Midway, a company recognized for their stable of arcade style games and over the top sports titles, tries their hand at something completely removed from their current library of games with The Suffering.  The Suffering tells the tale of Torque, a man condemned to die by lethal injection for the “alleged” brutal murders of his wife and two children, who’s destined to spend his final days at Abbott State Penitentiary, located on Carnate Island, a small island off the coast of Maryland.  As can be expected with a game of this nature, Carnate Island, as well as the penitentiary, have unique histories rife with tragedy and of course, E-V-I-L.

The game begins with Torque’s arrival on death row, but his welcoming is short lived, as all hell suddenly, and quite literally, breaks loose.  An earthquake strikes and in the ensuing chaos, guards and prisoners alike are brutally eviscerated by unseen assailants attacking from the shadows.  As luck would have it, Torque is left untouched and free, as the earthquake has conveniently dispatched his cell door, but as you soon find out, “free” is a relative term here.  Torque must now find his way off of the island, while dispatching some of the most disturbing creatures yet rendered in the world of videogaming.

The Suffering, a fast paced, frenetic shooter at heart, can be played in its entirety in either the standard third person view or in the first person view.  This is a nice touch for a game like this, because it eliminates one of the biggest headaches in the survival horror genre, not being able to see what’s just off the screen.  It’s not very practical, nor advisable to play for long in the first person view however, simply because of the sheer number of creatures attacking from each and every direction, but it is incredibly useful to use in order to get a better look at your surroundings, allowing you to somewhat prepare yourself for what lies at the end of a hallway or on the other side of the room.  In the third person view, you control Torque just as you would in the first person view, moving with the left stick, while turning and aiming with the right stick.  This may take some getting accustomed to for some gamers, but it is worth the hassle, because it gives you much more freedom and maneuverability as you try and dispatch a room full of the nasties.  And trust me; maneuverability is very important here as the game throws an impressive number of enemies at you.  No slow moving, moaning zombies here, the bad boys of The Suffering are fast, angry, and dangerous.  Whereas the pace of most games in this genre is plodding at best, The Suffering is all about action, building tension through the sheer sense of feeling overwhelmed by creatures best left to the nightmares of others. 

Another facet of the gameplay that Midway has strayed from the beaten path from is in the puzzle solving elements of the gameplay.  Being a huge fan of the genre, especially Silent Hill, you can’t help but admit that most of the puzzles in these games totally break the pacing of the game to a slow crawl, either because the puzzles that must be solved are completely derivative or because of their complete lack of relevance to the story and or environment.  If I ever have to solve another word puzzle or place the correct “piece” in the correct “hole” puzzle again in a survival horror game, it’ll be too soon.  The Suffering does away with that whole aspect with its puzzles amounting to finding the room that has the button to open the locked gates hindering your progress.  This helps keep the pace fast and fun, and it fits.  You’re running around a prison, of course gates and doorways are going to be electronically locked.

While playing as Torque you’ll come across a nice arsenal of weapons to use against the monsters from the prison favorite “shiv” to a Tommy gun.  Ammo for the weapons is plentiful, encouraging the player to blast anything and everything back to wherever in the heck it came from.  One of the cooler features of the game is the insanity meter.  Torque is prone to “black outs”, which plays a significant part in the story; mainly because Torque has no recollection of whether or not he did indeed murder his family.  This is explained by Torque being able to transform into a hideous monster whenever his insanity meter fills.  Once he transforms, he can easily dispatch the hordes with his brutal, new power, but you must be careful.  Stay too long in the beast mode and you run the risk of dying.  Very cool touch.  Another cool aspect of the gameplay is the multiple endings depending on how you play the game.  Each ending, three in all, are completely different from each other and whereas in games like Silent Hill, the endings change depending on the seemingly mundane things you may or may not do, not so here.  There is no doubt what actions have bearing on the ending you receive.  Help fellow inmates and prison guards from being killed by the monsters; you receive the “good” ending.  Kill other humans with reckless abandon; you get the “bad” ending.  Skate somewhere in between and you get a fitting end for those actions.  The developers did a really nice job in developing the endings to suit each scenario.

