adventure

I've been a fan of horror films for over twenty-five years now and have reached the conclusion that I can no longer be scared by them. I'm not saying that to be macho. I like being scared. I want to be scared. It's the reason I still go to horror movies.

I've of course tried to get my fix from horror video games. Resident Evil, Clock Tower, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, ect. I've played whatever the critics or fans recommended as scary. To be honest, I found most of them to be laughable and some flat out boring. Playing The Suffering was like hitting the jackpot.

Some things I recommend before playing:

1) If possible play on the Xbox in Dolby Digital with a good receiver and speakers.

The sound FX are what drive this game; they're second to none. Fighting the monsters isn't really scary. It's actually comforting. What's scary are the noises you hear coming from the shadows. Something clawing it's way through the ducts behind you and to the right. The sound of men screaming, shots being fired, then flesh being torn apart to your left. A monster trying to smash it's way through the door directly in front of you which you've just tried to open but found locked. The sounds in this game are phenomenal.

2) Adjust the brightness of you T.V. to a low level.

The game will ask you to do this before you start playing. It's similar to other horror video games. You really need to have dark shadows for all those scary sounds to be effective.

3) Play in first-person mode.

Third-person mode is easier. You have a wider perspective, which makes it easier to move and see around you, but that wider perspective feels like a buffer zone between you and the monsters. You feel like you don't have to watch your back because the camera is doing it for you. First-person is a little more difficult to move around but much more intense. You feel like your really there.

4) Play alone, late at night with the lights off.

You know why.

The game starts off with you in a cell on death row. You've murdered your wife and children but don't remember because you suffer from blackouts. Soon the lights go out and you hear the other inmates being torn apart. Something pulls your cell door off and your set loose into the prison. Eventually, your given a choice of paths to take. You can either be a good guy and work with other survivors or be a bad guy and massacre everyone. Of course, I chose to kill everyone (lets face it, what gamer wont) and soon found myself suffering from horrible, and frequent, hallucinations of my murdered family and other things. And the voices, oh those voices in your head telling you to kill; that the person standing in front of you is just a piece of trash and deserve to be slaughtered by you. Though, those voices are contradicted by the voice of your dead wife telling you not to do it. That she could never love a murderer. God this is twisted.

I guess this is a good point to mention that this is the most masochistic game I've ever played. I recently finished Manhunt (which I loved) and this game blows it away. Some deaths are vivid and brutal. Innocent guard trying to help you: butcher him. Guard locked in gas chamber: gas him. Man strapped in electric chair: juice him. Parents should also know that besides the violence and gore this game also has adult language. Including a four letter profanity used to describe a certain part of the female anatomy.

This game is not your typical survival horror game. Not only is it actually scary, it's also action packed. There are plenty of things to fight and you better move pretty fast or your dead. There's also a good amount of weapons for you to use. The gameplay is more like Doom than Resident Evil (epically in first-person). You will eventually be taught, by a ghost, how to go into psycho mode. After you kill enough things your psycho meter fills up and you can transform into a raging beast. In this form you can dismember your victims with one swipe of your hand.

What can I say? I loved this game. I've looked long and hard for something to be able to scare me again. Playing this game made me feel like a little kid watching a horror movie through my fingers. This mothers intense.

I'm a huge fan of horror survival video games because they allow you get inside the situation and explore the mystery for yourself. Silent Hill would have to be my all-time favourite, followed closely by Project Zero/Fatal Frame. After playing The Suffering, I think I've found a new favourite. I can see influences from other horror games in there such as Alice and Resident Evil, even elements of Silent Hill 2. However the concept, character and monster designs are unique and original. The coolest looking (also one of the most annoying) creatures in the game would have to be the slayers. This game is atmospheric, ultra-violent and spooky in a fun old fashioned way. It will keep you enthralled to the very end. It's not really as scary as everyone's making it out to be though. The bonus video feature on the Eastern State Penitentiary is even creepier than the game. It's simply an awesome bloody slash 'em, blow 'em up game which also circulates around sequences of an elusive murder story.
I hope the team who created this game make a new horror game in the same vain.
Oh, and for those of you who screaming in panty-soiling terror over this game. Remember it is just a game which has been designed for entertainment purposes - and obviously it isn't suitable for everyone but you have a choice not to play it as you would avoid most horror films. Sheesh!

I buy a lot of video games, sometime too many for my own good. More often than not, I play through enough before it either collects dust forever or it gets traded in for credit towards a new game. Sometimes, when I finally do beat a game, the overall thrill I initally experienced just failed to transcend the entire game and upon completion, I knew I'd never play it again. The Suffering fails to meet the criteria in both categories. From the outset, the game pulls you in head first for a ride that ultimately is a mystery until the very end.

It starts out with you as Torque, a hardened criminal with zero emotional output. You are being lead off to your maximum security prison cell in the worst prison in America. Almost immediately upon arrival, strange phenoms start to become very real. In the blink of an eye, hideous creatures being spewing from every orifice in the building like a swarm of rats. Lights shatter. Guards get mauled. Prisoners are chopped in half. The entire system goes awry. You; as Torque, are basically free to battle the evil within the prison and ultimately, within yourself.

The Suffering plays very similarly to Max Payne. It is a third-person action game that is propelled like a first-person shooter. The scenery is obviously different; though no less gritty, but the controls are smooth and easy to learn like Max Payne. There are enough similarites to many other action titles with it's constant build-up to something and it's bevy of puzzle-solving. The Suffering sets itself apart with it's sounds. If you have even a decent stereo TV with left and right speakers, you can feel the intensity through the smattering of creaks and distant screams. The atmosphere pulls you in and occasionally catches you napping, resulting in you jumping out of your seat in the broadest of daylights.

One of my favorite aspects of the game is the creature design. Rather than take the Resident Evil route, the designers incorporated more of a Silent Hill feel to the monster designs so rather than campiness, you get a more gruesome being to contend with. Each creature represents different methods of capital punishment and each have their own methods of being dealt with so you can't exactly go blasting your way through the entire game. Also, the new creatures get introduced at a slower pace than in other survival horror games. It is in this manner that the game lures you in as if to get you comfortable with what you've experienced, only to throw something at you when you least expect it.

The end is a mystery because despite getting used to battling the variety of creatures, you aren't even slightly tipped off as to which of the three endings you will get. The end boss was very intimidating and took some experimenting with to figure out the best way to defeat it but rest assured, it can be done. Without ruining the ending (which would be impossible without getting all 3 endings), I am willing to bet that there is no easy-to swallow "happy ending". Nothing is resolved which leaves things wide open for a sequel. Rounding off the entire package is a cool "Making Of" feature, a featurette on a haunted prison in Pennsylvania and a trailer for Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (another super great Midway game). Midway seems to be going out of their way to create new content and give the consumer more than they asked for and as a result, they are making better games. If you are looking for a game that isn't stingy on the atmosphere or the gameplay, you can't go wrong with The Suffering.