The basic premise about The Suffering
is that you're a prisoner scheduled for execution for some reason. However,
everyone else in the penitentiary already seems to be dead, so surely it
should be a straight-forward walk in the park to escape to freedom? Not so.
The place is full of the ghosts of previously-executed bad guys and they'll
do their level best to stop you... or such is the plan. The blurb for this
game makes it sound like anything and everything could happen when you come
face-to-face against the enemy - so why does the same thing keep happening?
So, what could possibly go wrong with it to make you feel like you're suffering
for having bought it? Well, you get the impression that
when you start to break out of jail, you'll be up against creatures that are
not of this earth, but there's only a handful of different ones and this soon
becomes repetitve, despite the fact that one of them has a nice line in
jumping up onto the ceiling and scuttling about spider-like. However, he'll
drop down to the ground again and you can easily continue to shoot him or
twat him again with whatever you're carrying. Job done.
Often you'll come across locked doors all round, but supposed tension will
be added by something weaving its tentacles about and ripping the door off
it's hinges for you to walk through. You know that you'll be able to carry
on without being caught up in those as they're just there for effect... so,
not much of an effect then.
As for complexity, this doesn't even begin to have that. I thought I was
cornered in one room early on as I walked into the room with a gas chamber.
The main door locked behind me... the gas chamber door opened... the
room started to fill with gas... but as the baddie had smashed a window to
get to me (despite him being a ghost!), I could quickly dash through the hole
and bugger off.
On the plus side, you can save whenever you like, in addition to the frequent
checkpoints, and also shoot the limbs off some of the baddies, but you can
do that in a number of other games that have come before.
You can pick up weapons and power-ups along the way, there are nine levels,
but given that there's just one set path here, the gameplay is far too linear.
The dull graphics make it look like an old Playstation game and as you run
about, your character lurches about like he's got rickets.
Oh, and you have an 'insanity meter' which is like turning into the Hulk
when you get angry - and that doesn't just happen when the fuckwits at the
post office card you when you're out, and then shut up shop before you get
home from work(!)
The Suffering is just a poor man's
Manhunt.
Buy that. It's great. You can have a gun if you want.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
So, what could possibly go wrong with it to make you feel like you're suffering
for having bought it? Well, you get the impression that
when you start to break out of jail, you'll be up against creatures that are
not of this earth, but there's only a handful of different ones and this soon
becomes repetitve, despite the fact that one of them has a nice line in
jumping up onto the ceiling and scuttling about spider-like. However, he'll
drop down to the ground again and you can easily continue to shoot him or
twat him again with whatever you're carrying. Job done.
On the plus side, you can save whenever you like, in addition to the frequent
checkpoints, and also shoot the limbs off some of the baddies, but you can
do that in a number of other games that have come before.