The graphics of the game, on the whole, are pretty nice, but not jaw dropping.  The environments are suitably dark, dank, and dire, ratcheting up the immersion factor suitably.  You really feel as if you are roaming the halls and real estate of a haunted island and prison.  Where the graphics really shine is in the character models and design.  Midway hired Stan Winston to design the creatures and it shows.  Each creature symbolizes the various forms of execution employed at the prison over its history (ie…lethal injection, firing squad, gas chamber) and they use the means of their demeans to try and bring about your own, such as the “Mainliners”, victims of lethal injection, pulling needles from their back to hurl at you.  The creatures are very well done, suitably scary, disturbing, and detailed.  The only problem with the graphics, as far the PS2 version goes, is that there is some degree of slow down when there are a lot of creatures on screen at once, but while it’s noticeable, it’s a small gripe in the big scheme of things.

The sound really stands out in this game.  The voice work is top notch, but be warned; there is no shortage of “f-bombs” being dropped by the characters.  It may seem at times to be over the top to some, but given the situation and environment, it’s fitting.  How many of us would expect death row inmates to use proper English and to shy away from foul language?  “Golly gee, you sure are one messed up poopy head,” just wouldn’t work in this game.  The sound effects are well done as well, from the distinct sounds of each creature, to the firing of each weapon, to the footfalls of running down a deserted stone hallway all conspire together to make for a realistic sounding game.  The developers also took a page from the Silent Hill notebook, using ambient sounds, as well as the sounds of something just out of sight to ramp up the tension and fright of the game to great effect.  Sometimes it’s the things you can’t see that prove to be the scariest.

In addition to the game, Midway has also included some DVD features, which make for some really nice extras.  Included are a “making of” feature, a sneak preview of PSI-OPS, and my personal favorite a documentary about haunted prisons.  Having worked a second job while in the Marine Corps for a security company that had been hired to patrol an old deserted prison that was allegedly haunted, I especially enjoyed that feature.  While on the subject, I should also add that the game does a spectacular job of capturing the whole “mood” of wandering a freaked out, should’ve been condemned, and blown up long ago prison.  Those are the type of feelings that one doesn’t forget and while playing I found some of these feelings and memories floating back to the surface, so it’s obvious Midway did their homework for an authentic environment.

In closing, The Suffering is a refreshing addition to the survival horror genre.  Doing away with the slow, plodding pace of its predecessors in favor of a fast pace thrill fest, The Suffering equals and in most cases, exceeds the scares offered up by the rest of the genre.  Make no mistake, however, this game isn’t for everyone.  Your alter ego in the game is a convicted murderer, sentenced to death, and the game makes absolutely no apologies for its graphic, violent, and disturbing story and gameplay.  However, if you’re a fan of the Resident Evils and Silent Hills of the world, or adult themed games, give The Suffering a chance, you’ll have a fiendishly good time. 

Gameplay: 8.5
The fast paced action never gets tired or boring.  Torque controls fluidly, but the control setup may take some getting used to.  The aiming can get a bit “wonky” in some of the more intense battles, but it never proves to detract from the experience.

Graphics: 8.5 
Good, but not great.  Some of the textures look a little muddy, but the character models are great, as are the environments.  It may seem drab to some, but remember where the game takes place.

Sound: 9.0
The voice work is top notch, as are the sound effects and ambient noises.

Difficulty: Medium
With four different difficulty settings, every gamer should find a level of difficulty that suits their styles and abilities.

Concept: 8.5 
The Suffering is a refreshing, new take on the survival horror genre.  The story, characters, and settings all meld together to form a unique package and a different take on the genre.

Overall: 8.5
Midway has a strong, new franchise on its hands with The Suffering.  The Suffering is full of both fast paced action and frights, real and imagined.  Fans of the genre should certainly plan a trip to Carnate Island to visit Abbott Penitentiary, it’s a trip you’ll enjoy and won’t soon forget.  For those turned off by the gameplay mechanics of Silent Hill and Resident Evil, this may be the horror game you’ve been waiting for.