First and Foremost, let me say this: My Lakers got punked out by the Detroit Pistons, and more power to them for winning the championship and going out on top. I’m no longer grieving, so I can be magnanimous about it. Now let’s get to the review.

The Suffering is all about Man’s inner demons and how you combat them to come through the other side of the fire. At least on the surface, in a quasi-metaphorical sense.

Truthfully, this game is all about "killin’ thangs dead", while not getting dead yourself. It’s brutal, it’s disturbing, and even scary/startling in more parts than you would think.

The game takes place within the confines of Abbot Penitentiary. Abbot Penitentiary is the worst hell-hole of a penal institution in the history of prisons – if anything wrong can happen in a prison, you can bet it happened at Abbot….and it’s located on Carnate Island (think Alcatraz on a doped up mixture of speed, crack and arsenic, and you might be close.)

You play the role of a new inmate, named Torque, and it’s his first day of school. He’s just gotten his new uniform and prison cell when all hell breaks loose in the prison. That’s where the game starts, no intro movie, no real tutorial…you just have to survive the night and get off the island. Sounds simple yes? Not quite, apparently…the island itself is rebelling against the prison, and all manner of demons have sprung up to take revenge on inmates and prison staff alike. There’s also the mystery of whether or not you really killed your wife and kids to unravel…life’s always interesting here at Abbot inmate, don’t you cross the line now, y’hear?

I told a bit of a fib in the beginning, there is a slight tutorial in that whenever you come across something new in the game, you get a quick screen telling you more about the new item/move that you can now use. In the first level, you’re able to get a shiv for close combat and soon after, you get a revolver for ranged combat. If you’ve ever played Max Payne or Dead to Rights, or any of those games, you know how the player movement and aiming works: move the character forward and backwards and strafe side-to-side with the left analog stick, and you aim and look around with the right analog stick. Use the d-pad to access your inventory for weapons (ranging from the shiv to the revolver to a Tommy Gun later on), flashlights/flares, grenades/TNT bundles, and various notes that you pick up in the game. The right trigger activates whatever is selected. The white and black button are used for healing (pain pills) and going into first-person mode if you so desire.

Also, the tone of this game is very dark, with an extremely moody atmosphere. Definitely one to be played with the sound up, and the lights off. The main hook for this game is that there are three different endings, all based on your actions in the game. No one really knows if you really killed your wife and kids, not even you know that…but depending on how many people you save or let die (or even kill outright, if you prefer) will unravel the story more and more for you until you find the answer. The game plays well, with relatively tight controls and even a pseudo-automatic lock on system for those [like me] who have a hard time shooting while running scared in the opposite direction.

The enemies in this game are all patterned after some form of execution or death. You have Slayers, whose arms and legs have been swapped out for razor-edged blades [stabbed]; Burrowers, wrapped in gunny sacks and tied with chains [buried alive]; Mainliners, twisted and mutated ruins of a man, peppered with poisonous hypodermics sticking out of their backs [lethal injection]; and many more. If you can think of a way to die or be killed, they most likely have a monster to represent it in this game.

There is much gore to be seen in this game, with enemies going down in a wriggling haze of bullets, blood and body parts. Torque’s orange pants and die-hard-esque white tank top get drenched several times over, after going toe-to-toe with enemies time and again. However this is all an exercise in visceral fun for those willing to take the trip. The textures used throughout the game are very graphic, the animations are pretty fluid, everything gels together to make a believable whole. The levels are well designed, and seem made especially to have you turning corners in more and more frantic sprints to get to the levels end before your batteries run out. That’s another thing about this game, you get flashlight batteries in areas throughout the game (up to 9), but if you use your flashlight too much, you can drain the batteries, and you’re left wandering in the dark with nothing but sound to guide you. Which takes us on to the next category.

Luckily or unluckily, depending on how you look at it, if you do wind up with only sounds to guide you, it’s still possible to do. It’s lots harder believe me, but it can be done. Think of exploring a haunted prison by yourself, in the dark, and with demented enemies potentially around any corner. All you have are the sounds of their footsteps or as is sometimes the case with the Slayers, the sounds of them scraping one of their blade arms against the wall as it stalks you. This provides added visual range, due to the sparks that are flying off the wall as he does this – it’s all very Freddy Kruger-ish, and works perfectly. Especially when played with the sound turned up, and the lights off, this game is amazingly spooky and will startle even the most manly of you out there. One pseudo-cut scene has you opening a bathroom stall door, when suddenly 5-6 ghostly enemies appear surrounding you, with what looks to be your son (in ghostly form as well) standing in front of you. You hear his voice asking innocently as only a child can "Is that you Daddy? Wait, Daddy NO!" – this all happens so suddenly, that it doesn’t fully register until everything disappears and you’re stuck looking at an empty bathroom stall. Moments like these happen throughout the game, and they do not lose their effectiveness whatsoever, in fact they sometimes help to move the story along.

This game has all kinds of re-playability, in that you can choose to be good and save everyone that you come across, or as evil as you want to be and only look out for #1. With the different endings and the exposés of all the creatures you meet and the levels you uncover (done in scrapbook form, by an inmate and the wife of a prison guard, respectively), there’s a LOT to be seen in this game. Definitely worth a buy, not just a rental.

Not sure what more I can tell you, except "Go get this game!" You never knew that getting the wits scared out of you could be this fun.

Until next time, this is Da Revm signing off. Play responsibly.