Tormented Souls 2 Review: An Old-School Horror Masterpiece That's Trying to Self-Destruct
This is the game Resident Evil and Silent Hill should be looking at for inspiration.
Let's get one thing straight. Tormented Souls 1 was a fantastic surprise. A passionate, slightly janky, and deeply earnest love letter to the golden age of survival horror. It was a game made by fans, and you could feel it in every fixed camera angle and cryptic puzzle.
Tormented Souls 2 is different.
This is what happens when that passion gets a real budget, a boatload of experience, and a shot of pure, uncut ambition. This isn't just a love letter anymore. This is a full-blown, confident attempt to reclaim the genre.
It's bigger, smarter, and better in almost every conceivable way. It's also, at the time of this review, a technical mess that made me want to alt-F4 and lose an hour of progress. Which I did. Twice.
The Art of Old-School Terror
First off, the atmosphere is so thick you could cut it with a rusty scalpel. Dual Effect has mastered the art of the fixed camera. Every single shot is a deliberate, cinematic composition designed to hide things from you, to build dread, to make you ask, "What's in that shadow the camera won't show me?"
The game loves to use Dutch angles, tilting the entire world on its axis just to make you feel disoriented. The lighting is phenomenal, with your tiny lighter casting long, dancing shadows that turn every piece of furniture into a potential monster.
And the sound. My god, the sound design. This is a game you play with headphones, volume cranked. It’s all about what you don't see. The wet scrape from a room you haven't entered. The groan from a dark corridor just off-camera. The sudden, pounding music that kicks in before you see the threat. I haven't felt this kind of slow-burn, stomach-churning dread in years.
That Classic Movement, But Good
Okay, let's talk about the controls, because this is where the "tank" debate always comes up.
When I say "tank controls," I mean that old-school style where your character moves relative to themselves, not the camera. Pressing "W" makes Caroline walk forward, and "A" and "D" pivot her left and right. It’s the classic setup that feels heavy and deliberate.
Tormented Souls 2 knows this is a stumbling block for some, so it just... gives you the modern option, too. You can use the classic pivot-style, or you can have full 360-degree, "analog-style" movement where "W" moves you toward the top of the screen, "S" toward the bottom, and so on. It's fluid and responsive.
But the real magic is how it blends this with modern sensibilities. Caroline can move while reloading. She has a dedicated dodge button. It's this beautiful hybrid of old-school weight and new-school quality-of-life. It still feels like a classic survival horror game, but it’s one that respects your muscle memory and doesn't feel like you're fighting the controls more than the monsters.
A Labyrinth Worthy of the '90s
The first game gave us a mansion. This one gives us a whole damn town. The world of Villa Hess is a sprawling, intricate puzzle box built on that "recursive unlocking" design that makes Resident Evil 1 a timeless masterpiece.
This is a game that respects your intelligence. You're constantly finding a weird medallion or a shaped key that makes you go, "Oh, I know exactly where that goes!" You're backtracking through this huge, interconnected map, opening shortcuts and slowly, satisfyingly mastering the labyrinth. It feels more like Silent Hill this time, and I am all for it.
And the puzzles. Thank Christ, the puzzles are good. They're not the Tormented Souls 1 kind of puzzles, which I'm pretty sure required a degree in astrophysics and a guide open on a second monitor.
These are challenging, logic-based puzzles that make you feel smart when you solve them. They require you to observe, to read notes, and to actually think. I only got truly stuck once, and it was because I missed an obvious item. I'll take that over "read 20 pages of pretentious lore to find one number" any day of the week.
A Word on 'Bad' Combat
This is where the game will divide people, and where I'm firmly on its side. The combat is not an action game. It's stiff. It's clunky. It's supposed to be.
Caroline is not a commando. She is a survivor. Every fight is a desperate, clumsy, panic-inducing struggle. You're not circle-strafing; you're desperately backpedaling, trying to land one nailgun shot before you get mauled. Some people hate that you can't cancel your firing animation to dodge, but that's the point. You have to commit to the shot and accept the risk.
This is survival horror. Ammo is so scarce that I felt a physical pang of guilt firing a single shotgun shell. Healing items are like gold. And the save system? Limited save tapes, just like the old days.
This is where the real tension comes from. Do I risk fighting this... thing... and waste precious ammo? Or do I try to juke it in a narrow hallway and pray? Do I use one of my last save tapes now, or do I push on, risking an hour of progress? It's magnificent.
Where the Stitches Come Apart
Okay. Now for the bad.
This game, at launch, is buggy. I'm not talking about a few framerate dips. I'm talking game-breaking, "force-quit-and-lose-an-hour" bugs. For a game with limited saves, this is fucking unacceptable.
I personally got soft-locked at a "cryptex puzzle," forcing me to reload a save from 45 minutes prior. I've seen reports of an elevator bug that traps you, and a game-breaking bug where a key "school fuse" just... disappears, killing your entire save. Achievements are borked, and I've crashed to desktop twice.
This is a brilliant game held together with spit and prayer.
And then... then there's the pacing. This game is long. My playthrough clocked in around 25 hours (Including the…amazing forced progress breaking bugs), which is just exhausting for a game this tense. It overstays its welcome.
Some sections are just pure, unfiltered frustration. The "Processing Plant" is a boring, uninspired shooter section that feels like it belongs in a different, worse game.
And the cemetery. My god, the cemetery. This area is a masterclass in how to ruin tension. It's full of these wailing, phasing wraith enemies that swarm you, stunlock you in tight corridors, and are just... not fun. It's not tense. It's not scary. It's irritating. One person called them the "most annoying enemy in the history of gaming," and I'm not sure I disagree. It’s pure drudgery.
But God, Is It Good
Despite the bugs, the one terrible area, and the marathon pacing, the rest of the game is phenomenal.
The story is B-movie cheese, but it's our cheese. And the voice acting is miles better than the first game's charmingly bad delivery. The actors are trying, there was clearly direction, and it keeps you in the moment.
For its very fair price, this game is a goddamn steal. In an age of €80 disappointments and live-service trash, this is a 20-hour, high-effort, single-player masterpiece.
The Verdict
Tormented Souls 2 is brilliant. It's also a broken, frustrating mess at times.
It is, without a doubt, one of the best and most authentic classic survival horror games I've played in the last decade. The atmosphere, the puzzles, and the "recursive" world design are absolutely top-tier. It's what fans of the genre have been begging for.
But you have to be willing to wade through a swamp of technical issues and a few deeply misguided enemy encounters to see its genius.
If you're a die-hard fan of old Resident Evil and Silent Hill, you have to play this. It's the new gold standard for the modern-classic hybrid. Just... maybe wait for a patch. Or three.
Score: 8.0/10 - A perfect Resident Evil love letter, delivered by a postman who trips and drops it in the mud right at your door.
We at NLM received a key for this game for free, this however didn't impact our review in any way.
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