This one didn’t do too well in its time, having to follow-up a game as good as The Suffering was a tall order in on itself, as they say, lighting doesn’t strike the same spot twice.
But, since the 1st game did pretty well, they had to make a sequel, truly, the curse of success.
Stan Winston does return to help the team with creature designs, not only bringing back old malefactors, but making completely new ones for the new locale as well.
Let’s take a look at this game, shall we?
Story & Setting
Right after the events of the first game, Torque is captured by The Foundation, an organization dead set on capturing and studying the malefactors, seeing Torque as a key figure in bringing about the creatures, they want to study him.
Yet, another earthquake comes about, bringing the malefactors once more, this time however, the whole city of Baltimore will be their playground, a new stage filled with history of human suffering and malice, bringing about both old and new malefactors.
In all the chaos, Torque manages to escape, now that he has left Carnate Island, he has unfinished business to take care off, more specifically, a man who has been both a mentor and a thorn on his side, Blackmore.
But, who really is Blackmore? What does Blackmore have to do with the murder of Torque’s family? Will Torque be able to unearth the Ties That Bind it all together?
More importantly, will he be able to retain his sanity through the whole ordeal?
So, here is something cool about this game, if the game finds a full save of the previous game, it will allow you to continue directly from the ending you got, which changes slightly how the Foundation captures Torque.
Yet, another earthquake comes about, bringing the malefactors once more, this time however, the whole city of Baltimore will be their playground, a new stage filled with history of human suffering and malice, bringing about both old and new malefactors.
In all the chaos, Torque manages to escape, now that he has left Carnate Island, he has unfinished business to take care off, more specifically, a man who has been both a mentor and a thorn on his side, Blackmore.
But, who really is Blackmore? What does Blackmore have to do with the murder of Torque’s family? Will Torque be able to unearth the Ties That Bind it all together?
More importantly, will he be able to retain his sanity through the whole ordeal?
So, here is something cool about this game, if the game finds a full save of the previous game, it will allow you to continue directly from the ending you got, which changes slightly how the Foundation captures Torque.
Presentation
Its a third-person action horror, in which you can switch to first-person if you wish.
It sticks to its influences, most notably Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Devil May Cry, specially with the use of darkness, cramped spaces, and a devil trigger.
The human models are pretty decent, with fluid animations, some have some interesting idle animations, and the lip-sync is quite good.
Torque’s devil trigger comes in 3 forms, 1 for each morality stage, the good morality one, is blue and retains quite a lot of Torque’s human features, the evil morality one, is red and looks like a demon, finally, the neutral one, looks like a mix of the others, but, most notably, is quite similar to the devil trigger from the 1st game.
Each devil trigger form has its own unique attacks and animations, and, when you transform, you get to see enemies visibly recoil, as well as get a little animation showing you what special attack Torque has unlocked at the moment.
It sticks to its influences, most notably Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Devil May Cry, specially with the use of darkness, cramped spaces, and a devil trigger.
The human models are pretty decent, with fluid animations, some have some interesting idle animations, and the lip-sync is quite good.
Torque’s devil trigger comes in 3 forms, 1 for each morality stage, the good morality one, is blue and retains quite a lot of Torque’s human features, the evil morality one, is red and looks like a demon, finally, the neutral one, looks like a mix of the others, but, most notably, is quite similar to the devil trigger from the 1st game.
Each devil trigger form has its own unique attacks and animations, and, when you transform, you get to see enemies visibly recoil, as well as get a little animation showing you what special attack Torque has unlocked at the moment.
As for the enemies, the malefactors are back, as I said before, just like with the 1st game, a professional make-up artist with quite the resume was part of the creature design team.
Malefactors come in many forms, since all of them are representations of human malice and suffering, each one is themed after either an urban legend of Baltimore, some kind of tragedy, or, some kind of crime which is/was prominent in Baltimore at one point. For example, the slayers return, this time as a representation of blade violence, mainliners return, as representation of drug addiction, triggermen, new malefactors which represent gun violence.
Slayers, Arsonists, and Triggermen, have an elite variants, with slightly different models.
