With the sequel, Tormented Souls solidifies itself as a survival-horror classic that deserves to be mentioned alongside the greatest of the genre. From now on, this series is one of the first that comes to my mind when I think of this genre. The original Tormented Souls was already such an amazing achievement, but the improvements and refinements made in the sequel truly carry it to the next level.

The hook for the first game was, in my opinion, the puzzles and their cryptic nature. I am happy to say that it remains so in the sequel. Just as the first game, the puzzles are multi-layered, long-lasting and, for the most part, incredibly engaging and satisfying to solve and decipher. In an era where big budget games are too afraid to bamboozle players and throw them actual, hard to solve problems, I cannot stress enough how important this aspect is or how much I have missed it.

While the overall puzzle quality is just great, just as in the first game, some puzzles are hard knowledge checks. In this game too, there are times where you need to know about certain references and symbols drawn from the Bible. The game has a very much religious theme, so I guess it is kind of impossible to completely disconnect itself from these knowledge checks, but I still thought certain puzzles required too much of that kind of knowledge. Also, a few of the early game puzzles were too abstract in my opinion. While I love the abstract nature of this game, this quality improves considerably over time and by the end of the game, the early over the top abstraction is not much of an issue.

In my review for the first game, I said that a more sophisticated combat would be one of my top priorities for the sequel. While the combat system is not worlds apart, the refinements made are so useful and necessary that they manage to make the combat feel a lot better. The snappiness/reactivity and weapon variety are the two aspects that were improved the most, and it makes the game feel a lot better than the original. The enemy design is also a big part of why the combat just feels better. The enemies are far more aggressive for the most part and the enemy variety is at a healthy level. There are also 5 big boss fights and each one of them was simply great to figure out. A small criticism I had was the resource economy. While the ammo economy is not terrible, largely because the tough boss fights consume a significant amount of ammo, the abundance of health items I found was almost laughable. I had over 10 med kits and 15 painkillers as I went into the final boss fight. While I loved the fight from a mechanic standpoint, I tanked most of the hits without much concern just because I was so stacked on health items. A better dynamic difficulty adjustment or a general reduction of health items would be perfect and make the game feel deadlier on the standard difficulty.

Artistically, I found the Silent Hill inspirations more common in this game, whereas the Resident Evil ones were more dominant in the original. The first game mostly took place in a mansion and hospital hybrid, but this time around, the level variety is vastly increased, including areas like a convent, town, mall (I loved the Silent Hill 3 vibes in this section), cemetery, school (which might just be my favorite section), church, bunker and more. Additionally, the other side sections are considerably scarier and eerier this time. However, I would have liked a bit more hardcore puzzle and problem solving in these sections. This is a minor thing, which I thought was done better in the original game.

The slow-burn storytelling and the classic note-hunting approach of survival horror are also executed perfectly. The notes especially manage to give each character and boss a distinct personality, while bringing each location to life. Just like the original, deciphering the story piece by piece is also why the game manages to keep your attention for its full runtime. Considering the game's length is on the longer side for this genre, this is a commendable achievement.

All in all, Tormented Souls 2 is a wonderful achievement in every respect. It is one of the best examples of a great sequel that preserves the artistic vision and soul of the original, expanding on nearly every front while strengthening its weaker aspects. It was an unforgettable experience and I am happy to say it is one of the best games I have ever played.

P.S. The safe room theme "Fleeting Haven" is such a vibe. One of the best safe room themes in my opinion.

A fantastic sequel to Tormented Souls, continuing the journey of Caroline Walker and her sister, Anna, travelling to Chile from Canada to the twisted town of Villa Hess.

After pulling her sister out of time in the first game to rescue her, Caroline is taking Anna down to Chile on the advice of Sister Isabella, a nun of the Church, in order to get her a kind of mental health therapy related to prophetic episodes Anna is having, drawing the future during something akin to a blackout. All isn't as it seems when arriving at the convent in Chile, the sisters of this order belonging to a twisted religion who want to bring forth a being known as Nautilus to change the world into a Silent Hill-like otherworld, needing the twin sisters to complete their plans. Caroline will spend much of the game searching for her kidnapped sister, fighting tortured horrors, mutated creatures, ghosts, and undead Nazis as she explores the town.

Gameplay is on the survival horror side, although being more forgiving due to the lack of inventory management; there is no limit to the number of items, weapons, ammunition, healing items, puzzle objects, lore documents, etc... that you can carry. There are still safe rooms, and you do need to have recording tape in order to actually save your game, but there is no reason you won't have an abundance of tape throughout the whole game. Caroline has a little backward hop she can do to dodge enemies, giving her a couple of I-frames to negate all kinds of enemy attacks. Puzzles are pretty straight forward, clues being available in nearby areas to help to complete them, usually requiring a specific item to get you through as well. There are some sections where you have to make use of Caroline's ability to travel through time, going back to the past in order to make some form of change on the present to be able to continue.

One thing I wanted to touch base on is the number of complaints I have seen made when it comes to both balance and potential soft locks that are being made on the Steam forums. I played through the game on normal difficulty, as Tormented difficulty is initially locked, and had an abundance of ammunition and healing supplies all through the game, including in the starting convent section that people seem to be struggling in. Enemies take the same amount of shots to put down every time, and can be easily finished off with the hand hammer when knocked down to save ammunition. The sledgehammer later in the game is incredibly powerful, handling everything but two late game enemy types with ease - saving even more ammo. Green vases and wooden crates can be busted open with either the hammer or crowbar, ammunition being inside enough of them to add up quite a bit. I didn't encounter any of the known soft locks either during my play time with Tormented Souls II, so YMMV.

Visually, Tormented Souls II looks great. Caroline looks really good, aside from a bit of wonkiness with mouth animations, keeping pretty consistent the whole way through. Environments look great, making exploring the town the game takes place in a treat. Enemies, especially bosses, look suitably creepy for the Silent Hill style vibes they are aiming for.

In terms of the music, this is another area where it feels like they are doing their best to harness some Silent Hill energy, especially in that end song that plays during the credits.

Plenty of references to past bits of horror media are scattered throughout Tormented Souls II, being a delight to stumble across during my playthrough.

I was initially nervous about starting my playthrough of Tormented Souls II after reading the Steam Forums, worried that I might encounter some of the things being reported there, but I ended up having a fantastic time with Tormented Souls II, Caroline being my favourite redheaded Canadian horror heroine.

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what's happening of the autosave file? I just got the saw blade and had not saved the progress for a day. Thought that it would be OK without the recorder saving so I just turn off the game, relying on the autosave. Then what? I reload the autosave file the 2nd day and found every single item is missing,, everyone of them. All I have now is the lighter (hold in hand when autosaving happened..).

This game is not ready as a mature product, just wasting my time. I had enjoyed the tormented souls 1 its good. dont let people down by wasting their time. I am going to refund this.