Tormented Souls 2 Xbox Review

Tormented Souls 2 takes place two years after developer Dual Effect first put Caroline Walker through the ringer in an abandoned hospital, where she lost her eye, travelled through time, and descended into a dark, other-side world to save herself and her sister from her grandfather’s twisted plans and a god-like entity.

But it’s not so easy to escape from the past mistakes of your family, and her grandfather’s shadow comes back to haunt Caroline and her sister, Emma, just as they’re trying to find some sense of normalcy. A trip to a wellness centre in the European Town of Villa Hess turns into a waking nightmare as her grandfather’s promise to a cult separates the sisters and prompts the awakening of an Eldritch Evil.

A Return to Classic Survival Horror

If you haven’t heard of Tormented Souls before, then you’re missing out on a slice of classic, traditional survival horror inspired by the likes of Resident Evil, Alone in The Dark and Silent Hill. It’s a series that gets just about all the aspects of the genre right.

And with Tormented Souls, you’re taking a deep dive into classic survival horror territory. Do you like optional Tank controls? That’s here. How about item hunts? Check. Limited ammo? Got you there too. Puzzles that block your progression? Better get your thinking cap on. And those wonderful, but frustrating at times, fixed camera angles? Be prepared to take a healthy dose of screenshots.

Gameplay & Exploration

Everything you could ever want from the genre is here, along with one key aspect that many imitators haven’t managed to get: it plays really well. Sure, there’s the usual back and forth, looking for items and trying to remember where you need to use them and running from or fighting enemies.

But Tormented Souls does almost all of that really well. With a larger-than-average inventory, there’s less need for item management here, which is a good change to the genre, which means less juggling things, and back and forth between storage boxes and therefore less running around. You can still forget where you need to go after a bit, but at least the developers have implemented a marking system on the map, showing question marks for areas you haven’t completed yet.

Combat

Combat is better this time around, but still somewhat janky. Caroline has a back step for enemies that get too close, and most enemies can be stunned, letting you get in some extra melee attacks to save on ammo before finishing them off. There is an auto-aim, which is super valuable thanks to the fixed camera angles. Weapons are of the homemade variety, needing to be found and usually assembled and a good enough mix between melee and projectile.

You’re not going to find military grade armaments here, but you will pick up the likes of a nail gun that can be upgraded to shoot faster and with more impact, a homemade pipe shotgun that can be equipped with three barrels and a crossbow that launches acid bottles. Melee weapons are the usual variety of hammers and crowbars, which are also useful outside of combat to break crates and vases blocking your path. And yes, you better believe ammo is scarce, especially for the more potent weapons.

There’s less combat and enemy encounters here, compared to most other survival horrors, but each encounter can still sap away a good deal of health. Boss fights require fast enough reflexes along with pattern recognition to avoid attacks, but can be hampered by the camera angles. The first boss fight, for instance, takes place in an enclosed room that has at least three different camera angles, which is frustrating when you’re moving between them and have that split second you need to orientate yourself and the controls to make sure you don’t run right into an attack instead of away from it.

Visuals & Atmosphere

Tormented Souls 2 is a visually gorgeous game featuring some really stunning 3d modelling and lighting. I’d go out of my way to say that the game’s interior set design, from item placement to modelling, texturing and lighting, is some of the best I’ve seen this generation. I honestly can’t praise the lighting in Tormented Souls 2 enough, which lends just about every interior location a cinematic feel that adds to the atmosphere.

What Doesn’t Work

For all that it does right, Tormented Souls 2 does have some issues that keep it from reaching greatness.

There is a flip side to the visuals, with some areas that haven’t had as much work put into them. External areas, for instance, don’t quite have the same visual fidelity and impact, and the game’s facial animation, especially for talking, isn’t great. The games’ pre-rendered cinemas also don’t have the same level of polish, visually or animation-wise.

And for a game so deeply steeped in darkness, both physically and metaphorically, it just isn’t all that scary. There are some great creature designs and tense encounters, but nothing that really terrifies.

Conclusion

With its beautiful but creepy locations and Lovecraftian-inspired story, Tormented Souls 2 is a wonderfully fun return to what makes the survival horror genre great. While it may just fall that little bit shy of being truly great itself, if Tormented Souls was Dual Effects Resident Evil, then Tormented Souls 2 is its Resident Evil 2; bigger, better and streamlined in most of the right ways.

Tormented Souls 2 Trailer

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The game was provided to us for the express purpose of reviewing.