Protagonist Caroline can’t seem to catch a break. After narrowly escaping death in a haunted hospital during the first Tormented Souls, now she finds herself trapped in a just as evil convent along with her sister Ann. Add, for those uninitiated, has the curious power of making events in her drawings come to existence, and in order to get the kid some help, Caroline looked for help within the confines of said convent, only to discover that they wanted anything but help the little kid.
Tormented Souls 2 plays a lot like the original, which is to say, it’s a lot like Resident Evil. Luckily, the developers over at Dual Effect Games and Abstract Games wisely chose to emulate the look and feel of the much superior remake version of the original RE, that is, tank controls are completely optional! And with more direct control over Caroline, it’s much more enjoyable, if ‘enjoy’ is the correct verb here, to explore the bloody halls of the game.
Then again, there are caveats. You can’t directly aim at enemies, having to rely on the game’s auto-aim which can be a bit spotty, but at least it gives you a clue whether or not a monster is truly dead or not, since there’s no trace of the signature Resident Evil blood puddle when that is the case. Speaking of shooting, the nail gun makes a comeback and is still as powerful as it was before, its ammo is somewhat plentiful, which is a good thing since there are many threats to dispatch.
Saving your game can also be counterintuitive because of the Resident Evil connection. In this, you use tapes and record Caroline’s thoughts by means of a recorder, and since there are no checkpoints on difficulties after the easiest one, if you happen to die, you are brought back to the last point you happened to save. Since that can only happen in specific rooms, it can put you a long way back if you’re not careful.
The biggest thing going for in Tormented Souls 2 are its puzzles. Also taking a note from Capcom’s classic horror franchise, you’ll be picking up lots of items with which to interact with in the environment, but the best part about this is that most of those tend to have dual uses, allowing you to keep them around for future and more creative, if you will, applications. Such is the case of the hammer, which can smash obstacles and also serve as an improved weapon in a pinch.
There’s plenty of downtime in the game, thankfully, but you have to be careful where you stop to take a breath, since darkness is positively deadly here. Stand around it for too long and you’ll perish, so it’s imperative to look for light sources upon arriving at particularly dark rooms or halls, or keep a lighter close by in your shortcut list, a handy tool that also has added uses you’ll quickly discover by playing through the story.
Speaking of the story, it’s not the greatest one you’ll ever encounter in a game, but it does a decent job at setting in a perpetual sense of dread throughout your dark journey into Tormented Souls 2, and it certainly lives up to the title. Life is rough for Caroline and that horror has now also seeped into her little sister’s as well, but thanks to the incredibly atmospheric setting that the Chilean dev houses have yet again come up with, it’s a thrilling affair trying to get both of our young friends out of such a jam.
As with the initial Tormented Souls, this sequel makes good use of static camera angles and very atmospheric lighting that are conducive to set the spooky mood and provide ample opportunity for very sneaky jump scares, making Tormented Souls 2 a good game to play during Halloween season. While the character models aren’t the most detailed or well animated, the setting they animate around in more than makes up for those shortcomings, and during cutscenes, faces do a good enough job conveying the canned dialogue the voice actors deliver.
For as by-the-book as Tormented Souls 2 can feel at times, it’s a darn strong book that it follows, and everything it strives to do, it accomplishes well enough to make it worth checking out if you’re looking to dabble into a horror game that will not overstay its welcome. Technical limitations aside, there’s loads of scares to be had with this one, and if you have enjoyed the original, it’s as strong of a sequel as you could expect, doing all of what worked before, only now in a different setting and under a new story.
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