The Suffering

by Midway

Product Features

• Experience nine terrifying levels -- traverse indoor & outdoor terrain, where horror waits around every corner
• As your Rage Meter fills, Torque will turn into a hideous and powerful creature
• Multiple deadly weapons, from shivs to Tommy guns -- you'll need them all to fight the horrifying monsters you'll face
• Brutal, gory details -- blood & fluids drip, pool and splatter as you travel on this chilling, stomach-turning journey
• Interact with the hardened criminals and determine their fate

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000095ZH0
• Item Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: March 8, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,819 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: Xbox

The Suffering - a terrible evil was unleashed in a maximum security prison. A violent environment has been unspeakably brutal, and a young felon named Torque will have to survive & find answers in this dirty, gritty world. Explore the deepest recesses of the most horrible prison environment Dynamic lighting and shadowing effects, combined with frantic combat sequences, sure to shock & disturb players Multiple endings depending on how you play the game

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This game is evil., March 14, 2004

By 

W.W. Nowe "enggs" (who wants to know?) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Suffering (Video Game)

I've been a fan of horror films for over twenty-five years now and have reached the conclusion that I can no longer be scared by them. I'm not saying that to be macho. I like being scared. I want to be scared. It's the reason I still go to horror movies.

I've of course tried to get my fix from horror video games. Resident Evil, Clock Tower, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, ect. I've played whatever the critics or fans recommended as scary. To be honest, I found most of them to be laughable and some flat out boring. Playing The Suffering was like hitting the jackpot.

Some things I recommend before playing:

1) If possible play on the Xbox in Dolby Digital with a good receiver and speakers.

The sound FX are what drive this game; they're second to none. Fighting the monsters isn't really scary. It's actually comforting. What's scary are the noises you hear coming from the shadows. Something clawing it's way through the ducts behind you and to the right. The sound of men screaming, shots being fired, then flesh being torn apart to your left. A monster trying to smash it's way through the door directly in front of you which you've just tried to open but found locked. The sounds in this game are phenomenal.

2) Adjust the brightness of you T.V. to a low level.

The game will ask you to do this before you start playing. It's similar to other horror video games. You really need to have dark shadows for all those scary sounds to be effective.

3) Play in first-person mode.

Third-person mode is easier. You have a wider perspective, which makes it easier to move and see around you, but that wider perspective feels like a buffer zone between you and the monsters. You feel like you don't have to watch your back because the camera is doing it for you. First-person is a little more difficult to move around but much more intense. You feel like your really there.

4) Play alone, late at night with the lights off.

You know why.

The game starts off with you in a cell on death row. You've murdered your wife and children but don't remember because you suffer from blackouts. Soon the lights go out and you hear the other inmates being torn apart. Something pulls your cell door off and your set loose into the prison. Eventually, your given a choice of paths to take. You can either be a good guy and work with other survivors or be a bad guy and massacre everyone. Of course, I chose to kill everyone (lets face it, what gamer wont) and soon found myself suffering from horrible, and frequent, hallucinations of my murdered family and other things. And the voices, oh those voices in your head telling you to kill; that the person standing in front of you is just a piece of trash and deserve to be slaughtered by you. Though, those voices are contradicted by the voice of your dead wife telling you not to do it. That she could never love a murderer. God this is twisted.

I guess this is a good point to mention that this is the most masochistic game I've ever played. I recently finished Manhunt (which I loved) and this game blows it away. Some deaths are vivid and brutal. Innocent guard trying to help you: butcher him. Guard locked in gas chamber: gas him. Man strapped in electric chair: juice him. Parents should also know that besides the violence and gore this game also has adult language. Including a four letter profanity used to describe a certain part of the female anatomy.

This game is not your typical survival horror game. Not only is it actually scary, it's also action packed. There are plenty of things to fight and you better move pretty fast or your dead. There's also a good amount of weapons for you to use. The gameplay is more like Doom than Resident Evil (epically in first-person). You will eventually be taught, by a ghost, how to go into psycho mode. After you kill enough things your psycho meter fills up and you can transform into a raging beast. In this form you can dismember your victims with one swipe of your hand.

What can I say? I loved this game. I've looked long and hard for something to be able to scare me again. Playing this game made me feel like a little kid watching a horror movie through my fingers. This mothers intense.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Horror game in a looooooong time, May 13, 2004

By 

Mr. "mark_18" (Berkeley, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Suffering (Video Game)

I'm only halfway through with the Suffering but I can safely say that this game is something that other horror games are not: it's fun!

First of, the controls are very easy to work with; Unlike Silent Hill 2 and Alone in the Dark where the controls seems to work against you - and thus ruining the game experience for you.

Also, the atmosphere (great sound effects!) and the creatures are awesome. I really think this is one of my the better games in my Xbox collection. It action scenes are pretty addicting...

There are some bad points about the game that I have to point out though:

1. The movie sequence in the very beginning of the game is also the worst part of the game. The character models of the inmates do not look right and the voice acting is terrible in this section.

2. There are few bugs in the Xbox version. Sometimes the lead character, Torque, gets stuck between chairs and tables, etc.

3. There is a lot of swearing so its not recommended for the kiddies at all.

Overall, I highly recommend this game to all fans of the horror genre.

Sidenote: If you like this game, you may want to take a look at the "Thing" for the Xbox.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Horror Has A New Home, March 16, 2004

By 

Robert Davis "robertcasf" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Suffering (Video Game)

The Suffering (XBox version reviewed) is by far the most disturbing, violent, foul-mouthed, and perverse game I have ever experienced (the only one to come close is Manhunt - which is also all of the above - but in a much sleazier way....Manhunt, while a very guilty pleasure, makes you feel the need to shower after playing). The Suffering, on the other hand, is outstanding in every aspect - including the setting (a prison with a blood-soaked history steeped in violence and corruption). Into this environment, without warning, comes an unspeakable evil - and here is where the gory tale begins. Someone finally got it right when it came to translating real horror to the console game (Alone in the Dark, and the Silent Hill, House of the Dead, Clock Tower and Resident Evil series must now take a back seat...and I do not say this lightly as I am a big fan!!!). You play the game as Torque, a brutish killer on death row for the murder of his ex-wife and kids - a crime he has no memory of committing - who is suddenly freed from his cell when the carnage erupts. I cannot begin to truly describe the sense of dread that you experience playing this game - and much of it comes from fleeting images, whispered voices, sounds of graphic slaughter, and the terror-filled screams of the victims (inmates and guards alike). It is what you do not see that is the most frightening. Also the brief flashbacks that the protagonist experiences truly enhances the overall fear factor. Add to all of this the moral choices your character is forced to make when he encounters survivors. Inner voices urge him to either save and/or kill them - and whatever Torque (you) decides to do will ultimately affect the outcome of the game! From a technical point: the sound, voice acting (especially the character of Hermes, who sent chills down my spine) and overall graphics enhance the gameplay a thousand-fold. Also the designers truly understand the importance of being able to easily save (ie. at the gamer's discretion not the game's!!!) Only one quibble (and it is very, very minor): I wish there were more variety in the creatures (although the ones they have - designed by Stan Winston's studios - are truly nightmarish...and represent bizarre morphings of various methods of execution (hanging, lethal injection, electrocution, etc). This is by far the best game I have played. Highly recommended for fans of genuine horror.

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