It’s been awhile, hasn’t it. If you’ve played the original yet then you’ve been looking forward to this one… if not, they why not? Did you know that the way this game starts is a direct reflection of what happened in the last game? I bet you didn’t know that.

You’re Torque, and last time you went to an island prison for killing your family… or did you?
Apparently the way you played the original Suffering kind of answered the question of whether you killed your family or not. That means the game sported several different endings, and each ending can be ported over to this game so that you pick up where you left off storywise.
And pick up you will. Last time you were trapped on an island prison that was quickly descending into hell as it was invaded by bizarre creatures, each representing a means of death dealt out by the authorities that be. Be it death by decapitation that created blade limbed puppet creatures, death by firing squad which created hulking behemoths with large guns on their backs, or death by lethal injection which created drug addicted needle freaks, there’s lots of death coming back to haunt the living.

But the worse of these were the spirits, and not just the spirit of your dead family who haunt you.
It seems you can see dead people, and not just the bizarre creatures attacking you. Either through video monitors or in the “flesh” you can see spirits, and most are not good spirits.
There’s the “Golden Doctor”, the spirit of a doctor who seems to have learned his arts at a Nazi Medical School, who appears as

a golden image who is anything but golden. This guy seems to know more about you than you do, and is abit of a sadist.
There’s also the green gas guy, whose power is poison gas and who seems to help -- until he starts killing for no reason.
Finally there’s your aforementioned family, mostly your wife, who seems to want you to not kill but also seems to want to torment you for killing her… go figure.
Oh, and did I mention you have a problem with your own inner demon? Apparently at times you can summon your own inner darkness in a “Hulk Smash” form that you can use to rage against your enemies… for a SHORT PERIOD OF TIME! If you stay in “Torque Smash” mode too long, however, it kills you.

In short you travel through hell in an attempt to escape demons both external and internal.
As you traveled through the prison you are given many a chance to do either good or evil, these acts shaping how the game ends and how you start Ties That Bind. And that’s where we come to, the here and the now.

Good news, you DO escape from the prison and find yourself in the city of Baltimore.
Bad news, you do escape prison and find yourself in the city of Baltimore… and it’s not nice.
Don’t need to be going to hell this time, ‘cause hell will be more than accommodating in coming to you.
The same bizarre creatures, as well as the Golden Doctor, has followed you to Baltimore and now wreck havok on the city. And it seems the bad Doctor has an ally in someone you

wouldn’t think would join forces with him (in a sense)… your wife. Dearest? You’re coming at the beck and call of a guy who learned all his medical skills from the same school Hitler’s mad scientists went to! Guy’s not exactly one you should be “siding” with, even if it’s just that one scene in the theater it looks like you’re siding with him.

And to add to your misery you have MORE innocents to get in your way, or tempt you to darkness (so you either have to watch over them or not indulge the need to kill -- or kill and be evil, one or the other). And if that isn’t enough there’s also a spirit who seems to tempt you to darkness, speaking in a dark menacing tone as he tries to lure you to the dark side. Remember to just say no to the dark side, Anakin, lest we have to cut your limbs off and set you on fire.
Finally, if all that wasn’t enough, you have a new enemy in another former prisoner whose a bad(bleep).
Yeah, you’ll have lots to do here, and to help you along the gameplay is basically the same with an improved inventory system which makes it easier to get access to the weapons you pick up (nice).

You can still switch from first to third person mode to do your killing.
You can still help or harm the people you run into, which changes how your “rage demon” appears and how vile it is. You can shoot lots of demons, and some paramilitary group trying to retake control of the city.
In short you have all the

same perks of the original game AND some new ones, though not enough to call it a new game in terms of gameplay. It’s mostly the same game with some new touches, so if you liked the original you’ll have no problem leaping into this one since it’s the same game as the first.

I don’t think there’s anything bad to say about the game. Yeah, it didn’t get a full out revitalization like Resident Evil 4 but if it worked fine the first time there’s no need to remake the killing wheel the second time out. Stick to what’s good and go with it. I liked the original, and from playing what I did of the new game I think I’ll like this one too. It’s the same game, so it’s easy to pick up where you left off and continue onwards without having to learn a lot of new things (which is a plus in my opinion).

So if you liked the first one you’ll love the sequel, and enjoy how the story continues and evolves here.
If you haven’t played the first one? You should. The mere fact the game changes depending on how you played the first one (and finished the first one) should be more than enough incentive to go back and play the first one, if nothing more than to see how the story changes with how you played The Suffering.
Be on the lookout for this coming this Fall. In the meantime don’t forget to play the original, since prison is just that much more fun when you’re NOT in prison, and just “visiting” in a video game.