I think this is the most extreme case of confliction a game has ever given me. If you had asked me around hour 5-6 of my playtime what I thought, I would have told you this is quite possibly the greatest game I’ve ever played. But as the hours went by, the game suddenly took a severe left turn and never looked back, leaving me with so much angst and sadness at what could have been.

I’ll start with what the game consistently does well, and the art style is the obvious one. Literally no game has so perfectly captured the look and ambience of the 2002 Resident Evil Remake, with richly detailed grey drab environments with the occasional pop of color. A mixture of grit, grime, Victorian sensibilities - plus the decay of a poisoned environment. On top of that, the cutscenes are delightfully over the top and B-movie to the core.

But the game lost me on two very key aspects: level design and resource management - with level design being the greatest source of my grief and loss at what could have been (and I truly mean that).

Both Tormented Souls 2 and Echoes of the Living have cemented in my brain my number one pet peeve of the genre, which I will call Puzzle Box design vs. Ooh and Aah design. The former includes level, environment, and pathing design which mimics the feeling of being trapped in a gigantic puzzle box. You start out trapped in a small area with a number of obstacles, you then find an item that unlocks a door on one end, which then gives an answer to a puzzle on the other side, which then gives a key that opens 5 other doors you saw prior. This metroidvania-like structure is what you will find in the greatest settings of survival horror past - Spencer Mansion, Raccoon City Police Department, Wildberger Hospital, etc.

Opposite to this is Ooh and Aah design, a much more linear and sightseeing design plan that prioritizes environment variety and set pieces. It is much less dense in gameplay, as each map section may only have a single puzzle to which you’ll never return, or simply a few enemies. This is much more reminiscent of your typical action games, platformers, and other non-interconnected genres.

I would argue that Puzzle Box level design is just as critical to the survival horror genre as any other element you could point to. And in the case of Echoes of the Living, the game seems to completely grasp this concept and execute it masterfully with the opening area (an art gallery and pub - super unique!). But then all of a sudden, it completely abandons it for the rest of the game, with only brief sections that have a similar philosophy but are only 1/4 of the size or less. This is what destroyed me, as I felt like the developer understood this so well but decided to waste their time embracing a much more linear and, by extension, less survival horror experience.

Aside from this, my other big complaint came down to the resources the game gives you. I played on standard difficulty, and it is comically absurd how many bullets and healing items I had by the end- and this is with killing every single enemy! I’m talking: 300 bullets for 6 different weapons (each), 25 grenades, and probably 45 healing items. It isn’t like I’m a savant at this genre, nor did I bother strategizing which enemy to kill or leave alone once I realized I had more ammo than I knew what to do with.

Overall, the biggest take away for me is the importance of a puzzle box design philosophy, which I wasn’t quite able to articulate when I found myself not enjoying Tormented Souls 2 as much as I did the first game. I really hope this talking point becomes much more commonplace and realized in survival horror discussion places, as I imagine I am not the only one who feels the difference between the two- especially given the types of locations that are iconic in the genre.

I wish I could give this game a 5/5 as I know how much work and effort and mastery went into it. I applaud the effort and believe it’s a work of art that every genre fan should play. But everything after the art gallery really just made me feel dissapointment, so I can’t say it is one of my favorites.

6/10