Gaming The Suffering

[OmegaWeapon]

[COLOR=Green][SIZE=2][FONT=Comic Sans MS]Has anyone played this game yet? I have and I thought it was excellent. It has awesome graphics, and eerie environments and sounds. The plot is a little confusing though. I personally havent beaten it, but I have seen my dad beat it.

Anyway, I havent seen any posts or threads that talked about this game and I dont see why not since it is a great and long game.

It is about a prisoner on death row named Torque whom witnesses all his other cell mates be murdered my strange creatures. His cell door breaks off and you are free to [attempt] an escape out of the prison. You encounter, I think, 11 types of monsters. Each one representing a type of execution. Along the way you encounter the ability to transform into a hellish monster yourself and inflict massive damage.[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[satan665]

It didn't really look to apealing to me, but I haven't played it. It kind of seems like the idea was to come up with a twisted and violent game, and they came up with this. It doesn't really add anything to the video game world, and I'm not a huge fan of the type of game/style. I might get Manhunt before this one, but I wasn't really feeling that game anyway. I still need to finish Fatal Frame II so I plan on leaving it at that when I need a scary/disturbing game.

Whats the gameplay like? Do you sneak around, or is it more like weapons combat? I imagine it to be a lot like Resident evil, where you have weapons but are somewhat outmatched by the monsters and have to be real careful? Or is it more like a splatterfest?

[Semjaza]

I wound up renting this game just to see how it was. It's been getting decent reviews and people who have played it have enjoyed it. I've played an hour and a half or so and I'm really surprised. This is a really good game.

This has been said already... but I just wanted to add some more detail to it...You play as Torque (just his nickname, thank god lol), a guy sent to prison for the murder of his wife and two kids... one he can't even remember commiting. Apparently Torque has blackouts. Once you get to the prison some crazy stuff happens and the place is just overrun with monsters. It's not the most amazing set-up, but so far the story has been surprisingly interesting and well told.

Once you escape your cell, the game does a good job of conveying the atmosphere. Everything is really dark and you're lucky to find a room with some lights in it. Luckily it's not hard to find your way around and your character finds maps of the place every so often. You eventually get a flashlight too. I think this heightens the creepiness even more because 1.) you can't use it all the time because it sucks batteries (you can find them littered around the prison though) and 2.) it really doesn't light up things that far (comparable to maybe 8 feet, I'd guess).

The game is really creepy. More than most games I've played in the "horror" genre. Everything is just soaked in blood, but I don't think it's overdone considering what is going on. The opening area in the game really does a nice job of setting the mood. You'll come across dead bodies and see people getting ripped apart by the monsters too quickly for your character to react. It reminds me of Half Life in that sense.

There's other scenes so far that do these sorts of things. I notice in many games of this type they put all the smarter scares at the start and just get lazy with it. That's not happened so far. There's been a lot of random things going on. [spoiler]After I accidentally gassed a cop in the gas chamber, I entered the room. Across the way was a thick glass window that seperated the chamber from the viewing room. I heard these loud thumps and I saw that one of the blade monsters (a Slayer, I talk about them further down) was trying to get into the room. He kept cracking the window more and more until it busted (which was no easy feat, the class looks like 6 inches thick). The thing disappeared, only to attack me in the next room heh.[/spoiler]

I've not seen too many types of monsters yet, but they're weird enough that I don't mind that. The main one so far is some weird Voldo looking creature called a Slayer. Instead of arms and legs it just has stumps with swords in them. The things are really quick and lunge at you. There's been several times when I didn't even realize they were anywhere near me and they just fly across the screen. It can be rather startling.

The game also just makes such cool use of them. There's a good scare at the start of the game where [spoiler]one of them walks past your cell and he drags his blade across the barsl... sparks flying all over the place while it clangs against them. I've had times where they come at me slowly dragging their blades against the walls too. Plus they can climb walls and ceilings like a spider. Going into a room and seeing them for split second and then disappearing up on the ceiling... just hearing them clank around on the pipes up there until they jump back down and try to kill you.

