The Suffering: Ties that Bind is a solid third/first person horror shooter that doesn't quite surpass it's predecessor.
Meet Torque, an accused convict of a plot that has killed his wife Carmen, and his two boys Cory and Malcolm. Torque has been sent to the infamous Abott State Penitentiary prison/island, home of the worst of the worst, site of hauntings and turmoil.
Torque is shipped off to prison, where he awaits his death sentence, but before he barely slips off his shoes and makes himself at home, all hell breaks loose. The Island is crawling with blood-thirsty demons that all have been result of an terrible experiment by the prison's doctor, Dr. Killjoy. The demons have come, and they all want one thing. Torque.
Or more specifically, Torque's corpse.
The player has the power to determine Torque's innocence or guilt, through three different endings based on your morality path.
THE AFTERMATH:
The game picks up right after the first, but not after serving a delicious flashback from 5 years before, when Torque was not yet sent to Abott, but rather, a different prison. This prison has it's own style: Blue prison clothes. Not orange.
This flashback serves as a makeshift tutorial, teaching you some of the basic combat and actions and whatnot before indulging you in the real story, a few years after the horrendous incident at Abott.
THE GAME:
The Suffering: Ties that Bind handles very similarly to it's predecessor, but with a few modifications, some good and some bad.
Torque can only wield two weapons now, using a very similar button system to all three of Microsoft's Halo games. That limits you to think twice, before swapping for a random weapon you see lying around. Torque also can duel wield, but there is an annoying flaw to this: Torque can only duel wield a weapon of the same class. For example: If Torque is holding a revolver, he can only wield a second revolver.
Midway has implemented a better dive roll maneuver, which handles a lot better than the previous Suffering, but is one second too long. In the first suffering, Torque must strafe in one direction and the player must hit the jump command to have Torque roll in the direction. This makes for a swift action, but this cannot always be executed several times in a row, whereas in the sequel, Torque must be crouched, then the player must hit the jump button and lean the analog stick in the desired direction for Torque to roll in.
Torque can also melee now, but I personally find no use for this action. The melee doesn't seem to find it's niche, unlike in Halo 3 where the melee is devestating and is a primary weapon for kills.
The game is somewhat glitchy, during illusions where Torque grabs his head in pain and the screen blurs, the game might freeze, but this usually happens if you've played the game more than once.
THE LEVELS:
The game is set with 18 levels, 18 urban levels at that, but it's first few levels are extremely short (about 5 to 10 minutes) that elaborate on Torque's disturbing past. Not his prison past, his other past. You know, the childhood past.
Here the player sget to explore (and by explore, I just mean run through to proceed to the next designated area to proceed the story) Torque's [ghetto] neighborhood, and finally his house, which is a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment, with a very Silent Hill feel to it.
Later on, the game starts getting fast paced, very adrenaline-pumpingish, but the game starts to get equally repetitive. You meet too many demons of the same kind!
SOUND:
The sound in this game has improved (gunshot, explosion-wise) since it's last game, but the music here has been something of a step down. The music during gameplay makes you feel more like a gangster, just mowing the lawn with your kick-ass Tommy Gun, whereas the last game, the music has a more epic "jungle" feel, where the word "escape" remains true to the game's objective.
Voice-acting is considerable, but there seems to be too much mindless cussing and shouting.
REPLAY VALUE?
Upon completion of the game, you unlock the ability to replay the beginning, but you get to choose the morality path from which you completed the first Suffering. In other words, you get to choose a Good, Neutral, or Evil beginning. Of course, this could be easily obtainable if you already have a Suffering saved game on your memory card.
Other than unlockable creature/location/event archives and the beginning's morality, there is not much reason to replay the game over and over, other than to mess around, to show off the awesome skills you picked up along the journey of the game, or just for the sheer fun of it.
LASTING APPEAL:
The Suffering: Ties that Bind does not quite live up to it's predecessor in many different aspects (but who has the time to list them all?). This game isn't as scary as the first, but at least it tries. The illusions tend to get a little more annoying than scary.
I personally think, to improve the game, is for Midway to include a level select option, longer, bigger levels.
CONCLUSION:
Overall, the game does not quite live up to it's hype. It's fun to play through the first few times when you've bought (rented?) the game, but like said above, there is no real reason to play it through, time and again.
Buy it if you're loyal to the "series," but rent it if you just want to play it once and then get it out of your life.
8 out of 10, 3 out of 5.