The first Tormented Souls was a very cool throwback horror game that knew what made a great Resi-like. It was a modest indie horror game that impressed with its stellar visuals and atmosphere. The overall design was outstanding, perfectly meeting the expectations of hardcore Resident Evil and Silent Hill fans, reminiscent of the best moments in their iconic series.
Fixed camera angles, tank controls, and cryptic puzzles in a creepy house where nothing makes sense until everything suddenly does. It also helped that Caroline Walker was a sexy protagonist who was out of her depth while exploring a two-world mechanic. Yet, as much as horror fans liked Tormented Souls, there was always a sense that it could be more polished and tell a better story.
The first game was a good idea that could use finesse. How does its sequel measure up? Do the stakes increase? Why is it so difficult? Find out in our Tormented Souls II review!
Tormented Souls II
Developer: Dual Effect
Publisher: PQube
Platforms: Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 (reviewed)
Release Date: October 23, 2025
Price: $29.99
After the harrowing events of Tormented Souls, Caroline Walker is trying to move on with her life and take care of Anna, her younger twin sister… How does one have a younger twin sibling? All I can say is that it involves some time travel malarky and that you would need to play the first game to truly understand what the hell is going on.
The two girls set out for a wellness retreat in Chile, run by a convent of nuns, led by Mother Superior Lucia. Anna has been having deadly premonitions and dark dreams; possibly on the verge of a possession. The only problem is that Mother Lucia’s nuns are part of a strange cult, and the story that follows is admittedly a retread of the events of the first game.
Tormented Souls II starts with a powerful and unforgettable scene, featuring Caroline painfully pulling a dozen large needles out of her nearly naked body. This game doesn’t shy away from shocking players with intense, visceral imagery, leaving them stunned with a gut-wrenching reaction.
After she collects herself, Caroline is set loose to find her sister again inside of creepy, darkly lit gothic architecture. Most gamers will feel their buttholes clench in fear and tension as they gradually explore the church, crawling with deformed freaks, but fans of the 2002 Resident Evil remake will feel right at home.
Every room features a puzzle-like mechanism or contraption that triggers something elsewhere in the environment. Whether you’re tinkering with a mysterious object or deciphering a cryptic chess-related clue, you’ll likely find yourself frantically battling enemies when not solving puzzles. Even boss fights unfold with puzzle items being designed into the battles, pressuring gamers to think on their feet.
Tormented Souls II is a hard game, even on normal mode, with save data tapes being scarce. Players will feel the stress of potentially losing progress if they stumble into an area where a creature might crawl up Caroline’s leg, knife in teeth, desperately clawing her health away.
Fortunately, Caroline has a few more options this time. Her reliable backstep provides generous invincibility frames when she’s swarmed by a gang of naked mutants, and she can assign weapons to hotkeys mapped to the right stick. Switching weapons quickly and fluidly improves the flow of the action while maintaining the classic, tense survival horror gameplay.
Caroline’s arsenal consists of improvised weapons. She doesn’t have the gear of a S.T.A.R.S. member and has fewer options compared to James Sunderland. Her primary melee weapon is a small hammer, perfect for chipping away at enemy health after weakening them with a few shots from her long-range weapons.
Caroline’s primary weapon is her trusty nailgun, while her shotgun is actually a makeshift device cobbled together to fire shotgun pellets. There are actual weapons to obtain later in the game, like the crossbow and hand cannon, but for the most part, she uses unconventional tools, which keeps the atmosphere grounded, relatable, and even scary.
The enemies in the second game are thankfully slower than in the first, making them a better fit for the deliberate movement style of games with fixed camera angles. It seems the designers aimed to make the sequel more challenging and the combat more dynamic, but having multiple or faster enemies on screen clashes with the classic horror gameplay and comes across as unfair.
The gameplay gets very hairy when you realize that Caroline can’t hold her lighter out while fighting, which makes combat in dark areas impossible. Not because you can’t see, but because the darkness is a soft barrier that can kill you, and the game uses it to impede progress until you fight a generator or light switch to lighten things up.
The developers enhanced the sequel by introducing upgradable weapon parts, which often require Caroline to venture into remote areas to find them. The parts can vary and are often mistaken for a puzzle item or a key, as the game frequently refuses to differentiate between them. It’s like the devs were huge fans of the Resident Evil remake and wanted to take its puzzle ideas much further than general audiences might be willing to accept.
Resources are scarce, and you’re not expected to defeat every enemy you come across, which might be a challenge for the average player. Tormented Souls II feels like a high-level survival-horror game designed for those who grew up with the genre. Everything that you know and like about the classics from the ’90s is magnified, even the length, because this is a much longer game than the average horror game, nearing almost 20 hours.
The only main drawbacks to Tormented Souls II are its nonsensical story involving time travel and characters making dumb choices. Many aspects of the first game are rehashed, such as the two worlds, Caroline waking up in a hospital bed, and her encounter with a morally ambiguous character. It can kind of feel like you’re almost playing the same game at times.
While the graphics remain top-notch, the only hints that this is an indie game are the character faces and poor lip sync. Faces look off, especially the mouths, which feel very doll-like and lack the appropriate range of motion. Caroline’s hair also has a weird, soft, warm glow when she’s far away from the camera. A few other visual oddities, like sloppy rigging that leads to laughable clipping, but these are mostly nitpicks.
This isn’t a horror game for fans of Dead Space or Resident Evil Village. Horror games like Tormented Souls are thankfully returning, as signified by the success of Silent Hill f and the Silent Hill 2 remake. This is a style of survival horror that caters to a niche audience that enjoys methodical exploration and high-stakes gameplay.
The puzzles are designed to resist brute-forcing, and hitting a wall is an intentional part of the experience. Dual Effect clearly did their homework, showcasing a deep understanding of classic survival horror. Their confidence in crafting intricate puzzles and captivating aesthetics makes them a worthy successor to the genre’s iconic classics.
Tormented Souls II was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a code provided by PQube. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. Tormented Souls II is now available for Windows PC (via Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
