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Suffering is easily one of the PS2 games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: August 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

On the eastern shores of the United States lies the high security island prison known as Abbott State Penitentary. A man known as Torque is being led to his cell in death row for the charge of murdering his wife and kids, yet he doesnt remember any of it. Once Torque is in his locked down cell, and after a heated argument between fellow death-rowers, things start to go bad. An earthquake begins, the lights go out, and people start dying - reports of "spider like creatures with blades" are pouring in from around the prison. Eventually one these monsters cuts open your (Torque's) cell, and its up to you to escape with your life... and as Torque progresses through the game, he'll uncover what exactly happened when he blacked out and found his family dead, and

If you didn't guess it you control Torque. You can switch between third-person view & first person view, each with it's own up and downs. Anyway, you basically run around gathering a small array of devastating weapons like dual revolvers, a shotgun, a tommy gun, shivs, a flamethrower, grenades, TNT sticks, molotov cocktails, etc. AYou run, jump, do rolls, and turn into a monster!? Thats right. You turn into a fierce monster that has these attacks that kill anything in it's path..as you move on Dr. Killjoy (yeah, hes this doctor from the glory days of Abbott but hes dead and is shown through projection films.. yeah) reveals to you that when you transform into the monster you don't "really" change, but rather go completley bezerk and the adrenaline makes you think you look like a monster.

To be honest, this game is real fast paced fileld with gore and action so some people will be dissapointed when they see a lack of puzzles. If you like really complex and hard puzzles you will not find them here because the riddles and whatever Torque has to solve are quite simple & only really require him to move a locker over a drain or cut a rope.

One thing I would like to point out that Namco & Surreal managed to pull off something I have only seen done in the game Cold Winter, and that is giving each individual character unique personalities. Everyone you meet up with will be scared and will surley let you know it in a variety of ways (such as tossing grenades at you, firing at you, cursing at you, asking you to lock them in a jail cell..you get it). Others are slowly going mad, some don't trust you (and for good reason.. your a death row inmate hah) and are skeptical to join you, while others shout in joy as they tear through enemies. With this done you really feel like your part of the game, not just a player, and that every character in the game is a living being. Truley amazing.

To be honest, the graphics are okay to say the least. The AI controlled human models seem a bit blocky and outdated, but since most of the humans die fast it isn't too important. What is important is how Torque and the monsters look. Each monster looks very grotesque and just simply looks violent and scary, especially the final boss. On the other hand, Torque looks kinda weird - he looks more like an anerexic monkey with sideburns than he does a human killing machine. Eh. However the levels are really detailed and dark, like the forest or the jail each with THEIR own miserable backstories,that truley adding to the horrific atmosphere that is The Suffering.

The music and sound effects are freaky. The music, when it does play, usually sounds like techno-metal music and (at certain times I should say) help intensify the situation you may be facing. Take the last fight, your battling a HUGE and more twisted version of your monster self at some docks, and as you fight there is this heavy metal guitars mixed with some electronica music. Other times though it doesn't fit. The sound effects are perfect. Explosions sound great, the guns sound great - more specifically the shotgun gives an extremley satisfying BOOM! when shot. The voice acting is pretty good, and the screams are really intense.. which also goes back to that unique personality thing and making you feel like each character is real.

Sadly though, the PS2 version of one of Namco's greatest games is plauged with glitches, slow frame rates and bugs near the end of the game. When the action really gets going, I mean your surrounded by like 50 enemies all closing in on you, the game gets real slow.. things dont load like trees and stuff.. and every once in awhile you'll find yourself stuck in one spot and not being able to move. But if you can overlook that, you're in for a great ride.

The Suffering isn't really all that hard (on medium anyway) nor is it long.. but thanks to having three endings the replay value is pretty high. When you meet people, like this black inmate who needs your help to escape, you have a choice to help 'em out or blow their freaking head away, and depending on what you do it will affect your ending. There is the "good ending" (which I got) where you help everyone and you find out that when you transform into the monster you dont really transform... then there is the "neutral ending" where you kill or save 50% of the people. Then there is the evil one where you basically slaughtered everyone who came corssed your path. Either way the ending movie is pretty gruesome - you see how your family was truley killed with your wife being beaten with a bat, your own kid drowned in the tub, and your youngest tossed out a window. Its kinda nasty, but yeah.. Also, when you beat the game, you get to play a level that was cut out of the game. Go see it

To sum it, you have to play The Suffering if you haven't already. Its a real great game, fun for anyone who likes shooting, horror, violence..whatever, you name it its in there. Also, its cheap too. So get out there and get this!!!

