The Evil Within

...Dull Surprise? I can't think of anything else close enough off the top of my head.

I don't think I'd want to play this game myself, but I am looking forward to the Let's Plays that will come of it.

To be fair, he does react, it just happens to be in a rather Henry Townsend kind of way.

Also I just finished the opening chapter and an entire city got leveled without a single screaming pedestrian in sight? Foreshadowing or just laziness?

I wasn't giving this game a lot of attention because horror isn't usually my thing, but I am interested in it now. And here's me thinking this winter looked rather barren for games. Everywhere I look there's something sneaking up on me.

Just beat chapter 3. This game is basically Resident Evil 4. And I mean that in the best possible way.

Only real complaint is the voice acting. For ****s sake Bethesda, stop hiring random celebrities over actual voice actors. They almost never give any sort of emotion, and are clearly just there for marketing.

They don't even have the campiness of RE 4's voice acting? Damn shame. Although apparently Joseph Oda is voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, from what I saw on Wikipedia.

This also may sound kinda effed up, but does anybody know any examples of really creative or particularly nasty deaths for Sebastian in this game? Like, in the league of Leon's Acid Face death or, Issac Clarke's Divider decapitation? Since I honestly like that in games, since it gives an edge to the enemies, and I feel adds something to the experience.

edited 15th Oct '14 3:24:58 AM by Emperordaein

Again, I'm still early on in the game (and I've been trying to avoid getting killed XD), so I can't say for now. Though, getting chainsawed in half is definitely a start.

And yeah, aside from Lowenthal, all the actors are extremely dull. This is one reason I can't stand celebrity voice actors in gaming most of the time (there are exceptions, but those are rare).

Does it have the crazy over-the-topness of RE 4 like zombie midget Napoleon and so bad it's good dialogue? If so, sold.

Just a general note, but I think people need to more clearly understand, in particular with games like the Evil Within or the RE series since 4, the difference between a horror game and a horror-THEMED action game. Horror by the mechanics is not about gore or monsters; those are just the trappings through which horror is frequently channeled. Horror is fundamentally about making you feel helpless in the face of the unknown, about being forced to circumvent antagonism that you cannot directly overpower. If you don't like traditional horror games but you like things that resemble RE 4, then you still don't like horror games - you just like action games with dark atmosphere plus creepy monster designs. (And there's nothing wrong with that.)

TEW seems to take its cues from a game whose hero was suplexing cartoonishly evil cultists. You are empowered by confronting antagonism, rather than helpless in the face of it.

I think it depends on the scene really. That opening with the chainsaw guy chasing you seems pretty helpless to me. Infact, I was really surprised when the player character survived considering chainsaw guy has the upperhand of non-injured legs.

Hm. This appears to be an example of Critical Dissonance: It's gotten good reviews from a lot of reviewers but a lot of gamers seem to not like the difficulty and apparent lack of any real scares.

What even is a "real scare" these days?

Note the last two words there. Don't give examples from like, twenty years ago or whatever.

I'll tell a real scare - an IRS audit.

Man, this game is long. Just beat chapter 11, and there's still three more to go.

Really, my only problem with the game is the lack of ammunition. This game loves to throw tons of enemies at you the further you get into the game, and doesn't supply you with enough ammo to deal with them all. Heck, sometimes the game will force you to fight dozens of enemies at once, and only gives you seven bullets.

Also, is it just me, or is this whole setting of being in someone's nightmare feel like Puella Magi Madoka Magica?

edited 18th Oct '14 3:31:56 AM by LDragon2

I've always thought Mami's Death was pretty much the Resident Evil 4 Headbiter Plagas death (Decapitation by a worm monster that comes out of someone's head)^note Or going back further, now that i've seen it, Window's death in John Carpenter's The Thing , so I always figured there was a connection.

Also, I saw the art book for the game, and one thing that amused me on the profile for Sebastian, is that it has a paragraph lamenting how much of a loss it was that he lost his jacket, and if only he kept it. Which amuses me to no end, considering the exact same thing happened with Leon in Resident Evil 4. I always found it a huge waste in that game that there's no Jacket alt so you can have it through the entire game.

Finally beat the game. I seriously thought it would never end.

