Horror games are in a wonderful space these days, thanks in no small part to not only indie developers coming up with their own takes on the genre, but also major companies coming back to them with high-quality releases of their own. Dual Effect is one of the smaller studios that has been making a mark on the genre in a fun way. While many developers try to go for new and unique ideas for their horror games, Dual Effect has instead tried to tap into the horror classics of yore.
While the studio put forth a valiant first effort with Tormented Souls a few years ago, it’s now back with generally higher production values with the sequel, and along the way, there have also been plenty of improvements made to what already served as a great foundation. Right from the start, Tormented Souls 2 brings with it improvements to visuals, audio, level design, and even the story, which picks things up shortly after the events of its predecessor.
Once more taking on the role of Caroline Walker after the events of the Wildberger Hospital, you, along with your sister Anna, are invited to stay in a manor in the remote Chilean town of Villa Hess. However, the horrors experienced by both sisters haven’t completely left them behind; Anna is still haunted by visions of incredible and gruesome violence, while Caroline is simply trying to make sure that her sister can live peacefully and put the Wildberger Hospital behind them. Things at the manor start going wrong quickly, however, with Caroline waking up to the distant screams of her sister. On walking out of her room, she spots her sister being dragged down the hallway.
“Generally speaking, there isn’t really much more to the plot of Tormented Souls 2 aside from “evil cultists are bad and you must escape”.”
The plot for the rest of the game is essentially laid out right in front of you when you find Anna; the manor is inhabited by crazy cultists, as well as a malevolent being that lives in the shadows and can quite quickly kill things caught in the darkness. After getting knocked out as part of some strange cult ritual, Caroline wakes up covered with knives that had been stabbed into her. She pulls them out, sets out to find Anna, and ultimately, wants to leave behind the manor and Villa Hess as a whole.
Generally speaking, there isn’t really much more to the plot of Tormented Souls 2 aside from “evil cultists are bad and you must escape”. The story does, however, improve on its predecessor in one major way: its characters are overall much better written and voice acted. Caroline and Anna are both able to express an impressive range of emotions, and the voice acting is suitably horrified and frantic rather than sounding (more often than not) bored. Along with this, there are also more characters you get to meet and interact with, ranging from sinister cultists that might not have your best interests at heart, to some of the citizens of Villa Hess, and even potential allies.
On the gameplay side of things, Tormented Souls 2 wears its influences right on its sleeves. Taking several pages from classic horror games like the first three Silent Hill titles, Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, and Resident Evil 3, Tormented Souls 2 makes effective use of the classic trope of fixed camera angles to maximise the horror and atmosphere. Among other things, the fact that you don’t have full control of the camera goes a long way in making you actually afraid to turn around corners, even if you might have the tools to deal with whatever enemies are lurking there. Some of the Silent Hill influences also come into sharp display thanks to the fixed camera following you down long hallways, as well as the presence of the “other world” that you sometimes have to travel through.
“Despite the obtuse camera angles and the deliberately rough combat systems, Tormented Souls 2 still manages to feel quite good to play.”
Similarly, even the minimal HUD pays homage to the horror classics, like your character’s health being displayed only through the inventory screen, and even then only through a heartbeat line that starts degrading as you take damage. Even Caroline herself starts showing evidence of damage she’s taken, coming down to a slow limp if her health is too low.
This, alongside the combat feeling appropriately clunky leads to Tormented Souls 2 feeling like a classic horror game. Even when you have a gun, you’re not going to get to manually aim the thing at enemies’ weak points. Rather, you’re encouraged to either avoid as many enemies as you can to preserve your constantly-dwindling resources like healing items and ammo, or make use of traps to take out particularly troublesome foes.
Despite the obtuse camera angles and the deliberately rough combat systems, Tormented Souls 2 still manages to feel quite good to play. Caroline is a responsive character, and you even get the option to go with tank-styled movement like those old horror games if you use a controller. Items that might be needed to solve puzzles or serve other utilities can be hotkeyed to the right analogue stick as well, making it easy to quickly switch between using your lighter as a light source to travel through a dark hallway and your chainsaw in case you need to take down an enemy.
“The level design and presence of puzzles essentially go hand-in-hand”
Inventory management is also a big part of the gameplay here, and you’ll often find yourself juggling between key items to progress through the game, from keys and puzzle pieces, to documents with important story elements, and even your arsenal of makeshift weapons and any materials you might find to craft and upgrade them.
Speaking of which, the level design and presence of puzzles essentially go hand-in-hand, and fans of not just classic horror titles, but even the more recent Resident Evil games will find themselves right at home in this regard. The manor you start out in is quite large, and the map you find shortly after starting the game ends up playing a major role in helping you navigate. Along the way, you’ll also run into plenty of paths that have been blocked off and need you to solve puzzles, which in turn can range from simply finding the right key, to figuring out the precise order of bells to strike to accomplish your objective.
Generally speaking, however, the level design is actually quite a bit more linear than the largesse manor would indicate. Sure, there are plenty of hallways to go down, but most of them are simply either just dead ends, or have a door that is locked from the other side, which means that you’ll find a puzzle elsewhere to unlock this door as a shortcut. Getting out of the manor doesn’t help matters either, since Villa Hess and the other areas of the game are also similarly linear. This isn’t a bad thing, however, as the design of the game’s maps go a long way in making sure you’re constantly making forward progress in some way. It also helps that the maps are certainly quite helpful.
“Sound is another area where Tormented Souls 2 punches well above its weight class”
We reviewed Tormented Souls 2 on PC, where the game was able to run just fine. With maxed out graphics settings and a resolution of 2560×1440, we were able to get a rock-solid frame rate of 60 FPS. The PC, for context, runs on an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, an AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT GPU, and 32 GB of DDR-6000 RAM. Maxing out the visual settings was certainly a treat, since the game features some downright gorgeous locales and vividly detailed hallways in the manor as well as the rest of its areas.
Sound is another area where Tormented Souls 2 punches well above its weight class. Along with the great voice acting mentioned earlier, the title also has a great, atmospheric soundtrack that enhances the horrors of the creeping shadows and sinister cultists that you have to deal with throughout your time with the game.
All in all, Tormented Souls 2 is a great example of just what a sequel should be. It takes the strong foundations of the original and builds on them quite well with more polished level design and gameplay, as well as a more focused, albeit simple story that gives you plenty of excuses to run around a sinister manor and its surrounding village. Fans of horror as a whole as well as classic games in the genre alike will find plenty to enjoy here, even if it might not be the most original game out there.
This game was reviewed on PC.
