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The Suffering - Feature Feature
Mark Simons
22/07/2003
We find out the disturbing details of this brutal horror title...
Due for release early in 2004 'The Suffering' is a disturbing and terrifying multi-format horror title from Midway. A third-person action / adventure game set in the mature and gritty world of a maximum-security prison, already looking rather tasty and offering many distinguishing features. Quotes such as 'redefining terror' are normally taken with a pinch of salt, however after seeing some disturbing, but impressive screenshots we decided to investigate further, putting Derek dela Fuente in charge of finding all that he could from Surreal Software's producer, Jeremy Airet.
'The Suffering' is most definetly a mature offering, giving us a chilling look into a penitentiary invaded by executed prisoners, who are grotesquely reincarnated in different ways, depending on the method of execution that befell them. As well as plenty of blood and gore, a rich storyline, detailed locales and a variety of cast there are, naturally, the surprise and suspense elements that every gamer would come to expect from a horror title. Getting all this right requires a development team with an impressive CV and this is exactly what Midway are offering us.
The bulk of the team, worked on the original 'Drakan' for PC and its sequel for the PS2, others have come onboard from projects as far reaching as 'Morrowind' and 'No One Lives Forever'. An ecclectic, talented bunch looking to make an impact with their first title it seems.
A mention should be made of Stan Winston, renowned creature designer, who will enhance 'The Suffering's horror-filled experience by creating the disturbing character artwork featured in the game. For more than 30 years Stan Winston has created characters, creatures and monsters for motion pictures and television. The four-time Academy Award winner is responsible for creating many of the most enduring creatures of the big screen, including the dinosaurs of 'Jurassic Park', the extraterrestrial monstrosities of 'Aliens' and the fanciful character of 'Edward Scissorhands'. Nominated for an Academy Award for 'A.I.', Stan Winston was also working on the upcoming 'T3' starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Producer Airet said that "The team was inspired primarily by the idea to take a serious horror setting, as exemplified by films like The Shining, and transpose it to an immersive gameplay experience which puts the player in control of their destiny, something we haven?t really seen in a horror game to date. We took classic shooters like Half-Life and Halo as particular points of inspiration".
As Torque, the main character, players encounter a cast of uniquely hardened criminals, prison guards and grotesque apparitions. Jailed for a murder he may or may not have committed, Torque is next in line for execution when apparitions besiege the prison and inadvertently free him. In the game, players can transform Torque into his monstrous alter ego, unleashing the power of his primal fury while battling twelve horrific creatures. Depending on how they play the game, players will see on of three different endings, looking at the game it might be chrulish to suggest these are bad, worse and hellish. On top of the multiple endings you have Torque's own story, fleshing out the character with flashbacks to his past life, and disturbing visions of his dead ex-wife and children to contend with. 'Billy Hatcher' this isn't.
"The Suffering is extremely mature, not in a pornographic way, but in the way it realistically depicts a prison environment. Inmates and Correction Officers in penitentiaries are known for their colourful language, not to mention the horrific acts that got the prisoners incarcerated and the horrific acts that continue to take place inside the prison. We thought the game would ring false if we didn't include that in all its disturbing glory."
As fans of HBO's brutal prison series 'Oz' like what we are liking what we hear from the developers.
All of the nine levels of the game take place on Carnate Island - which has a history itself, that the player will uncover as he progresses through the environment - over one particularly horrific night. Fortunately Carnate is quite a bit bigger than, say, Alcatraz, and it has a long and storied history as was explained by Airet to highlight the games variety and detailed. "For example there's an old Victorian mansion that was converted into an Asylum around the turn of the century. There's an old rock quarry out of which the prison was built. There are extensive wooded sections that connect up to a beach with a shipwreck on it. And of course there's the prison itself, which includes cellblocks, basement sections, execution chambers, and yard areas, which are all quite varied in themselves."
