of lighting is probably the highlight for the game, it enhances the atmosphere and horror immensily. The only slight negative I found is that during cutscenes I felt the models didn’t look as great especially the facial animations, they’re very servicable but I would have hoped for a bigger jump in fidelity for character models in these situations. The changes when going from the normal world to the otherside where the artstyle looks to be more inspired by Silent Hill’s otherside where everything is metallic and grimey, similarily when travelling to the past is nicely done with filters being placed over to give it a grainy film look helping to make both areas more unique and distinct.
Ultimately Tormented Souls 2 is more Tormented Souls but I don’t think that’s a bad thing, Dual Effect have shown they’re commitment to Caroline Walker’s story and to the classic survival horror gameplay. They’ve improved a lot from the first game and the story continues to be engaging and interesting, it’s definitely a series worth checking out and if you’re a fan of classic suvival horror games I feel you’re doing yourself a disservice on not checking out Tormented Souls 2.
