Gaming Target - Xbox: The Suffering

Written by Kyle Williams on September 05, 2003

First Impressions: If this doesn't scare kids away from a life of crime, nothing will.

There aren't many videogames that revolve around the main character being in prison. In fact, I can't think of a single one. Sure, games like Dead to Rights do have you break out of prison early in the game, but nothing takes place predominantly in a prison. That is, nothing until The Suffering hits store shelves in February. Now, The Suffering isn't all cops and robbers, it's a psychological brain tweak that will make you think that games like Resident Evil are a walk in the park. A zombie infested park, but a park nonetheless.

Meet Torque. He's been convicted of murdering his wife and children. He can't remember committing the crime. Unfortunately, he can't remember not committing it either. Sitting on Death Row, he's come to realize that amnesia is a bitch. And then things get messed up. The Suffering is going beyond prison walls and into the depths of a near-insane psyche. Evil begins to seep from the walls as evil creatures take over the facility and Torque will have to fight for both his life and his sanity. Fortunately, over the course of the game Torque will begin to remember the events surrounding his family's death and the history of Carnate Island, the prison that he has recently arrived at. The real trick is that the final outcome will be based entirely off of how you play Torque throughout the game.

With The Suffering, Seattle-based Surreal Studios is teaming up with Midway to break the mold of the horror genre, mixing in a lot more action and depth then we've traditionally seen in a fright-fest. Instead of having to dispel a few measly zombies, you will be defending Torque from literal hordes of enemies. The key seems to be speeding the whole experience up for players, leading them from one intense situation to the next. This should broaden the experience beyond Resident Evil and Silent Hill freaks, branching into the grasp of the more mainstream game player.

The Suffering is also releasing control of the camera to the player, again pulling the experience closer to a traditional action title then most horror games are. This does present a few challenges to the Surreal team though, as the fixed camera has really helped define how horror games are made. Traditionally, the fixed camera has provided poor viewing angles that obscure frightening happenings and it has allowed for the creation of really creepy pre-rendered backgrounds. So what does this mean for The Suffering? A new way of approaching things. The game will rely more on psychological terror than shock value, preying on what you think you know and what you thought you saw.

In addition to speeding up the pace of the horror genre and drawing you in deeper than any horror title to date, The Suffering is introducing a slew of really messed up creatures to torment Torque in his quest for sanity. Based off of various styles of execution, each of the games creatures are twisted visions of humanity that will prey on human emotion to pull you deeper into darkness. Dialog will press your buttons and pry Torque's inner demons to the surface. It doesn't hurt that Hollywood legend Stan Winston came in and worked with Surreal to flesh out the creature designs.