Well, with a sequel announced for later this year, it was time to sit down and play The Evil Within.
Side note: I had owned this game on the Xbox 360 for a while, but had found it too difficult to complete, had deleted all the data and almost forgotten what I thought of the game. I'm just over 2/3 of the way through it as I type this.
To start, it is a survival horror game with twisted visuals, an interesting premise and story. You play Sebastian Castellanos, a detective who has been thrust into a nightmare. You move through several locations, using a mix of hide and run, run and run, and shoot the baddies. The mix of types of game play really give this game the variety a lot of survival horror titles lack (Outlast, I'm looking at you). I personally also enjoy the changes of scenery, it makes the game feel HUGE. You, once past the first chapter, will also enter a 'non real' world, where you can open lockers with keys, upgrade your character/weapons with what we call green goop, but the guide refers to as green gel, collect items and save. It's a safe place, the worst you'll get here is a telling off from the nurse if you speak to the guy in the room next to you. The 'real' world is much more threatening, you have to defeat monsters, some times a lot at a time, you'll have some seriously challenging (and damn creepy) boss battles, you'll need to dismantle traps and bombs.
I'd guess this game is mostly known for one boss, but we cannot deny the visuals we get, it really does its best to disturb the viewer. The opening game play and first chapter are fantastically gory, at one point you slide down a tunnel having to dodge all sorts of things, including saw blades. This scene is fast, it overwhelmed me! We also get a nice little nod to the first Resident Evil game in the first chapter, which I won't show, but if you're really interested, YouTube has plenty of videos.
OKAY, we'll talk about that boss now, I guess... My first point, before I really talk about this, I genuinely could not face this boss, she/it freaks me out no end, but I watched as someone played it for me, which often happens with a slightly more challenging game. Her real name is Laura, she has too many limbs, long black hair and closely resembles what would happen if Kayako from Ju On - The Grudge had a child with a spider. She can teleport short distances. She is about as scared of fire as I am of her. I mean LOOK AT HER:
She moves incredibly fast, and the game has a limit on how long you can sprint for. Oh yeah, are you starting to see my pure terror and hatred of this boss now? You can kill her, but even the game (loading screen, normally when you die) doesn't recommend trying, because she is a pain to kill! You'll have to run from her in multiple chapters, and fight her in one (that I am currently aware of). Whenever I see a reference to her, I hand the controller to my partner.
So we've covered that boss, but what about the other bosses? Well, for the most part, they're just challenging enough to keep myself or my partner busy, I usually die a couple of times before I beat whatever boss I'm facing. Some are a lot easier than others, and some are mostly difficult because of the environment, rather than the boss itself. None of them are anywhere near as upsetting as nightmare fuel Laura, but they are all disturbing, which I guess is this game's best asset.
The story, I here you ask! Well, it's a little disjointed, the pacing is a bit off, having played over 2/3 of the game, I'm still not sure what's going on or why. But given the nature of this game, that does make sense. The plot seems to revolve around Ruvik, apparently the game is his mind, his creation, and if we're playing the mind of a madman, then surely we don't need it to make complete sense, it should be disjointed, it shouldn't be clean cut and spoon fed...
Okay, so far, there has been an awful lot of praise, so what are the bad points? THE CONTROLS SUCK. I prefer a first person game, but playing third person isn't the end of the world, The Last Of Us was third person, and for the most part, I found that entire game an enjoyable and fairly easy play. So what's so bad about the controls? RB (right button) to crouch is still getting me, and B (circle) to burn bodies is also annoying. Pressing the left stick turns on your lantern (WHY?!?!) in every other game, it's pressing the right stick. Your characters animations tend to last slightly too long, and if you need to crouch quickly, you might not be able to. It also can't decide whether it'll let you remain in crouch or stand up when you've finished your action. Shooting means you automatically stand up, which when you're trying to hide from enemies and want to take them out quickly, you lose your cover. And then there's your moving speed. Oh my GOD. It ranges so wildly throughout the game, sometimes you can move quite quickly just walking, sometimes when wading through barely knee deep water, you'll be moving slower than a snail, and when you're crouched to sneak kill an enemy? You'll be lucky to get to the enemy before it turns around and spots you. I had a lot of trouble in chapter one because I kept being spotted due to how slowly you move when crouching.
Another thing that really got me when I started playing the game was just how bad the graphics were. It's not polished, its not clean, and even the cut scenes look terrible. This game was only released 3 years ago, but it looks like it could have been released 13 years ago. It's super glitchy, in parts the game almost stopped working, really crucial parts with many enemies and not a lot of time, may I add.
And then finally, it started fairly difficult and only seems to be getting harder. It wants you to be fast, but makes you crouch, it wants you to run around in circles to avoid a boss WHO CAN TELEPORT, you need to run away but you're stuck in a room with one exit. Parts of this game's game play just don't make any sense *Exasperated sigh*
Unfortunately, although the good points are many and the bad points are few, the bad points affect the game so much, I just cannot enjoy it. Hopefully the sequel has these points addressed. I don't mind a challenge, but the game is made deliberately hard because no one thought through the faults.
My last comment on this game: there are some fantastic jump scares, and one really s**t me up whilst playing.
I might do another post once I've completed the game, but I'm sure my opinions will probably be the same.
