Prison is Hell
I have never been to prison, except for once to pick up my brother. That is a fact that I am extremely proud of, and, after playing this game, I feel very glad of this. The marketing line of this game is "Prison is Hell", a fact that most people are already aware of, and if the concept of prison isn't scary enough for you, they've gone and filled it with Silent-Hill-ian horrors.
I didn't know very much about The Suffering going into this game. I knew from coverage that it was a survival horror game set in a prison, and that the monsters were representations of various ways of "Corporal Punishment" throughout history. I was expecting another slow plodding game in the Resident Evil style, however this is definitely not what I got. The Suffering plays like a cross between Max Payne and Silent Hill. There's plenty of shooting, and running, and screaming, and blood, etc. Puzzles normally involve shooting things, or moving levers or cranks, or destroying things, so people who are put off with the slow pace of most survival horror games may very well enjoy this game.
The game is playable through a third or first person view, so you can play it like Halo, or like Max Payne, however with the large amount of enemies coming at you, and constantly getting behind you and around you, I hardly ever used the first person perspective, but it is nice to see, and perhaps I'll try it more the next play through.
Because of the faster nature of this game, there isn't as much time devoted to character interaction or plot development, but as the main character in the game, Torque, doesn't have that much to say, or, for that matter, anything to say, that takes a lot of the need for character development right there. Most of the talking is done by other inmates, ghosts, or in some cases, ghosts of inmates, slowly revealing the sorted history of Carnate Island, where the game takes place. There are also various flashbacks which take place in areas as you're running around in them that tell you a little of Torque's history and backstory, and the backstory of the island. Some of these can be quite unsettling at times, as a good horror game should be.
The game controls very tightly. The dual-thumbstick control method operates very easily for the game, and most people who've played any recent first or third person shooter on a console should be instantly familiar with the layout. Nothing much can really be said about the controls. They do what you want them to, and mostly stay out of your way of enjoying the game. Because the view is a constant behind-the-head view, there's no worry about camera angles obscuring your view, although in areas which are lined with trees and brush, the foliage can sometimes temporarily make it difficult to see..
The sound in the game is very well done. The music is a heavy industrial, which reminds me very much of the excellent Silent Hill soundtrack, with thumping and clangings of found objects. When I say industrial, I mean coming from actual machinery, with the sounds you'd expect to hear being made by a factory. Voice acting is also very well done in the game, but as you can imagine, with a game full of convicts in a prison being overrun by hell beasts, there is a lot of swearing. This is definitely not a game to play around your grandma.
Another cool feature of the game is the rather realistic blood splattering, which happens any time one of the enemies, or you, is damaged. Blood hits walls and floors fairly realistically, lending a bit more realism to the game. Torque also gets fairly blood-splattered as the game goes on. There were times when I would leave an area and the main character would be covered in blood from head to toe, as if he were in some sort of industrial accident at a place where they manufacture blood and gore. The blood does eventually wear off.
The game also comes with multiple endings, depending upon how you play, and how moral you are in the game. There are situations where you have a choice of either killing a guard or fellow inmate, and depending on if you help or hurt these people, you can get a different ending, and the game unfolds slightly differently depending on which path you're on. This means that you should get at least a good 3 plays out of it, and possibly more when you just want to do some indiscriminate killing at some time in the future.
The game also comes with some extras on the disk. One of which is a Making Of video, where they interview the programmers of the game. They also take extra special care to digitally obscure every logo or brand name on every shirt or monitor, or, well, basically on anything. This gets very annoying very quickly. If this was such a big issue, they should have simply asked the programmers to not wear a shirt with a logo, or a hat with a logo, or put some tape over their monitor brand names, etc. Because, as it is, it turns into a game of watch the floating digital obscure box, and it's very difficult to focus on what the developers are trying to tell you about their game. The other extra on the disk is a short documentary on the Eastern State Prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Listed as one of the most haunted prisons in the US, it's on the register of historical places, and it does a lot to increase the overall feel of the game. When you actually have a documentary you can watch on a haunted prison while playing a game about a haunted prison, it puts you in the right mindset. Although this game is certainly creepy enough on its own without the documentary, it's addition is a delightful plus to this already great game and game experience.
Overall, I really enjoy this game, and I think that anyone who's a fan of horror games, and action games, will get a big kick out of this game. The game's not perfect, but it gave me a lot of enjoyment during the times I was playing it. The playtime is about standard, but with multiple reasons to go through the game, the replay factor is a big plus. I give this game 4 F-Bombs out of 5.
