| Game Review - The Suffering |
|
Contact Mr. Shade and make fun of him
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| Publisher: |
Midway |
| Developer: |
Midway |
| Rated: |
M for Mature for extremely strong language and violence |
| Length: |
10-14 hours |
| Genre: |
Action, Horror |
| Website: |
The Suffering |
| Platform: |
XBox |
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OVERVIEW
|
 You
play through the game as Torq, a death row inmate on Carnate Island. You're in
prison for killing your wife and children, but whether you actually did it or
not depends on how you play the game. Monsters take over the island and you
must fight your way through them to escape and to find out the truth of your
family's murder. Sideburns ensue.
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MR. SHADE'S TAKE
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This game should give hope to Survival horror fans. It is definitely a solid
addition to the Resident Evil and Silent Hill franchises. It plays like a third
person action game but still has plenty of horror and story. It actually plays
like The Thing, but is done much better.
The story itself is decent, but where it shines is *how* the game presents the
story. As you play through the game you are bombarded with imagery of your
family, both as they were in life and as they were in death. These images
randomly pop up during the game - this adds quite a bit of tension. There are
also times when they actually appear in the game and talk to you. During these
visions your character moves in slow motion and there is usually a monster or
two that appears with them. The game then snaps back and you are alone. Your
wife also talks to you when you meet a new character - her voice urges you to
help them while another evil voice urges you to kill them.
 Monsters
are presented in a similar fashion. Before you actually encounter a new monster
you will see flashes of them on the screen. After you encounter them they are
listed in your Archive book which lists a description of them and what method
of execution they represent. New areas are also listed in your Archive book.
You don't need to look at the Archive book to finish the game, but it does go into
depth on the history of the island and somewhat explains what is going on. I
would highly recommend that you check it out.
Graphics and sound aren't anything spectacular, but they are used extremely
well. Bodies of dead guards and inmates litter the prison and are often shown
being killed. Some of the executions you see will come in on the camera
monitors in the guard stations. You will often hear enemies before they are
visible. For instance, one of your enemies has blades instead of limbs and will
scrape the blades along the ground while hunting for you. The levels are all
well done and there is actually a pretty good variety. One of my concerns with
the game was that it would get old being inside a prison the entire game.
Fortunately they include the entire island and you get to explore the forests
outside of the main building, abandoned quarries, an old fort, a shipwreck, an
asylum, and a lighthouse.
 I
know what your next question is - how scary is this game? It starts off very
scary but then falters after a few levels. They do manage to keep tension
throughout the game, but since enemies are easy to kill and there is tons of
ammo everywhere you don't have the same fear as you do with something like
Silent Hill. The levels aren't as freaky as Silent Hill either.
There are some nice extras on the game disk. There is a 20-minute documentary
on an actual abandoned prison in Pennsylvania that is interesting. There is
also a making of The Suffering. And there is a 5-minute introduction level
that you can play. It doesn't add much, but it is pretty cool.
This game should bring new fans to the genre. People who don't like Resident
Evil because of the poor controls and don't like the slower pacing of Silent
Hill will now have a survival horror game to play. Fans of both of those series
should enjoy The Suffering because it is different. A word of warning - this
game has the foulest language I have ever heard in a video game and I saw no
way to turn it off. Combine this with its mature theme and extreme violence
and you definitely have a game that should stay away from children.
|
| Category |
Description |
Score |
| Presentation |
Excellent job on ambience, story, and prison design. |
8.5 |
| Graphics |
The graphics are average but there are a lot of different animations and the
levels look great. |
7.5 |
| Sound |
Voice acting is pretty good and the sound effects are well done (especially
for the jump scenes) but the background music is lacking. |
7.5 |
| AI |
Not much here, but most of the creatures use melee attacks, so good AI wasn't
necessary. |
7.0 |
| Gameplay |
The fast-paced action with lots of horror elements works well. Allowing first
person view is a nice bonus. |
7.5 |
| Replayability |
While there are 3 different endings depending on how you interact with other
characters in the game, there are no differences in the gameplay itself. Most
people will beat the game and look up the 2 endings they didn't get.
|
5.0 |
| Overall |
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8.0 |
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