Some of the larger ones actually can block your shots and attacks as well. They don't seem too stupid either, as I've noticed them retreat when they've been shot several times. There are a decent amount of death animations just for these guys too. I saw a cool one where if you shoot the Slayer when it's on the ceiling, it's whole body goes limp and all but one of its limbs come loose from it. It dangles for a few seconds from the one limb and then falls to the ground and sprawls across the floor.[/spoiler]

There's also a great use of the dead in this game. I've come across a few guys that seem to act as tour guides. Going into various rooms, you'll sometimes hear the voices of dead inmates telling you freaky things... some of which are actually hints on what to do to progress. Thanfully, none of these are really obvious. In one of the solitary confinement rooms [spoiler]a voice said "I found a way out..." and I eventually came back there when I was stuck on what to do. When I looked up, I realized there was a way out through the ceiling. I pushed a crate into the room and climbed up it to make my escape.[/spoiler] All of the more puzzle-like things have been something to that effect so far. Logical, not Resident Evil types.

You also come across people who you can choose to help or dispose of. The cool thing about this is that there are actually three voices going on at once. You have the character talking... but you also have the voice of your dead wife telling you to help and some evil sounding voice that generally tells you to kill the guy because he's in your way. It's suitably creepy and just a really cool touch.

If you do help these people, they run around the prison with you and show you different ways to go. Some help with the fighting, some don't. However, they all do add to the story. I helped some inmate named Byron and whenever he comes across certain things, he gives you a bit more background on them. Nothing in this game feels like a lecture of information though... just informative dialogue. I managed to get Byron to a gateway out of the prison, but it only stays open long enough for one person to get out (the switch is on the other side of the area). Of course, he left saying he'd send help and the gate closed and exploded, so I can't go out that way.

There's also an insanity meter. When it gets full you can use a special ability... the monster referred to in the first post. It's pretty cool and is good at slicing things up. IT even can bust through doors, from what I've seen.

Controls took some getting used to, but once I did I've had no problems. Took about 15 minutes to get it all down and customize it to my tastes. You can go into first person mode at any time as well. Unlike most games with this feature, it actually puts you into a FPS looking mode that plays surprisingly well. To answer the question before, it's more of a splatterfest. You blow things up constantly, but at the same time you tend to be careful and slow about things because you never know when something is going to jump out at you or not.

I was kind of surprised by how much swearing there is in this game too. Nothing is censored, it's all out there... and everything they could possibly say, well, someone in the game says it lol.

Anyway, I'm impressed so far and I totally recommend at least giving this a rent. I have it on Xbox, by the way.

[Guest Kuharishi]

[COLOR=Red]I so want this game! But I havent had time to get it. I can't wait for it.[/COLOR]

[size=1][color=blue]Please put a little more into your posts. Why can't you wait for the game? What is it about this particular game that makes you want to buy it? - Shinmaru[/size][/color]

[BlueGender]

[COLOR=Navy][SIZE=1]It seems interesting i've been checking out reviews every once in a while and looking at screenshots and it didnt really seem like my type of game though so I havent picked it up. I like survival horror but i heard this is more a gorefest then survival horror, im thinking about renting it to see if I enjoy it the story seems interesting enough sounds kind of like Gothika in a way. [/SIZE] [/COLOR]

[OmegaWeapon]

[COLOR=Green][SIZE=2][FONT=Comic Sans MS]I didn't expect anyone else to reply to my post... but here you are! I don't understadnd why, but i feel as though I NEED to buy this game as soon as possible. (By the way, earlier i had rented it). This game won't leave my mind.

Also... i would just lke to also state how well the voiceovers were. They were excellent, the voice of the bad guy made out of ...GAS... (or the bad concsience) his voice is so cool, he has cool and mysterious phrases that often compare him to Torque as though they think the same about murder.[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]