An incredibly underrated game, and a must-play for action-horror fans. You haven't seen anything like this.
User Rating: 9.9 | The Suffering XBOX
THE GOOD: Atmospheric, CRAZY attention to detail, awesome plot, best voice-acting in any game, ever. THE BAD: Kinda easy, kinda short, kinda weak enemy AI at times SUMMARY: Let me start out by saying I love this game. I've beaten it some 7 times now, and I'm rolling through it again. It's moody, atmospheric, tense, and action packed. For those who want a break from the "average" horror game like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, this is the game for you. The premise of the game is, you play as Torque, a prison inmate sentenced to die at Abbott Correctional Facility, a fictional prison on the fictional island of Carnate, off the coast of Maryland. You don't remember a thing about your crime other than that it happened and you were convicted of it -- whether or not you actually did the crime is revealed at the end of the game, depending on how the player makes choices (standard "good/bad" fare - help NPCs, kill NPCs, ignore NPCs, etc). All hell breaks loose in the prison when supernatural creatures from beyond the grave start popping out of nowhere and mowing everyone down like ripe wheat. Torque starts acquiring weapons and blasts his way out of the prison and through a multitude of diverse locations all over the island. The enemies you face are decidedly unique, and very creepy. They all represent various forms of death, including hanging, decapitation, firing squad, lethal injection, and being buried alive, to name a few. The monsters all look great, and have very creepy motions and actions, and the attacks differ between creatures. Lots of little details were put into how they move and act, such as Slayers (decapitation) scraping their blades along walls and the ground as they creep towards you, or Mainliners (lethal injection) leaping onto your back and trying to stab you with poison needles. I sort of wish there had been MORE different creatures, but the varied assortment that Torque encounters is more than sufficient. What's especially rewarding is that the monsters *make sense* - as the plot is revealed, the player learns why each type of monster exists on Carnate. The environments are very detailed and interactive, with things so small as text on gravestones and smoking cigarettes in ashtrays, to functional light switches, security cameras, faucets, and lockers. Just about anything that could logically be manipulated in the environment actually can be pushed, switched, or otherwise used. Torque's character animations are very unique, such as how he hits open lockers or kicks in doors, as well as how he reloads weapons (cocking a shotgun one-handed) or his various idle animations. The idle animations also change depending on how the player is playing the game (good ending or bad ending), and his character skin will differ, as well. Gore splatters everywhere in the game, and it is made very clear early on that 'The Suffering' is a violent game. Expect decapitations, blood all over the walls, enemies to lose limbs, etc. Even the Torque character model can be covered from head to toe with blood. The game definately deserves its Mature rating. Beyond this is the detail put into Carnate Island itself. The plot might seem simplistic on the surface (Escape! Survive!), but underneath this is a wealth of detail regarding the history on Carnate Island. Players are rewarded for going out of their way to explore the island, and Torque sees psychic "flashbacks" of past horrific events on the island dating all the way back to the 1600s. There is also a running "journal" of the history on Carnate as well as of the various creatures Torque encounters, and the only way to unlock every page in both journals is to beat the game multiple times. For what could have been a very average action-horror game, the amount of detail really sets it head and shoulders above the rest. One of the more noteable (and creepy) locations is the insane asylum Torque gets to meander through. The controls are very intuitive, and players can choose to play both in first-person and third-person perspectives. I found first-person to be a bit sloppier, with sub-par character animations (especially for the shiv. I felt like I was playing Wolfenstein3D again), and the player also misses out on all the interesting character animations in first-person. However, first-person is also a scarier experience, since you cannot readily see behind you and anticipate enemy attacks. It also gives a better scale of how big some of the enemy creatures truly are. Also, first-person is a good view for getting a better look at some of the more intricate details in the game, such as names on headstones or how defeated monsters look. However, I almost exclusively play the game in third person. The game is an action-horror game, and true to the genre, it involves a lot of running around and shooting things with guns or blowing them up. Combat is the name of the game, and ammo is reasonably plentiful. However, the game is substantially harder on higher difficulties. The game is quite easy on Easy, taking 2-3 bullets to drop a Slayer, but much harder on Hard, where Slayers can take 12 rounds before dying. I can only imagine how hard the Impossible difficulty is. Expect to be low on ammo and resorting to the shiv a lot on higher difficulties. The game does have three endings, and playing for the Bad ending is substantially harder than the other two. The sound is very well done, with creepy sound effects and other details added in for the monsters as well as the environment itself. The voice-acting is the best I've ever heard in any game, and it really sounds like the actors enjoyed what they were doing and put a lot of effort into it. My favorite character was Hermes Haight, simply because of how his voice was done. The varied character personalities really show through in the voice acting. It's worth noting that the game definately earns its Mature rating not only from the rampant violence and gore (and the horror setting) but also from the dialogue and language. It IS a prison, and both the inmates and correctional officers swear like you wouldn't believe. A sample line of dialogue: "Would you shut the F*** up, you baby raping, sodomizing sack of s***!" You have been warned. If profanity offends you, do not play this game. If there's anything bad about the game, it's that it seems to dissolve into a more "run-'n-gun" sort of game as it progresses. It loses a lot of the creepy scare factor and is more of an action game. The prison levels are by far the best, but they end far too soon as Torque progresses to other parts of the island. I also wish the game were a bit longer. One final word: In my opinion, the Neutral ending is the best. It's the most realistic, I think. Ratings: 5 out of 5 -- Definately a keeper. I swear by this game, and I eagerly wait for the day when Hollywood decides to turn it into a movie. My rating system: 5 = buy it 4 = pay money and rent it (preferably until you beat it once) 3 = borrow it from a friend 2 = watch someone else play it 1 = don't bother 
