HorrorTober Finale - The Evil Within (PS4)
For those that follow, I streamed a bit of this game on my YouTube channel (about half of the game). This was also the one that got voted to get a review last month, and I figured where better to place the review than right here, at the end of HorrorTober, on Halloween?
You can also click the right stick (R3) to bring up your item menu where you can craft bows for your harpoon gun and use your health packs.
The controls them self are pretty easy, but they aren't the best as they can sometimes feel a little bit sluggish, but let's look more into that as we talk about how the controls stack up during the game.
The game itself is broken up into fifteen chapters, and overall your main objective is just surviving whatever the hell is happening to you. You're driven by the determination to piece the puzzle together, figure out what's going on, and who the mysterious figure is that's stalking you. Each chapter greets you with it's own mini-objective, and these can vary depending on where you are in the story. Anything from surviving through a certain area, finding someone/something, or overcoming some sort of obstacle.
Through each chapter, you'll be faced with numerous creatures who are out to get you. They aren't really given a name specifically, but they stumble around like zombies for the most part. Most of them will try and bum-rush you, attacking you directly. Others, though, can carry torches, axes, guns that they can also fire, and sticks of dynamite that they'll try and lob at you.
Interspersed with the enemies are a number of bosses/mini bosses, and a couple of situations where you're just fighting off waves off the "normal" creatures. These guys will force you to bring your best out, and you won't only be dealing with them but a number of the normal creatures as well. It goes without saying that these guys also take a bit more firepower to bring to their knees. No matter the enemy, their corpse (or what you've left remaining of it) will still stay in the game unless you decide to burn it. Burning the corpses requires a match which you have to find, but if there are numerous bodies within a small area they'll all burn with the same match. This is to insure that they won't reanimate again.
Most of the game will be spent gunning down things and leaving trails of blood in your wake. There are some sections of the game, however, that force you to rely on stealth. There's not a lot of them, and they can be pretty tricky if you don't take the stealth seriously. You're generally offered plenty of cover to hide behind, as well as numerous places to hide yourself if you need to break line of sight with your foe. Any enemies in the vicinity will come running towards any noises you make, so if you go in kicking down doors with guns blazing, you're going to have a lot of problems.
The arsenal at your disposal can be picked up throughout the game. You start with your revolver, but can eventually find a shotgun, an Agony Crossbow, a sniper rifle, and a few other goodies to help you lay waste to anything that gets in your way. These are all found in silver weapons cases, but two of them can only be gotten by beating the game and they'll be ready for you in a New Game + mode.
All the weapons can be upgraded, as well as some of your abilities, in a small hospital area that can be accessed through mirrors in the game called the Safe Haven. This is the area where you're able to save the game, upgrade yourself and your weapons, and also unlock little lockers that will give you more items to help you in the main game. Your own abilities that can be upgraded include your health bar, your stamina bar which lets you sprint further, and how much health you can regenerate with each syringe. For your weapons, you're able to increase the damage they do, quicken your reload speed, and upgrade the ammo capacity for each of them. No matter the upgrade, they all require an amount of green gel which can be found during the main game.
Any item you need is found in the game. Ammo can be found in hiding places, or dropped by some enemies, with the exception of the crossbow bolts which can be crafted by disarming traps. The green gel is found in the same manner, as well as the matches. Other items that can be picked up are bottles, used to distract enemies, axes and torches, which can be used on an enemy to kill them in one shot. The last choice you have for disposing of your enemies is by sneaking up behind them and getting close enough to trigger a stealth kill.
In the end, Evil Within is a pretty good game. But before we get too much into that, let's see if it's challenging at all.
The normal creatures are a moderate challenge. For the most part it's due to the ammo being a bit hard to find, but these guys are smart too. At first glance they might seem like brainless zombies, but they are far, far from it. What's worse is you'll get a mixture of the ones that can and can't shoot weapons, so it begins feeling like there's no safe place for you in any part of this game.
Bosses are definitely hard. These guys require a lot of strategy because not only are you up against them, but you have to deal with the regular guys as well. They also take significantly more firepower before they die for you. The worst part about these guys is it seems like no matter how much health you have, they kill you in one shot, so you have to keep your distance.
