Tormented Souls 2 Review: The Excellent Sequel to an Increasingly Promising Old-School Survival Horror

Tormented Souls was a brilliant and heartfelt, albeit imperfect, homage to that golden age of survival horror that saw titles like Silent Hill and Resident Evil as its greatest exponents. Developed with passion by brothers Gabriel and German Araneda of Dual Effect Games, the first chapter demonstrated how even a small independent Chilean production, light-years away from the AAA titles of Capcom and Konami, could capture and modernize the essence of a genre: the oppressive atmosphere, strategic fixed camera angles, and, above all, the intricate puzzles that forced us to pick up our notepad again. The experience in Wildberger Hospital was not without technical flaws, especially in voice acting and cutscenes, but its beating heart – that combination of aberrant monster design and cliché but well-crafted environments – overcame any rough edges. The game established itself as a must-play title for purists, eager to rediscover forced backtracking and careful resource management. After closing Caroline Walker's narrative circle with multiple endings and leaving us with hope for a bright future for the studio, it was natural to expect a sequel that could consolidate the foundations laid.

With Tormented Souls 2 (Here on Amazon), protagonist Caroline Walker is once again forced to "get her hands dirty" and re-embrace her powers to face a new nightmare, this time not for her identity, but to save her twin sister Anna, tormented by visions after the events of the villa/hospital – if you're wondering about the age disparity despite them being twins, you need to play the first chapter and unlock the secret ending, which this new chapter is based on. The sequel presents itself as a natural and necessary expansion, staying true to the pillars that made the original great: fixed camera angles, the use of light against lethal darkness, point-and-click inspired puzzles, and a constant sense of vulnerability. Dual Effect has listened to player feedback, introducing user experience improvements, such as the fluidity of combat controls, while expanding the setting from a single hospital to the entire town of Villa Hess. The promise was for a broader narrative, with new monstrosities, and an experience that evolves without betraying its roots, pushing our grey matter and stress resistance further and further. Having completed it, I can confirm that the developers have succeeded in evolving the original experience without distorting it. There are still necessary steps to be taken regarding the rendering of human beings, and something can also be done on the voice acting side, although it has improved compared to the previous one, but all the pillars that supported the first chapter are here more refined.

The Horrors of Villa Hess

The story picks up several months after the traumatic events experienced by Caroline Walker in Wildberger Hospital. After mending the fragments of her identity and saving her twin sister Anna, Caroline harbors the legitimate hope of a finally normal life. However, fate, or the cursed legacy of their family, has something else in store. Anna, whose mind has been deeply shaken by the experiments she underwent and by her proximity to that "Other Side" that Caroline is able to cross, begins to suffer from a mysterious and chilling affliction. Her visions of violence and death not only torment her in her sleep but manifest in disturbing drawings that, with growing horror, somehow seem to take shape in reality.

Faced with the futility of conventional remedies – a theme, that of the impotence of modern medicine against supernatural horror, which is a clear topos of the genre – Caroline is forced to turn once again to what is forbidden. The search for a cure to free Anna from this mysterious illness leads the two sisters to the remote town of Villa Hess, in southern Chile. The place presents itself as a secluded community, but their true destination is a hidden clinic within a convent/monastery run by a religious order. The journey, apparently suggested by an old acquaintance of Caroline's, concludes with their arrival at the facility, where the amiable smile of the nuns soon conceals a nauseating truth.

As soon as night falls, Caroline awakens from a deep sleep and discovers that Anna has been kidnapped. The action is not random: it is the work of a twisted cult led by Mother Lucia, the matriarch of the order. The sect has a terrifying goal: to complete the work of Caroline and Anna's grandfather, Dr. Noah, who had initiated the unthinkable experiments at Wildberger Hospital. Caroline immediately finds herself trapped within the claustrophobic walls of the convent, waking up in an infirmary, but it is within these same walls that she finds her old friend: the trusty pneumatic nail gun, a sign that the fight for survival has begun again.

From this point, exploration expands beyond the labyrinthine monastery, revealing the horrors of all Villa Hess, which hides dark secrets and abominable creatures. Caroline will once again have to rely on her supernatural powers, the journey to the "Other Side" and the interaction with "replays" of memories, to manipulate reality, solve the puzzles that block her path, and unravel the different layers of a complex story, whose sole objective is to free Anna from a fate that seems to haunt the two twins. The stakes are her sister's salvation and, implicitly, the possibility of redeeming their lives from a past that refuses to let them go.

