The Evil Within

I figured I should change it up this month and focus on horror games since it is October. Hopefully I can share what I love in the genre and what usually disengages me. I'll start off with the most recent title for me and that is The Evil Within. The earliest survival horror game I can recall playing was Resident Evil, so you can imagine my excitement when I heard the director for the Original Resident Evil working on a new game. I honestly could not wait since the last game I played that he worked on was Resident Evil 4. Shinji Mikami was known for other games such as Vanquish, but I haven't attempted those games as they don't fit the setting I was drawn to.

The first thing I will admit in my review is that The Evil Within is not a perfect game and it is not everyone's cup of tea. Any Resident Evil fan will be a witness to this and will most likely fall in love with the game. I went into it not knowing a thing and was soon drawn back by the cheesy dialogue only to remember that there was always cheesy dialogue in every Shinji Mikami game.

The Evil Within is very reminiscent of how Resident Evil 4 was played

What starts off as a simple murder mystery in Beacon Mental Hospital with our main character Sebastian eventually gets him caught up in twisted and confusing plot points that veer off the main path and eventually gives the players more questions than answers. I honestly loved it from start to finish. The story was way different than your straightforward Resident evil where we are trying to find out what is causing an outbreak to simply (Or not so simple) an inner struggle with each character on their own. There is no rule to what is going on around them and once you get used to something it immediately changes because there is no pattern to what's happening around the player.

Blood... Lots of blood

The moment every Resident Evil fan got excited over

Sebastian along with Juli Kidman and Joseph Oda get lost on their own in their own minds and without spoiling much I loved how poetic The Evil Within was with its subtle remarks and not so subtle ones. I felt a similar distinction and you can go ahead and kill me for bringing up such a comparison, but I felt Shinji was being a Hideo Kojima with his remarks to his other works and it feels like he is genuinely having fun with the horror genre. Some characters were emotionless and distant to what was around them in a laughable manner where others were involved melodramatically. The Evil Within barely gave me any scares but I was invested initially until I got confused and angry at the story and eventually decided on my own that this is THE "Cabin in the woods" of video games. What do I mean? This game has every horror cliche and/or horror enemy. You've got your Pyramid Head, you've got your ghosts stories and zombies... etc. all playable in the exact same way Resident Evil 4 was played.

Hi, I will be pyramid head for this game

This is a true survival horror by all means to me. There were a lot of times where I was out of ammo as well as countless times me running through the woods only to be either caught by a trap or find a hatchet that I bury in the next undead's head. Sebastian has a load of weapons to choose from but rarely did I find ammo that was kept but for a brief moment. I've had boss fights where I only have a few sniper bullets but it was fun getting to know my way around. The way we keep on transporting to our "save room" was reminiscent for me to Silent Hill 4 and in that hub we get to upgrade our points in the upgrade chair using brains. Funny right? Using brains as a currency. Initially, I did feel vulnerable with the limited stamina I had and how low the capacity of my pistol was but soon and just like Resident Evil 4 I felt powerful and I realized that the main motivation for my fear and panic was the scarcity of my ammo more than anything else, really. I get overwhelmed mentally when I am cornered with a glass bottle and no other weapons than when I have a fully loaded shotgun.

I lost count at how many times I died

What I also found funny was the stealth mechanic since it felt inconsistent and eventually was an useless method of getting rid of enemies in the main campaign. There were only a few moments where the player was forced to go from one point to another without having any weapons using stealth but eventually the whole level is aware of you. Other times you find traps at your disposal but eventually I was drawn to being aggressive to enemies more than going about cautiously.

Your friendly neighboring upgrade chair

Stealth was only useful early on in the game and generally helped save a load of ammo

Speaking of Levels, there was a noticeable variety in them where some forest environments were huge and had a lot of drops whereas other indoor areas were reminiscent to Original Resident Evil titles. The environment and lighting sets the right mood for me fearing the unknown. My favorite thing about The Evil Within was that there is no known enemy and enemies aren't repetitive in terms of design and concept. You constantly wonder what you will face next and I was honestly baffled by how quickly I change my strategy in my own methods of disposing of them despite me preferring being aggressive, I did have a few instances where it is better to go about using stealth.

GET AWAY GET AWAY

Despite The Evil Within having a minimally effective story as the general consensus would agree, I still believe the characters and enemies that were created as well as key moments and boss fights that I don't want to share due to spoilers would greatly affect me for years to come. These moments were not haunting to the moment of me getting paralyzed but they were just done so well in terms of player engagement and were investing. I enjoyed screaming from one hallway to another because I was in the moment and that alone served its purpose. The Evil Within to my surprise also spawned an eerily beautiful soundtrack that matched its atmosphere.

Aesthetics were spot on in my experience

I had lots of fun playing The Evil Within but I have to repeat that it is not a perfect game and it is not worth nitpicking the details because when I go to this game, I just turn off my brain and have mindless fun. I was surprised to have beaten the game twice in a row to hunt some achievements I missed out on despite me getting drained out after my first playthrough. What I thought was over spawned story DLCs that were surely as investing as the main campaign and finally tied a few loose ends that I was wondering about. What was also interesting about the DLCs is that the mechanics change completely to stealth which is also amusing at the same time since the developers may have noticed the shortcomings on such a mechanic in the main campaign.

The Assignment DLC offers a different way to approach enemies

 I enjoyed The Evil Within for what it offered and my advice is that if you do like this kind of setup, take everything at face value and enjoy it for what it is.