Josh Ruffier

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This was quite possibly one of the best and scariest video games I have ever played. I mean the enemies are based off of execution methods used through out history as of ways to kill off all those nasty criminals. Not only is that scary as hell; its very original. The game is deffinetly very dark and a must for fans of survival horror and action games. The story, as demented as it may be, is very well done and really gets you hooked.

Gruesome and uniquely fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you like creepy 3rd person shooters (there's also a 1st person option), this is a GREAT game.

You find yourself being walked into death row for murdering your family. Within moments of entering your cell, all hell breaks loose. Almost literally.

You're now on a mission to get yourself out of the prison while facing a multitude of uniquely gruesome monsters. Each kind is based on a form of execution (or other deaths, like being buried alive), and they're viscious.

There's lots of blood, and as you move through the prison there are massacred corpses of inmates and guards everywhere. They didn't have a fun time dying, trust me.

Fighting is fairly simple and you have a nice range of weapons to gather along the way. Ammo, health, and other items are plentiful enough without being overabundant, and there's a great "beast mode" where you can transform into a monster yourself to dispatch those pesky creatures.

The backstory is interesting and the game is filled with occasional hallucinations and flashes of vague imagery regarding your dead family and the prison's past.

It's great to look at, and it adds to the tension and scariness when you have to rely on your flashlight or flares to see in dark areas.

Although I haven't finished it yet, I'm smitten, and there are alternate endings depending on how you behave. Should you just kill that frightened guard or inmate that wants to tag along or let him live? It might be a good idea to let these people live, as they sometimes lead the way for you. Example: A scared-to-death guard leads you to the shack that opens the way to the graveyard/quarry/asylum section. Once you're there and he says he'll just stay behind, it's up to you whether to leave him or waste him. The ending will reflect these choices, being "good," "bad," or "neutral." Since I've done a mix of both, I'm interested in seeing which one I'll get.

Anyway, this game is fantastic to play and see. If you're into gruesome survival games with a good sprinkling of reasonable puzzle-solving, this is definitely worth getting.

Scary + Fun = Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: November 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Well, I have played this once or twice at a cousin's house and we had SO much fun. It is the PERFECT combination of creepiness and fun.

You are a man who is sent to prison to die for murdering his family which he can't remember about. In the game you have the power to transform into this monster thing. You encounter different monsters in the game. There are ones that burrow underground while others climb on the cieling. Oh, and lots of blood =D

Overall, I think that it is an awsome game... and very scary.(play it with all of the lights off and the door closed)

Great

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: November 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm too much of a sissy to play this game(or most other shooter games) myself, but I loved watching my boyfriend play it. He's been telling me about it for a while and finally I got to actually see. I love that there are so many options to the game. You don't just play through a certain senario and finish the game. When you're done you can restart and have a whole new story to go through depending on what you do.
Choose to be good and help people survive, choose to be bad and beat the baddies to killing the prison guards and scared cons or just take the total insanity route and run around as a monster thing.
I'm buying the second one for my boyfriend for Christmas. Great present for us both.

Dear God the Humanity of it all!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Wow, was I surprised by this game! what Violence, What Gore! and I must say that after several hours (of getting the willies and getting spooked) I began to notice that I wasnt feeling so hot after a while and i realized its all the mood,setting,and Intense Violence and gore of this game was actually starting to make me actually Feel like I was In Prison and demons were after me! truly nausiating (and i was feeling a little ill by now) gore and violence (mind you my repetition about it is because I need others to understand this game is FOR ADULTS ONLY!!!) ok after a while of some really scary exploration you find that you arent alone, quite the opposite! demons and freakish nightmares run amok everywhere and jump out at you In that Perfectly Spooky way that this game has captured. Far superior to ANY other Survival Horror game out there (including the resident evils though I admit it is similar) the gore may be too much even for some adults and the themes really make it that much more Sinister. the game does have a few graphical and one or 2 sound errors but nothing that will truly be noticable.

Graphics: 4 out of 5 a little choppy otherwise on par

Sound: 5 of 5! Scary, Creepy, and nausiatingly nasty!

Gameplay: controls may seem weird at first (being able to go FPS or 3PS) but get Very easy and user friendly. **Note** as you progress because in the beginning of the game you cannot attack or do much of anything but walk so you think "how do I attack?" it all becomes clear within 5 minutes because the beginning of the game teaches you how to use everything as each thing becomes available (such as transforming into a Murderous Demon!) but the best part of this game is the Freedom of Choice you are granted. dont like the guy you have to protect to the next area *just listen to the voices* and choose! either to kill him (as I did because he wouldn't shaddup about me following him outside so he Annoyed me and Bang dead! kinda satisfying in a creepy "get in touch with the Inner killer in you" way a 5 Star great without a doubt few games have ever altered my mood in such a way and also spooked me enough to actually jump! PerfectionThe Suffering

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