Post by tav7623 on Oct 22, 2014 23:30:58 GMT -5
The Evil Within Reversible/Alternative Box Art
Earlier this month we saw two heavily anticipated horror video games come out, Alien Isolation (a game set between the events of Alien & Aliens that was done in the style of games like Outlast or Amnesia: The Dark Decent) and The Evil Within which was billed as Shinji Mikami's (the creator/director of Resident Evil & Dino Crisis) triumphant return to the survival horror genre he help popularize with the Resident Evil games. When it came time for me to chose which one to get the answer was easy, The Evil Within and the reason it was such an easy choice is because I am a fan of traditional survivor horror games.....plus the whole Colonial Marines fiasco was still fairly fresh in my mind. So with that in mind does The Evil Within live up to the hype or is it such a colossal failure that it makes the Colonial Marines fiasco seem like a slice of fried gold, well you'll get to find out below.
Story
The Evil Within follows detective Sebastian Castellano, his partner Joseph Oda, and rookie detective Julie Kidman as they arrive at Beacon Mental Hospital where a massacre has just occurred. While investigating the scene Sebastian is knocked out and awakens all alone in a surreal and twisted version of the real world filled monsters and madmen. Facing unimaginable terror and fighting for survival Sebastian embarks on a frightening journey to unravel the mystery behind the evil force responsible for bringing him there.
Gameplay
The best way I can describe the gameplay of The Evil Within is to say that this game is like the demented love child you would get as the result of a threesome between Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Dead Space. This game has the feel of Resident Evil 4 in that it has a RE 4 like action set pieces (my favorite ones happen towards the end of the game, one of which involves a military Jeep with a machine gun on the back) as well as having somewhat similar controls (there are even nodes to early RE 1 and RE 4 littered throughout the game), it has the puzzles (generally speaking), sound design & general atmosphere of Silent Hill 2 & 3, and the level/enemy design of Dead Space. On top of that this game has a few new mechanics to help separate it from the above mentioned survival horror games in that Sebastian has a stealth kill attack that instantly kills an enemy as long as you can get close enough to them without being spotted, a in game fire mechanic where you can set downed enemies (or parts of the environment) on fire with a match.....if you have enough of them that is, environments littered with traps that you can disarm in order to create ammo for the Agony Crossbow or use to help kill enemies that you lured into chasing after you, and a hide mechanic where you can use certain environmental object to hide from enemies ala Outlast or Amnesia: The Dark Descent. When it comes to the game's negative gameplay aspects most of the game's "mini boss" enemies as well as the main villain Ruvik all have at least one one hit kill move that will instantly kill you regardless of how much health you have and there will be times where you accidentally run into these moves due to some camera/control issue that pop up from time to time since there is (at least to my knowledge) no camera centering button. I should also note that this game has a semi real time inventory system in that when you access the inventory time will slow down, but you can still receive damage from enemies and that the game has a few QTE like door opening moments that enemies can land free hits on you or in one instance do an instant kill move.
Graphics
Graphically the PS3 version of The Evil Within looks a bit rough at times (we're talking early PS3/Xbox 360 rough), but if you can look past some of those rough patches the game looks pretty good and is very atmospheric. I should also note that the game is presented in a 2.50:1 aspect ratio which means that even on a 16:9 Widescreen TV the game will have sizeable black bars on the top & bottom of the screen, which is sure to annoy some.
Sound
When it comes to sound this game evokes the sound design of the early Silent Hill games, which is to say it's pretty good and it does a good job of using sound in game as the in game enemies can hear you moving about (and vice versa) if you knock over a bottle or kick open a door. Now when it comes to music The Evil Within has a good but imo fairly minimal soundtrack most of which is limited to cutscenes and to let you know that you are close to a save room as they are usually one of the few rooms where you can hear music emanating from when you get near them.
Scare Factor
As a veteran player who is familiar with the genre this game imo has a scare factor of 6, early on there is not a whole lot in the way of "scares" (except for the bit with the chainsaw wielding maniac trying to hunt you down tearing shit up) and as you progress further into the game there are a few traditional jump scare moments mixed in with intense chase sequences where you are chased throughout the level by a seemingly invincible enemy.
Pros - This game is the sick love child you would get if Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Dead Space had a threesome.....in other words it is imo all around pure survival horror awesomeness, the game has a lot in the way of in game collectibles (documents, posters, audio tapes, map fragments, newspapers,etc) most of which help fill in character back stories, the game has some cool looking graphic death animations (one of my faves involved Chainsaw guy and a bed) , and the game (imo) has a lot in the way of replayability with an unlockable new game plus mode as well as two unlockable difficulty settings aimed at really challenging the player that when beaten provide the player with some awesome in game rewards like the one hit kill (for standard enemies) brass knuckle melee weapon.
Cons - Graphically looks a bit rough on the PS3, spacing of checkpoints early on are a bit rough and can lead to issues if you die between checkpoints thankfully it gets corrected the further you progress, also in this game you will die a lot ( I died over 100 times during my first playthrough) some of which is cause by some minor control/camera issues, the game has frustrating parts early on where you must deal with invisible enemies that WILL require you pay close/careful attention to the environment & sounds as there is no way to "see" these enemies unless they bump into/interact with something within the environment, and the game is pretty lengthy your first time through (it took me over 17 hrs to beat the first time) which (imo) led to some pacing issues in the early part of the game.
All in all I really enjoyed playing The Evil Within and while it is far from perfect it is still imo an excellent survival horror game well worth checking out especially if you are a fan of the genre or the work/games of Shinji Makami which is why I give this game an 8 out of 10. Now with that said I should mention that not everyone will like this game and that in the week that this game has been out I've noticed that among gamers (not critics, who generally seemed to like this game) this game has a bit of a love/hate thing going on in that some down right love it and some down right hate it. If you are on the fence about getting this game I highly recommend you check out the video I linked to here in the review or part 1 of the many "Let's Play" videos for the game on Youtube such the one done by Alpha Omega Sin.