As I said in my review of the first Tormented Souls, back in 2021, there’s a fine line between homage and imitation. Yet despite giving it more backhanded compliments than a polite tennis match, I actually enjoyed it. So, when Tormented Souls 2 came around, I was keen for it.
Keeping with characters and continuity, Tormented Souls 2 is a direct follow up to the first one. Caroline Wilderberger and her sister are seeking treatment for the latter’s spooky tendencies, and before long it all starts going wrong. Can’t catch a break sometimes, eh?
Which begs the question: does Tormented Souls pull a Resident Evil and Silent Hill and improve on the first one, or has the steam run out of the imitation train? Let’s find out.
Spoiler alert: the first section, sandwiched between two pictures, will be discussing the ending of the first Tormented Souls. So if you’re invested, but will play the first, just skip to the presentation section. You have been warned…
A Right Pain In The… Eye
In the events of the first game, the canonical ending is that both Wilderberger twins survived. Except that Emma is now Caroline, our protagonist, and Anna is the younger version from the past. Caroline has now “adopted” Anna, after foiling their grandfather’s plot to use twins to resurrect a big nasty from dimensions beyond.
So you’d be thinking that all is well, as Caroline takes Anna to Villa Hess, a clinic in a convent renowned for treating patients like Anna. But this isn’t called Tormented Souls 2: Peaceful Resolution now, is it?
No and, as one could imagine, it soon transpires the nuns are in on it too. Without even unpacking their luggage, Anna is held until the evil intent of Sister Lucia and Caroline is once again laid up on some sort of medical table. Fortunately, she gets to keep the good eye.
It soon becomes clear that there’s demonic treachery afoot, and we as Caroline must get Anna out of there. Along the way, the sinister plot will unfold, dark forces will hopefully be banished, and the sisters get to actually enjoy life.
Rooms With A View
But before we get into the combat and puzzles, I’d like to first talk about the visual presentation on display. The first game, whilst being a current gen title (I reviewed the PlayStation 5 version) felt a little off. It looked nice, but clearly felt… low budget, for lack of a polite way to say it.
The sequel however, really looks like a massive leap in graphical fidelity. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not up there with any first party studio titles, but it’s still appealing.
From the creepy convent to its surrounding commercial district, the pre-rendered locales of Villa Hess are a sight to take in. It reminds me of the GameCube remake of Resident Evil (or the 2015 port, if you will): dimly lit yet full of character.
By comparison, the human models do have that uncanny valley look to them so again, don’t expect full immersion. Yet on the whole, I was more invested in seeing what came next than in the first one.
Nailed ‘Em
One of my major gripes with the first game was the combat. I know in the days of “classic” survival horror it was meant to be tense, focusing more on survival than slaying. Yet there was a certain degree of “this isn’t fun” in the first one, with clunkier melee controls that Harry Mason’s unrefined swings.
Fortunately, there’s been an overhaul for Tormented Souls 2. Well, I say overhaul, it felt more accessible this time around. It still retains the retro clunk, to a degree, but it wasn’t killing me at every encounter.
Now, to clarify, I was playing on Assisted. Again, it favours more ammo, less enemy aggression and boosted healing item strength. Yet it doesn’t make the game easy, with some occasionally pokey moments of multiple enemies at once.
The handgun and machine gun being nailgun variants is quite amusing, as is the janky shotgun. But again, this is old school Resident Evil vibes: you’re meant to survive, not Ash Williams your way through everything. That shooting is mapped to R1 and X was a nice touch too (though you can also use R2 to shoot, for the millennials).
The Torment Of Puzzles
As is to be expected (well, if you’re familiar with the genre), puzzles come in all sorts of contrived ways throughout Tortured Souls 2. Again, it was par for the course back in the days, for those that remember the likes of James Sunderland’s wax-and-horse-shoe situation. Please leave all logic at the door.
And as was mentioned in the review of the first game, it’s just as weird and wonderful here too. Some of them are pretty straightforward: cut a hand off and heat it over a stove to realise the item it holds, natch.
Others not so much, often requiring some extremely lateral thinking to get one’s head around. On one hand (not the cut off one above), it is nice to engage the grey matter. Sometimes you have to combine items that don’t seem to make sense, but it does in here.
However…
Torment Indeed…
…not everything is as clever as Tormented Souls 2 likes to think it is. As I say, I don’t mind a bit of outside-the-box thinking. Yet sometimes the game gives so little away that whilst it thinks it’s being clever, it’s just being obtuse.
For example, Caroline obtains a crowbar later on, for both melee attacks and prying things open. So, one object requires prying… yet once done with, it’s not open enough. Yet the game makes you think you’re doing something wrong, except you’re not. Players can’t actively solve this puzzle at that current time, but the game won’t tell you. It just feels more like contrivance than common sense.
It’s the same with the narrative, too. Whilst I don’t expect full-on exposition and hand-holding, Tormented Souls 2 goes too far the other way. It’s a slow burn, and at times that flame wavers much like my interest. Not enough to extinguish it, but it does make me wonder why I am carrying on.
The most annoying bug bear though? Standing in the darkness kills you. For gameplay purposes, I gather it’s to stop players advancing through sections too early: Caroline can’t hold a lighter and melee weapon at the same time, to break crates and such. For narrative reasons, however? Bar one wall-scrawl telling you to beware, there’s no other explanation. At least Song of Horror made a big deal of it, but here there’s nothing.
Out Of The Shadows
Yet to conclude, I am actually enjoying Tormented Souls 2. I say enjoying, I’m only about 80% through the story. The combat feels more refined than the first game, and the puzzles are fun and engaging when they make sense. Although I will admit, I have had to use a walkthrough on two of them (thanks early PC release), because they were a bit obtuse.
In retrospect, I think I was generous with my score of the first game. I now see that I was a bit nostalgia-biased, in the absence of that kind of game. However, four years later (in console release terms), I believe Dual Effect have only improved on the first template.
Yes, it is corny and to some, probably quite cliché with what it’s paying homage/tribute to. To a newcomer, it might not hit the same with the old heads like me. For as much as I don’t like “for fans of” labels, assuming we all like homogenised genres, this one actually gets it right. If you did cut your teeth on the old survival horrors, then this is more of the same. But looks nicer.
Tormented Souls 2 is available now on PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series S|X and PC via Steam.
Developer: Dual Effect
Publisher: PQube