After The Medium, I thought I had my quota in terms of horror games for this month, then I was offered Tormented souls. Without thinking too much, I agreed, then watched a gameplay video anyway to see what I was getting myself into. It only took two minutes for me to be all tense, and I immediately regretted having taken the game... Too late, however, my soul is now tormented.
le survival-horror Dual Effect et Abstract Digital wants to be a strong tribute to the survival-horror of the time resident evil (late 90). We therefore find ourselves with quite a few characteristics specific to horror games of the time, namely: a character who moves in pre-calculated fixed settings - precise save points, without checkpoints - a headlong rush, with a protagonist unable to defend himself against the bestiary.
No doubt these old-school inspirations will appeal to players who are nostalgic and eager to reconnect with period sensations. For my part, I admit that being constantly under pressure from one save point to another, knowing that I would lose all my progress since the last save if I miss myself, it pisses me off. Nothing objective in these words, I agree. However, this lack of feature is absolutely prohibitive for me, because in addition to this "system" penalty, I admit to being a ball on this kind of game. Worse still, fear makes me lose my means, and the fact to have flight as my only defense paralyzes me. With the previous horror titles that I tested, I thought I would gradually overcome this fear that tormented me. It is clear that Tormented souls made me fall back into my worst failings.
The atmosphere is always sticky, the monsters that we will come across are more disturbing than each other, and we will essentially evolve in the dark. You will therefore either have to arm yourself with your lighter or your flashlight, which vaguely illuminates the place and allows you to move forward a bit more serenely, or equip yourself with your weapon. Knowing that you will lose the reassuring lighting of your lighter, and that you will often count your ammunition in the adventure. To move around in this mansion (in many ways reminiscent of the Spencer mansion), you will have at your disposal a map ... larger than life! Forget the maps that video games have been feeding us for years, which work as precisely as a GPS. Here, we bring out the good old map with the plan of the mansion, and we have to make do with that. Being part of this generation that has only known GPS, I must say that you take a big hit in the face when you realize that your sense of direction is close to nothing. However, after a few hours, we take the hit and we manage to read the card correctly.
Since Capcom's illustrious survival-horror did the job so well, Tormented souls will also take up the devious puzzles of the time, and it was after several very twisted puzzles that the game fell from my hands. Let it be understood, if we arm ourselves with patience and logic, no enigma is insurmountable. However, they are mostly far-fetched and devoid of logic.
If there was only that, I might have taken my courage in both hands to see the end of it, especially since the game has an atmosphere like we rarely see and proves to be technically more solid than 'one would not think so. But unfortunately, the story told to us is as conventional as it is uninteresting, the staging is non-existent, and the protagonist as charismatic and rigid as a post. It is therefore difficult to get attached to the latter.
I repeat myself, but I am convinced that Tormented souls is a work that will convince a panel of players well versed in the mechanics of survival-horror of the time, and the mansion of Winterlake should provide a lot of nostalgic waves to fans of the first Resident Evil. But, sorry, the formula didn't take on my side, since it represents everything I don't like in games of the genre.
Tormented souls is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series since September 10. The digital edition is sold at €19,99, the physical at €34,99 (PS5 only). The PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch versions will be released at the end of October.
