Ludography
80/100
Players43 ratings
82/100
Critics3 reviews

Where to get it

Tormented Souls cover

2021 · Abstract Digital works · Adventure · Horror

Tormented Souls

Classic survival horror is back! Inspired by the original Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark series, Tormented Souls modernizes with a fresh twist on the fixed perspective adventure. While investigating the disappearance of twin girls at Winterlake, something terrible happens to Caroline Walker. Waking in the dead of night, naked and hooked up to some kind of outdated medical equipment in a bathtub, Caroline must fight for her life as she explores the halls of the abandoned mansion.

Released
27 August 2021
Platforms
Nintendo SwitchNintendo Switch 2PlayStation 4PlayStation 5WindowsXbox OneXbox Series X/S
Genres
AdventureHorrorIndiePuzzleShooter
Developers
Abstract Digital worksDual Effect
Publishers
PQube
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Third person
Themes
ActionHorrorThrillerSurvivalMystery
Engine
Unity 2020

About

Tormented Souls is a 2021 survival horror video game developed by Dual Effect and published by PQube for PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were cancelled in February 2021 but were eventually released in February 2022. A sequel, Tormented Souls 2, was released in 2025.

Keywords

  • female protagonist
  • gore
  • survival horror
  • voice acting
  • priest
  • pre-rendered backgrounds
  • diary pages
  • tank controls
  • mansion

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Tormented Souls is a third-person survival horror game in the style of the original Resident Evil with fixed camera angles and optional "tank" controls. The player explores an abandoned hospital and can interact with the environment and certain NPCs, solve puzzles, and use improvised weapons to combat monsters that inhabit the hospital.

Story

The story begins in December 1994, with Caroline Walker, a young Canadian woman, receiving an old, damaged photograph of twin girls by mail. Prompted by nightmares to find out what has happened to the girls, Caroline follows the unknown sender's address to the abandoned Wildberger Hospital in Winterlake, Blackwood Island; however, she is ambushed and knocked unconscious by an unknown assailant immediately upon arrival. She awakens naked in a bathtub, connected to an old respirator, and discovers that her right eye has been surgically removed.

Aided by an elderly local priest, Father Noah, Caroline explores the dilapidated mansion-turned-hospital in hopes of finding answers. She encounters horribly disfigured, vaguely humanoid monsters (later revealed to be hospital's former patients, transformed by some mysterious radiation), but is able to defend herself against them using various improvised weapons. Noah tells Caroline that the twin girls in the photograph – daughters of the hospital's director, Dr. William Wildberger – went missing in 1980, and were never found.

Reception

Tormented Souls received "generally favorable" reviews for the Nintendo Switch, Windows and Xbox Series X/S versions while the PlayStation 5 version received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Windows27 August 2021Worldwide
PlayStation 527 August 2021Worldwide
Xbox Series X/S7 September 2021North America
Xbox One25 February 2022Worldwide
PlayStation 425 February 2022Worldwide
Nintendo Switch14 April 2022Worldwide

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Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.