Other than that, and the fact that it doesn't give you enough ammo for the later chapters, not a bad game. Not Mikami's best (that still goes to Resident Evil 4), but an overall enjoyable experience. I'm not quite sure I'll be replaying it much, but it was good while it was fresh.

I think i'll give this game a try after it goes on discount and I get my PS 4. I'm interested enough to give it a go. Plus, it's not like the difficulty on normal could be much worse than RE 4 on Professional (I pray to god there's nothing like the Main Hall in Evil Within. Or the Cage Match.)

I would honestly like to see Shinji Mikami make another Action Game after this though. Vanquish and God Hand proved that he can do them amazingly well.

Seems really awesome. Bethesda wins another batch of my money.

Mikami said this would be his last game when in the directors chair, sadly.

I understand his viewpoint. Guy's probably burnt out from all the shit he had to go through, even before Resident Evil.

As much as I hate to say it, I clearly saw that reflected in this game by the time I reached the end.

The last two levels in this game I felt went on for far too long, and didn't really bring in anything new to the table, instead just feeling like padding. Basically, I felt that it suffered from one of the biggest cases of Ending Fatigue I've experienced in a game.

Anyone else suffer this problem?

Hmm I felt that the last 2-3 chapters were enjoyable, granted I didn't marathon them at once.

Uh, something I noticed which was pointed out about Laura...Incest Subtext in the notes, which ones if I may ask? If anything felt that Ruvik was on the more ...loving side.

edited 2nd Dec '14 1:52:04 AM by Spectriel

So I borrowed this game off a friend and... Man. I would probably be alot more positive on the game if it wasn't for the fact that i'm playing it after making it halfway through The Last Of Us Remastered. Which looks better, performs MUCH better, and plays better so far. Evil Within just feels so much clunkier in comparison. The 30 FPS Lock doesn't help.

I'm only just into Chapter 2, so maybe my opinion will change. I dunno.

Well, currently on Chapter 11. I've gotten a decent amount of scares from it myself. Not enough to make me stop playing, but make me jitter for a bit for a few minutes when I do.

I googled horror:

Yeah, forget everyone else, this game caused that. I played it during the day, I played it at night, and I quickly made a concession to myself that I would be less of a wuss and play it in the afternoon while alone. Yeah, it's gory, yeah, it has jumpscares. It all contributes to an immense dread whenever I turn the game on, or when the levels first load, or whenever I leave a save area. It's not perfect, but I've heard the usual complaints that it's "not scary at all." Bah.

• It's long. Unnecessarily long at points.
• I like how the game tells you that running is a decent tactic.
• There are some moments that make me go "Bullshit!", like when you have to fight two monsters while your partner shoots from a safe spot, one that you could easily reach but can't because game mechanics.
• Sebastian isn't a very compelling protagonist. He's capable, competent, Dangerously Genre-Savvy, but he's rather apathetic too all of the crazy shit that's going on. More than halfway through the game, and his main reaction is, "I think we've all been seeing strange things."
• The game has a good/bad habit of not telling me what the hell is going on, which makes it feel like an aimless maze of terror at times, but it's also kept up the suspense and kept me coming back just to figure it out.
• The journal entries are great at establishing mood, though sometimes its a bit of a let-down. Either I'm missing entries, there's additional enemies in a New Game Plus mode, or some of the foreshadows simply led nowhere.
• Chapters 4-6 can go f'ck themselves. Those levels gave me the worst jitters.
• My only problems with ammunition came during a few contrived mini-boss battles (like the sniper fight). For the sake of "survival horror", I'd imagined that not having enough ammunition was key to the experience. With my playstyle though, I never really felt overwhelmed by the enemy count.
• Some might say the daylight chapters are the worst in the game. I agree, somewhat, in that they're designed for a lot of enemies and prone to a contrivance or two, but I was thankful for them. At least the entire game didn't take place in a dark, spooky village/town/castle that transforms into a blood-splattered church/city/underground labyrinth, honestly, I'd be disappointed were that the case. I like having other characters/partners who aren't immediately killed off to keep the player helpless and alone too (to the exclusion from a certain definition of horror, admittedly)

edited 19th Mar '15 6:40:01 PM by Soble

It seems like a sequel might secretly be in the works.