The Evil Within is a new survival horror game by legendary developer Shinji Mikami or for those that don’t know him by name, the father of Resident Evil. Since the game was first announced there has been a lot of interest in what Shinji Mikami would do next. Along the road to launch he has mentioned numerous times that he wanted to create a game with a “classic horror” feel and one that is truly terrifying. Unfortunately he only really seemed to hit one of his core requirements.
In The Evil Within you start your adventure as Sebastian Castellanos, a detective who seems like he has seen a few things in his time. You are sent to investigate a disturbance at a mental hospital and discover something truly horrible has happened to your brothers in arms. This opening scene sets you up for something spectacular. Furthermore, other events within the opening really get you excited about what The Evil Within is going to throw at you. Your first 15 minutes of gaming are tense and confusing in all the most fantastic ways and then nothing, absolutely nothing for a long time.
Thankfully the narrative does pick up, unfortunately by the time it does you hardly care and maybe because you have lost all interest it seems to be a mess of confusion. I was taking notes while playing like I do with every review and there are so many question marks and the word “why” written in big letters. This doesn’t bode well, I suggest maybe having some sort of online reference open with the story time line and events written out to get the maximum out of the game.
On the other hand, if we look at the sound design excluding the voice acting, The Evil Within Shines. When you are out of breath you can hear yourself panting, enemies give off distinct shrills and groans which up the tension throughout and the games audio queues are well placed and sound great.
This is survival, there is no questioning that. The art of resource management is alive and well in The Evil Within. You are encouraged to treat every bullet like it is your last and every health item like your life will depend on it. For anyone who has played either Resident Evil 5 or 6 this will take some getting used to as they both handed out ammo like it was diabetes at Krispy Kream. For survival horror purists this will be magical, there is no better feeling than being down to your last bullet, facing a room of enemies then somehow finding a clever way out of the situation. It makes you tense, you can feel your heart rate rising and you feel alive in those moments.
Upgrades are handled in a rather clever way, you are transported through mirrors to a hub world. This other worldly place allows you to save, see the progress of different collectibles and upgrade your various stats and weapons with the green goo you find littered around the levels as you play. Upgrading is essential and feels very natural in the way it is handled. You will often have internal battles with your own mind on what your upgrade goo should be spent on. Like ammo, goo is hard to come by and a precious resource in it’s own right.
Nearly every moment of The Evil Within is filled with tension. For this reason, I find it hard to imagine that most people will be able to sit and play for hours at a time. The developers seemed to be aware of this and have delivered the game in a stress reducing chapter format. The chapters are a great break and give you a chance to go away, relax and come back after you have had some tea.