| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 4 | 8.90 |
| Overall | 8.90 |
|
TEW There are a few game directors who's name alone carries weight, Shinji Mikami is one of those directors. The creator of the Resident Evil franchise revolutionized horror games, not once but twice. After a few years trying different genres Mikami returns to his roots, with his own development studio and a mission to make a new horror game masterpiece. The Evil Within doesn't quite reach masterpiece status, it is pulled in too many thematic directions and lacks the innovation of his past masterpiece. It is however one of the best horror games to come out in years and shows that few master action and intensity like Mikami. The Evil Within has been known as Resident Evil 4 part 2 due to the heavy influences of Mikami's greatest achievement. This is not classic RE, this is still a third person action game at heart but unlike RE4 it totally embraces the horror atmosphere and has scarse ammo and health. The one word that best describes TEW is "intense". The protagonist Sebastian is controled using the standard third person shooter scheme but with his base stats he lacks the speed and power most action games have. Sebastian's aim is wobbly, he runs out of breath from running for four seconds. He is purposely handicapped to make the player feel vulnerable and that feeling changes everything. Every enemy encounter feels dangerous, even the lowest of grunts can kill you in a few hits. See a group of mutated humans (exactly like RE4s ganados) and the player must quickly take stock of their inventory and pay close attention to the environment. Maximizing kills with the least loss of ammo is paramount to success which is a very different strategy to RE4 which was all about positioning and letting loose with near infinite firepower. Environments come filled with traps which of course can harm Sebastian or be used on the enemies. Stealth is also an option, sneaking behind an enemy and stabbing them is an instant kill, good luck doing so consistently though as enemies react to any noise. The primary weapon is a crossbow with arrows that have various effects; some stun a group with light, others set mines, one freezes targets. This is your best weapon for crowd control and when mixed with other tactics can lead to multiple kills with very little ammo wasted. One of the best weapons is a match, sounds strange but a match can totally save your ass in amazing ways. It can instant kill any downed enemy and if another enemy is near it they will catch fire and die as well. Certain bosses are only damaged with fire so using dead bodies as fire traps becomes a great strategy. A handgun alone is not that powerful but use it to shoot an enemy's leg and now you can light them up with the match, one bullet wasted, one enemy dead. The amount of options available to the player for dispatching enemies makes the combat an absolute joy. It often feels frantic, it can be brutal at times but the way it always keeps the player thinking is why it excels. This is not a mindless shooter, every new room, every encounter requires strategy and skill. The way items and ammo is handled is quite genius. It always feels as though Sebestain is always on the edge of not having enough ammo. Just as you fire that last bullet or use that last health kit the game will give you a small amount of what you need. The game gives you just enough to get by but never enough to feel safe, maybe the best balance of a limited inventory I have ever seen in a game. There is a major upgrade system in place which drastically changes the way Sebastain feels. There is never enough gel (upgrade points) to upgrade everything meaning there is room for customization and strategy. You can increase carrying capacity for all health and ammo, allow Sebastain to run further, have increased maximum health and have loads of weapon upgrade options. As the game goes on Sebastian finally feels like a proper killing machine and the game adjusts the setpieces accordingly. At the start a group of three enemies felt like a boss battle, by the end you are fighting giant mobs and using everything in your arsenal to keep enemies at bay. The action scales with your skills but this leads to strange changes in tones and gameplay. The very slow methodical action from the start gets replaced with a more fast paced kind of action which to me did not work as well. The games structure is similar to Resident Evil 4 with the game being broken up into chapters. The first few chapters are very slow and are filled with the whole walk slowly while stuff happens crap from so many modern games. Way to many moments in this game stop the action completely and force you to slowly move through a creepy enviornment where nothing really happens, such a stark contrast to RE4 where not one second of that game is wasted. Then there are chapters of absolute brilliance. It feels like Mikami lets his creative juices flow with masterful action setpieces that rival RE4 even. Large playgrounds with multiple avenues for attack and defense, extremely smart enemy placement with new gameplay twists that introduced new strategies. This is the game The Evil Within should have been from start to finish but I would say those amazing levels only fill 60% of the game while the rest is more experimental slower moments that don't work as well. There is little cohesion between certain levels which can lead to some jarring tone changes. Make no mistake this is an action game first but there are moments where the vibe and setting fit perfectly into that classic survival horror feel. Then there are times you are in broad daylight in the middle of a city dodging around cars to avoid a guy on a jeep with a chaingun. I appreciate the action setpieces for what they are, to me that specific moment was an interesting new twist to the action that I have not experienced in this game yet; constant variety I like. But others may view that same setpieces with disdain saying “what the hell is this, what kind of game am I playing, I don’t want this in my horror game”. Depending on who you are you may have opposite reactions to certain chapters, this leads to the mixed reaction this game received. One major issue for many players will be the prevalence of instant deaths and frustrating difficult moments. If you are one to easily get frustrated this game is probably not for you. You will die a lot, a whole lot, and sometimes it will be cheapz Most bosses instant kill you, many traps instant kill you. There is one chapter where you are constanty chased by an invincible ghost dude that randomly teleports near you and kills you in one hit. I mostly love this stuff, I love a challenge and even though some of these kills were cheap the first time, they can be avoided with smart play. The boss battles are sometimes a grind due to the instant death nature of them, I would have tweaked a few. In general the boss battles are well done just not at the level of RE4. Exploration is very well done with small branching paths and plenty of alternate spaces to explore. With the constant threat of enemies you never know if going for that bottle of gel in the other side of the room will end your life. This leads to a risk reward feeling to every areas Super well hidden keys and map pieces make you be constantly aware of your surroundings and often they are in genius locations. The game is still linear but there is enough leeway to feel like exploring is a large gameplay component. The Evil Within could have easily had a very compelling story but in the end it falls back onto generic Japanese action game tropes. The game is basically a journey through the mind of a madman which leads to all sorts of great horror effects and moments. The art style and look of certain areas feel more like Silent Hill, I loved that, I wish they went more toward that direction. There is plenty of mystery involved as Sebastian and the player don't really know what is going on; as he goes deeper into the madness the story gets pieced together which could have been far more interesting. It was a missed opportunity but it is way more compelling than any Resident Evil game post RE4. Graphically TEW struggles at times on the PS4, I can't even imagine what it is like on a PS3. Slow down is not frequent but noticeable at times. It generally looks great, mostly due to the art direction but it is running on a bad engine. For some reason Mikami loves letterbox view so this game has giant black bars on the top and bottom, it is stupid and adds nothing plus there is no way to turn it off. The music is well done, I love the use of the main piece of classical music that becomes the games theme. The sound design is fantastic and almost a part of the gameplay. Put this baby on full surround and let your ears be your radar. The Evil Within is for the most part a fantastic game that doesn’t seem to know what kind of game it wants to be. It is a mish mash of various horror game elements blended together and maybe that is the point. The good thing is that the level of quality remains high throughout its near 15 hour adventure. With certain tweaks and more of a focus on the high intensity setpieces The Evil Within could have been an all time great instead it's only one of the years best. A must play for horror game fans and anyone who has enjoyed a Mikami game. |
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Posted by Dvader Mon, 24 Nov 2014 21:22:27
Recently Spotted:
robio (4m)
Hmmmm....