Video Game Review: Tormented Souls

Developer: Dual Effect

Publisher: PQube

Genre: Horror

Reviewed For: Nintendo Switch

Also Available On: PC, PlayStation, Xbox

Paying homage to the horror games that helped raise the modern fanbase is a tricky field to navigate. On the one hand, things like Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil and even Phantasmagoria are legendary because of what they brought to the table for both inspiration and innovation. Milla Jovovich wouldn’t have several houses in Tuscany if it weren’t for the Umbrella Corporation and a never-ending parade of zombies. But we also recognize that the games haven’t exactly aged well. Tank controls, fixed camera angles and limited inventory spaces, not to mention the reliance on cheap jump scares, keep these games from being perennial favorites. We need to rebuild and refresh the very core notions regularly in order to keep things favorable for the ever advancing technology and savvy consumers.

That’s what makes Tormented Souls such an interesting affair. PQube has published this very honest and forward nod to all the games from the 90s and even before that, and the development team of Dual Effect and Abstract Digital make no secret of what they’re trying to do. Using an incredibly contrived plot line (female detective looks for missing children, ends up in abandoned hospital), Tormented Souls  seeks to deliver on each and every aspect of what made those classic games so memorable, but attempts to do it in a way that works for modern tastes. When you put it in comparison to a similarly ambitious project from a few years ago (Back in 1995), it already makes important allowances to break from the purist attempt in order to make the game playable. While I adore what Back in 1995 attempted to do, the heavy handed use of polygon graphics, obscured vision points and seemingly arbitrary puzzle points made the whole thing frustrating instead of endearing. It was further buried by the meta ending, which ultimately made no sense in terms of what it was seeking to deliver (as the rest of the game was a view through a lens and not a commentary track).

In comparison, Tormented Souls uses a modern and visually pleasing palette to help tell the story of Caroline Walker and her investigation into the wildly awful mansion turned hospital. Not only do the updated graphics allow things to pop better on contemporary screens, it also lets the player feel better lost in the game. While the angular approach was great for the PlayStation era, that was also the pinnacle of what was available at the time. Today’s machines can handle detailed textures and excellent color balancing, and having that incorporated into the shadows and lights of the world just makes more sense. It also helps to keep things from getting too muddy, as that was a common complaint with other throwback horror games made today (the Alone in the Dark from 2008 was a massive offender). While there’s still plenty that’s kept in the darkness to allow your subconscious to create the scariest things possible, there’s a lot that’s brought into horrifying light to permit you to be scared by another’s creation, not your own.

Also, there’s a good level of camp at work with Tormented Souls that rides the line between purposeful and over-the-top. The deadpan delivery of some important moments is mixed up with plenty of flagrant emotion on Caroline’s part, and there’s no separation or delay between the animation and the speech. You won’t get any lines that you’ll want to tattoo on your body, but there’s plenty to chuckle about as you discover doctors with missing arms, diary entries that evoke gasps of despair, and entities that are almost too scary to be taken seriously.

It should also be noted that, as we use the updated graphics and engine, there are very few (if any) performance issues, at least in the Nintendo Switch release. When I compare it to other horror games that attempted to emulate this ideology (Remothered: Broken Porcelain comes to mind), you usually get incredible screen tearing and drops in framerates. Tormented Souls, after an initial hiccup in the opening scene, stays smooth throughout, keeping you in the immersion of the game without bringing it to your attention that you’re playing something, if that makes sense. I know the Nintendo Switch is the place to publish if you want a smaller game to get attention, but putting in the efforts to make your port run well is essential to not then getting blasted into the basement with negative feedback. Well done, PQube!

The only real fallacy of Tormented Souls can easily be attributed to the source material (or the inspirational material, rather), and so the criticism can be taken with a grain of salt. As this is done in the style of a survival horror game that’s more exploration than run and shoot, you end up with puzzles to move the game forward, and they can be, in a word, convoluted. One of the worst offenders and clearest examples is the television puzzle, where you need to cycle through a click-dial tv in just the right order to get a necklace to move the game forward. You’d only know about the ways to do this puzzle if you interpret the diary entries you find correctly, and even then you’d need the TV Dial, which isn’t easy to find in the first place. This style really harkens back to when games were made difficult in order to sell game guides, and I almost got that same vibe this time around. Then again, there are plenty of people who are able to get these puzzles without needing to look up or ask for help, so it could be my own shortcomings.

Speaking of shortcomings, you’ll only put about twelve hours into Tormented Souls with some deep searching and getting all the endings, so don’t feel like you need to put aside your July schedule in order to enjoy the bizarre storytelling and fun moments of panic. Instead, I’d say that Tormented Souls might be the light chill you need to get through these first few weeks of real summer heat.