The Suffering: Ties that Bind unbound

Midway's original horror-action hybrid The Suffering won quite a cult following when it was released and now a new chapter in the series, The Suffering: Ties that Bind, is preparing to scare the pants off us all over again.

Reprising the role of Torque, players are on a seek and destroy mission attempting to track down and eliminate the mysterious Caleb Blackmore who you believe was responsible for your family's untimely demise. The seedy back streets and slums of Baltimore play host to events this time around with the original's memorable gameplay elements - such as sanity challenging flashbacks and the intriguing morality system - accompanied by a plethora of new features, weapons and fiends.

Richard Rouse, design director and writer on The Suffering: Ties that Bind, takes us deeper into the horror...

So where is Ties That Bind taking us? We take it that we've moved beyond mere incarceration...

Richard Rouse: The first game worked really well in the prison setting, but we knew we didn't want this game to just be a retread of that. So naturally we wanted to take Torque to some new environments, it was simply a question of where... He didn't seem like someone who would fit in well in the bucolic countryside, and with the way the story was developing, it made sense for Torque to return to his home town of Baltimore.

While that's certainly different from the maximum security penitentiary of the first game, Baltimore can be something of a metaphorical prison for the people who live there, particularly for those without the means to get out of its poorest neighbourhoods. At the same time, we didn't want to get away from prisons entirely, so we're taking Torque to an urban prison in the form of Eastern Baltimore Correctional Facility. This is an urban prison, meaning it's much more tight and claustrophobic than what players saw in the first game. And for us, it just wouldn't be The Suffering without some form of prison in the game.

So what else about Ties That Bind is new and improved since Torque's last outing?

Richard Rouse: Sequels are great for games because they give development teams a chance to really refine the gameplay mechanics, and provide a much tighter and more compelling game. As well as tightening up weapon selection, inventories and controls, we've improved the variety of enemies and the tactics they use to attack you. Our creatures are still the distinct, horrific fiends players liked in the first game, but they're quite a bit more clever and deadly this time around.

How about the insanity creature that you could turn into in the last game? Does he get a second outing?

Richard Rouse: Yeah. Players loved that feature in the last game, but they didn't find it to be as effective as it was cool. In response to that, we've made the creature form quite a bit more powerful, and with our refined balancing, players are going to need to use it to make it through the game. But I feel confident saying that it's so cool, players are going to want to use it regardless.

How do you intend to make the game darker?

Richard Rouse: We're really focusing on more of Torque's history, and it's pretty dark. It turns out his life and the murder of his family is not quite as simple as it may have seemed in the first game. In particular, there's a dark and sinister figure known as Blackmore who has been manipulating Torque's life for years, and his depravity seems to have no limits...

Then there's our change of locale. The decaying city is an ideal location for exploring the darker side of humanity, and we have a number of denizens from the city's troubled past who will be showing up to provide some grizzly stories. So, yes, we're making it quite a bit darker.

Is the game going to be a straight end-to-end affair, or will it have elements of free-roaming?

Richard Rouse: With a horror game, and particularly one that tells the type of story we really wanted to do, we found a lot of advantages to actually keeping the gameflow fairly tight. One of the biggest areas for players to roam is actually in terms of how they experience that story. First off, we have the story start with three different beginnings based on how players finished the first game. (Players who didn't complete the first game will be able to play as well, though, so don't worry!)

Naturally it's the very beginning of the game that changes the most, but there are other ripple effects throughout the story based on what beginning the player started with. You'll also have the ability to determine your fate and how the story develops by using our expanded morality system. Based on who you choose to help and who you kill, you'll get a significantly different story as you play through the game - in addition to a number of different endings.

Who has designed the creatures in this game? What nasties can we look forward to?

Richard Rouse: We have a very talented concept artist on the project named Ben Olson who designed all of the creatures for both the first Suffering game and for Ties That Bind. Ben is fantastic at taking vague suggestions and turning them into fantastic concepts of uniquely twisted creatures. A big part of what makes a creature a Suffering creature is that they appear to be suffering themselves. Sure, they may be trying to kill the player with incredible persistence, but these are still definitely tortured souls. And we've carried on that tradition this time around.

In the first game, the creatures were themed after different execution methods, which fit nicely with the prison theme. This time, since we've moved the game to Baltimore, the creatures are all themed after the harsh realities of the urban environment, whether it's drug addiction, gun violence, or disease and starvation.

Any examples of this depravity?

Richard Rouse: Well, one of the most disturbing of the new creatures is the Suppressor. He shows up about midway through the game, when the player enters a harsh urban prison. The Suppressor looks like he was once a corrections officer, but large parts of his body are missing and he pulls himself along the ground, leaving a bloody trail wherever he goes. Guns have sprouted out of his chest, and a flashlight has been rammed through his skull. He has lost most of his senses including his hearing, so he can only detect you when he manages to shine his flashlight on you.

Another cool new creature is the Mauler, who is actually a dog with a human head and a ferocious-looking blade attached to it. Ben's been waiting a long time to get a human-headed dog into a game, and I'm glad we were finally able to make that dream a reality.

Interview conducted by PC Zone magazine.

CVG Staff