Action games and horror/supernatural themes are so well-suited to each other
that you’d think that you’d see more horror games out there. Unfortunately it
seems that game developers would rather have us gamers kill our fellow man than
some supernatural threat from beyond. Occasionally, though, a game does come
along to remind you of how much fun it is to find yourself in the middle of a
scary story – especially when you get to shoot back at the monsters.
In The Suffering you are Torque, a man convicted of murdering his wife and
children. While the state found you guilty and sentenced you to die, you really
have no idea whether or not you committed the crime. Even as you are locked into
your cell on death row as the game opens the events of that fateful day are a
complete blank to you. Your stay on death row is very short-lived though, and
you don’t have any time to try and piece together what really happened before
all heck starts to break loose. The jolt of a strong earthquake is followed by a
blackout and shortly thereafter screams of panic and terror. The earthquake that
has now freed you from your cell has also unleashed hordes of nightmarish
creatures and demons. You’ll need to make your way out of the prison and off of
the island on which it sits while preventing the demons from carrying out your
death sentence.
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| Torque stops a demon in its tracks. |
As this point far too many games would break down into pure carnage mode,
throwing non-stop monsters at you in an attempt to hide the lack of a compelling
storyline or the absence of intriguing level design. Luckily that is not the
case in The Suffering. In fact, you won’t even fight a demon until a good ten
minutes into the game. Oh you’ll catch glimpses of them as they kill nearby
people or slink off into a vent and see the aftermath of their work, but you
won’t face one for a little while. The game slowly and deliberately builds the
tension as you try to get out of your cell block rather than simply throwing
monsters at you and it is this approach that makes The Suffering fun to play.
The Suffering is as much psychological thriller as it is monster movie.
You’ll hear the cries of guards and prisoners as they are killed in nearby rooms
and hallways, desperate calls will come in by phone and radio as you enter some
rooms, and the metallic clank of the demons’ appendages as they run around will
come echoing through the ventilation system. Then there’s the really creepy
stuff. Like random flashbacks about your family that come out of nowhere and
disappear just as quickly. Or the voice of your own conscience speaking to you
at once in both a female voice of reason and a malevolent and deep male voice of
evil. Then there’s the creepy apparition of a ghostly doctor out of the 1930s
whose apparent job it is to go roto-rooter on your sanity. This is one of those
games you’ll want to play at night with the lights out, but I wouldn’t play it
for too long right before bed unless someone warm and cuddly will be waiting
there for you.
The game’s psychological angle extends to choices that you will be faced with
during play. For example, you may encounter a guard who wants to work with you
to get out of the prison. The two voices of your conscience will suggest
diametrically opposed courses of action and it is up to you whether to listen to
the good within you and help the guard or listen to your evil side and kill him
to get his weapon. Your choices won’t cause any major branches in the storyline,
but they will affect the game’s ending and serve to help you get more into
character as Torque.
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