Shinji Mikami is a name that nearly every gamer has at least heard of before, if not knowing who it belongs to and the history behind him. Going as far back as 1996, Mikami was the genius behind the famous Resident Evil series currently developed and published by Capcom. Mikami was popularised in 2005 with Resident Evil 4, in which he decided to evolve his famed survival horror series by incorporating Hollywood-style action elements. In 2010, Mikami created his own new studio, Tango Gameworks, and is returning to the survival horror genre.
While Resident Evil 4 was an inarguable classic, the problem with The Evil Within and the development behind it is that it seems someone is nine years late in flipping the calendar; it's not 2005 any longer and the standards for both action and horror games have changed. The Evil Within does a great job of incorporating the classic survival horror elements that made the Resident Evil franchise so successful, but it fails to present itself as a product of our expectations in 2014.
The Evil Within follows the protagonist of Sebastian Castellanos (voiced by Anson Mount [Urban Legends, Conviction and Red Widow]), a police detective working in a "seemingly disproportionate" crime-laden metropolis, ironically called Krimson City. When Castellanos and his partners Juli Kidman (voiced by Jennifer Carpenter [Dexter, White Chicks, and The Exorcism of Emily Rose]) and Joseph Oda are called to the scene of a gruesome mass murder at the city mental hospital, they soon discover that all is not what it seems. Chalk that up as the biggest understatement of the year. They find themselves separated and transported into a twisted version of reality where normal people are horrifying, mutated psychopaths; think of Silent Hill.
The stage is set for a psychological thrill ride, but I can't honestly say that the plot really captivated me. If anything, I was more confused than anything else and that confusion is essentially never-ending. There are elements of your modern survival horror, psychological terror and simple supernatural thematics, but it's all so terribly intertwined that it rarely makes sense. It also doesn't help when you're controlling another stick-in-the-mud Murphy Pendleton and surrounded by a ghostly supporting cast - figuratively speaking.
Sebastian Castellanos is a generic horror protagonist, dressed like Detective Ronan O'Connor (Murdered: Soul Suspect), without much of a personality; his hardened exterior paired with his haunted-by-his-past cavalier attitude does no justice to immersion within the narrative. Any normal person, regardless of their past wouldn't be so dismissive of the insanity surrounding them. There's no supporting dialogue and only occasionally does Sebastian point out the oddities. I expected more "What the hell is that?" "Where the hell am I?" and "What the hell is going on around here?" side comments every now and then and I was sorely disappointed. The real insult to injury here is that the plot and characterisation is terribly predictable; almost 75% of the time I was able to figure out what was going to happen well before it actually did.
Sebastian's partner, Joseph, and rookie-in-training Juli have a little more personality than our lead protagonist, but their characters aren't given enough proper attention, so their relevance often goes amiss. You'll often find Sebastian reuniting with his companions only to be separated once more without warning. It's already been confirmed that Juli will be the lead role in two announced DLC add-ons for the game and the third puts you in the shoes of the Boxman, a less-than-subtle nod toward Silent Hill's Pyramid Head antagonist. We'll be able to learn more about Juli but it seems that Joseph will remain in the dark, unless Juli's narratives shed more light on him.
While the game itself is generally well-paced, there is an underlining pacing issue. The game is split into chapters, like most horror narratives, but there's no real arc to them at all. In one chapter, Sebastian is sliced on the calf and is forced to limp around. In the next, the rip in his trousers and the gash on his leg are simply gone and he's walking around fine. Boss fights are tossed in here and there, sometimes multiple fights per chapter. There's no rhyme or rhythm and it almost seems like the game is jumping back and forth between time without letting you know. It doesn't help make sense of the situation and it seems like they're aware of it and just want you to accept it.
One thing I noticed immediately after loading up the game is how closely the game resembles Silent Hill: Downpour in terms of visuals and thematics. It's grainy, lacking vibrancy and the textures are nearly a cut-and-paste. The latter themselves are terribly rendered within the environment at times; textures on characters and within cutscenes are a little above average, but environmentally within gameplay, nothing about this game looks like it belongs in this generation. Even the blood - and there's a lot of it - doesn't look like it's meant to be in the environment and looks more like an afterthought. "Hmm, we have an incredibly violent game but we forgot the blood. Oh, just throw it in here, don't worry about bump mapping, shadows or depth."
Despite the almost-poor quality work with it, it's far from subtle: it's excessive. Within the first ten minutes, I've seen more blood than in any previously played game combined. But it's not senseless, nor is the violence. It's fitting to the theme and doesn't feel like it's just been thrown in to take advantage of the M/18+ rating; its thematic and it works. While on the topic of theme, Tango Gameworks has managed to create some incredibly strange and glorious places in The Evil Within's fifteen (15) chapters, akin to elements you'd find in American McGee's Alice. It's a horror theme, which is always full of clichés, but these have been twisted into original settings. They're still small and linear, but with the lighting and the forced 16:9 ratio, the environments are claustrophobic and convoluted.
Occasionally, chapters end on a suitable cliffhanger, which like a good television programme, makes you eager to continue immediately. However, it was more frequent that they ended after opening a door or entering a dimly lit room that seemed to have no significance. There's quite a bit of tension and thrill, but it comes and goes as opposed to being constant. There were times I crept past something that I was sure was going to pop out and scare me. For instance, while navigating a chapter, I came across a dead body in a wheelchair narrowing my destination path. My only thought while passing it was, "Don't touch me, don't touch me, don't touch me..." and it never did.