After concluding my journey in Villa Hess, I can confirm that the narrative structure is once again well-crafted and, above all, benefits greatly from the expansion of the game world, no longer confined to the walls of a single hospital. The plot is certainly not lacking in twists, managing to keep attention and tension alive as Caroline delves into the new environments: every glimpse of the labyrinthine convent (the most successful setting in terms of detail), the unsettling shopping mall, and the other areas of the city brings with it genuine curiosity for the horror in store. The pace of the experience, however, can be deliberately slowed down in several passages. This cadence is dictated by the lack of clarity on already visited areas or the specific links between key items and puzzles, pushing us to frequent back-and-forth movements.

This continuous backtracking is, in fact, one of the most classic pleasures of the genre: it's the game that forces us to personally keep track of what's happening and where each element should be used, without any concessions or modern shortcuts. Although the dialogues don't reach exceptional heights – and the rough edges in terms of acting persist, though improved compared to the previous chapter – Dual Effect has once again managed to weave an interesting plot that effectively builds upon the foundations laid in the first chapter. The human character models still retain the indie nature of the production, but there's one element that is now difficult to call a flaw: Caroline's impractical attire. I believe it has now become a distinctive, almost iconic, trait, deliberately maintained to stand out and add that touch of eccentricity that, in an old-school context, doesn't feel out of place at all.

Puzzles and Abominations: The Art of Surviving Villa Hess

Returning to the core gameplay itself, the first Tormented Souls recalled old-school horror in many aspects, including the save system. Tormented Souls 2 introduces greater flexibility: the classic save system, based on magnetic tapes and safe rooms, remains intact in normal mode, where tapes are available in more than generous quantities, so the problem of running out does not exist. However, Dual Effect wanted to make the game a little more accommodating by including a kind of assisted mode for less purist players, which introduces autosave, absent in standard mode. Consistent with tradition, there is also a hard mode, locked until the game is completed for the first time.

The most significant step forward concerns inventory management. This remains, as in the first chapter, optimally divided into logical sections (items, weapons/resources, documents) and is not subject to space limitations, an excellent modernization of a genre trope that eliminates the need to find chests. What shines is the introduction of quick weapon selection, which allows up to four items to be assigned to the D-Pad. Or rather, and here's the initial snag, the logical structure is that of the D-Pad but in reality, the change occurs via the right analog stick. This quick selection function is absolutely practical and customizable, allowing you to avoid constantly delving into menus to change equipment, a great advantage in terms of combat and survival. For example, I always set the lighter – essential due to the persistent darkness theme – along with three weapons. This gives an idea of how to set up the selection without necessarily relying only on offense.

The only reservation, which touches the combat system at its core, is a certain delay felt precisely in switching from one weapon to another. It often happened to me, wanting to conserve ammunition, to shoot to stun the enemy and then try to finish them quickly in melee (with a hammer or crowbar), but the stun time is relatively short and the weapon change is not so immediate. This translates into the concrete risk of wasting powerful ammunition, like a shotgun blast, due to the excitement of the moment and a fluidity that is not yet optimal in the transition. Although quick select provides a fundamental turning point, this aspect could certainly be improved.

The greater variety of environments has led to a parallel improvement in enemy design and variety: there are more of them and some are completely unexpected. The work done has been meticulous, as the new abominations consistently reflect the specific theme of the environment in which they are found. If the monastery has more standard enemies suitable for an initial area, the transition to the water treatment plant, for example, reveals creatures that recall the logic of the place and the sea, giving a suggestive Lovecraftian effect. This attention to detail is appreciable and enriches the immersion in horror.

That said, it's the bosses that particularly convinced me. Their section is ingenious because it fully exploits the parallel world mechanic (the Other Side). Boss fights require a specific logic: first, you face them in their "other" version, then, beyond standard offense with our weapons, the actual damage that leads to elimination only occurs through interaction with the surrounding environment and objects. It's a change of perspective that transforms the boss into a timed environmental puzzle, forcing the player not only to shoot but to understand the twisted and original logic of the Other Side to defeat the threat.

