The Suffering Review

Playing games should never be about suffering. If you are 'the suffering' while playing games, either videogames in general are not something you enjoy or the game you're playing is not something you enjoy ... at that given time ... when you're suffering. Drugs are 'the suffering,' kids, so don't use them. (This paragraph was a bitch to edit. I suffered. - Ed)

But that's not to say that I was the sufferer while playing this game - quite the contrary. I wasn't doing drugs and therefore I wasn't suffering. The Suffering's ominous title isn't a sign of what's to come in the game. What most people consider suffering isn't what I experienced while playing this one, and not just because I wasn't doing drugs.

Wait! Don't leave! Before your head explodes from my mad writing skills or you get an irresistible urge to click the little 'x' marked box in the top right corner of your browser window, let me just say in my defense that ... I love you all. Yes, that's right. And let's leave it at that. (Are you absolutely positive you aren't doing drugs? It's okay, you can tell us! - Ed)

The Suffering was first released for the Xbox by Midway, only to be ported later on to the PC and subsequently published by the folks at Encore. The game garnered a fair bit of positive feedback from the Xbox press, but the sad truth is that the Xbox press is about as credible as a bunch of Justin Timberlake groupies sitting on a panel and giving marks for Justin's vocal skills. In any case, the fact that I have such a high opinion of mainstream Xbox press doesn't, or rather shouldn't, translate to what I think about The Suffering, and luckily it doesn't.

In The Suffering you play the role of a happy-go-lucky death row inmate lovingly named Torq. The guy was sentenced for killing his wife and children (nasty), but certain things don't add up; at least not in his head. So as the story goes, you end up at a maximum security prison where you await your execution, and naturally, whatever can go wrong, goes wrong.

The Suffering is an eclectic mix of various games and movies. Essentially, it's a survival horror game with emphasis on action that's in some ways inspired by Lovecraft and movies like Hellraiser, The Shining and others. The plot is presented in such a way that it keeps the suspense throughout the game. Your character keeps getting flashbacks of his late wife and children as he tries to escape the crumbling monster-infested prison.
I don't know if I communicated this well enough for you. The prison is overrun by vile monsters and you need to find a way to survive and get out alive, as all hell breaks loose around you - quite literally. We're talking about a textbook example of a survival horror plot, folks. (*coughdoomcough* - Ed) Some entity out there is screwing with Torq's head and the blackouts that he used to have (he claims he had one such blackout when his wife and kids were murdered) are somehow related to it. Not only that, but the intense torture that Torq has been put through in the past, makes him turn into a hideous monster when the insanity bar is high enough. Kind of like the Hulk really. Evidently, the story is not particularly original as it borrows many concepts from a whole shitload of comics, books and movies, but it is suspenseful enough to hold your attention while you play.

And while the narrative is decent, some of the dialogue is too aggressive, being chock full of swearing, and as such it comes off far too fake. Hence, some of the NPCs appear downright silly even though they're supposed to convey emotions of horror and utter confusion. Some of the voice-overs sadly don't help much in those regards either. In all fairness, certain parts of the dialogue/voice acting seem genuinely creepy and expressive, but every now and then they're spoiled by these phony accents and "street talk" that just doesn't sound like anything a rugged death row inmate would say in real life. Overall, however, suffice it to say that the narrative and dialogue are good enough to immerse you in the experience, which should be good enough for anyone.

For what is set to achieve in its specific genre, The Suffering fully delivers. The ambient sounds coupled with nice art design of the genuinely scary monsters, broken down prison interiors and mutilated guards and inmates provide the perfect eerie, claustrophobic atmosphere for a survival horror game, while the intense and fluid action ensures that the player is either spooked or thoroughly entertained with a healthy kick of his own adrenaline at all times.

Surreal has done most things right when it comes to making this one play smoothly. The weapons are fun to use and well balanced -- my personal favorites being the dual pistols and the shotty. And when you turn into a hideous monster, it's very fun to slice and dice through throngs of other monsters. The AI code is not remarkable, but it's very solid and it does what it's supposed to without many hitches. The pacing of the action has been done just right. Players get a nice break from bashing monsters in the form of entertaining but not too difficult puzzles. Some of them even require you to think and act while you shoot, which is really something that's been dearly missing from many of today's action adventure games.

Also helping to make the action fun are the well ported controls, camera work and all other aspects of the interface that seem very PC friendly. All of these elements clearly indicate that we're talking about a quality console port; the kind you'd expect to see from the likes of Rockstar, so congrats to Surreal for even being mentioned in the same context with those guys.

Although The Suffering delivers on most if not all important facets of the genre - the scary atmosphere and fun and intense action - there are still some things about it that won't gel too well with many of you. Like the rather repetitive level design for example. Most of the game takes place at the same prison complex and by the end of it the surroundings will appear just too familiar. (Because they try to put so much variety into prison design, right? - Ed) By themselves the levels are nicely designed, with plenty of gruesome, mood-setting details in the backdrop. In addition, you'll rarely get lost and you'll have fun puzzles to deal with. Taken as a whole, however, it just seems like Surreal has overexploited the prison theme. OK, so all prison cell blocks look pretty-much the same, but we're talking about a videogame here! Level designers could've taken a cue from the art team who has done a stand up job on the monsters and special effects.