'The Suffering' offers a combination of action and puzzles, not just mindless shooting and buckets of gore, which a more lazy development team might be inclined to err towards. Important in this type of game is the lurning curve, which should ease you into the game, with the focus on requiring the player to raise their game as they delve deeper and get into the developer's mindset, rather than simply increasing attributes of the main character. In classic shooter style, the player will gain more powerful weapons over the course of the game, moving from pistol to shotgun to machine gun. All of the weapons have different applications in different situations and the player will find themselves switching back and forth a lot, having to think which weapon is best for a given situation. Beyond that, the hideous creature Torque transforms into will gain new abilities as well, unlocked as the player uses the creature.
"A lot of our puzzles are based around moving or manipulating objects to accomplish a particular goal. What can I use to block this door open? Hm, that large stone statue looks like it can do the trick. What can I push somewhere in order to climb on and get out of a particular area? What can I use to knock these fallen trees out of the way? Some doors you may just need to find explosives to blow through, but if you're out of explosives you might need to figure out a way to short circuit the security gate so it'll open. Using movable objects and a destructible environment, we try to create an experience where the player can find their own way through the game. This way players feel ownership over their actions, are further immersed in the game-world, and can thereby be scared all the more..."
Gameplay is all about pacing, alternating the visceral combat with the moody exploration passages, and the compelling puzzle sections. Just like a film, you can't scare the player every second of the experience or they'll become desensitised.
As mentioned earlier there are a number of distinctly different endings to the game, but giving any of them would spoil the whole concept, especially as Torque is unsure of whether he killed his family or not, since he has blacked out the whole event. The endings make clear what actually happened, based on how the player acted in the game. As the old cliché goes, actions speak louder than words, and your ending will reflect the kind of person you were while playing the game.
Being in a prison means there are plenty of activities to occupy your time. The other inmates will react to what you do; if they want you to follow them and you don't, they'll complain. If you attack them once, they'll shout at you to stop, and if you keep at it they'll either flee from you or retaliate. They also have plenty of dialogue they say in different situations, so you?re unlikely to hear it all in one play through. If the developers have been watching 'Oz' for inspiration, which should be a given in our books, we can't wait to sit down and hear some truely bizare conversations.
There are lots of characters the player can work with throughout the game, both other inmates and Corrections Officers. You can play the game through without them - you can choose to kill them if you really want - but if you help them out they're likely to help you out as well. They all have distinct personalities, and some players may like others, while others may be more of a hindrance than a help, so it's up to the player to decide who they want to associate with. The team wanted to give the player the freedom to do what they want to do, and from the look of things, that's working out quite well.
Some of the creative forms on offer are certainly weird and different from the norm. Thankfully, none of the creatures you battle are really cannon fodder; from the very start the creatures are challenging, crafty combatants, horrific in their design and movements as Airet went on to say "You can't imagine how you?ll survive a fight with even one. Then, next thing you know, you have to fight three at once. Then that creature is surpassed on every level by a new one we introduce, and you have to fight them all at once. How you can possibly survive, you can only imagine..."
The rage metre is an important element of game play. Players gain points for the rage meter as they defeat creatures, aquire enough and this allows the player to undergo a mysterious transformation into a hideous creature. This creature is extremely fast, strong, and deadly, but is constrained to melee attacks. Furthermore, you can only stay in this mode for so long without suffering some pretty serious consequences, so the player is forced to use it sparingly, only when it is really needed. It's also tied deeply into the story.
Airet explained how injury and killing works in the game: "Creature health varies a lot by the difficulty level you play the game at. Currently we've got four difficulty settings, with the lowest being something a relatively inexperienced player could just make it through, while the highest level is something that will brutally punish the most experienced gamers, including the development team. On the highest setting you're filling enemies with bullets, and they just keep coming..."
Thankfully you will have a selection of deadly weapons from the shiv to the Tommy gun to aid in the survival what this freakish nightmare will throw at you!
With around six months to go before completion, The Suffering certainly appears to be one game with more than its share of great ideas and innovations. Both on the concept side, as well as technology, big strides forward are endeavoring to be made. Comments from the team that 'The people you meet in the game aren't just disposable cardboard caricatures, but real personalities with their own agendas' bodes well for a game that relies so much on atmosphere.
We will be keeping tabs on The Suffering, so stick with TVG for the latest on this title.
