#TORMENTED SOULS PS4 DEMO PORTABLE#

While I can’t speak for that enemy’s backstory, which doesn’t do it any favors, I can appreciate the use of the wheel squeaks to ramp up the intensity.Ĭaroline escapes from them soon enough, and finds herself in an X-Ray room that’s apparently now also a chapel, as a priest is reading a shrouded corpse its last rites. I’m not a fan of wheelchairs being used as horror devices, but like anything used to garner terror, it’s more to do with how much thought goes into the reasons behind its use. This foe doesn’t move especially quickly, but there’s an unnerving swiftness to the way they wheel themselves towards Caroline, the squeak of the wheels increasing in volume as they gain ground on her. The building creaks in that unnerving way so many old buildings do, and occasionally something will fall somewhere, and after accessing the basement level, Caroline catches a glimpse of something ahead of her, and shortly after is confronted by a grotesque figure in a wheelchair and they’re wielding some pretty stabby-looking knives. The build-up to the first enemy encounter is nicely done.

You could run through it and keep your weapon ready, or you could ensure you don’t blindly stumble into a horrifying situation by equipping your lighter. You’re repeatedly asked to decide on the best course of action whilst in gloom.

#TORMENTED SOULS PS4 DEMO PORTABLE#

The dark in the game is truly blinding without a portable light source to hand, and staying in it negatively affects Caroline’s state of mind. The game opts for a classic fixed camera which really helps to highlight the scenery properly and set the mood and atmosphere up superbly well. The grimy, dark halls of the hospital areas hint at a bloody history and their intersection with the mansion’s grandiose decor tells its own story. Tormented Souls ’ environments are very much the star of the show as it stands. Tormented Souls’ tale already feels strangely comforting in its rougher edges. It’s a tale as old as time, with more than an air of the melodramatic and enough oak-paneled line delivery to make a substantially-sized cabin. It’s a survival horror game, so you’d be correct to assume that some shit goes down that makes escape difficult, but wholly necessary for her continued survival.

So Caroline begins to explore the dark, and seemingly abandoned mansion/hospital, only having the flame of a lighter and the odd candle to illuminate the gloom. Not off to the best of starts is our poor Caroline. Upon arriving, Caroline is knocked out, and awakens in a bathtub, with a tube from a respirator lodged down her throat. The protagonist, Caroline Walker, heads to Winterlake Mansion, which serves as a hospital, in search of twin girls from a photograph she received. The setup to Tormented Souls makes it abundantly clear just how indebted to the early 2000s formula it is. It doesn’t make it a better game necessarily, but it does show confidence. Tormented Souls is gleeful in its character’s suffering, which is something many throwbacks try to compromise on. There’s a real mean streak to it that calls upon the more controversial games of that era. Its developer, Dual Effect, has seemingly made a survival horror throwback that understands its influences remarkably well whilst not forgetting to throw in a few modern quality of life touches to the package to ensure it slips comfortably between nostalgia and ease of use. įlaws and all, Tormented Souls feels like it belongs in that era. Those few precious years, before the impact of Resident Evil 4 shifted the goalposts, housed memorable cult favorites such as ObScure, Rule of Rose, and Haunting Ground, as well as the more noted classics of the generation such as Silent Hill 2. This was arguably the peak of it at the time.

While plenty of indie developers have captured the essence of survival horror as it was on the original PlayStation, far fewer have managed to do so with the PlayStation 2 era of the sub-genre.

Tormented souls ps4 demo