Retro Review: The Suffering: Ties That Bind

Hello Fellow Torques,
I have to start this review stating that I had a very weird experience with this game! I played the demo after I finished the first game and I really noticed the difference of quality between the two so I decided to go out and get the second game to see how the story of Torque pans out. As stated before.. when it comes to MY reviews they are based on MY experiences only and no one else's!

This game was really a missed opportunity for Surreal Software. The game for some reason would stutter anytime I would use a shotgun or morph into my true self. I did not have this issue with the demo of this game and my system specs are way beyond the specs needed. I lowered the resolution to 800x600 took off shadows, AF, AA disabled and it still acted the same way. It would stutter so bad that I bet I was getting 4FPS and that is no joke! So if I was going to SUFFER then I will just keep the baby decked out! I kept playing this game even with this glitch because the story was really good and I wanted to see how it all ends up. Then the weird experience happened.

I got to chapter 14 and all of the sudden the game ran like a true champion I have no idea what happened or what, but it was just awesome to see it running the way that it should've been from the start! It never glitched again and I only wish that it was this way throughout the game but unfortunately for me it was not to be. After I finished the game I thought I would load an old game to see if the glitch was gone and sad to say it was still there in the early chapters. I would still recommend the game since you can pick it up for $20.00 and the story was worth it!

PROS
1. The new characters kept it fresh even with the old ones there as well
2. The voice acting was nicer this time around
3. I love the theme to the game
4. The menu has a real cool "burning through the film effect"
5. The dark theme of the story was really great!
6. Depending if you were good or evil made your inner self have different abilities

Cons
1. The glitch annoyed me and it really made me SUFFER
2. The one character that I really wanted to fight I didn't (Creeper)
3. Since some of the characters could only be killed by your "true self" you had to keep killing the weak ones to get your insanity meter up to transform.
4. DID I MENTION THE GLITCH THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE PASSED THROUGH Q.A.?????

until next time..

LORD NATAS