Tormented Souls

The story starts off interesting. The brutal beginning and the mystery of the seemingly abandoned hospital is intriguing. While the main story remains interesting, the main plot twist is obvious early on. The dense atmosphere of the dark rooms and corridors helps to carry the game a bit, but I felt that the last quarter could have been made shorter. Nothing new is revealed, you're just running around in dark, linear tunnels solving a couple of puzzles and killing enemies.

The puzzles are generally good. There are a couple of less obvious ones and I had to check the solution online for three or four of them. There is not much real world logic in the puzzles though. Why would anyone hide a stapler inside such an elaborate puzzle box? The old-fashioned saving mechanism with the limited save items might have you repeating a puzzle sometimes, which is a bit tiresome.

Naturally there is also some combat. Towards the end a bit too much even. The enemies look original, but their behavior is very basic. One could argue that the main character is not a grizzled war veteran and therefore the combat is a bit clumsy. My issue with the combat is that the camera angels are often positioned so that you can't see far in front of you. Therefore you're often shooting off screen and have no idea how close the enemy is. This is mitigated by some stronger weapons you get later, as they often have a stun effect. Ammo is not abundant, but using it wisely goes a long way. Health items are more rare.

The graphics are surprisingly good. Roaming the hospital with only a lighter that casts strong shadows looks great. Character models a well animated, with the exception of the stunned enemies.

Voice acting and music is something else, though. The characters don't sound very natural, but they do a passable job. There is not much dialogue anyway. The music is okay, but not very memorable. It fits the mood perfectly though. The save room music always brought my pulse down, while a rarely used tense, slowly building theme made me nervous about what's going to happen.

I'd recommend the game for horror fans. It's not perfect, but good content for the price.