The Suffering Xbox
The Suffering Image
Metascore
77 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 44 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 19 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
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  • Summary: The Suffering captures the disturbing and terrifying nature of the horror genre in a compelling third-person action/adventure game set in the mature and gritty world of a maximum-security prison. You'll control of the prisoner Torque, a man sentenced to die for a murder he may or may not have actually committed. Enter a nightmarish world where creatures jump out of shadows, fall out of trees, and erupt out of the ground. Battle ghoulish apparitions, hardened criminals and guards, and the demons from your own forgotten past. Will you solve the mystery of Torque's past and survive or fall victim to The Suffering?… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 34 out of 44
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 44
  3. Negative: 1 out of 44
  1. XboxAddict
    100
    The Suffering also does a good job of volume changes. I know it sounds silly but if you have been creeping along, only with ambient noises then there is a crash of broken glass and a body flies past your nose, it scares the liver out of you.
  2. IGN
    85
    The action is intense, the creatures are actually creepy, and the story does not shy away from truly macabre elements. One cannot say enough about the horrific world that's been created here.
  3. Official Xbox Magazine
    73
    Straighforward, visceral fun that may not be Oscar-worthy in the plot department, but provides plenty of popcorn-munching matinee-style entertainment for the over-17 crowd. [May 2004, p.72]
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  4. games(TM)
    40
    It's not that this is a bad game, but to ignore the more important elements of gameplay in order to add more gratuitous elements to the cauldron is unforgivable, and in that sense The Suffering is most similar to Soldier of Fortune II and the like. [June 2004, p.123]
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See all 44 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 13
  3. Negative: 1 out of 13
  1. EWWS
    10
    It's the best.
  2. JoshuaD.
    10
    The most gruesome game ever, but yet the COOLEST, SICKEST game ever. You have to have it!
  3. JamesH.
    8
    Dark, Sinister and surreal. The Suffering manages to create an atmosphere of nervy tension as you explore the dark and depraved reaches of Carnate prison. The game has a balance of puzzle-solving and shooter action which is weighted to the latter. There are also several opportunities in the game to buddy-up with other escaped inmates or guards. Those that wish to trigger the 'good' ending must work with these NPCs and keep them alive. Those that want to get the 'bad' ending should kill them indiscriminately. The game is relatively short and re-play value is limited (I didn't even play through twice) as its playability lies in the fear of the unknown. As other reviews have pointed out, the intensity and fear factor of The Suffering drops off towards the end of the game. However, overall its a great game and well worth renting at least. … Expand
  4. coolgames101
    3
    okay, lets just get one thing straight. THANK GOD that whoever made this knew what he was doing. this game was full of jump scares (which i usually hate because they are so predictable) that actually scared me. which is rare! now, these scares that we are talking here were very few, and weren't as impacting as scares from the silent hill series (which i dearly love.) but still deserve credit. the story was great, scratch that, excellent. and the monsters were psychodelic, and the action flowed pretty well. (except at the common "where the **** do i go moments"). now lets get to the bad things about the game, and the only reasons that the game gets the score it does. i felt that the fact you could turn into a monster was ****ing ridiculous! i felt that the way you could do that was cheating. alot of the jump scares involved an ink blot, or a badly drawn picture flashing across the screen, and get anoying when i'm trying to shotgun a whole army of damn mother ****ing **** monsters! there are three endings (not telling what they are) and two of them are very closely resembling, and makes me feel that the game designers were getting lazy. now, i like this game about as much as i like RE 0, i didn't really enjoy it at the most times. the plot was forcing itself upon the player, and i couldn't really decipher if he really had committed the murder or not. the parts that i couldn't figure out where to go just were out there all the time, and weren't as fun as silent hill, because silent hill wasn't even action oriented! and this was, so the puzzles ruined it like in God Of War **** That Game) and at least in silent hill and resident evil it made sense for there to be puzzles because they weren't as action oriented as the suffering, and when i play a game that has a whole bunch of action, that is soon replaced with a puzzle like a rubix cube with a million sides, with a million little squares on each side. so in other words, if you absolutly adored the crapstock known as god of war , than this is that, except with less shouting, and more guns.â… Expand

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