Lastly, survival. It is the main element of this game, and it's hard as well, not offering you much for assistance. Ammo is scarce, so you want to try and conserve, but when you have a handful of guys barreling in on you from all angles, your guns are your best friend, so it's a tough spot. The matches can be pretty hard to find too, and for some reason you can only carry a few of these at a time. Pretty much anything you need to find in this game (which is just about everything) is hard to come across.
Overall, Evil Within is pretty challenging, which will have you on edge the whole time. So, before I get to my final verdict, let's look at the pros and cons of this one.
- It's Just Beautiful. The settings for every chapter are dark and gory and just amazing to look at. The gore itself isn't completely non-stop either, so it makes a perfect set-up for when you get to the especially gory areas. Whether you're out in the woods or underground in some weapon filled dungeon, you'll cringe and your jaw will drop with everything that's around you.
- Crowded Camera. The camera is practically right on top of Sebastian, so for the most part all you see is him. I've played games before that have the camera "mounted" on the playable characters shoulder, and those didn't feel anywhere near as crowded as this. When I'd be aiming the crossbow at one enemy, it was really tough keeping an eye out for myself to pick out any other enemies that were bumbling into the area.
- Arcade Feel. Every chapter ends with a "Chapter X Cleared", and I mean every single one. It made the story feel broken and slow, there weren't any seamless segues from one area to the next. You'd hit a point to trigger an end cutscene, get the "Cleared" slide, and then get back into the game. It's even more confusing because honestly, what's the point? Why have a definitive stamp like that for each chapter? I could see if maybe the game were broken down into larger Acts over top of the chapters, but doing it this way I felt made the story feel less driven.
Now, that set aside, it might not be the greatest, but Evil Within is still worth checking out. It really brings the survival horror genre back to it's roots. The games in the genre got "main-streamed" for a while, by which I mean they saw a lot of action being implemented into these games. And while zombies and ghosts and whatnot have the potential to be terrifying, it's significantly lessened when you have an almost unlimited supply of ammo to use against them. Evil Within goes back, makes you work for everything you need to survive this one, and trust me when I say that surviving is what you'll be doing. You can find it for about $15 - $20 used or new at GameStop, so if you truly like survival-horror games, this one is for you. If you're more a fan of the horror games with more action areas in them, you might not have as much fun with this one.
As for horror level, the terror mostly comes from what I just mentioned above. Walking into an area with only a couple dozen rounds of ammo and seeing almost half as many enemies come out at you definitely gets your heart pumping. There's some truly terrifying looking creatures in this one too, so the horror level in this one is most certainly present, which seems a fitting way to close out my first installment of HorrorTober.
Did you guys enjoy the horror theme of the month? I've got 11 months now to plan on HorrorTober 2017, so I'm keeping my eyes peeled for scary, spoopy games, and if there's any that you'd like to see me do (maybe they're a favorite of yours, or just something you don't think I might have come across) start sending me your suggestions.
I'll see you guys next week with more regular un-themed reviews!
The Story
The game follows Detective Sebastian Castellanos who has been called out to investigate the scene of an extremely gruesome multiple homicide. He arrives at the scene with his partners who all enter the mental hospital building to find bodies and blood as soon as they step in the front door. Inside the security office, they find a doctor who's still alive, but is unable to offer much information. Castellanos checks the security cameras to find a mysterious figure that moves extremely fast, then disappears, only to be standing right behind him in the office. When he wakes up, he finds himself hanging in some chamber, with a figure standing over a table. He frees himself and eventually escapes the building, only to find a completely changed world outside, one that might not even be real. Paired up with the doctor, the two must uncover the truth about the mysterious person who attacked Sebastian, and escape with their lives intact. But can Sebastian also keep his mind together?The Controls
Being a third-person shooter styled game, The Evil Within uses a control scheme that fits the mold. Your joysticks control Castellanos's movements (left) and weapon/camera aiming (right). The D-Pad buttons act as hot keys for weapon and item quick inventories. X Is your action button, O uses one of your matches, △ is one of your melee buttons, and □ reloads your current weapon. L1 sprints, R1 enters stealth mode and hides in places you're able to crawl into/under. Lastly, L2 aims your weapon/item, and R2 fires/throws, and is your second melee button.You can also click the right stick (R3) to bring up your item menu where you can craft bows for your harpoon gun and use your health packs.
