The Suffering: Ties That Bind Preview

Sometime in March last year, Surreal granted us with a dark and gritty survival horror game labeled as 'The Suffering'. The game allowed us to fight some imaginatively designed monsters and had non-linear game play. In addition, it brought us a lot of gory high-paced action and the main protagonist that could transform into a monster. Though The Suffering featured some interesting settings and the possibility to make your own decisions as to which way you're going to play, the puzzles were somehow flat and unimpressive, ranging from simple to somewhat complicated, but quite unoriginal. Maybe Capcom's Dino Crisis 2 is to blame for this: while not quite a survival horror game itself (excuse me, but running away from carnivore dinosaurs with very few bullets sounds quite like a horror to me!), it featured a shift from a puzzle-oriented survival horror to a fast-paced heart-throbbing survival (horror) experience.

Suddenly I'm having thoughts about my mom's womb.

Are you gonna shoot that or whistle Dixie?

It seems that modern-day survival horrors cannot simply rely on the grisly atmosphere, creepy dissonant background noises and secret cults based in small American villages; we need much more excitement than that. I couldn't agree more, but please, give us back the puzzles. You probably wouldn't understand that, but we need them.

The Suffering, as we have experienced ourselves so many times before, seldom ends, so it comes as no surprise that the sequel to Surreal's horror shooter is scheduled for a release in fall this year. After being known simply as 'The Suffering 2', the sequel to this interesting title was recently dubbed as 'The Suffering: Ties That Bind' by Midway. I don't know about you, but for me, the mere mention of the word 'ties' invokes horror. Will explain later.

If you've played the original Suffering, you're familiar with the fact that you play the role of Torque, a convict accused of murdering his wife and two children and thus being 'rewarded' with a death sentence. In the original Suffering, Torque was forced to escape the high-security prison by killing the bestiary of aggressive and quite unfriendly monsters that overran the prison compound shortly after his arrival. Now he is back, trying to survive a new series of encounters with dozens of dangerous monsters and live to tell the tale. Moreover, the game will continue right where the original left off, and Torque will have to fight the monsters, which are even more numerous and more varied than before. And by 'varied', I mean there will be 15 new creatures, or at least that's what we're promised - which is good, as a game like The Suffering could always use more horribly disfigured abominations. With new monsters also come new weapons - unfortunately, there are no details concerning what those weapons are. We do know the original weapons will be back, and the grenade launcher will find its way into the Ties That Bind. Players will now be able to dual wield weapons, which is certainly a nice addition. Still, Torque will carry only two weapons at a time - a fact he will have to compensate for by using the primary and the secondary mode of fire. In case he feels like fighting up close & personal, he will also have the ability to engage in some melee fights, which really comes in handy in some situations. Torque's moves have also undergone some readjustment, so this time it will be easier for him to jump, thus making the jumping puzzles easier we hope.

It looks like the new Suffering has lost nothing of its edge, so we should once again expect a macabre game that takes place in some grim and deeply disturbing settings where many hideous monsters await for you to brighten up their dreary existence. The monsters from the original, we are warned, will make a reappearance, but will be much more difficult to kill. The Lead Designer Andre Maguire claims the settings will also be more varied than before, and adds: "Torque begins his journey just moments after the first game concluded. Just as he was getting to grips with his past, Torque finds himself back in his home town of Baltimore. It's here where the lines between what's real and what's not become blurred and more horrific than ever."

This takes me back to '68 and 'Nam...

The last sight the mini-boss ever saw.

Maybe it is time to explain why the game bears the title "Ties That Bind'. You see, as the game lets you continue immediately where its predecessor has finished, it is clear that you have some unfinished business to do, so it's with a reason that the prison Dr Killjoy and some other characters from the original make their appearance in the sequel.

Torque's murdered wife Carmen also makes a comeback, so you now see how difficult it is sometimes to get rid of your wife. Being dead, she will of course have to appear as a ghost in order to help her anti-hero husband, and her role will now be even more important than in the original, as she will prefer to help the 'good' rather than the 'bad' Torque. We can see that Torque will once again be able to unravel the story differently depending on his behavior in game. The sequel will also introduce some new characters, such as a girl named Jordan who represents the Foundation - a paramilitary organization that seeks to find and take care of the origin of the bizarre creatures that infested the prison.

Now, as to why I shiver at the word 'ties', the answer is simple: have you ever met my relatives? No? Good. You lucky bastard.

While we're positive the sequel will bring us the same amount of excitement while allowing us, so to speak, to show the monsters the proverbial end of the stick, we do hope the matter of somewhat repetitive fights will be addressed in 'Ties That Bind'. The problem with the original was that the initially exciting and interesting fights would soon become tiring and repetitive, so let's hope this time we'll be granted with a more varied scope of ways to kill our enemies. Though we are not encouraged to be mean, I am positive we will find the way to show our evil side and do some bad things while nobody's looking.