The problem with tension regulation unfortunately extends to combat. While the game is by genre a horror game, it is foremost a third-person-shooter and one that is done well, surprisingly. You're provided with a limited arsenal and different weapons are useful in different situations, but the rarity of ammunition forces you to be smart with weapon usage. In addition, the game features an upgrade system that allows you to use "green gel" to improve your abilities, weapons and carrying capacities. The green gel is a scarce resource, which really illustrates the strong dilemmas of choice and prioritisation.
I must say, though, that I found the game to be more creepy than anything else. There were moments, far and few between that I was actually scared, and it's rare that I play games like The Evil Within because I get creeped out easily. However, I often found myself biting down due to suspense than anything else: what's around that corner or in that room? It was rare that I jumped, screamed and paused the game to run out of the room, much like advertisements suggested. However, that is obviously up to an individual's determination.
The Evil Within is gritty, disturbing and violent in nature and its illustrated further in subtle tones: the grain feature littered about the screen and the forced 16:9 widescreen ratio. The grainy effect adds to the feelings of filth, vulgarity and senses of evil, while the widescreen ratio supports the sensations of claustrophobia, awareness deprivation...and aggravation. The problem is that while the hardly noticeable grainy effect can be turned down or off, the 16:9 ratio cannot. It's a terrible annoyance and you often have to move the camera in innumerable directions to spot items that would usually be seen thanks to peripheral vision. It has been claimed that the widescreen ratio was part of the design to incorporate a more cinematic experience, but I find it to be simply aggravating, distracting and a prevalent inconvenience.
The Evil Within is vicious, demanding and rather fun overall. It manages to incorporate classic horror and imaginative elements in frightening ways. There are times where you'll feel helpless and think, "how the hell am I going to do this" and still manage to rather simply. Shinji Mikami is a master of the horror craft, but the narrative ends up collapsing under its own narcissistic ambition with foundations that were outdated nine years ago. Yet I still managed to find enough enjoyment with this game to justify the retail price.
The Evil Within started with so much promise. It's time for this underappreciated franchise to make a return for modern audiences.
Definitely. 'Another Chance' is poor wording though, because it makes it sound like the first two weren't good games - they were.
I'm hoping we'll get a sequel now that GW Tokyo is out. TEW3 would seem to be the next obvious title to work on for Tango.
Oh totally
For me the Evil Within II was like the jump between Assassins Creed and Assassins Creed II, it was fantastic and they fleshed out Sebastian so much.
I know they've said before it probably will be the end of his story but I'm hoping for one more game, Ruuvik is still out there so hopefully he will pull Sebastian back in somehow to get his revenge.
Loved the first one a lot, bought part 2 but the disc got damaged, didn't get very far. I'll give it a play on Game Pass eventually.
Its an awesome game you wont be disappointed id say, you can probably get it for around $15 now, no real reason to wait
Ghostwire: Tokyo has come a long way since its early days as The Evil Within 3, and that journey was fraught with many different challenges.
I still hope they're going onto TEW3 after GW though. We definitely need a third entry!
As an artist, I can say these kinds of unexpected shifts in direction quite often produce very pleasing results. It's no surprise Ghostwire Tokyo looks cool.
Dylan from Twinfinite: "With Halloween just around the corner, we run down 7 of the scariest horror game monsters ever created. Let's get into it!"
I do not get the aspect ratio. Why? Too much space is taken up by blackness. Other than the horrible rendering, I noticed this right away.
I think the aspect ratio is awesome , makes it feel more cinematic and suck you in the game more because you will feel like you are playing a cutscene . Its really funny how people call him dull protagonist because i am 100% sure he made him like that to bring back the game nostalgia of the old characters in games like Re 1 , 2 ,3 or Silent hill 1 . Because they dont react to the enviroment that surrounds or go holy $#@/ so thats really a plus for me and the difficulty is brutally satisfying especially if you want a game to play that satisfy your needs until Bloodborne comes but either way a game like this and Alien isolation are really the best thing that came this year for me as a horror fan . Hopefuly this starts a franchise because its awesome and they can really use the current gen consoles with no limitations of the last gen .
The aspect ratio is indeed annoying but I am getting used to it to be quite honest so I don't mind it as much, and if its intention is to be both "cinematic" (which isn't necessary) and to make it claustrophobic then it is actually working.
The atmosphere is actually brilliant in my opinion, and the tension from surviving in chapters from enemies and bosses were great. I didn't feel that satisfied in horror games for a while now and I actually like how it is. I should that I didn't play old-school horror games though so I am quite surprised about how much I enjoy this game.
The characters and the story (currently since I am still on chapter 5) are not really that impressive but I keep thinking that they made Sebastian like that because of characters not batting an eye on what is going on around them in the old horror games but I can't say if that is on purpose or just weak writing.
Asides from technical issues and the weak story, I am seriously enjoying this game a lot. More than I have expected and I am quite surprised about people being so negative about this game for some reason (Not reviewers).
Thanks for the review Valenka! :D