Developer: Dual Effect
Publisher: PQUBE
Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2
Tested on: Switch 2
Tormented Souls II – Review
The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting worse, and Halloween is right around the corner: the spooky season is upon us! As any seasoned gamer will tell you, this is the perfect time to dim the lights and get stuck inside with a good horror game. For Switch 2 owners, one of this year’s more prominent choices is Tormented Souls II, the sequel to Dual Effect’s 2021 survival horror title. Like its predecessor, the Nintendo port of the game arrives a year later than it did on other platforms, so if you’re a PC, PS5, or Xbox owner, you may have already lived through Caroline Walker’s latest adventure. If you haven’t, then read on, as we’ll tell you what you can expect… without spoilers, of course!
Story
It’s clear from the get-go that Tormented Souls II expects you to be already familiar with the events of the first game, as the game’s opening skips introductions and explanations. This turned out to be an issue not just for narrative reasons but for gameplay reasons as well, though we’ll get to that. For now, let’s try to piece together what the hell is going on here. Tormented Souls II follows the Walker sisters, Caroline and Anna, as they travel to a remote health clinic. Anna has been haunted by visions of violence and death, resulting in disturbing drawings that manifest into reality. Attempting to free her sister from this affliction, Caroline hopes that Mother Superior Lucia, who runs the clinic, can provide a cure. It turns out that the promise of curing Anna was a ruse though, and the sisters become trapped in a nightmarish situation filled with religious fanatics and supernatural oddities. The story hits the ground running, hinting at events from the previous game, but since we haven’t played that, a lot was seemingly lost on us. Fortunately, the writing isn’t exactly Shakespeare either, and the story can be taken at face value. If you approach Tormented Souls II as a shlocky B-movie, there is fun to be had here. Just don’t overthink things.
Graphics
Featuring a strong horror atmosphere, Tormented Souls II proudly wears its inspirations on its sleeve. The game was heavily influenced by early Silent Hill and Resident Evil games, utilising fixed camera angles and deliberate pacing. The environments are the highlight here, as is the effective and vital lighting system. Character models on the other hand are less convincing. Anna is supposed to be a child but looks like a scaled-down adult. Hair and blood textures look fuzzy, and character animations are stiff and janky. The game runs smoothly on the Switch 2, although it is capped at 30 fps.
Sound
Sound design is perhaps Tormented Souls II’s strongest suit. There is a strong focus on building tension through ambience. As Caroline walks through narrow, dimly lit corridors, you’ll hear doors slamming and people screaming in the distance. Music adds to the atmosphere. It is used sparsely and is more noticeable in key scenes, contributing to the overall cinematic feel of the game. The game also features full voice acting, and the performances are generally good, with a couple of standout performances like Rachel Atkins as Mother Lucia.
Gameplay
Sticking to old-school game design principles, Tormented Souls II combines survival horror gameplay with classic point-and-click puzzle elements. The game’s core loop emphasises deliberate exploration, scarce resource management, tense combat encounters and intricate puzzle solving. That may sound familiar enough, but the game expects you to already be aware of how some of its more intricate and specific mechanics work without bothering to explain them to newcomers. The first puzzle, for example, had us stumped, even though it was incredibly simple: all we had to do was combine the only two items in our inventory in order to obtain a key. This is basic point-and-click gameplay, but without the game pointing us in the direction of its internal logic, we spent way longer than we’d care to admit looking for the key elsewhere. All the while, our controller continuously and annoyingly vibrated too: the opening scenes left Caroline with low health, and vibrating is how the game relays this to the player… without explanation. It wasn’t until we picked up a first aid kit that we figured this out. Darkness also acts as an enemy. Standing in the shadow for a few seconds causes Caroline to die, and you’ll have to rely on a lighter. However, while you’re holding this, you can’t use weapons, forcing you to run to safe zones lit by other means. As individual mechanics, these are all fine, but more guidance would have been welcome here.
Speaking of guidance, though in an entirely different manner, navigation is where Tormented Souls II’s old-school design is the most apparent. For the most part, your surroundings are shown through fixed top-down screens, though there are segments where you navigate long corridors where the camera follows you around. The latter are effectively utilised in sections where the darkness literally chases you as lights turn off behind you. Moving between different fixed-angle screens takes some time getting used to and can be disorientating early on, but it quickly becomes second nature. The fixed angles also allow the game to pace itself in an effective manner, as elements can be hidden from view between screens. This instinctively makes you tread lightly as you feel more vulnerable. Adding to this is the way combat is framed. Weapons Caroline finds are unconventional, and resources like health and ammo are tightly rationed. In turn, deciding how and when to engage enemies feels like a puzzle in its own right.
Clocking in at around 15 hours, Tormented Souls II doesn’t overstay its welcome. Multiple endings and three different difficulty levels, including one that only unlocks after beating the game once, add some replay value here. The game’s €29.99 price tag definitely feels justified here. The caveat is that the game probably relies a bit too much on familiarity with the first game though, so if you don’t have that one in your collection yet, picking up Tormented Souls II probably isn’t worth it. It’s also worth mentioning that the Switch 2 port specifically incorporates mouse controls, and these work wonderfully. We’d go as far as to say that they provide the definitive way to play the game, more so than playing with a regular controller.
Conclusion
Fans of old school survival horror games will find a lot to love in Tormented Souls II. The game is fantastic at creating that unsettling horror atmosphere and features excellent pacing and good puzzle design. That said, it definitely could’ve done with better in-game explanations and tutorials to get newcomers up to speed, both when it comes to story and mechanics. Tormented Souls II is less suited as a standalone experience, but if you enjoyed the first game, then the sequel should be on your radar.
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