A game that will teach you that Prison really is Hell.
User Rating: 9.2 | The Suffering XBOX
A game that will teach you that Prison really is Hell. The Suffering Genre - Action/Horror Developer - Midway Released - 03/09/2004 What it's about: You play as Torque, a closed mouthed cave man looking convict thats been convicted of killing his entire family, that includes his two kids. Did he really do it? Nobody really knows, even Torque says he blacked it all out and doesn't know what really happened. Of course if you say you black something like that out, your assumed to be the one who did it. So he is sent to a prison on an island. The Abbott Penatentury. He's slapped in a cell and only a couple minutes afterwords the place goes to hell, literally. People start getting killed suddenly by hideous monsters, both inmates and CO's of the Prison. They drop like flies due to this sudden and unlikely horror slash-fest. It happens so fast that it seems like all a dream, and it doesn't help that Torque keeps having these blurry images. But who cares what it seems like, the reality is that these "things" start hunting you eventually as well, and as hopeless as it looks, you have to try and get out of Abbott blasting through hordes of creatures with shotguns, grenades, and even Tommy Guns. But the prison is not the only place effected as you'll soon learn. The entire island itself seems to have a grim past that reflects on the events that Torque is living in during the present. You (the player) and Torque will see some crazy things during this horror quest, so be prepared because as the ads say, Prison IS Hell. Gameplay 9.5/10 - The Suffering is not exactly a survival horror. Sure, you have to survive the horror, but that doesn't mean it's anything like Resident Evil or Silent Hill. The Suffering plays out like a mixture of Silent Hill and Return to Castle Wolfenstein which makes quite the cocktail of a horror game. You can switch between 3rd-person and 1st-person view at ANY time during the game, which means it can play like a Silent Hill/Wolfenstein combo in 1st-person if you prefer, or it can play like a Silent Hill/Max Payne combo in 3rd-person if thats your cup of tea. Hell, you can switch between them constantly during the whole game, It's really all up to you. I'm a 1st-person view man myself because the enemies later in the game require some precise aim due to their fast speeds. You'll spend the most time of The Suffering killing monsters rather than doing puzzles, which is another sign that this game is no survival horror title. Yeah, there are some puzzles, but they are laughably easy and only pose as rest points to get you ready for the next batch of monsters to destroy. The game isn't glitch-free, but then again what game is these days. The only thing I wish the game had to offer were more weapons. You only get 3 different kinds of guns during the game, 2 melee weapons, and 3 different kinds of actual damaging explosives to hurl at monsters. I don't want to give away all the weapons you get during the game, so just play it and find out. Another nice touch in the game is that during the progress you make you will meet people in Abbott that will join your side to help you fight off monsters. Most of these people don't like you, which will tempt you to blow their heads off, but you have to take into consideration that there are points given to you regarding your actions before you do something like protect an inmate or blow their heads off. These are invisible points called "Good/Bad Points" that reflect on the ending you can get once you beat the game. Torque has two different consciences in his mind related to Good/Bad Points. One side tells him to kill whoever he comes in contact with while the other one, who just happens to be the voice of his wife, tells him the exact opposite acting as the "Angel" conscience, and it's all up to you, the player, which one you want to listen to. Another thing you may find interesting is the bonus features on the menu which include behind the scenes of The Suffering, a preview of another Midway game (Psi-Ops), and a documentary of a real life haunted prison. The Suffering is also a pretty long game when you consider what kind of game it is. It never feels too dull or repeated like some similar games do. Although sometimes the non-stop action can get a little exagerated with non-stop monsters coming from pits that seemingly lead straight to Hell, especially when your teamed up with a "teamate" to help, it always picks itself back up to show off it's strangeness over and over again. From the flashbacks to the visions of things that aren't really there, the game is horror at all time. What helps to make the game more creapy is the background story of both the monsters and the locations you'll visit during the game. You'll get pages to add to your "Archives" once you've encountered a new monster or area on the Island. The Islands grim past shows in every page you get, and if you read through them you'll discover that these monsters aren't just random creations and that they are each connected to the past of the Island. Another aspect to the game is that Torque has this "Insanity Mode" that can be triggered on and off when your "Insanity Meter" is full. Unlike Eternal Darkness, this insanity meter doesn't drive you insane with visions and flashbacks (it seems Torque already has that problem icon_razz.gif), this insanity meter allows you to turn into a hulk of a monster able to slash through pretty much all of the monsters in the game with extreme ease. I beat the game, and still don't quite fully understand that part, but whatever, the gameplay rocks and the only thing missing is some more weapons and the ability to use hand to hand combat if needed. Graphics 8.5/10 - The graphics of The Suffering are pretty nice. I can't say I havn't