Game #1255: Tormented Souls

 Not another Souls-like 

 Tormented Souls is a throwback to classic survival horror games. Fixed camera angles? Check. Tank controls? Check(Although you can use analog controls). Ammo scarcity? Check. Nonsensical Puzzles? Check. It's all here, baby, and it wound up being a pretty decent tribute to the classics.

 The game starts off creepy off the bat, since as soon as our heroine visits the mansion she gets knocked out and wakes up naked, in a a tub full of water and missing an eye. You'll also notice that the character models look kinda wonky, as the budget was definitely not very high, however, it makes expert use of lighting and darkness to show you just enough to put you on edge. What's more, very early on you have to pick between carrying a lighter or a weapon, and if you stay in the shadows for too long... you die.

 The entire game takes place in the mansion, but it's pretty large. The game took me about 6 hours to finish in all. I'm not too sold on the level design, as save rooms are pretty sparse. At least one time I spent over an hour advancing through the game without saving since going into a save room meant going out of my way as I solved puzzles.

 The puzzles are actually rather challenging, so eventually I started playing with a guide close by. What's more, some puzzles aren't well thought out. This one time you come across a trapdoor that is held locked by a rope. A rope the character could untangle, or even... BURN with her darn lighter. But nope, you are supposed to use a scalpel, of all things, to cut it down.

 There are four weapons in the game, a crowbar for melee, and three guns, albeit one works in short range. Ammo is rather sparse, but there's enough to kill everything in the game... and you should. There's a lot of backtracking, and enemy placement is super cheap. Trying to conserve ammo by dodging enemies bit me in the rear more times than I could count. Pretty early on, there's a room that has 4 doors. If you enter through two of those doors and then exit the room... the enemies you dodged will be right next to you, and they'll get a free hit in, since they can move before you regain control after the loading screen. It's very cheap, so just kill everything in your way, using the crowbar to finish them off if you knock them down. Plus, a ton of enemies are just standing on corridors you need to get through, so dodging them becomes a tall order.

 Something that irked me a bit is that how much damage you take from attacks feels inconsistent. Sometimes you'll die after three hits, other times it feels as if you can tank more hits than you thought. The beginning of the game is certainly the roughest part in the game, as tapes, items you use to save the game, are even rarer than save rooms, and you are still getting used to how to defeat enemies while conserving ammo as well as how much damage you can take before going down. But trust me, as soon as you realize that murdering everything in your way and not worrying about ammo, despite how scarce it may seem, the game becomes much easier.

 About two thirds into the game, a new monster, a naked fat lady ghost, is introduced. She'll randomly appear in whichever room you just entered and she can't be killed. That said, if you hear her music you can just turn back, and exit/re-enter the room to have her despawn!

 The best parts about the game are just how faithful the game is to classic Survival Horror games as well as its fantastic atmosphere. As wonky as the character models are, the lighting, camera angles and the creepy sound design constantly keep you on your toes. Plus, the environments, as opposed to the characters, look really nice, in a creepy way.

 It might be a bit too challenging and cumbersome for people that don't enjoy the genre, but anyone who played the classics will probably have a fun time with this one. 

 7.0