The Suffering

[GameChristopher]

I recently replayed this game on an emulator, and holy hell, I forgot about how crazy it was.

 

Here's some highlights from the wiki:

 

"The game tells the story of Torque, a prisoner on death row for murdering his ex-wife and two children, a crime of which he claims to be innocent, saying he blacked out and cannot remember what happened. Shortly after he arrives in Abbot State Penitentiary on Carnate Island, off the coast of Maryland, an earthquake rocks the island, and the prison is attacked by strange supernatural creatures. Torque must attempt to fight his way to freedom, whilst also battling the demons within him, and attempting to remember what really happened to his family. The game features three endings, depending on the players' actions throughout, each of which reveal a different version of the murder of Torque's family."

 

As Torque kills enemies during the game, an on-screen meter called his "Insanity meter" begins to fill. Once it is full, it begins to flash, and at this point, Torque can transform into a monster. In this form, Torque can tear enemies apart and can perform several powerful attacks. The more enemies Torque kills whilst in this form, the more powerful the monster becomes and the more combo moves become available. However, when in this form, Torque's health automatically depletes, and if he doesn't change back to his human form prior to his health meter fully depleting, he will die.[17][18

A major part of the gameplay in The Suffering concerns Torque's morality. At numerous points during the game, the player will encounter situations where they have several choices as to how to proceed. These situations involve NPCs, and the choices are usually to help the person (good morality), kill them (bad morality), or ignore them (neutral morality). In many situations, when Torque first encounters an NPC, the player will hear the voice of Torque's dead wife urging him to help them, and almost immediately afterwards will hear the voice of a demon urging him to kill them. How Torque's actions affect his morality is usually indicated by the reaction of his wife, who will praise him if he commits a good act and chastise him if he does something evil.[18] Often, when Torque saves an NPC, they fight alongside him for a time. However, not every choice presents the player with all three possibilities. For example, when Torque finds the controls to the electric chair, he can turn the chair on to torture an inmate strapped to it (bad morality), or simply ignore the controls (neutral morality). There is no good morality choice available here. Another example is when Torque finds a guard who has had his limbs removed and is slowly dying. He can kill the man to relieve him of his misery (good morality), or ignore him (neutral morality). Here, there is no bad morality choice. Over the course of the game, the decisions made concerning Torque's morality cumulate, and the player will get one of three endings based on Torque's final morality level. The player can get a rough idea of Torque's morality level by both Torque's own physical appearance (he will begin to look less and less human the more evil acts he commits) and by looking at a family photograph which he carries with him at all times; the cleaner the photo, the purer his morality. If the photo is dirty, crumpled and covered in blood, his morality is moving towards evil.

And here's a let's play video that my co-worker and I made:

Edited March 8, 2017 by GameChristopher

[SpooferJahk]

The Suffering, while flawed, was a really cool horror game. Makes me want to get the PC version and try it on my Soundblaster X-Fi for the extra audio immersion from EAX.