Review: Tormented Souls 2

If you weren't afraid of the dark before, you will be now.

THE GAME

Tormented Souls 2 is a horror game developed by Dual Effect and published by PQube. Following the events of Tormented Souls, Caroline Walker only wishes to live a normal life with her younger sister, Anna. However, Anna is tormented by horrific visions that cause her to draw disturbing things that eventually become reality. Seeking help, the two travel to the town of Villa Hess, where there is a clinic in the mountains of southern Chile. Although they are welcomed at first, the sisters soon realize they are in a dangerous and mysterious place. Anna is kidnapped, and Caroline prepares to save her sister from something dark that lurks.

Be careful with absolutely everything.

MY IMPRESSIONS

With gameplay reminiscent of classic 90s horror games, Tormented Souls 2 revives the style in the continuation of Caroline's story. Fixed camera, limited saves, and tank controls are present in the game's standard difficulty. However, if this isn't your style of gameplay, the developers have created a more casual difficulty that allows for more saves and fewer penalties, a mode to better enjoy the game's story. It's important to note that, on standard difficulty, you must consider that saves are extremely important, because if you are defeated at any point, you will return to the last save point, which can be frustrating. Knowing this, using your tapes, which are used to create save points on the recorders, should be done strategically. Furthermore, all the game's resources are quite scarce, so use them sparingly.

Enemies will always lead to strategic battles, involving resource expenditure or simply running and avoiding conflict. The tank controls may be difficult at first, but you'll quickly adapt. The creatures are quite aggressive and cause a lot of discomfort, as the environments are usually enclosed, making you feel more at risk when facing the monsters. Although the environments have several rooms, they are well-designed to guide the player and are easily understood, since you will have many repeated back-and-forth movements, searching for and using key pieces to advance. The puzzles are challenging, but only because you will always have to go from one place to another, finding items and clues to solve them.

The fixed camera makes Tourmented Souls 2 shine in many moments. Moving through the environments, with camera angle changes that leave you apprehensive, is incredible. These are techniques used in many horror films, such as the slightly tilted camera, to generate discomfort and the feeling that something is wrong. The game is in Brazilian Portuguese, which helps in understanding the story, explaining the items, and providing puzzle hints. The soundtrack keeps you tense, combining with all the other aspects already listed and creating a suffocating and tense atmosphere. The feeling of helplessness that the game creates with its tank-like controls and fixed camera during moments requiring quick thinking leaves you apprehensive. It's a challenging game, but for lovers of the genre, Tormented Souls 2 honors the legacy of the classics.

The setting immerses you completely in the tension presented.

ACHIEVEMENTS

If Tormented Souls 2 is a challenging game on its own, trying to get 100% of the achievements will be an even greater challenge. Aside from the story-related achievements, we have the basic kit: kill a specific number of enemies, upgrade all weapons, collect all collectibles, and finish the game on all difficulties. That alone would be laborious, but then come the real challenges. I'll highlight four that, in my opinion, will be difficult to achieve. They are all related to finishing the game: without using a map, finishing in under 5 hours, using only one health item, and not saving the game at any point. I think you can understand why getting all the achievements in Tormented Souls 2 will be a nightmare for anyone who wants to take on this challenge.

You'll have many puzzles to solve while trying to escape the creatures.

CONCLUSION

Tormented Souls 2 is agonizing. It's designed to make you feel bad while playing, in the sense that you have to fend for yourself to survive, just like the protagonist. It's something really cool that they managed to create, reproducing everything very well in terms of visuals, sensory aspects, and gameplay. Unfortunately, I'm very bad at this type of game and I get very frustrated when I lose a lot of progress after going through incredibly suffocating moments. Yes, there's an assisted mode that avoids the frustration, but I think it's fair to play the game as it was designed to be. However, it's a highly recommended game for those who enjoy games of this genre, because you can see that it's very well made and aimed at players who are fans of this classic style of 90s horror games.

SCORE: 8.0/10