The controls them self are pretty easy, but they aren't the best as they can sometimes feel a little bit sluggish, but let's look more into that as we talk about how the controls stack up during the game.
The Gameplay
Evil Within is a third-person, survival horror game with shooter and action elements in it as well. The survival horror aspect, though, is the main pull in this one, and it definitely shows from right off the bat. It's also extremely linear with almost no opportunities for exploration in any of the chapters.The game itself is broken up into fifteen chapters, and overall your main objective is just surviving whatever the hell is happening to you. You're driven by the determination to piece the puzzle together, figure out what's going on, and who the mysterious figure is that's stalking you. Each chapter greets you with it's own mini-objective, and these can vary depending on where you are in the story. Anything from surviving through a certain area, finding someone/something, or overcoming some sort of obstacle.
Through each chapter, you'll be faced with numerous creatures who are out to get you. They aren't really given a name specifically, but they stumble around like zombies for the most part. Most of them will try and bum-rush you, attacking you directly. Others, though, can carry torches, axes, guns that they can also fire, and sticks of dynamite that they'll try and lob at you.
Interspersed with the enemies are a number of bosses/mini bosses, and a couple of situations where you're just fighting off waves off the "normal" creatures. These guys will force you to bring your best out, and you won't only be dealing with them but a number of the normal creatures as well. It goes without saying that these guys also take a bit more firepower to bring to their knees. No matter the enemy, their corpse (or what you've left remaining of it) will still stay in the game unless you decide to burn it. Burning the corpses requires a match which you have to find, but if there are numerous bodies within a small area they'll all burn with the same match. This is to insure that they won't reanimate again.
Most of the game will be spent gunning down things and leaving trails of blood in your wake. There are some sections of the game, however, that force you to rely on stealth. There's not a lot of them, and they can be pretty tricky if you don't take the stealth seriously. You're generally offered plenty of cover to hide behind, as well as numerous places to hide yourself if you need to break line of sight with your foe. Any enemies in the vicinity will come running towards any noises you make, so if you go in kicking down doors with guns blazing, you're going to have a lot of problems.
The arsenal at your disposal can be picked up throughout the game. You start with your revolver, but can eventually find a shotgun, an Agony Crossbow, a sniper rifle, and a few other goodies to help you lay waste to anything that gets in your way. These are all found in silver weapons cases, but two of them can only be gotten by beating the game and they'll be ready for you in a New Game + mode.
All the weapons can be upgraded, as well as some of your abilities, in a small hospital area that can be accessed through mirrors in the game called the Safe Haven. This is the area where you're able to save the game, upgrade yourself and your weapons, and also unlock little lockers that will give you more items to help you in the main game. Your own abilities that can be upgraded include your health bar, your stamina bar which lets you sprint further, and how much health you can regenerate with each syringe. For your weapons, you're able to increase the damage they do, quicken your reload speed, and upgrade the ammo capacity for each of them. No matter the upgrade, they all require an amount of green gel which can be found during the main game.
Any item you need is found in the game. Ammo can be found in hiding places, or dropped by some enemies, with the exception of the crossbow bolts which can be crafted by disarming traps. The green gel is found in the same manner, as well as the matches. Other items that can be picked up are bottles, used to distract enemies, axes and torches, which can be used on an enemy to kill them in one shot. The last choice you have for disposing of your enemies is by sneaking up behind them and getting close enough to trigger a stealth kill.
In the end, Evil Within is a pretty good game. But before we get too much into that, let's see if it's challenging at all.
The Challenge (or lack thereof?)
Evil Within definitely doesn't let you just walk through the game. From the creatures, to the bosses and the survival aspect, you'll for sure be doing some work in this one.The normal creatures are a moderate challenge. For the most part it's due to the ammo being a bit hard to find, but these guys are smart too. At first glance they might seem like brainless zombies, but they are far, far from it. What's worse is you'll get a mixture of the ones that can and can't shoot weapons, so it begins feeling like there's no safe place for you in any part of this game.
Bosses are definitely hard. These guys require a lot of strategy because not only are you up against them, but you have to deal with the regular guys as well. They also take significantly more firepower before they die for you. The worst part about these guys is it seems like no matter how much health you have, they kill you in one shot, so you have to keep your distance.
