Tormented Souls

About Tormented Souls

Tormented Souls is made by Dual Effect with Abstract Digital and published by PQube. It came out on PC and PlayStation 5 in August 2021, on Xbox Series X|S soon after, and on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in 2022. A sequel, Tormented Souls 2, followed in 2025.

Caroline Walker goes to Winterlake looking into the disappearance of two girls. Something happens to her there. She wakes in the dead of night in a bathtub, naked and hooked up to old medical equipment, inside an abandoned mansion that was turned into a hospital. From there she has to find out what was done to her and what happened to the twins.

The game plays like the survival horror of the late 1990s on purpose. The camera cuts between fixed angles in each room, ammunition is scarce, and the inventory holds keys, tools and odd objects you combine to solve puzzles. Saving needs a recording tape on an old reel-to-reel machine, and there are only so many tapes, so every save is a choice. Mirrors in the house open a path to another place in time, and some puzzles need you to change the past to get on in the present.

The horror is the house and what lives in it: dark corridors lit by a lighter, creatures of fused flesh and metal, and a story that grows grimmer as you read the old journals. It suits players who miss the first Resident Evil and want that style with modern graphics and controls.

How to play Tormented Souls

1. Explore Winterlake room by room, with the camera cutting between fixed angles as you move.
2. Pick up everything you can; examine and combine items in the inventory to solve puzzles.
3. Fight the creatures with the weapons you find, but save ammunition and avoid fights you do not need.
4. Save at the tape recorders, using one recording tape each time.
5. Look for mirrors that lead to another time, and use what you change there to move forward.

Tips

• Tapes are scarce early on; save after real progress, not after every room.
• Read the journals and notes closely; they hold most puzzle answers.
• Carry a light source and keep it ready; much of the house is very dark.
• Map the rooms you have cleared so you can backtrack safely.

Questions