The Suffering Preview

Midway and Surreal Software's upcoming PlayStation 2 and Xbox game, The Suffering, has been creeping us out since we got our first look at it last year. This original third-person action adventure game is an unsettling amalgamation of elements from different genres, and it has a strong story. We've only had the chance to get brief looks at the game over the past few months via playable demos that have shown off its disturbing look and feel. Fortunately, we've now had the chance to get an exclusive look at a near-final version of the PlayStation 2 game, which has turned out to be about as spooky as we expected.

The Suffering's engaging story is a dark, unnerving tale about a troubled man named Torque. The basic plot--man in prison during prisoner uprising must make his way out alive as chaos ensues--is pretty standard, although it's been dressed up quite a bit. You'll find traditional horror elements married with survival horror conventions and a very cinematic presentation--all of which end up becoming much more than the sum of their parts. The horror spin on the events is that the prisoner uprising is actually led by the spirits of previously executed inmates who aren't in a real good mood. The survival horror aspect, which has you escaping unpleasant surroundings by finding your way through creepy, danger-filled locales and making use of whatever you can find, helps fold The Suffering's gameplay into the story quite well. However, the cherry on top of the whole experience is that you'll have to discover just what Torque's deal is. While most games would establish that their main character has some heroic or at least redeeming qualities, that's not really the case with The Suffering. The best thing we can say about Torque when the game opens is that he sure is handy with a shiv. When you meet him, the only thing that's established is that he's in prison for slaughtering his wife and child and is prone to blacking outs. As you play through the game, you'll eventually find out just what happened to his wife and child, which is kind of a mixed blessing.

Torque's creepy journey of self-discovery will send him on a scenic tour of Carnate Island, home of the Abbot State Penitentiary and the aforementioned collection of unpleasant ghosts. The first red flag that trouble's on the way is the penitentiary's history. It was originally the expansive estate of a wealthy family in the 19th century, who moved away like bats out of hell after being traumatized by a mysterious "incident." The property then became a mental institution, which was shut down due to the head physician's barbaric practices, and eventually became the prison that Torque finds himself in. It's hardly surprising that trouble explodes the way it does, given that the property has violated one of the many rules laid down by the Poltergeist movies: Never build anywhere near a lot of unhappy dead people.

Now, while the events in the game are pretty unpleasant for Torque and the quickly declining prison population, they make for some meaty gameplay. The game follows a pretty standard linear structure and begins as you leave your cell moments after a disturbance rocks the prison and pops the door off. Your journey will send you on a violent trip across most of the island and let you get a chance to see the sights and sounds of Carnate Island, which are mostly of the "bloody death" and "screams of agony" variety. The trip will send you through a variety of indoor and outdoor locations that are, as you'd expect, chock-full of dangerous creatures and assorted abominations that all seem pleased with the idea of bringing about Torque's violent death.

Now, while these may sound like daunting odds, Torque is hardly a pushover, and, like all possibly psychotic and violent individuals in these types of situations, he's a resourceful kind of guy. While the prisoner-favorite shiv is a handy weapon to have--it's great for killing your average person and busting through obstacles in the game, such as crates and debris--it's really not up to the task of, say, killing a large creature with assorted guns coming out of its back. Thankfully the ongoing death in the prison has freed up quite a few weapons for Torque to use. You'll find a welcome assortment of guns, bladed weapons, grenades, TNT, and flares to use against the critters you meet. However, while the arsenal you can collect certainly packs a punch, you'll find that it's just not enough. Torque will gain a very useful ability as you go through the game that helps round out the ways he can deal with enemies. In addition to the standard onscreen meters that track assorted information, such as Torque's health, ammo, and health-restoring items, you'll find an insanity meter. Unlike average people who have to gauge their level of insanity based on the dialogue and frequency of the voices in their head, Torque has a handy meter that tracks his current level of insanity. As he kills enemies, the meter will slowly fill up and eventually allow him to transform into a raging killing machine of a beast that's perfect for taking out those hard-to-kill enemies that make life so difficult.

The Suffering's dark tone and violent gameplay are nicely complemented by detailed, atmospheric graphics that will unnerve you. The character models are nicely detailed, although they do come across as pretty angular. As you'd expect, Torque is the star of the show and looks the best out of the human cast. The blackout-prone hero sports Wolverine-style sideburns and a perpetual scowl that gives you a good idea of the kind of guy he is. After a good run of killing you'll notice that Torque will get bloody, although clean freaks will be able to hit the showers and clean him off if they choose to. The assorted creatures you'll encounter are a detailed, albeit unholy, rogue's gallery of creepiness. You'll find several different varieties of "grunt" critters, along with boss characters who forge new inroads into creepiness. The unhappy spirits and monsters look like Dali paintings gone horribly wrong, thanks to the fact that their appearances reflect the execution methods that sent them speeding toward the light.

The monsters in the game should actually manage to disturb two sets of players, which is no small feat. Players with normal constitutions will be weirded out by the unsettling Stan Winston designs. On the other hand, horror fans may find it difficult to slaughter such nicely crafted abominations that wouldn't seem out of place kicking it with the cast from Hellraiser. Surreal has taken the impressive and disturbing character models and dropped them into dark and atmospheric environments that rely heavily on lighting and graphic imagery to create a spooky world. The slight drawback is that, as nice and creepy as the environments are, you won't be admiring them too much because you'll want to be getting the hell out of Dodge before something decapitates you. You'll see trails of blood on the floor and walls, whole bodies falling out of odd places, and assorted parts turning up unexpectedly. A broad range of lighting and particle effects help flesh out the various environments you'll go through.

The Suffering's atmospheric package is complemented by the liberal use of psychological terror, which gets a fair amount of mileage out of your own imagination by offering fleeting glimpses of things moving just outside your vision. On the technical side, the game's performance has improved quite a bit since the last time we saw the game running on the PlayStation 2. The frame rate is smoother, although it's still inconsistent when the action gets too hectic on the screen.

The graphics are backed up by a strong audio package that does a great job of giving an added punch to the visuals. The speech in the game is an effective, profanity-laden barrage of well-done voice acting. The game's prison setting has been exploited to its fullest with some of the most gleefully foul talk we've heard in a game. The prisoners' cursing is balanced out by the unsettling work done for the bosses and the game's big bad, Dr. Killjoy. As good as the voice acting is, the real star of the audio in the game is the ambient sound, which paints a vivid picture of the troubled world around Torque. You'll hear prisoners screaming in terror off in the distance, the unholy chittering from the creatures you'll face, and a plethora of other subtle effects. Something as subtle as the muffled slap of Torque's bare feet as he goes through the halls is used to unsettle you on your journey through the prison.

Based on what we've played, The Suffering is coming together well. It appears that Surreal is doing a good job of making the most out of the promising and disturbing premise. The story is definitely engaging, while the visuals and audio do a great job of complementing it. The gameplay is solid on the whole, although some of the puzzle elements could be varied some (how many times will we have to flip a switch or push a box to progress in a game?). The only real concerns we have are the limited number of enemies you'll encounter--while you'll find a number of variations, there seems to be a set number of basic types--and the camera system, which occasionally ends up sticking in an awkward angle. However, despite these rough spots, there's some good stuff going on in The Suffering. One of the nicest touches is that you'll get a different ending based on how you play, which gives you distinctly different insights into what happened to Torque's family. Anyone looking for a game chock-full of creepiness should keep an eye out for The Suffering when it ships this March for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.