THE SUFFERING: TIES THAT BIND (XBOX)

THE SUFFERING: TIES THAT BIND (XBOX)
By Aine

The Suffering: Ties That Bind is the sequel to The Suffering, from Midway Games. In Ties That Bind we follow the lead character, Torque, as he has now escaped from the prison island and is back in Baltimore. But he isn’t the only one to make it off the island:
There are tons of old and new creepy monsters destroying the city.

If you have a saved game of the first Suffering on your hard drive (X Box) then you will start the game with a good, evil or neutral beginning depending on how you finished the last one. But newcomers to the series are also welcomed to jump right in. I think there are a few things that make a little more sense if you played the first game, but it also works as a stand-alone title.

You’ll begin by being thrown into the prison world and at first it may seem confusing. I had issues with the controls at first. After a few minutes I mostly got used to how the controls were, my main problem was the camera and the ability to turn around quickly. There are WAY too many opportunities for the bad guys to sneak up on you, and sometimes you won’t even know it until they’ve already hacked away half of your health meter. This maddening trend kept up the entire game until I developed the “Mario” tactic of jumping around a lot to make sure I could see what was coming: annoying, but effective. Also of note in the settings department: I found that setting the contrast per the game’s recommendation made it so that I couldn’t see anything but Torque, ever. If you face this problem just adjust the contrast however you want and ignore their suggestions.

I’ll get my gripes out of the way first so we can move on to the fun stuff. Other than the above mentioned items, I felt that the enemies were too uneven. Sometimes you’d be able to handle them, then suddenly, more would appear at a rate not even Bishop in Aliens could keep up with, and this is on the Easy setting, I played on every difficulty level and each one was astoundingly hard.

While it is immensely cool that Torque gets pissed off and turns into a giant monster, I am not happy about turning into a monster being mandatory to kill certain enemies or get through certain areas, I.E. to break through walls, etc. I’d prefer if there were multiple ways to kill enemies, and maybe being able to throw a bomb at a wall to break through instead of always having to go into monster mode. Don’t get me wrong, I love being a bad ass monster that destroys everything in its path with a simple sway, but I want it to be my choice. I’d also like the creatures to do more actual “suffering” when killed, but that might just be my sickness coming through.

There is also a morality system in Ties That Bind, as was the case in the original Suffering game. This is a concept that I thoroughly dig on and there are three different endings depending on what kind of moral path you take: good, neutral and evil. There are also a few extras to certain endings depending on how a few key tasks went. My only annoyance with this is that certain items are only unlocked for certain moralities. Such as journal pages from the scientist, Jordan, etc. I like the idea of different endings, but I’m not so thrilled with not getting to see every possible thing unless I replay the game repeatedly. I guess it’s just a ploy to keep us playing though, so I really can’t blame them.

I noticed a few glitches during the game. These may not be experienced by everyone, but I know they drove me nuts. At one point I somehow managed to get outside of an area when I was supposed to be inside. By doing this I was of course trapped in limbo, unable to move on, and unable to go back. Needless to say I had to restart, which did not make my day. I also got trapped on top of or behind things several times, and on occasion I would go through a door only to have the game disappear. All I saw was gray, I could hear everything, but not see or move forward; I couldn’t even commit suicide so again, I had to restart.

Some of the back-story I could take or leave. I know I should care about the origins of Torque and his deceased family, but I’m more of an action oriented girl when it comes to these kinds of games. The things involving Torque’s enemy were excellent and interesting, and I loved hearing Michael Clarke Duncan voicing the evil Blackmore. But there were times when I was damn glad Carmen is dead, she was annoying as hell. And at times the voices repeating things over and over (mostly Carmen) made me press the mute button until it was over.

There’s a pretty linear path set before you so you won’t get lost easily, and the sound is amazing. There were times when my husband laughed at me because I kept getting so scared. The scurrying sound of various creatures in quiet areas was unnerving at best and I struggled to calm down and keep playing many a time. Damn sneaky monsters.

And speaking of the monsters, they were fantastic. All tortured souls who have now become representations of their own horrible lives and deaths. There are junky monsters, which were probably my favorite: those who died from drugs who appear out of puddles in the floor and crawl around like dogs. They toss hypodermic needles at you and jump on you if you try to ignore them. I want one as a pet don’t you?

Still, despite its faults, I loved this game. I’ve played a lot of horror games in my time, including Pong, and I know a good one when I see it. Certain not to be named horror titles have annoying controls, you can’t run, you can’t kill anything without ridiculous puzzles and strategy, and I just get bored with all that. Ties That Bind offers fast-paced action and blood-spewing mayhem all the way through. I look forward to more in this series and from these creators soon.

Check out the game on the web at www.sufferingtiesthatbind.com