I Can't Believe Some Sicko Actually Thought This Up... But I Like It.
The Suffering is, at its core, nothing more than a survival-horror game like the ones we've played so many times before. However, it is unique due to the fact that the game features a unique story (and reason for the “survival horror”, and also the ability to choose how you'd like to play: in first or third person. To me, this increases the visceral feeling of some situations in the game by forcing you confront them head on, through the eyes of the character you play as; in essence, you're the one committing said acts. That might not mean anything to you now, but you have yet to finish reading this review or even to play the game…
Story:
The story of The Suffering revolves around a prison called Abbott on an island near Maryland where the absolute scum of the earth are sent to die. Abbott's Death Row is known to be particularly brutal, and it's here that the “protagonist” (if you can call him that) Torque is on his way to. Torque is infamous among the inmates of Abbott: legendary for his violent outbursts in other prisons, and for the crime that sentenced him to Death in the first place: slaughtering his wife and two sons. Torque has insisted since the day of the crime he blacked out and doesn't remember anything; no one can be certain what really happened though, not even him. One thing is for certain: Torque is a dangerous individual, and he is labeled as so by Guards and Inmates alike.
Shortly after entering his cell, however, all hell breaks loose on the island: fiery pits appear in the earth, earthquakes shake the foundation of the prison, and terrible creatures like something from a Clive Barker movie begin appearing to kill the inmates and guards. However, it quickly becomes evident that these monsters are after Torque specifically for unknown reasons. Not one to just go quietly into the night, Torque finds a weapon and begins to cut a bloody swath across the prison in search of escape.
The story of this game is, as you can see, not kiddy fair; it's a very adult tale, filled with twists and turns. Abbott Penitentiary has a dark past (as do most prisons) filled with cover-ups ranging from bizarre experiments, to murder, and even slavery. It's a truly grim and disturbing plot and only gets more twisted as the game continues.
Gameplay:
The gameplay of The Suffering is both near identical to most survival horror movies, and entirely different. For starts, you are immediately given the choice of playing in 3rd person or 1st. This changes gameplay greatly, as your attack and defensive maneuvers change to match your current point of view.
Torque is an absolute killing machine, and this fact is made clear early on. He gains a plethora of weapons, ranging from a shiv and fire ax to a shotgun, dual pistols, and dynamite. He'll need them too, because the creatures in this game are pretty different from your standard zombies. Every beast on the island is themed around a method of execution; for example, your most common opponents, The Slayers, are the embodiment of Decapitation: a detached head chained to a neckless torso, with blades jammed into stumps where arms and legs once where.
The game itself plays rather well… Torque has a host of weapons and defensive tactics at his disposal and can heal himself with bottles of industrial strength pain killers. There are also tons of sidequests and choices to be made throughout the game: being a convicted killer and all, Torque is really only out to free himself. However, he'll occasionally come across someone in need. At these points, you can either choose to help the person, kill them, or do nothing. Over time, this affects Torque's disposition and changes his appearance: a do-gooder Torque is clean of mud and debris while an evil begins to become covered in dirt, blood, and eventually even boils. These choices also affect what ending you'll get.
Torque's unique appearance is also worth mentioning: picture a Neanderthal with mutton-chop sideburns and a pair of orange prisoner pants, and you get an idea of what he looks like. Torque was designed this way on purpose, to actually give the player a feeling of power; even though there's a bunch of crazy stuff going down, Torque's a killer. He can handle it. I find this to be a nice touch, as it doesn't insult the gamer's intelligence as many games do. Put a nice school-girl into a house full of monsters, she isn't going to live. Torque, on the other hand, is more than capable of ripping someone's head right off their shoulders. Also worth mentioning: Torque becomes splattered with his enemies blood in various patterns during the game… to the point where he's completely red. The only thing I hate about that is that it fades over time instead of washing off when you run through water.
I really have no true complaints about the game. It would've been nice to have a true map, and some of the enemies feel too tough compared to others; for example, sometimes it takes a single shotgun blast to bring one down, sometimes it takes 8. That just seems… I don't know… stupid? Or maybe lazy. Another thing that really bothered me is that it seems as if the painkillers give you less health when playing evil than playing good, but with no explanation why. Other than the character interactions in the game, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot affected by your alignment… so why would playing as a bad guy give you less health? Oh well, no biggie.
Sound:
I don't like the voice acting in this game at all, with the exception of the Angel/Devil voices that speak into your ear every time you come across an alignment choice. The other voice actors are terrible; nearly B-movie grade in fact.
HOWEVER, the sound in this game is top-notch. The soundtrack is made entirely of percussion instruments, which gives a sort-of creepy techno vibe to everything… sort of like the alley behind a warehouse having a rave in it. When no monsters are present, there's no noise outside of your footsteps and the environment itself. This makes things even creepier, as you never know when something is going to decide to pop out and rip your face off. There are tons of “jump moments” scattered throughout the game, and they are accompanied by a sound unlike anything else in the game: a piercing, shrieking sound, similar to metal being torn. It's absolutely horrid, and I LOVE it because it truly makes you go “What was THAT?”. It might not frighten you, because some just refuse to be afraid, but it'll definitely get your attention.
Control:
The Suffering uses a standard dual-stick 3rd person shooter layout: move around with one stick, aim with the other. Each button on the controller has a single purpose attached to it, and you'll definitely use them all. Jumping, dodging, using health, switching weapons, etc. However, this creates a problem, because in my opinion there's just too many different functions; you sometimes end up using a bottle of Pain Killers rather than switching into First Person Mode like you wanted. This is a small grievance on my part, and should detract anyone from giving this game a shot.
The in-game response is quite nice too. Torque jumps a little sluggishly, but other than that he's a mass murder machine. He runs and changes directions with almost no slip whatsoever, and your cross hairs are very easy to see on screen because it's a nice bright white.
Replay:
Unfortunately, there's not a lot as there really aren't too many bonus features to speak of. You unlock pages of concept art cleverly disguised as “Journal” and “Scrapbook” entries from inhabitants of the island throughout the game. Enemies are unlocked easily enough: kill them! That's right, kill them right in the face, unlock their entry. Simple as that. However, the locations concepts are a little more difficult, as tons of them are optional. You must actually find the location to unlock it, or else you have a blank page in the Scrapbook.
The thing that pesters me about this is that you have to play through the game three times just to unlock all these pages; you see