REVIEW / Tormented Souls II (PS5)

In the interest of fairness, let me be honest: I never played the original Tormented Souls. However, a survival horror game in the vein of Resident Evil intrigued me. Naturally, I felt my playthrough of Tormented Souls II would offer a unique perspective. After playing it, I realize it is a challenging game to review because it has a multitude of positives and negatives.

Enter the Survival Horror

Tormented Souls II has players controlling returning heroine Caroline Walker. She travels to a town called Villa Hess in order to help her twin sister, Anna, who sees and draws all sorts of disturbing images that have the unfortunate side effect of manifesting into reality (read a synopsis of the first game’s plot so you won’t get lost). Things go to shit pretty much immediately upon entering the convent, where the members of the church are supposed to be helping our protagonists. Caroline must rescue her sister from an evil cult, traversing twisted locales like said church, a derelict mall, a fishing facility, a cemetery, and a school, just to name a few.

Credit where credit is due: Tormented Souls II has a fantastic ambience. Though character models are lacking in graphical polish, the environments are stellar, filled with wonderful use of light and shadow. Light in particular is important, as you can die by staying in the dark too long. Areas shift in perspective as you move around, like the static backgrounds of Resident Evil, and the game even utilizes tank controls (there are modern controls, too, though I find this method makes it harder to navigate with the changing camera). I also love how maps mark off areas of interest, so you know where to look if you find yourself at an impasse. Weapons are a delight, too. Unlike other survival horror titles, guns are made using tools you find in each area you explore. From the nailgun to the crossbow that fires tubes of acid, everything has this “I made this gun with scrap I found lying around” quality to it.

A Step Forward, a Step Back

Now that I’ve got the good out of the way, let me speak of the complicated aspects of Tormented Souls II. These musings all have something good about them, but with a caveat. For example, enemies have unique, scary designs, and the bosses all have weaknesses tied to weapons outside of your arsenal that appear in their respective arenas. However, combat is clunky, requiring you to fight in lighted areas since darkness is so fatal. Caroline can easily get stuck or stun locked while shooting or smashing adversaries, as well, though there is a backdash that is hard to master but offers you a chance to avoid getting hit. In addition, puzzles are a mixed bag. Some of them are quite ingenious and make you feel like a brain surgeon when you figure them out. But others are so convoluted that you’ll be reaching for your phone to look up the solution rather than max out your frustration.

Two things drag Tormented Souls II down the most, though. The first is the default difficulty. Playing on this mode is brutal, as enemies hit hard and there is a scarcity of ammunition and healing items. Not only that, you can only use a limited supply of recording tapes to manually save your progress. Save points are few and far between, and you can bet I had one enraging instance where I defeated a boss but died to a flying ghost enemy, losing a solid 15 minutes of progress. Lastly, the game is a little too long, clocking in at over 20 hours of playtime. Normally, a long play time presents a great value, but survival horror games are at their best when they can be beaten in under 10 hours and have new game + incentives to encourage replays. While each location is fun to behold at first, they each overstay their welcome just a bit.

Flawed Yet Charming

Tormented Souls II is a hard game to review. For all the things it does well, there is another, frustrating thing that stands in the way. But I believe if you are a fan of old school survival horror and insane plots, you’ll be able to get past the game’s jankiness and enjoy its charms. Just choose the assisted difficulty so you can have autosaves and more ammo and heals. It’ll save you some pain.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.