Tormented Souls 2

The indie horror scene continues to thrive, bringing about some absolute classics, and one such classic, which was released back in 2021, has finally received its long-awaited sequel. Tormented Souls was a grand throwback to the golden age of survival horror, with fixed camera angles, limited resources, and intense thrills. It was a smashing success, and from a small, first-time indie developer, it proved to be a massive achievement. Now that Tormented Souls 2 is out, it’s time to discuss how the guys managed to perfect perfection.


What is Tormented Souls 2?

We see the return of Caroline Walker, along with her younger sister Anna, a few years after the traumatic events of the first game. Anna is haunted by horrific visions, causing her much pain and distress. In a desperate bid to potentially help Anna’s condition, Caroline travels to the remote town of Villa Hess and books herself and Anna at a mysterious clinic nestled deep within the mountains of southern Chile.

What starts as a pleasant and hopeful venture to make Anna better becomes a full-blown nightmare, as shadows from the past come back to haunt the duo, and a sinister organisation is looking to take Anna for nefarious reasons. It’s up to Caroline to stop the madness and save Anna from darkness once again.

Featuring classic survival horror vibes and elements, from fixed camera angles, limited resources and inventory space, and intense fight or flight action, just like any great horror game should offer.


Welcome to Hell Caroline

To be upfront with you, Tormented Souls 2 is a straightforward sequel, in that it takes what worked incredibly well from the original game and adds in a few tweaks and refinements for a better quality of life experience. And nothing much else, in all fairness.

Now you might be in two camps at this point. Either you’re fine with this, as it’s the first game but with some much-needed quality of life inclusions, and on a grander scale with more puzzles, locations, and action. Or you might feel disappointed with the lack of new dynamics and mechanics.

I’m a little torn myself, but leaning much more towards favouring Tormented Souls 2 overall, since the first game was fantastic, and the sequel is just as much, despite not adding in anything massively new or innovative aside from the scale.

I will say the big disappointment for me was the plot, as I felt more could’ve been done here. It’s a fairly straightforward, darkly twisted rescue mission where Caroline must find her sister. Caroline herself is much more fleshed out, and with a new voice actor, she sounds and acts the part well. The supporting cast is a little lacking, to be fair, offering not much more than direction on where to go, or overly cheesy expositions on how evil they are and their plans. While the first game was quite simple, I did enjoy the use of time travel and entering the world captured in video tapes interweaved with the plot itself. Here, there are bits and pieces of that, but nothing that stood out or added layers to the plot overall. It’s solid, yet a little too easy for a plot that expands on some of the original game’s ideas in small ways.

However, the disturbing lore and world-building are rather excellent, as I love the super macabre history and inner workings of the cult at the centre of the town. It was truly gripping learning more about the poor folks who suffered fates worse than death, and Villa Hess is quite the location to be trapped in, featuring beautifully surreal gothic landmarks and vibes that truly creeped me out.

While there are some neat little twists and character moments from Caroline, the plot is generally typical horror fluff that never left its mark on me, nor did it feel like a step forward. Compare this to the original Resident Evil 1 and 2, and these were like night and day. I know many prefer RE1 over RE2, and I understand why. From a story perspective, RE2 felt like such a massive step forward, offering much more engaging drama and world-building.


The beautiful, glorious macabre

 What is lacking, however, is the presentation. Holy lord, is this a beautiful-looking and sounding game. The developers have done an immense job at crafting a bleak, yet highly striking world, with intense and beautiful lighting, and impeccable sound design. And while there is a bits of animation jank (especially with some of the human faces looking a little off when moving), creature designs, character designs, the attention to detail in the creation of the convent, and surrounding areas is simply breathtaking.

And the horror vibes are so intense at times, with utterly repulsive imagery and horrors, that it runs your blood cold at times. And I love it!

Not to mention that the use of camera angles in Tormented Souls 2 is a real reason why they should be used more often in bigger-budget horror games. There were some drop-dead gorgeous shots here, with some of my favourites being where the camera would distort and twist as I ventured into the darkness of a long corridor. Love it, and while I do have some gripes with the concept of fixed cameras, Tormented Souls 2 uses them to such an incredible effect, in the best, mind-bending way possible.

And as for sound design, again, Dual Effect has implemented a strong focus on effective sound design, so that certain audio cues and sound effects of one enemy will haunt me until the day I turn into a ghost. The visuals would be the sponge of a deviously tasty cake, and the sound is the icing and cherry, proving these guys know how to design visually striking horror that tears through to your heart, but also how to implement sounds that will chill you to the bone.

