The Suffering – PS2 – Review

Midway, a company
recognized for their stable of arcade style games and over the top sports
titles, tries their hand at something completely removed from their current
library of games with The Suffering.  The Suffering tells the tale of Torque, a
man condemned to die by lethal injection for the “alleged” brutal murders of his
wife and two children, who’s destined to spend his final days at Abbott State
Penitentiary, located on Carnate Island, a small island off the coast of
Maryland.  As can be expected with a game of this nature, Carnate Island, as
well as the penitentiary, have unique histories rife with tragedy and of course,
E-V-I-L.

The game begins with
Torque’s arrival on death row, but his welcoming is short lived, as all hell
suddenly, and quite literally, breaks loose.  An earthquake strikes and in the
ensuing chaos, guards and prisoners alike are brutally eviscerated by unseen
assailants attacking from the shadows.  As luck would have it, Torque is left
untouched and free, as the earthquake has conveniently dispatched his cell door,
but as you soon find out, “free” is a relative term here.  Torque must now find
his way off of the island, while dispatching some of the most disturbing
creatures yet rendered in the world of videogaming.

The Suffering, a fast
paced, frenetic shooter at heart, can be played in its entirety in either the
standard third person view or in the first person view.  This is a nice touch
for a game like this, because it eliminates one of the biggest headaches in the
survival horror genre, not being able to see what’s just off the screen.  It’s
not very practical, nor advisable to play for long in the first person view
however, simply because of the sheer number of creatures attacking from each and
every direction, but it is incredibly useful to use in order to get a better
look at your surroundings, allowing you to somewhat prepare yourself for what
lies at the end of a hallway or on the other side of the room.  In the third
person view, you control Torque just as you would in the first person view,
moving with the left stick, while turning and aiming with the right stick.  This
may take some getting accustomed to for some gamers, but it is worth the hassle,
because it gives you much more freedom and maneuverability as you try and
dispatch a room full of the nasties.  And trust me; maneuverability is very
important here as the game throws an impressive number of enemies at you.  No
slow moving, moaning zombies here, the bad boys of The Suffering are fast,
angry, and dangerous.  Whereas the pace of most games in this genre is plodding
at best, The Suffering is all about action, building tension through the sheer
sense of feeling overwhelmed by creatures best left to the nightmares of
others. 

Another facet of the
gameplay that Midway has strayed from the beaten path from is in the puzzle
solving elements of the gameplay.  Being a huge fan of the genre, especially
Silent Hill, you can’t help but admit that most of the puzzles in these games
totally break the pacing of the game to a slow crawl, either because the puzzles
that must be solved are completely derivative or because of their complete lack
of relevance to the story and or environment.  If I ever have to solve another
word puzzle or place the correct “piece” in the correct “hole” puzzle again in a
survival horror game, it’ll be too soon.  The Suffering does away with that
whole aspect with its puzzles amounting to finding the room that has the button
to open the locked gates hindering your progress.  This helps keep the pace fast
and fun, and it fits.  You’re running around a prison, of course gates and
doorways are going to be electronically locked.

While playing as Torque
you’ll come across a nice arsenal of weapons to use against the monsters from
the prison favorite “shiv” to a Tommy gun.  Ammo for the weapons is plentiful,
encouraging the player to blast anything and everything back to wherever in the
heck it came from.  One of the cooler features of the game is the insanity
meter.  Torque is prone to “black outs”, which plays a significant part in the
story; mainly because Torque has no recollection of whether or not he did indeed
murder his family.  This is explained by Torque being able to transform into a
hideous monster whenever his insanity meter fills.  Once he transforms, he can
easily dispatch the hordes with his brutal, new power, but you must be careful.
Stay too long in the beast mode and you run the risk of dying.  Very cool
touch.  Another cool aspect of the gameplay is the multiple endings depending on
how you play the game.  Each ending, three in all, are completely different from
each other and whereas in games like Silent Hill, the endings change depending
on the seemingly mundane things you may or may not do, not so here.  There is no
doubt what actions have bearing on the ending you receive.  Help fellow inmates
and prison guards from being killed by the monsters; you receive the “good”
ending.  Kill other humans with reckless abandon; you get the “bad” ending.
Skate somewhere in between and you get a fitting end for those actions.  The
developers did a really nice job in developing the endings to suit each
scenario.

