Uneven Sequel to a Great Game
I think GS's initial review of TTB was pretty much spot-on. If you enjoyed the last game, you will PROBABLY like the sequel. There are however, some substanial differences in gameplay approach between the two. The biggest differance , which becomes noticeable after playing the first several levels, is the uneveness of the difficulty in dealing with enemies. Whereas the first game did a good job of spacing the challenges and giving the player breathing room between battles, TTB takes a " More is Better" approach to the combat scenarios.
I found myself advancing pretty rapidly through the initial stages of the game...and then POW !, the onslaught began . Waves of various Malefactors attack Torque, in sometimes what almost appear to be endlessly spawning numbers. This whole-scale attack mode becomes more prevalent the further into TTB the player goes. At some points, it becomes almost cartoonish in effect, much like the hordes of enemies seen in Painkiller, except unlike that game, your character takes damage quicker and dies more readily.
This leads me to point out two other glaring changes from the first game. Namely, Torque cannot carry health bottles with him to use in those tight spots where a lot of damage is inflicted quickly by enemies. He must rely on finding & using the health bottles which are randomly scattered throughout the levels. A lot of the time this presents little problem, until the later fighting scenes where large numbers of tough foes are encountered. The other big change is the ability to carry multiple weapons. In TTB Torque can only possess 2 weapons at a time, along with thrown weapons such as grenades or Molotov gas bombs. Here again the difficulty is ratcheted up by the restricted weapons inventory, making the game that much more challenging, as ammo seems to be somewhat scarcer than in The Suffering 1.
All in all, a different playing experience from the original game. Graphics seem to have been tweaked upwards, especially in the character models, and the camera angle is slightly closer to Torque now than before. I found some of the Boss battles to be more frustrating than enjoyable, with constant Save/Reload keys being hit...but maybe that's just me. If you are a fan of the first game, I would recommend checking out the second. Just be prepared for a different, & sometimes trying, gaming experience.