Tormented Souls is very much a byproduct from the intense love for the early Resident EvilВ and Silent Hill games. The inventory system is akin to Silent Hill and not so much Resident Evil, though, so you donвЂ™t have to worry about item boxes. You even have to use items to save, although the game gives you too few of these early on while doling them out more frequently later, which seemed uneven. ItвЂ™s exactly what youвЂ™d want from a game such as this. The mansion itself is creepy, with detailed hallways and unique rooms that harbored a sense of place. The visuals of Tormented SoulsвЂ environment had me similarly hooked. These are quite well written, and I was interested in seeing where the story was going in the end, even if itвЂ™s easy to guess based on the setup alone. ThereвЂ™s some dialogue with other characters, all delivered with weirdly stilted, genre-appropriate voice acting, but all of the backstory is delivered via journal entries youвЂ™ll find scattered around. The story is actually surprisingly good here, aside from some completely unexplained time travel mechanics that make no sense whatsoever. What else could be going on when you wake up in a mansion/hospital? SheвЂ™s missing an eye and finds herself caught up in some bizarre ritual being perpetrated by a cult. Upon venturing inside, sheвЂ™s knocked out before waking up in a bathtub. She then heads to the location the photo was sent from: a seemingly abandoned mansion/hospital (thatвЂ™s a mansion that has been turned into a hospital because reasons). The story centers around Caroline Walker, a young woman who receives a mysterious photo of twin sisters in the mail. Tormented Souls may have the word вЂњsoulsвЂќ in its title, but itвЂ™s very much in the mold of survival horror games from the mid-to-late вЂ™90s. It attempts to make up for it by throwing plenty of healing items and ammo at you, but this is a game that genre stalwarts will enjoy.

The game is let down by poor enemy placement, however. The level and environmental design (barring a dark, dull section at the very end), puzzles, and atmosphere are mostly where they need to be. Tormented Souls, which is almost shameless in its throwback nature, gets much of it right. The resource management, the level design, the puzzle-solving itвЂ™s all part of what makes the genre feel so very special. Old-school survival horror games scratch a specific itch that isnвЂ™t easy to fill.

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