The graphics of the game,
on the whole, are pretty nice, but not jaw dropping.  The environments are
suitably dark, dank, and dire, ratcheting up the immersion factor suitably.  You
really feel as if you are roaming the halls and real estate of a haunted island
and prison.  Where the graphics really shine is in the character models and
design.  Midway hired Stan Winston to design the creatures and it shows.  Each
creature symbolizes the various forms of execution employed at the prison over
its history (ie…lethal injection, firing squad, gas chamber) and they use the
means of their demeans to try and bring about your own, such as the
“Mainliners”, victims of lethal injection, pulling needles from their back to
hurl at you.  The creatures are very well done, suitably scary, disturbing, and
detailed.  The only problem with the graphics, as far the PS2 version goes, is
that there is some degree of slow down when there are a lot of creatures on
screen at once, but while it’s noticeable, it’s a small gripe in the big scheme
of things.

The sound really stands
out in this game.  The voice work is top notch, but be warned; there is no
shortage of “f-bombs” being dropped by the characters.  It may seem at times to
be over the top to some, but given the situation and environment, it’s fitting.
How many of us would expect death row inmates to use proper English and to shy
away from foul language?  “Golly gee, you sure are one messed up poopy head,”
just wouldn’t work in this game.  The sound effects are well done as well, from
the distinct sounds of each creature, to the firing of each weapon, to the
footfalls of running down a deserted stone hallway all conspire together to make
for a realistic sounding game.  The developers also took a page from the Silent
Hill notebook, using ambient sounds, as well as the sounds of something just out
of sight to ramp up the tension and fright of the game to great effect.
Sometimes it’s the things you can’t see that prove to be the scariest.

In addition to the game,
Midway has also included some DVD features, which make for some really nice
extras.  Included are a “making of” feature, a sneak preview of PSI-OPS, and my
personal favorite a documentary about haunted prisons.  Having worked a second
job while in the Marine Corps for a security company that had been hired to
patrol an old deserted prison that was allegedly haunted, I especially enjoyed
that feature.  While on the subject, I should also add that the game does a
spectacular job of capturing the whole “mood” of wandering a freaked out,
should’ve been condemned, and blown up long ago prison.  Those are the type of
feelings that one doesn’t forget and while playing I found some of these
feelings and memories floating back to the surface, so it’s obvious Midway did
their homework for an authentic environment.

In closing, The Suffering
is a refreshing addition to the survival horror genre.  Doing away with the
slow, plodding pace of its predecessors in favor of a fast pace thrill fest, The
Suffering equals and in most cases, exceeds the scares offered up by the rest of
the genre.  Make no mistake, however, this game isn’t for everyone.  Your alter
ego in the game is a convicted murderer, sentenced to death, and the game makes
absolutely no apologies for its graphic, violent, and disturbing story and
gameplay.  However, if you’re a fan of the Resident Evils and Silent Hills of
the world, or adult themed games, give The Suffering a chance, you’ll have a
fiendishly good time.

Reviewer’s Scoring Details

Gameplay: 8.5
The fast paced
action never gets tired or boring.  Torque controls fluidly, but the control
setup may take some getting used to.  The aiming can get a bit “wonky” in some
of the more intense battles, but it never proves to detract from the experience.

Graphics: 8.5
Good, but not
great.  Some of the textures look a little muddy, but the character models are
great, as are the environments.  It may seem drab to some, but remember where
the game takes place.

Sound: 9.0
The voice work is
top notch, as are the sound effects and ambient noises.

Difficulty: Medium
With four
different difficulty settings, every gamer should find a level of difficulty
that suits their styles and abilities.

Concept: 8.5
The Suffering is
a refreshing, new take on the survival horror genre.  The story, characters, and
settings all meld together to form a unique package and a different take on the
genre.

Overall: 8.5
Midway has a
strong, new franchise on its hands with The Suffering.  The Suffering is full of
both fast paced action and frights, real and imagined.  Fans of the genre should
certainly plan a trip to Carnate Island to visit Abbott Penitentiary, it’s a
trip you’ll enjoy and won’t soon forget.  For those turned off by the gameplay
mechanics of Silent Hill and Resident Evil, this may be the horror game you’ve
been waiting for.