The Suffering

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Description

You play the role of Torque, a death row inmate with an ambiguous past who has been imprisoned for slaying his ex-wife and children. Shortly after being interred in a new prison on Carnate Island, an earthquake appears to release demonic creatures based on the many modes of execution used in the sordid history of the island. These creatures proceed to eliminate much of the prison population, leaving only you and a scant few other inmates and guards to eliminate the horde and find out what has happened.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "劫难" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)

Part of the Following Groups

• 3D Engine: RIOT
• BPjS / BPjM indexed games
• Gameplay feature: Multiple endings
• Theme: Prison
• The Suffering series

User Reviews

An superb first-/third-person horror shooter packed with atmosphere	Windows	Katakis | カタキス (41291)
Silent Hill 2 meets Max Payne. And, against all odds, it works.	Windows	Slug Camargo (589)
A really good atmospheric horror game to enjoy.	PlayStation 2	Reborn_Demon (136)
Tight horror-shooter that's better than it looks	Windows	Chase Dahl (6)
Survive the terror!	Windows	Perfil Falso (3314)

Critic Reviews

The Video Game Critic	Xbox	Oct 05, 2005	B+	83
PC Powerplay	Windows	Nov, 2004	80 out of 100	80
Gamesmania.de	Windows	Nov 08, 2005	80 out of 100	80
GameSpy	Windows	Jun 24, 2004		80
PSX Extreme	PlayStation 2	Apr 23, 2004	7.6 out of 10	76
GameSpot	PlayStation 2	Mar 09, 2004	7.6 out of 10	76
GameStar (Germany)	Windows	Jul, 2004	75 out of 100	75
Factornews	PlayStation 2	May 24, 2004	7 out of 10	70
Jeuxvideo.com	Xbox	May 17, 2004	14 out of 20	70
Eurogamer.net (UK)	PlayStation 2	Apr 05, 2004	7 out of 10	70

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
What's your excuse for not playing this NOW? >:(	14	PolloDiablo (16879) Nov 26, 2008

Trivia

Cancelled Port

A GameCube version was already planned, but was cancelled because previous Midway titles sold poorly on the platform.

Development

The creatures and characters in The Suffering were designed by movie special effects master Stan Winston (designer of the Terminator exoskeleton, the Predator, the Alien Queen and the Jurassic Park dinos). The prison of Abbott State Penitentiary in the game was partially inspired by Alcatraz; Alcatraz was originally a military prison and the prison in the game was built from the remains of a WW2 army base.

German version

There are a number of changes in the German version:

• The making of feature and a trailer were removed.
• There are no mutilated humans to be found.
• Several cutscenes were cut. In some just the blood was removed, a few scenes are completely darkened out.
• In the PlayStation 2 version, an instrument of torture was removed from a dead guard.
• All swastikas were removed (this applies to every version except US)

A detailed list of changes can be found on schnittberichte.com (German).

Re-release

The PC version was released as freeware on September 25, 2008.

Awards

• Golden Joystick Awards
  • 2004 - Runner-up to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay as Unsung Hero Game of the Year

Information also contributed by Atomic Punch!, Kabushi and piltdown man.

Related Web Sites

• The Suffering (Official Website)
• The Suffering (Download the Windows version for free.)