Lastly, survival. It is the main element of this game, and it's hard as well, not offering you much for assistance. Ammo is scarce, so you want to try and conserve, but when you have a handful of guys barreling in on you from all angles, your guns are your best friend, so it's a tough spot. The matches can be pretty hard to find too, and for some reason you can only carry a few of these at a time. Pretty much anything you need to find in this game (which is just about everything) is hard to come across.
Overall, Evil Within is pretty challenging, which will have you on edge the whole time. So, before I get to my final verdict, let's look at the pros and cons of this one.
PROS
- Director From The Past. The Evil Within's director has some experience in the survival horror genre, as he's one of the big names behind some of the Resident Evil games (1, 2, REmake, 4, and Zero to name a few). You can easily see the parallels in this one too, because the creatures seem very similar to the Ganados from Resident Evil 4, and the survival element draws heavily from those early RE games with ammo, health, and items being very hard to come by.- It's Just Beautiful. The settings for every chapter are dark and gory and just amazing to look at. The gore itself isn't completely non-stop either, so it makes a perfect set-up for when you get to the especially gory areas. Whether you're out in the woods or underground in some weapon filled dungeon, you'll cringe and your jaw will drop with everything that's around you.
CONS
- Sluggish Controls. I mentioned this earlier in the controls section, but at times they can feel extremely slow and non-reactive to what you're doing. This was most noticeable to me with the aiming, as it was very inconsistent. Sometimes the aiming would be too sensitive, and others it wouldn't be sensitive enough. Your melee attack is another spot where this stuck out. Aiming your punch is just...bad to say the least. You only get three swings before your melee "resets" and if you swing past your enemy, turning around mid-punch is damn near impossible, so if you want to enjoy throwing haymakers, be prepared to take some damage.- Crowded Camera. The camera is practically right on top of Sebastian, so for the most part all you see is him. I've played games before that have the camera "mounted" on the playable characters shoulder, and those didn't feel anywhere near as crowded as this. When I'd be aiming the crossbow at one enemy, it was really tough keeping an eye out for myself to pick out any other enemies that were bumbling into the area.
- Arcade Feel. Every chapter ends with a "Chapter X Cleared", and I mean every single one. It made the story feel broken and slow, there weren't any seamless segues from one area to the next. You'd hit a point to trigger an end cutscene, get the "Cleared" slide, and then get back into the game. It's even more confusing because honestly, what's the point? Why have a definitive stamp like that for each chapter? I could see if maybe the game were broken down into larger Acts over top of the chapters, but doing it this way I felt made the story feel less driven.
Final Verdict / Horror Level
First off, I just want to state that I, personally, was not a fan of this game. The story seemed very slow to me, and having it all broken up into "Cleared" sections didn't help. So where I left off on my stream might stay that way for a little while. I want to see this one through to the end, but nothing's been pulling me in to get there sooner rather than later.Now, that set aside, it might not be the greatest, but Evil Within is still worth checking out. It really brings the survival horror genre back to it's roots. The games in the genre got "main-streamed" for a while, by which I mean they saw a lot of action being implemented into these games. And while zombies and ghosts and whatnot have the potential to be terrifying, it's significantly lessened when you have an almost unlimited supply of ammo to use against them. Evil Within goes back, makes you work for everything you need to survive this one, and trust me when I say that surviving is what you'll be doing. You can find it for about $15 - $20 used or new at GameStop, so if you truly like survival-horror games, this one is for you. If you're more a fan of the horror games with more action areas in them, you might not have as much fun with this one.
As for horror level, the terror mostly comes from what I just mentioned above. Walking into an area with only a couple dozen rounds of ammo and seeing almost half as many enemies come out at you definitely gets your heart pumping. There's some truly terrifying looking creatures in this one too, so the horror level in this one is most certainly present, which seems a fitting way to close out my first installment of HorrorTober.
Did you guys enjoy the horror theme of the month? I've got 11 months now to plan on HorrorTober 2017, so I'm keeping my eyes peeled for scary, spoopy games, and if there's any that you'd like to see me do (maybe they're a favorite of yours, or just something you don't think I might have come across) start sending me your suggestions.
I'll see you guys next week with more regular un-themed reviews!
