Suffering sequel ships to stores

Gamers up for a second dose of Suffering won't have to wait long, as Chicago-based publisher Midway today announced that The Suffering: Ties That Bind for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC has shipped to retailers.

The sequel to last year's game sees possessed protagonist Torque arriving in Baltimore after escaping from the Carnate Island prison where he was held on death row for the murder of his family. Upon learning that the mysterious Blackmore (voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan of The Green Mile and Daredevil) might have played a part in his family's deaths, Torque sets off on a quest for vengeance. Complicating matters is a well-armed paramilitary group sent in to combat the demons overtaking the city, not to mention the shape-shifting Torque.

Throughout Ties That Bind, players will be forced to deal with moral dilemmas, and their choices not only affect which ending they'll receive, but also the form of Torque's hulking alter ego. Torque's enemies take different forms this time around as well. Whereas the penitentiary-bound pit fiends of the original took inspiration from various methods of execution, the beasts of Baltimore were designed to reflect the various ills and evils of urban decay.

Ties That Bind developer Surreal Software previously worked on the original Suffering game, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring game based on J.R.R. Tolkien's novel, and the Drakan series on the PC and PlayStation 2. Ties That Bind is rated M for Mature, and it retails for $49.99 on the PS2 and Xbox and $29.99 on the PC.