6.5/10
Side note: I had owned this game on the Xbox 360 for a while, but had found it too difficult to complete, had deleted all the data and almost forgotten what I thought of the game. I'm just over 2/3 of the way through it as I type this.
To start, it is a survival horror game with twisted visuals, an interesting premise and story. You play Sebastian Castellanos, a detective who has been thrust into a nightmare. You move through several locations, using a mix of hide and run, run and run, and shoot the baddies. The mix of types of game play really give this game the variety a lot of survival horror titles lack (Outlast, I'm looking at you). I personally also enjoy the changes of scenery, it makes the game feel HUGE. You, once past the first chapter, will also enter a 'non real' world, where you can open lockers with keys, upgrade your character/weapons with what we call green goop, but the guide refers to as green gel, collect items and save. It's a safe place, the worst you'll get here is a telling off from the nurse if you speak to the guy in the room next to you. The 'real' world is much more threatening, you have to defeat monsters, some times a lot at a time, you'll have some seriously challenging (and damn creepy) boss battles, you'll need to dismantle traps and bombs.
I'd guess this game is mostly known for one boss, but we cannot deny the visuals we get, it really does its best to disturb the viewer. The opening game play and first chapter are fantastically gory, at one point you slide down a tunnel having to dodge all sorts of things, including saw blades. This scene is fast, it overwhelmed me! We also get a nice little nod to the first Resident Evil game in the first chapter, which I won't show, but if you're really interested, YouTube has plenty of videos.
OKAY, we'll talk about that boss now, I guess... My first point, before I really talk about this, I genuinely could not face this boss, she/it freaks me out no end, but I watched as someone played it for me, which often happens with a slightly more challenging game. Her real name is Laura, she has too many limbs, long black hair and closely resembles what would happen if Kayako from Ju On - The Grudge had a child with a spider. She can teleport short distances. She is about as scared of fire as I am of her. I mean LOOK AT HER:
She moves incredibly fast, and the game has a limit on how long you can sprint for. Oh yeah, are you starting to see my pure terror and hatred of this boss now? You can kill her, but even the game (loading screen, normally when you die) doesn't recommend trying, because she is a pain to kill! You'll have to run from her in multiple chapters, and fight her in one (that I am currently aware of). Whenever I see a reference to her, I hand the controller to my partner.
So we've covered that boss, but what about the other bosses? Well, for the most part, they're just challenging enough to keep myself or my partner busy, I usually die a couple of times before I beat whatever boss I'm facing. Some are a lot easier than others, and some are mostly difficult because of the environment, rather than the boss itself. None of them are anywhere near as upsetting as nightmare fuel Laura, but they are all disturbing, which I guess is this game's best asset.
The story, I here you ask! Well, it's a little disjointed, the pacing is a bit off, having played over 2/3 of the game, I'm still not sure what's going on or why. But given the nature of this game, that does make sense. The plot seems to revolve around Ruvik, apparently the game is his mind, his creation, and if we're playing the mind of a madman, then surely we don't need it to make complete sense, it should be disjointed, it shouldn't be clean cut and spoon fed...
Okay, so far, there has been an awful lot of praise, so what are the bad points? THE CONTROLS SUCK. I prefer a first person game, but playing third person isn't the end of the world, The Last Of Us was third person, and for the most part, I found that entire game an enjoyable and fairly easy play. So what's so bad about the controls? RB (right button) to crouch is still getting me, and B (circle) to burn bodies is also annoying. Pressing the left stick turns on your lantern (WHY?!?!) in every other game, it's pressing the right stick. Your characters animations tend to last slightly too long, and if you need to crouch quickly, you might not be able to. It also can't decide whether it'll let you remain in crouch or stand up when you've finished your action. Shooting means you automatically stand up, which when you're trying to hide from enemies and want to take them out quickly, you lose your cover. And then there's your moving speed. Oh my GOD. It ranges so wildly throughout the game, sometimes you can move quite quickly just walking, sometimes when wading through barely knee deep water, you'll be moving slower than a snail, and when you're crouched to sneak kill an enemy? You'll be lucky to get to the enemy before it turns around and spots you. I had a lot of trouble in chapter one because I kept being spotted due to how slowly you move when crouching.
Another thing that really got me when I started playing the game was just how bad the graphics were. It's not polished, its not clean, and even the cut scenes look terrible. This game was only released 3 years ago, but it looks like it could have been released 13 years ago. It's super glitchy, in parts the game almost stopped working, really crucial parts with many enemies and not a lot of time, may I add.
And then finally, it started fairly difficult and only seems to be getting harder. It wants you to be fast, but makes you crouch, it wants you to run around in circles to avoid a boss WHO CAN TELEPORT, you need to run away but you're stuck in a room with one exit. Parts of this game's game play just don't make any sense *Exasperated sigh*
Unfortunately, although the good points are many and the bad points are few, the bad points affect the game so much, I just cannot enjoy it. Hopefully the sequel has these points addressed. I don't mind a challenge, but the game is made deliberately hard because no one thought through the faults.
My last comment on this game: there are some fantastic jump scares, and one really s**t me up whilst playing.
I might do another post once I've completed the game, but I'm sure my opinions will probably be the same.
6.5/10
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