Tormented Souls

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Jump-Scare und Atmosphäre

Grafik und Sound:

Fazit:

• Camera angles are much more consistent to reduce disorientation due to frequent camera angle shifting.
• Map interconnectivity is appropriate and environments have low similarity and are more distinguishable (excluding sewer and bunker), saving lots of troubles in traversing, backtracking and locating.
• Items and NPC give guidance so that you always have an idea on what to do next.

• With its detailed pre-render backgrounds, superb light and darkness effects, excellent sound and music design, the game successfully created this utterly ominous and unsettling atmosphere. The atmosphere really grasps how psychological horror should work and has a few truly horrifying jump scares as additions. It is one of the best games I have ever seen in terms of atmosphere.
• Additionally, you can’t attack in the dark, which is such a genius mechanic that contributes a great deal of tension to the atmosphere and combat.
• As mentioned, this game is how the map interconnectivity did right. It provides lots of fun and a fair amount of challenges from exploration, while doesn’t make it too hard to find your way.
• The game drops inventory management from Resident Evil with infinite inventory space, but keeps its essence - resource scarcity. The locations and the number of resources are well calculated to be aligned with enemy layout and consumption. Therefore, the game gives you an option to not play pacifist to save resources, which I appreciate a lot. You can in fact eliminate every enemy (I did), as long as you don’t waste ammo unnecessarily and use crowbar wisely. However, the game always keeps you on your toe by constantly putting you on the verge of running out, which is the kind of tension needed for a good survival horror.

• Hints are way too hidden – they are hidden in places you hardly notice. For example, [spoiler]I don’t think anyone will naturally realize a person dancing around a corpse is the game hinting the puzzle solution, or John Gibson’s work is a nameless statue you encounter. [/spoiler]
• Hints are way too obscure, requiring a gigantic step forward in thinking to relate to answers. Such as, [spoiler]you need to associate the alien icon with the shape of star; you need to realize the yin yang symbol actually hints number 2; you need to figure out how a seemingly random set of lines and dots mean numbers. [/spoiler] They all make logical sense and I appreciate the creativity, but they are too surreal for puzzle design.
• It is also a matter of finding the method for the puzzles, because solutions can be from exploring (the surroundings), reading (obtain files), literal interpretation (for riddles), logic association or observation. This actually plays a more significant role than you realize in getting you to stumble, as most puzzles are so counterintuitive that you will have no idea how to solve them.
• Some puzzles are too gimmicky for their own good. For example, [spoiler]I don’t understand why flipping a writing-protective lock in a floppy disk (as a zoomer I never used one) is a part of the puzzle. Same go for flipping the lid of an oil can and figuring out the number “8” is in fact the symbol “∞” lying down, etc. [/spoiler] They feel so petty, deliberate and desperate trying to make things harder, whereas these designs are completely unnecessary because these puzzles are much more natural and fluid without them.

• This game has an occult story like Silent Hill, but it is barely serviceable because literally one minute into the game you can already guess the full picture. It also leaves lots of things unexplained.
• The voice acting is not good. Audios are missing in several dialogues.
• Character and monster models look rough and the motions are not animated well.
• The combat can use some improvements on the visibility of projectile and the accuracy of auto-aim.
• Many used items won’t be automatically discarded (or somehow you can still pick them up), adding unnecessary confusion.
• I encountered a few glitches in-game and in the menu and also noticed inaccuracy and error in translation.
• I get that the developer went for a PS2 era vibe for the aesthetic, but some visual elements are not aligned with it, particularly the cursor (and it sometimes blocks vision on small objects).
• It is a hassle that you can’t pull out references when doing puzzles. Given the complexity and the number of puzzles, it is a very needed feature.
• I don’t expect stellar control on a game with tank control (best on controller FYI). Still, a quick turn button should be added, and the old-school direction control on D-pad that ten people will use should be replaced with quick slots. They will make significant enhancements to the combat and the flow of the game.
• I don’t understand what is different between green and red areas. Ideally, the map should highlight unsearched, searching and searched areas with different colors to show your progression, just like recent Resident Evil. To make matter worse, the game somehow doesn’t have maps for the mausoleum, sewer and bunker, which are the most confusing areas in the game.