The Suffering Ties that Bind for Xbox, PS2

[Romier S]

News of a sequel to The Suffering isn't new as the announcement and first screenshots hit the net a few months ago. IGN recently had a word with Surreal Software Design Director Richard Rouse III on how the game is coming along as well as some talk about Drakan 3 and some other tidbits. You can read the interview here .

 

Some worthy quotes:

 

IGN: Okay, but there's something we have to know: which ending of the original game was the "official" conclusion? The good ending, the bad ending, or the neutral one?

 

Richard: I certainly never looked at any of the endings as any more "official" than any of the others. That was part of the point of the game: depending on the choices players make, the game turns out differently. None of the endings were what I would call completely "happy," either, which was important to me. It's still a horror game, whatever ending you get. So we try not to think of any of the endings as the "good" ending to get.

 

The lines are even greyer in Ties That Bind. We've gone out of our way to create endings that each appeal to a different type of player, so some players may consider one ending to be the most desirable, while other players will prefer a different one. I don't want to go into too much detail about it, of course, but I guarantee players who liked what we did before won't be disappointed.

 

IGN: One feature that can never be used enough in videogames, and one that Ties That Bind seems to embrace, is the importing of the previous title's save file to help determine what kind of introduction players receive. In addition to the introduction, will the actions that you performed in the original affect anything else in the sequel?

 

Richard: The three different endings have their biggest impact at the beginning of Ties that Bind, as you might expect. But that part of your past will have a ripple-effect through the rest of the plot. For example, it's really crucial that Carmen treats you differently depending on whether you killed her or not. It doesn't make sense that she'd still be loving toward you if you killed her in cold blood. At the same time, you can still travel down different moral paths through this game, and both the beginning you started with and the choices you make during Ties that Bind will affect your final outcome.

 

So there are really a surprising number of possible stories to be told. And to me, that's really cool. I want every player to have their own unique version of Torque's story. I hope no two players will remember the game and the story exactly the same

 

IGN: Once Ties That Bind is over, what's next for the development team? Rumors of a third Drakan title have been floating around recently, and there are a number of other Midway games that could definitely use a sequel...

 

Richard: There are a number of people at Surreal who would love to work on another Drakan game, but that is fairly unlikely, since that game is owned outright by Sony and we're now part of Midway. I think for the time being Surreal is going to focus on developing our own properties, which is what we've always been most successful at, and Midway has been great in that they've placed a lot of faith in us to do just that. We've got something in development right now that I can't talk about but which is a very original concept that I think will really blow people's minds.

 

I was one of those folks trumpeting how decent The Suffering finally ended up. The game had it's fair share of problems but had some great moody environments and fun (if a bit too straightforward) gameplay. The sequel looks to build nicely on that. The fact that it continues the story directly off of your save file of the first game is pretty neat and it adds incentive to beat that first title for those whose didn't. The new creature designs look solid. There is a whole slew of new screenshots to look through on IGN as well as the interview if you want to take a sneak peek. I'm sure the sequel will continue Midway's streak of quality titles and if so, I'll be happy to lay down the cash for it.