Tormented Souls

[h1] A great survival horror experience, with a few questionable design choices [/h1] - The save system feels more like a hurdle than a survival mechanic that actually increases tension. The already scarce ammo and clunky combat make losing progress especially frustrating. - You can only equip one item at a time, but two items are essential: the lighter and the nail gun. Nail gun ammo is already scarce, and you also need to use it carefully in dark areas. This sometimes leaves you having to choose between [b] LIGHT OR FIGHT [/b], which can put you in some really frustrating situations. - The camera system is one of my favorite things about the game. It really captures that classic Resident Evil feeling, and the static camera angles add a lot of tension and atmosphere. I have no complaints about the idea itself. However, when enemies chase you, the camera can become a real problem. Some rooms and hallways are extremely narrow, and camera transitions can sometimes leave you unable to see the enemy properly. This makes aiming and shooting unnecessarily difficult. Combined with the limited ammo and restrictive save system, you can end up dying and losing 30 minutes to an hour of pr…

Such a good game

Excellent game. A solid 8/10 - Presentation is top notch, beautiful environments in pre-rendered style visuals like those in RE1R but with full 3D environments and panning camera movement. Welcome to the future. - Combat feels polished and satisfactory. Only complaint is for the lack of fast-moving opponents, a detail that makes the dodge feel unnecesary. Same with the amount of enemies, weapons like the shotgun feel a lot less powerful when you are only firing at one guy at a time. - Puzzles are GREAT. Every single one of them were really satisfying to solve. Just the right amount of difficulty, mistery, and info given. Also, lots of them! This game has literally triple the amount of puzzles you will find in your average RE, and this are real puzzles, mind you, not fetch quests. - Map layout is great, everything clicks together nicely, and you get just the right amount of backtracking. - 10-hour long story, exploring at leisure and collecting all diaries. Exactly the right amount. Game never overstayed its welcome. - You save the game by using magnetic tapes on vintage tape recorders. Devs put these near typewriters to make you suffer. Evil. - Final boss fight is kind of m…

good game 8/10

While some aspects like the tank controls can feel a bit clunky and some of the puzzles may be a bit obtuse, I really enjoyed the game overall and one can tell that a lot of love and effort went into making it. It is especially impressive given that this is the first game the studio released. +atmosphere and graphics +old school survival horror +story with interesting use of time travel mechanics +multiple endings -tank controls, but can be avoided by using a game pad -some puzzles can be a bit obtuse -voice acting could be better -static camera can make some fights more difficult

Tormented Souls, a puzzle game masquerading as a survival horror. It has all the trappings of a survival horror experience, sure, and of course that includes puzzles, but what's the real meat of the gameplay? Walking around and solving puzzles. Enemies are around and there is combat, but it's far from satisfying or engaging to interact with. More often than not, you can simply walk around them if you so choose, and you're give more than enough ways to kill them with little punishment for doing so. By the end, I chose to kill everything I came across and ended with more than enough ammo to spare (although perhaps with some moral fiber lost, depending on how you think about the nature of the enemies). There is some minor stress to be had with the enemies if you engage with them while weak, but pretty quickly you become more than capable of dealing with any of them, and even so it is truly not difficult to avoid them if you get any sort of handle on movement in the game. In spite of that, Tormented Souls really stuck with me. I played this game for the first time two years ago and I did not get far, only getting to make a shotgun and then stopping soon after that, but it remained i…