The Horde
The Horde is a boss malefactor that appears in The Suffering: Ties That Bind. It appears a few times on the streets of Baltimore, doing little more than frightening Torque and clearing paths of his progression. It also appears as a boss in the machine shop of the Eastern Baltimore Correctional Facility, as well as spawning Malefactors in the final confrontation with Blackmore.
Representation[]
As evidenced by it's multiple heads, large size, and destructive behavior, the Horde is a representation of massive urban riots, in which an enraged mob or horde would unleash their fury on the unsuspecting, causing countless murders and destruction amongst the mass hysteria. As evidenced by a vision and Consuela's journal, it appears to tie specifically to an event in which an enraged mob lynched several people, for a crime that no one can recall.
Appearance[]
The Horde is a huge Malefactor, about the size of a two-story building, which frequently surfaces from the streets of Baltimore. It is an enormous, reddish worm-like creature, possessing six small, dinosaur-like heads with black eyes sprouting from it's "face", surrounding a round, cavernous mouth filled with huge, sharp teeth. It's body is long, muscular, and scaly, and has small vein-like ligaments that appear to hold it up or hold it underground. It has two muscular arm-like protrusions sprouting from the upper parts of it's body, having a single long, blade-like claw sprouting from each one.
Tactics[]
In the machine shop, this creature will emerge from a hell-hole and destroy the Foundation Chopper above the warehouse, letting it crash with an explosion. From here, it will assault Torque with claw swipes as he stands on the platform. Normal attacks with weapons cannot damage this malefactor, so the player must man the stationary grenade launcher and fire directly into its mouth (the creature will shudder if the shots are effective). The creature will attack Torque with slow swipes, so the player must often step back from the weapon to avoid this attack. Once The Horde is defeated, it will slide back into the hell-hole and the player can later access this to proceed to the next chapter.
In the final confrontation with Blackmore, the Horde will appear from points around the house and spawn Malefactors for Torque to dispatch. In this instance The Horde can do no direct harm to the player, but conversely cannot be defeated until the player has weakened Blackmore. It will then disappear automatically.
Using a Cataclysm special attack in Insanity Mode will also instantly kill the Horde.
Archive Entry[]
Jordan's Entry "By far this is the largest malefactor that we have witnessed. It is unclear to us if the Horde is unique or if we simply have never seen more than one at a time. It seems like a distant, much larger cousin to the Burrower, but obviously more destructive and deadly. This gigantic malefactor appears to have countless small animal heads sprouting from its body, evoking mob or a horde come to visit their uncontrollable anger upon the unwary."