seen better, but the environments of the game look just the way you would expect them to. Dark, grimey, and corners everywhere that have the potential of monsters jumping out and scaring your socks off. The lighting is also pretty well done to fit the mood and setting. The monsters do look ugly, just like they should, and some more detailed than others. The first monsters you encounter are pretty scary. They drag their blades along the floors and walls while sparks fly, and they move very slowly while doing so just to catch you off guard with an attack. The only thing that looks rather bad in this game when it comes to graphics is the water, but that can be easily looked past by any gamer on the planet. Controls 10/10 - I love the controls. Easy to switch between view modes and weapons. Simple commands quickly open and close doors while switching weapons and secondary weapons on the fly. With a game like this I was afraid the controls or camera would have killed it from being any good, also the fact that it was made by Midway, a company I never seen try horror like this before, I was skeptical that the controls and camera would have worked together, but it proved to be perfect. Unlike the typical horror games, this game cannot have camera problems when you can switch between a fully fuctional 1st-person view mode. The game is one you can pick up and get right into. Sound 9.0/10 - The sounds are pretty amazing. Not as good as Silent Hill 3's in my oppinion but still match the environment perfectly. The sounds of monsters in the distance cracking their gums and dragging their body parts against the ground. The screams of men fighting hopelessly against onslaughts of creatures on the other side of a wall. The sounds that Torque hears from his mind that aren't really there. It's all well crafted sound. The voice acters are decent enough, but there isn't really much acting required to pull off these kinds of lines, and they are pretty crazy lines. From start to finish, all you'll hear is "f**k" "s**t" "cu*t" "co*k", ect, ect. The language doesn't bother me for two reasons. (1) I live in Cleveland, that kind of language is the only kind of language we know icon_razz.gif and (2) It's a prison where the inmates are all basically on death row and the guards have to put up with inmate crap all the time, and to top it all off, Hell has broke loose on the Island. So yeah, I guess I'de be swearing alot too if I was trapped in this kind of situation. But even so, you might want to be warned that the game is totally unsensored when it comes to violence and languange, so be warned about the voice overs in The Suffering. So, the creatures, weapons, and voices sound just the way they should in this game. What more to say about the sound. Overal Score 9.25/10 - The Suffering is certainly not for everyone, but no true horror game is for everyone anyways. The language is foul, and the violence is extreme, but I think thats what you want in a game like this so you'll have plenty of fun with it. Also it should be noted that the game isn't exactly as scary as the Silent Hill series and doesn't have as good of a story either. Don't let that turn you away though, the game will give you plenty of jolts, especially during the first half, but for some odd reason the game is split in two different parts. The horror part, and the action part. The second half of the game is action packed with you even gaining control of minigun turrents to shoot up crap loads of monsters ambushing you. But like said in the review, it never gets too dull, and after every action packed section of the game you will then uncover more creapy things whether it be in your Archives, Torque's memories, or the monsters that await you hiding behind a corner. The Suffering is deffinantly a new kind of horror game that any horror fan should try, because Midway pulled this one off very well. The Good - Good/Bad Points make the reply value of this game pretty high. It also has an effect on your conscience as the player to choose whether or not to kill an obnoxious "teamate" depending on which ending you really want. This makes the game much more interesting than most horror games out there that basically just have you run through one time the same way each time. A nice touch. The Bad - Not enough guns! When a horror game manages to pull off the 1st-person view mode so well, you would think they'de have more than 3-4 guns to play with. Throughout the game you hear about a Flamethrower, but never did I find one, all I found was Molotov's. Then again I'm playing the game again so I might find a hidden weapon this time around...hopefully. Call me greedy, but I wish I got to use a Sniper Rifle and Rocket/Granade Launcher to blow monsters to bits from a distance. Too bad I wasn't on the development team. icon_razz.gif The Ugly - Torque is a total mute. It's really unlikely in my oppinion, because during this whole disaster at Abbott, even right from the start, Torque is an obvious bad ass, and doesn't mind blasting creatures from hell with a shotgun. A matter of fact, it looks like he sees that kind of crap every day. Not even so much as a "damn" or an "ouch" comes out of his mouth during the entire game, and considering you interact with both monsters and humans (humans who talk to you constantly) during the game, I find Torque to be far too silent to pass as believable. Anybody that can keep their mouths shut during something like this and still look cool has got to be one bad mother *shut your mouth*. No, but seriously, I like it when my hard ass monster killers from prison talk like all the rest of the hard ass monster killers from prison do. You May Also Enjoy - Halo, Run Like Hell, The Thing, Red Faction 2, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Timesplitters 2, Fatal Frame 2, Breakdown, Curse: The Eye of Isis 