The only thing to note was some annoying, but minor bugs, where leaving the inventory meant Caroline wouldn’t move properly until I stopped and started again. And there were a couple of weird visual glitches, but nothing game-breaking for me at least.


Familiar … yet strange … again

As I briefly mentioned, Tormented Souls 2’s formula, foundation, and design are played very close to the original. So much so that if you’ve played and love the first game, then the rest of this review might be a bit redundant to you. To note, there are some good quality of life choices implemented, from being able to move while shooting, and a shortcut function allowing you to hot-pick up to four items, such as weapons.

But for those new to the genre or wanting to know the nitty-gritty details, here they are.

Tormented Souls 2 again takes heavy influence from the golden age of survival horror, such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill. With fixed cameras, limited inventory and scarce resources, plus facing unimaginable horrors, usually with quick on-the-spot fight or flight decision making. Players will be trapped within Villa Hess, the town harbouring a horrible secret and a curse, all originating from a mysterious cult. The town is broken up into several key areas, including a fish processing plant, the streets, a mall, and a beautiful, yet deadly convent at the heart of the town, to name a few.

Instead of a large, flowing map, Tormented Souls 2 takes the same approach as Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil 2, where players will venture into large key areas, each separated from one another, and linked by the town’s streets. This allowed the developers to craft locations with excellent level designs and a great sense of discovery and exploration, without the fear of confusing players or enforcing needless backtracking. There is backtracking, of course, but more efficiently, and with each trip back and forth, new horrors appear, adding a layer of suspense and tension.   

There are tank and modern controls, but for me personally, the tank controls were the best option, as modern controls and fixed cameras don’t mix all that well. And combat is simple, brutal, but gets the job done, with a nice selection of sadistic, homemade industrial-style weapons for Caroline to use. Very blast from the nail gun, or shotgun made from piping has that crunchy, bone-breaking impact to it, and heavy-duty melee options to finish the job on down enemies have a nasty satisfaction to it.

Enemies themselves are varied and visually interesting, if not a little similar and somewhat predictable to deal with. Not knocking their designs, as these creatures are sick! Some of the sickest and most wildly designed enemies I’ve seen since 2004’s The Suffering. Although there is one enemy type that became tedious to deal with towards the end of the game, and honestly felt a little BS with their sharp, surprise attacks. If there were a proper dodge or counter mechanic, I’d be fine with it. But nope, there isn’t, and in all fairness, a dodge would’ve been quite an interesting idea and useful for certain enemies and bosses, since other dangers are lurking… like the creeping dark.

Everything else, we have the save rooms, the return of the dark that can kill you, as well as Caroline being able to enter video tapes, and a Silent Hill-inspired Hell-scape version of the world. All neat and nice to make a return, but nothing is truly expanded upon these existing ideas, and in fact, they’re often underwhelming compared to the first game.

And this is the big issue for Tormented Souls 2 for me. While overall I highly recommend it and enjoyed it, the lack of new ideas or building on existing ones is a shame. I won’t dwell too much on it, but as I brought up with RE1 to RE2, and especially with RE3, there was always something new there with the sequels. Be it ammo crafting, multiple scenarios, or ruthless stalker enemies. Maybe since the first game did so much, and so well, it was hard to evolve it. But regardless, the level design, intense action and horror are still fantastic. And if you love puzzles, well, the sequel has you more than covered.

There is an insane number of puzzles to solve, and while not all of them hit due to UI issues and concealed information, which feels like a bit of a cheeky way to increase the difficulty, most are very enjoyable and a sheer reward to beat. Some were annoying, but most were a pure joy to figure out.


Overall?

Tormented Souls 2 doesn’t break new ground, but what it does do is showcase the incredible talents of the developers who clearly understand the fibre of the survival horror genre, and how to make an incredible game with all the right elements.  

Just like with the original game, Tormented Souls 2 wowed me, left me breathless at times, and had me respecting the incredible work of such a small, yet highly passionate and dedicated team. It was great seeing and playing a sequel to the 2021 indie gem, and I fully appreciate the sequel having a right to exist, despite not enhancing much of the formula.

I can see the team doing great things with their next games, and I hope they bring about a new horror IP or explore other sub-genres which don’t get enough love. For everyone who enjoys survival horror games, with fixed cameras, and all that… this is a no-brainer. It’s a phenomenal game, and you should pick it up.

Plus, it’s f***ing terrifying!


+++ Fantastic survival horror gameplay and level design
++ Looks and sounds amazing
++ Visual striking, and with strong horror vibes
+ Some nice quality of life additions

-- Not much evolved from the original game’s formula
- The plot is a little lacking
- Some minor bugs

Publisher PQube kindly provided a review code of Tormented Souls 2