The Evil Within Review
Played on Xbox One (base)
Developed by Tango Gameworks
Released 14th October 2014
Worked on under the code name "Project Zwei", The Evil Within was Shinji Mikami's response to the demand for survival horror games of the early 2010s as they started to slowly dissipate from the horror limelight. Mikami is the genius behind the Resident Evil games and while he believed he wouldn't make another horror game any time soon, that soon changed with this project that started development back in late 2010. The team worked hard on changing up the current, predictable state of survival horrors at the time and aimed to create an experience like no other: it's safe to say that they succeeded (somewhat).
Story
The story of Evil Within is fantastically made, having an aesthetic of Silent Hill’s tension and abstractness and mind-bending personality of a Hideo Kojima story - all superb. You play as Sebastian Castellanos as he is pulled through a distorted world full of nightmarish locations and horrid creatures after coming across a mass murder scene at a mental hospital. The game is centred on traversing through the psychotic world of terrors and understanding the mystery of it and the pacing throughout is smooth and great but begins to be a little bumpy towards the halfway point. The game at first is involving and intriguing with its bizarrity, however, even as things got explained, it didn't rid the confusion and I’m not sure whether this is positive or negative.
Gameplay
The gameplay is amazing though slow. The combat management is loveable and intricate, as you can stealth through sections very slowly and methodically or take your chances and go guns blazing with weaponry that'll get most of its ammo back in a couple of minutes. You can earn Green Goo which is used to level up Sebastion and his weapons as they consist of highly impactful effects like stamina length, health, weapon damage, accuracy and more. I love the upgradability in games so I'm extremely glad to see a form of progression, outside the narrative.
The gunfire and headshots gave off that great feeling you are to expect in horror survival games like this. While the game is incredible in its own rights, it can be quite slow. However, this isn't just in movement speed as the weapons you unlock and their upgrades can be quite snail-paced. You unlock the majority of weapons within the first 5 out of 15 chapters this game has to offer before having to wait for the whole game for something new. However, the number one weapon that represents this game is the Agony Crossbow as you can dismantle traps that'll reward you in parts that can be used to craft bolts for the crossbow. The variety of bolts is great, however, their ingenuity is quickly shortened as you unlock practically all of them early on, with only about 3 out of the 6-ish being handy.
The horror element is also lost between chapters 4-5 which is disappointing as I was waiting for it to make an impressive comeback but I only got a couple of jumpscares out of my system after the terror downfall. The lantern that also supplies you with light never struck a middle balance as at times, it was so powerful it could brighten a whole room while in some areas, it somehow made it harder to see. While the game is fantastic gameplay-wise, it has some sluggish flaws.
Bossfights
The bossfights are amazing puzzle-piece fights that I quite enjoyed. While they don't offer a huge "oh my god this is great" moment, they do challenge the player in just the right way, however, kind of sluggishly. The bosses are creative and unique throughout but can end up similar in playstyle. The Keeper and Laura are spectacular in design, audio, atmosphere and tension but they do follow each other's gameplay slightly too much - run away to interact with something to progress, and repeat until the fight is over. This applies to other bosses like the Sentinel and Amalgam Alpha and their 'dodge attack and shoot' limitations. The final boss fight is also very unsatisfying and a cop-out as it consists of only QTEs which felt like a slap across the face as the player (including me) probably preserved plenty of ammunition for this final encounter, only for it all to be worthless.
Characters
The characters are decent. While they don't bring emotional impact or depth within their voice acting and dialogue, the psychological damage is explored brilliantly among them. Sebastian as a character doesn't seem to be fazed by some extraordinaires, but his deeply stabbed past and trauma problems are done great through some of his conversations with others and the diary entries found around the linear world. The same applies to Joseph, Kidman, and more. The antagonist Ruvik isn't anything horrifying or menacing in terms of the tale told but some of the actions presented by him can make the player reconsider if he's spine-chilling to them or not. In other words, he can't talk the talk, but he can most definitely walk the walk.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere is great. The game does suffer a too action-packed second half, but the first half still staples the uniqueity and mind-bending world of Mikami to a dreading tension of Silent Hill in some parts, and The Last of Us' collapsed world in others. In terms of technical performance, nothing went awry except for some frame rate drops and second-late texture loads. The music is amazingly brilliant and succeeds in delivering multiple levels of heart-racing. The enemy designs are astonishing in bringing the twisted world of Evil Within to life, and the sound design of the weapon's pops and bangs are stupendous.
Story- 8/10
Gameplay- 8.5/10
Bossfights- 7.5/10
Characters- 7/10
Atmosphere- 9/10
Great
The Evil Within stands to be nearly as good as its fellow survival horror contemporaries, only outmatched due to their legacies.