Human enemies make an appearance, the soldiers of the Foundation will be fighting malefactors, as well as shooting Torque on sight, they don’t have much variation, soldier uniforms are uniforms after all, the only noticeable change, is the heavy ones having a helmet and a shield, and some of the regular ones having either a balaclava or a gas mask.
As for spirits hindering Torque’s journey, there are 3 again, Dr. Killjoy makes a return, not much change, now he uses all electronics to move around. We also have 2 evil urban legends, Copperfield the Slave Hunter, who is always accompanied by hound like malefactors, and the other one, The Creeper, a very unhinged character who likes to target women (so unhinged some of his lines were censored in some releases).
Environment wise, Torque travels around the slums of Baltimore, most look similarish, run down house after run down house, the obligatory sewer level, and, yet another prison for a bit. Everything (besides the movie theater, the prison, and the drowning pool) pretty much blend together.
Malefactors come in many forms, since all of them are representations of human malice and suffering, each one is themed after either an urban legend of Baltimore, some kind of tragedy, or, some kind of crime which is/was prominent in Baltimore at one point. For example, the slayers return, this time as a representation of blade violence, mainliners return, as representation of drug addiction, triggermen, new malefactors which represent gun violence.
Slayers, Arsonists, and Triggermen, have an elite variants, with slightly different models.
Human enemies make an appearance, the soldiers of the Foundation will be fighting malefactors, as well as shooting Torque on sight, they don’t have much variation, soldier uniforms are uniforms after all, the only noticeable change, is the heavy ones having a helmet and a shield, and some of the regular ones having either a balaclava or a gas mask.
As for spirits hindering Torque’s journey, there are 3 again, Dr. Killjoy makes a return, not much change, now he uses all electronics to move around. We also have 2 evil urban legends, Copperfield the Slave Hunter, who is always accompanied by hound like malefactors, and the other one, The Creeper, a very unhinged character who likes to target women (so unhinged some of his lines were censored in some releases).
Environment wise, Torque travels around the slums of Baltimore, most look similarish, run down house after run down house, the obligatory sewer level, and, yet another prison for a bit. Everything (besides the movie theater, the prison, and the drowning pool) pretty much blend together.
As for sound, each malefactor has its own sounds, making it quite easy to identify, and prioritize threats, although elite variants don’t have a sound which distinguishes them.
The music isn’t very memorable, and can easily be drowned out by the sounds of fighting, ambient noise is quite decent.
Voice acting wise, this time, Torque talks, but, he only does so about 4 times in the whole story.
Most human enemies like to taunt you, or try to communicate with each other.
For the 3 ghosts, Dr. Killjoy is the standout once again, Copperfield is pretty boring overall, his voice acting is alright, but he is very one note, as for The Creeper, his voice acting pulled it off quite well, the character truly lives up to his name.
NPCs are memorable, the voice actors did manage to make them quite unique on their own right.
The music isn’t very memorable, and can easily be drowned out by the sounds of fighting, ambient noise is quite decent.
Voice acting wise, this time, Torque talks, but, he only does so about 4 times in the whole story.
Most human enemies like to taunt you, or try to communicate with each other.
For the 3 ghosts, Dr. Killjoy is the standout once again, Copperfield is pretty boring overall, his voice acting is alright, but he is very one note, as for The Creeper, his voice acting pulled it off quite well, the character truly lives up to his name.
NPCs are memorable, the voice actors did manage to make them quite unique on their own right.
Mechanics
Torque can only carry 2 weapons at a time, although some weapons can be dual-wielded (Halo 2 came out a year earlier you see), dual-wielded weapons only take 1 weapon slot.
In some areas, the game will place boxes with infinite ammo, for some specific weapon which might be helpful at the moment.
The flashlight can stun slayers for a moment, but other than that, it only serves as illumination (it could also do that in the 1st game, in that one, it was harder to notice).
Thankfully, there is no explosives slot, allowing Torque to carry up to 8 of each kind, with flashbangs, molotovs, and grenades.
Each malefactor has its own behavior and best strategy to be killed/avoided, although sometimes fighting can be mandatory.
For healing, Torque picks up Xombium, but, he used it as he picks it up and he has missing health, not being able to store it, unless the player stays away from it.
