A Great Action Horror Game that Really Defines The Word "Insanity"
The game might not give you a good first impression at first because of it's front cover and back cover contents. It doesn't tell you much about the main character you will be playing as or the kind of genre this game is delivering, but never judge the book by it's cover. You have to play it to believe it. The Suffering focuses mainly on some guy name Torque, a convict who is found guilty for the murder of his ex-wife and his two children, but strangely he has no memory of this event. A strange blackout that occurred during that period of time prevents him from remembering anything about it which makes him unsure of whether he is guilty of the murder or not. As a result, he is transferred to death row at Abbott State Penitentiary on Carnate Island, located just off coast of Maryland, where he will remain there until the court decides his fate.
But just as he enters his prison cell, the lights went out, death scream can be heard, the facility gets infested with mutated creatures and all hell breaks loose. Torque grabs his shiv and thus begin his convoluted storyline. The Suffering is inspired by other successful survival horror games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill. The creepy atmosphere, the horrifying monsters and it's disturbing contents is how you would expect from an action horror games like these. But unlike Resident Evil and Silent Hill, The Suffering has better control scheme and much tighter gameplay. Both of those games are the best in the field in it's own right, but however it suffers from mediocre camera angles, non-responsive gameplay and it's too suspense oriented that the controls itself doesn't really feel like you are into the experience. So it is safe to say that The Suffering has perfected the formula for use of terrifying contents with a mix of greater gameplay.
The Suffering plays in a typical 3rd Person style of playing and the controls are actually pretty straight forward. You use both analog sticks to move and look around, the R1 button is to shoot, the X button is to perform certain actions like opening doors, climbing ladders and so on; and the O button is to use Xombium bottles to replenish your health. Meanwhile, the Triangle button is to activate your Insanity mode. Deep inside Torque lies a demonic being that is way vicious and more powerful than the monsters you will be fighting against and it's struggling to break free. Torque transforms into the creature when his rage, the murderous intent, and inner darkness all reach the boiling point. However, the transformation is apparently all inside Torque's head. No one has ever seen him turn into the creature; they only see the frightening results of his rage.
Torque will face many horrifying creatures each with it's own background and abilities. You will unlock enemy bios and a depth history of key places during the course of the game and can be viewed later in the Archive page. The monsters in the Suffering are one of the scariest enemies in a video game history not just by their hideous appearances, but by their ways of attacking you. Some enemies come in groups and each have their own distinctive sounds to notify their presence to you. The enemy AI is surprisingly good as they are very intellectual and will dodge and attack you in a gory and sickening manner. But fear not. Torque has a wide selection of weapons which players can use to attack the monsters with everything he's got. Most games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill have very limited ammunitions and players must learn to ration them well. But in the Suffering, ammos are scattered everywhere, so you don't have to be a nervous wreck and start counting every shots you've made. Torque can take a certain amount of damage before dying so you can just blast your way through and kill monsters the way they deserve to die.
The storyline in the Suffering is deep and touching in its own right but at some point it can be quite dry as well. But the most exciting aspect is the morality system. Players can have the option of finishing the game and achieve the good ending, the neural ending or the bad ending. How that is achieved is by the players's choice of execution. There are cops, inmates, civilians and other innocent bystanders lying around in the game, and if you perform good deeds like sparing their lives, aiding them out of this hellhole and just being a good person, you will achieve a good ending. You will see pleasant images like Torque's ex-wife Carmen congratulating him for being such an angel. But if your inner sin is darker than you positive soul and start blasting everybody you see, you will get a bad ending and Torque will appear as an ugly zombie. But if you wish to ignore the civilians, you will get a neutral ending.
With all these insane stuff happening around, there's definitely some replay value in the Suffering as players would want to unlock every page they left out in the Archive page and to unlock all three endings to see Torque's fate in each ending. The graphics may not be the best highlight of the game but the gory effects really stand out because blood gets splattered all over the place in a realistic manner. There aren't any music in this games either which puts the Suffering in a fair position. The voice acting is great, but the countless swearing are just irrelevant, uncool and unnecessary. Saying the F word too many times doesn't make you strong. It makes you look weak and pathetic.
The Suffering may not be the best horror game in the market, but it does have some quality to it and it will be a wonderful addition to your horror collection alongside Resident Evil and Silent Hill series. If you own a PlayStation 2 or an XBOX, and would like to know the true meaning of the word insanity, the Suffering shall be the one to define it for you.