Tormented Souls is a throwback to PS1/PS2 style console Action Horror games, and in that category I think it really nails the mark for a budget title. I have issues with the Map though, I find the way it doesn't track your location easily, and the way it colour codes rooms, to be rather confusing. I never had a hard time with any of the puzzles, but I will admit from a plot perspective that some of them are a little obtuse in knowing why or how you can do the things you are doing, which brings me to my big complaint: Localization. The games "plot" isn't complicated, but it is very poorly explained the player, often left explained in collectible notes you can find. The plot it hints at is interesting and something I wanted to learn more from, so I hunted down all those notes only to find that many of them are incomplete. What I mean by this is that it will show you the art for the note behind the text box telling you what the note says, but often the text box would only contain one of the pages, not the other, and I only learned of this after I curiously snapped a picture of one of the notes when I noticed the art for the note looked a lot longer then what it was telling me it said and Google Translate showed me that indeed that was the case, localization just didn't include many of the note pages, and when they did put them in, half the dates were wrong. This is something the Developer has failed to address, which is why I deducted some stars.
I will preface this review by letting you know I originally played this upon release, beat it, and was satisfied with my purchase as fan of the Starship Troopers movies. I have very little experience with this type of tactical game prior to this, so I'll pitch myself as a newcomer. Since that initial launch, the game has receieved numerous free quality-of-life updates and additional scenerios, along with two paid story expansions, Raising Hell and Urban Onslaught, which also updated the base game with further improvements, even for those who didn't purchase them. I think Urban Onslaught is a great expansion, with Raising Hell being entertaining, but not as enjoyable. I will complain about the A.I. for player controlled characters, as often they will walk right into literal fire instead of around it, but that could be a deliberate choice. Also, some units (this is a partial RTS) or defensive units can be easily exploited, for example Rocket Turrets have a fixed firing range, but you can manually select any target on the map to bypass this limit, making them great for taking out structures far ahead of when you should be able to. All in all, a great game for fans of the series, or for those who just want to experience what feels like 1,000's of bugs overwhelming you at any given moment to get that adreneline pumping.
I just canèt get enough of this Survival City Builder. It offers such a great setting to really go wild.