On the combat front, to conclude this part, the feel of the individual weapons is good and originality reigns supreme. We find an arsenal that is indeed makeshift, but at the same time unique: from the nail gun, which also has a submachine gun variant (consuming coil nails as specific ammunition), to the shotgun assembled piece by piece, to the crossbow that shoots acid vials instead of classic bolts. This singularity is complemented by simpler blunt weapons, like the hammer. Furthermore, movement is more fluid than in the first chapter (which, while not having pure tank controls, was decidedly more rigid) and Caroline's backward dodge is more reactive and manageable with greater precision, crucial for avoiding hits. Finally, enemies react well to hits: depending on the weapon and the frequency with which they are hit, they not only stagger but can actually be stunned. This opens up a valuable window of opportunity for melee attacks and the consequent conservation of bullets, a fundamental aspect of any self-respecting survival horror.

As for puzzles and exploratory interaction, the title maintains the high standards of the first chapter, but with significant refinements. These are not radical additions, but rather a perfectioning: the puzzles are, if possible, even more intricate and complex, requiring reflection that goes far beyond immediate resolution. What proves to be a huge pro, but can also challenge players accustomed to classic schemes, is the use of non-key items, namely the weapons themselves, to solve part of the puzzle. Take the crowbar or the hammer (the first blunt weapon found): the latter specifically can be used to break a padlock, instead of wasting ammunition with a shooting action that, given the fixed camera angles, would not be consistent with precise aiming anyway. This variation on the theme pushes the player to think outside the conventional schemes of the genre, making the puzzle's resolution even more rewarding.

The mechanics of the so-called Other Side, which is a distorted and rotten mirror of reality, and Replays (past sequences stored on videotapes) have both been further deepened. The Other Side now allows actions with tangible repercussions on reality: consider the torture chamber in the monastery, where activating a mechanism in that world causes the analogous corpse in the real world to be dismembered, allowing the necessary item to be obtained. As for the videotapes, they offer a true dive into the past that the player can modify. By finding the tape and performing a specific action within that limited portion of the scenario (the replay), events are altered so that in the future – that is, in our present game – something we wanted to avoid does not happen. It is a model of time alteration that winks at titles like the original Life is Strange, but re-elaborated in a horror key and made more elaborate in terms of logical resolution. The puzzle solving in Tormented Souls 2 thus proves to be not only on par with the first, but significantly improved, solidifying itself as its main pillar.

Between Light Play and Anguishing Silences

As I have already mentioned, the rough edges in terms of human character modeling are a legacy of the project's indie nature and, although improved, remain the visually weakest point of the production; however, it is important to acknowledge that, overall, the graphics department has made a significant leap forward compared to the first chapter, far exceeding expectations for a title of this size.

Tormented Souls 2 does not strive for exaggerated photorealism; instead, it excels in the only thing that truly matters in a survival horror: atmosphere. The environment design is excellent, and the use of lighting is extremely skillful: flickering lights, the flame of our lighter piercing absolute darkness, and reflections on surfaces are handled with great care. All of this builds an oppressive mood that is textbook for the genre. It is evident that the greatest emphasis has been placed on environment design and, above all, on the aberrant realization of monsters – all elements that boast significantly higher detail compared, precisely, to the models of Caroline and the other characters.

On the performance front, the title has been optimized to ensure a stable 60fps frame rate on latest-generation consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X) and PC, a requirement that is now almost mandatory for a fluid experience. It must be said that the visual rendering, especially due to the lighting effects and more complex textures, is quite demanding in terms of hardware, especially when venturing into more open areas or those with complex lighting. It is therefore not excluded that some older configurations may experience small fluctuations; nevertheless, the goal of general stability has been achieved, making the experience much more reactive in combat.

Finally, audio confirms itself as a fundamental pillar of anguish. The sound design has been refined to maintain the same excellent quality levels as its predecessor. The atmosphere is not only created by darkness but also by sudden silences, the unsettling sounds of enemies whose origin is unclear, and, in general, by an ambient soundtrack that fuels constant paranoia. Sound is the weapon Dual Effect uses to subtly lower tension, in perfect Silent Hill style, making every step a moment of potential terror.