Lockers and file cabinets, can be opened, some have a padlock (as well as some ladders and doors) which can be destroyed either with melee or shooting it, sometimes giving ammo or health.
Torque has an insanity bar under his health, which is filled by killing enemies, once is full, Torque can activate his devil trigger, turning into the creature, whose form and attacks depend on his morality.
In some areas, the game will place boxes with infinite ammo, for some specific weapon which might be helpful at the moment.
The flashlight can stun slayers for a moment, but other than that, it only serves as illumination (it could also do that in the 1st game, in that one, it was harder to notice).
Thankfully, there is no explosives slot, allowing Torque to carry up to 8 of each kind, with flashbangs, molotovs, and grenades.
Each malefactor has its own behavior and best strategy to be killed/avoided, although sometimes fighting can be mandatory.
For healing, Torque picks up Xombium, but, he used it as he picks it up and he has missing health, not being able to store it, unless the player stays away from it.
Lockers and file cabinets, can be opened, some have a padlock (as well as some ladders and doors) which can be destroyed either with melee or shooting it, sometimes giving ammo or health.
Torque has an insanity bar under his health, which is filled by killing enemies, once is full, Torque can activate his devil trigger, turning into the creature, whose form and attacks depend on his morality.
Elite enemies, can only be killed by devil trigger attacks, thankfully, they usually summon normal malefactors to help you build meter. Killing elite enemies will fill up insanity completely.
Cracked walls can be destroyed by devil trigger attacks as well.
Puzzles are pretty simple, its usually finding alternate paths to places, pushing buttons, turning valves, or, blowing things up.
There are some turret sections, very 2000s.
Now, the morality system, its quite simple, helping people gives good karma, killing them gives bad karma, and ignoring them is neutral. As I said before, each path gives visual changes to the devil trigger’s appearance and attacks.
Taking consistent decisions going one way, will slowly make the devil trigger form stronger, improving its attacks, and eventually giving a “cataclysm” attack, which replaces the special and is far stronger.
Most good decisions will have Torque escort NPCs, or saving people from malefactors, Copperfield, or The Creeper. Sadly, the NPC AI leaves a lot to be desired.
Most evil decisions, only have to do with Torque killing NPCs.
When an opportunity appears, Torque will hear voices, one from his wife urging him to help people, and the other being Blackmore, urging him to “cull” the weak.
When taking either decision, its correspondent voice will praise Torque.
Some decisions, as well as morality overall, will change dialogues and some cutscenes later on.
Morality level will also determine how boss fights play out. For example, there is a point in which morality level will decide if you fight either Copperfield or The Creeper.
Being evil makes Torque’s model become more corrupted and dirty.
It also affects the ending, but that’s obvious.
Cracked walls can be destroyed by devil trigger attacks as well.
Puzzles are pretty simple, its usually finding alternate paths to places, pushing buttons, turning valves, or, blowing things up.
There are some turret sections, very 2000s.
Now, the morality system, its quite simple, helping people gives good karma, killing them gives bad karma, and ignoring them is neutral. As I said before, each path gives visual changes to the devil trigger’s appearance and attacks.
Taking consistent decisions going one way, will slowly make the devil trigger form stronger, improving its attacks, and eventually giving a “cataclysm” attack, which replaces the special and is far stronger.
Most good decisions will have Torque escort NPCs, or saving people from malefactors, Copperfield, or The Creeper. Sadly, the NPC AI leaves a lot to be desired.
Most evil decisions, only have to do with Torque killing NPCs.
When an opportunity appears, Torque will hear voices, one from his wife urging him to help people, and the other being Blackmore, urging him to “cull” the weak.
When taking either decision, its correspondent voice will praise Torque.
Some decisions, as well as morality overall, will change dialogues and some cutscenes later on.
Morality level will also determine how boss fights play out. For example, there is a point in which morality level will decide if you fight either Copperfield or The Creeper.
Being evil makes Torque’s model become more corrupted and dirty.
It also affects the ending, but that’s obvious.
Final Thoughts
The motto for this game when compared to the 1st one, is 1 step forward, 2 steps back.
Sure, they tried to correct the problems of the 1st game, but, they over corrected quite a lot.
They added a bunch more weapons, but you can only carry 2 at a time.
