Ah guys, I finally have some time to sit and write out another review!
Just been super busy with work and uni, but I AM BACK! You'll have a few game reviews coming, gonna speed run a few I've played before, and I'm looking at some more film reviews, looking at some Asian horror, something a little less mainstream.
So with that nonsense out of the way, who's ready to hear all about a sequel I was dying to play?
(I'm guessing you, cause why would you even be here if you didn't?)
The Evil Within, a game I found scary, weird, challenging and fun, even with the useless controls, finally got a sequel, and it has a story, and it's kinda open world, and it is just as hard as the first one, and they managed to make the controls worse than the first game (well done Bethesda!)
There are SO MANY THINGS I want to talk about, but let's all familiarise ourselves with the story, going back to the first and linking everything together. You, yet again, play Sebastian Castellanos, a good few years after the first game, grieving the loss of his daughter and disappearance of his wife, whilst still being haunted by the memories of Beacon Memorial Hospital. Beacon was the setting for the first game, and at some point, Sebastian enters STEM, a type of separate reality, Ruvik, the bad guy, works out how to control STEM, and cause all sorts of havoc. Back to the present, Sebastian wakes from a drunken nightmare in a bar (??????) and is confronted by Kidman, from the first game, who tells him that his daughter isn't dead, she is in STEM, and Sebastian has to go back in to rescue her. And thus, the madness begins. Sebastian enters Union, which seems to have been overtaken by a couple of psychopathic types, fighting to gain control of his daughter, the core. I think the story is a real positive for this game, there are many twists and turns, and it might even pull at your heart strings.
Let's start where I usually like to, how it looks. The biggest change might have been seen for myself as I played the first game on Xbox 360, but have upgraded now to a PS4, so yeah, it looks great. Much more detailed, and Sebastian has the haunted, and inebriated, look of someone who has lost everything. Having a larger area to explore means plenty of different landscapes, some of them look absolutely amazing, Union itself is great, although it would be nice to have more houses to explore. Sound wise? Yeah, I prefer the first for soundtrack, but this isn't without some great music.
Continuing with the positives, there's a lot more to play in this than the first game, purely due to the amount of side quests you can do, I'm currently working through it collecting every item and trying to do every side quest, but with so much to explore, it can get very confusing. Roaming enemies make it a lot more complicated, and the challenges are great. There are new items to craft, and you can also craft bullets and other ammo now, although, depending on your play style, you might not use them at all. I haven't used a single smoke bolt to date, I'd rather shoot everything. (I'm terrible at the sneaky sneaky) The side quests vary, and if you encounter the scary ghost THING by doing one of the side quests she will then just randomly appear in Union whenever she feels like it, and she doesn't do damage, rather she just insta-kills you by sucking out your soul... Joy (she appears in two of the side quests, but only one will trigger her like this). There's also the new communicators, which can be used to track signals, they are used not only in the main quest, but also side stories, and to find objects of particular interest. This is a great little addition, meaning it's slightly easier to find the collectibles/resonance points/ammo.
Now, the negatives. Oh boy, why are the controls so bad? It's actually less responsive than game one! Seriously, it takes Sebastian about ten full seconds to respond to anything you press on the controller, which is just great when you're in a high pressure situation and trying to shoot, or change weapons, and some evil creature eats you or cuts you in half or whatever. I mean, how am I supposed to kill a boss when you keep shooting way later than I want you to? And the auto-aim, the god. damned. auto. aim. IT DOESNT AIM 50% OF THE TIME. You know what works well? A bullet to the head. So why are we aiming at it's arm?! I believe that the PS4 version is the worst for glitches and bugs, so that might be the issue, but it's frustrating nonetheless.
And we reach spoiler territory, so back out if you don't want any major spoilers, you have been warned. I started playing this game at Christmas, and the entire way through, I was told all about "the hype train", I wasn't actually allowed to play it while my boyfriend was away for New Years, he wanted to see my reaction. It turns out, it was well worth the wait. Sebastian faces Theodore Wallace, who was sent in by Mobius but went crazy. Theo wants to destroy Sebastian, and so makes him remember. Remember where it all began. Remember Beacon. Sebastian is thrust back into Beacon Memorial Hospital, good ol' Theo wanting him to be ruined by his memories (amiright?). What follows is a repeat of several boss battles from the first game, but with a twist: Sebastian is NOT taking this shit any more. Sebastian is angry. Sebastian says "fuck you". These are just as difficult as in the first game, but so much fun, and a great little throwback.
Overall, a game I enjoyed, with a far more fleshed out story, controls could use a lot of work, but a great balance of action and narrative. A vast improvement on the first, and I can forgive the frankly abhorrent controls. Oh, and there are, once more, some serious shit-you-up jump scares.
I really look forward to where this leads, I might try to nab the DLC at some point too.
Highly recommend!
8/10
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