They limited ammo quite a lot, but realized some areas are impossible without the infinite ammo box.
Can’t stack up on healing, but healing pick ups are always put together, so they are always wasted when you get close.
Devil trigger gets more usage, but elites are very annoying, and they WILL show up when you are escorting NPCs.
There is more NPC interaction, but their AI sucks, has no self-preservation, and its prone to friendly fire.
There is an actual villain, but you would only know him if you got the good ending in the previous game.
I used first-person more, because some guns were very jank when used against small enemies (hounds, and roaches).
The morality system has more consequences, but there is a very cringe moment in which your decisions are evaluated (its as out of place as that one time in Telltale’s TWD game).
There are more malefactors, but many are rehashed versions of the old ones, and the returning ones have very mediocre explanations. Their archive doesn’t have concept art either.
Something cool, is that even if you choose to start from a certain ending of the previous game, you can still change your morality through this game, and the game actually has ways of acknowledging Torque’s morality change between games.
All in all, The Suffering Ties That Bind, isn’t as bad as I expected, the term lackluster does describe it quite well, has some really good ideas and tries to improve upon the shortcomings of the 1st game, but...
Sure, they tried to correct the problems of the 1st game, but, they over corrected quite a lot.
They added a bunch more weapons, but you can only carry 2 at a time.
They limited ammo quite a lot, but realized some areas are impossible without the infinite ammo box.
Can’t stack up on healing, but healing pick ups are always put together, so they are always wasted when you get close.
Devil trigger gets more usage, but elites are very annoying, and they WILL show up when you are escorting NPCs.
There is more NPC interaction, but their AI sucks, has no self-preservation, and its prone to friendly fire.
There is an actual villain, but you would only know him if you got the good ending in the previous game.
I used first-person more, because some guns were very jank when used against small enemies (hounds, and roaches).
The morality system has more consequences, but there is a very cringe moment in which your decisions are evaluated (its as out of place as that one time in Telltale’s TWD game).
There are more malefactors, but many are rehashed versions of the old ones, and the returning ones have very mediocre explanations. Their archive doesn’t have concept art either.
Something cool, is that even if you choose to start from a certain ending of the previous game, you can still change your morality through this game, and the game actually has ways of acknowledging Torque’s morality change between games.
All in all, The Suffering Ties That Bind, isn’t as bad as I expected, the term lackluster does describe it quite well, has some really good ideas and tries to improve upon the shortcomings of the 1st game, but...
Pros
- + Pretty good atmosphere.
- + Excellent creature design.
- + Decent morality system.
Cons
- - Braindead AI.
- - Repetitive combat, with very limited options.
- - Many rehashing of aspects from the previous game.
6
Gameplay
The NPC AI sucks, specially with escort missions, the arsenal is very limited, fights drag on and are very repetitive, some enemies have wonky hit detection, at least is fluid enough when it wants to.
8
Graphics
Very good models and animations, with an stellar creature design, quite creative in their visuals and sounds, the atmosphere in some areas is pretty good, but they tend to blend together a bit.
7
Story
Its cool that they incorporate the endings of the previous game, and that it can change with the morality system, but, it can feel quite contrived, and takes quite a while to get to the point.
7
Sound
Pretty good voice acting, very good and unique sounds for the creatures, but there is a lot of stock sound effects and the music is quite forgettable.
5
Replayability
The biggest incentive is to see the variation brought by the morality system, yet, the gameplay can be quite repetitive to warrant not wanting to do it more than twice.
6.5
out of 10
Overall
The Suffering Ties That Bind tries to correct the shortcomings of the previous game, as well as trying to be an improvement upon it, even though in theory that's what a sequel should do, in this case is more of a matter of 1 step forward 2 steps back. The gameplay can be very repetitive with some combat moments that can drag on and on, the designer's tried many bandage solutions to bullet wound like problems, the story is decent and its cool that its related to the morality system, but it can take quite a while to see the real differences, and the moments in which you are forced to stop suck. Creature design and atmosphere are pretty good, but its let down by the gameplay. All in all, its not a must play in any shape or form, not even if you liked the 1st game, its only if you are curious to see where Torque's journey goes after Carnate.
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