The original The Evil Within, when it came out a while back, managed to introduce a new direction of horror for Shinji Mikami, one of the incredible minds behind Resident Evil. While it didn’t quite reach the heights that Capcom’s legendary horror series did, it certainly made a good effort, and paved the way for plenty of possibilities with a new Bethesda franchise.
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This year, that franchise will continue on with The Evil Within 2, which comes out in just a few weeks time. Like the first game, it digs more into the psychological side of horror, though it also introduces the kind of terrors that are certainly up Mikami’s alley. Fans will not only be pleased by his nuances continuing to be present in the game, but also with a few changes that make it more fun this time around. This series is really growing into its own, and this game will no doubt help define that direction.
Evil Within 2 once again follows Sebastian, a bitter detective who’s still surviving the stuff that happened in the original game. He’s no longer a cop, as his actions have pretty much cost him his job, and he’s gone back to the bottle as a result. But he’s not out of the woods yet. One of the fellow survivors, Kidman, notifies him that not only is the Mobius corporation still wreaking havoc, but they could be in possession of one of the few things that still matters to him – his daughter, who may not have died in a fire as previously thought.
So, once more, Sebastian sets out into a hellish world to find out what happened to his youngling, stepping into the Union and finding that things haven’t gotten any easier there. In fact, in his first dive in, while working his way through a small room looking for clues, he comes face-to-face with a monstrosity, a warped-looking woman with a buzzsaw arm, that you’ll have to outrun in order to avoid being maliciously mangled.
It’s here that you also get a glimpse of a strange new villain whose identity is still a mystery, but he obviously plays a part in Mobius’ happenings, and sooner or later, you’ll have to go against him and see just what he’s up to. That is, if you can get your hands on him – the guy has a nasty habit of attacking and then disappearing.
Upgrading And Getting Around
The Evil Within 2 makes improvements over the original, first starting with the game’s world design. It’s more open world this time around, though your mission objectives are still fairly easy to see, whether you’re walking along on the map or using a communicator to track down a signal in distress (the cries of your daughter, possibly). But there’s also a little more room to improvise here.
For instance, there’s a situation where you can attack a bunch of creatures that are standing in public, or you can take the sneaky away around and quietly pick them off one by one, so as not to draw attention to yourself. Obviously, sneaking is the quality play here, but you can go however you choose. Just remember that you’re not exactly carrying a machine gun here. You’ve only got a handful of bullets at a time, and your melee weapon is dependable, but not entirely a means of survival (although picking up an axe doesn’t hurt, we’ll tell you what).
The game’s combat has improved quite a bit as well. The controls feel a little more balanced this time around, though you’ll still be battling for survival in some cases, especially when you become immediately surrounded, or jumped upon by weird dog-like humans that come at you in rabid fashion. Fortunately, things are responsive enough that, at the very least, you can regroup and try to get off those precious headshots to end the threat. You could try running, but your stamina can only go so far before you gasp for air and have to eventually face your fears. (That may be the point of the game, after all.)
Luckily, there are more than enough items to help out. Along with ammunition and occasional weaponry, you can also build your own via crafting tables, though you’ll need to pick up a few ingredients along the way to effectively put them together. You can also store herbs and medical syringes to give yourself a boost if needed, and collect some rather weird green goo from the enemies you kill. It may look useless at first, but when you come upon upgrade stations, you can actually soup up your character in certain ways as trade-off. It’s a neat system, and actually motivates you to kill more enemies than you normally thought you would.
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The Evil Within 2 is available to pre-order now (Amazon Prime members can save 20%), with a release date slated for October 13th, 2017.
This Evil’s Looking Good
I got through a pretty good portion of the demo, and was surprised how much better the game looks over the first Evil Within. The environments are really well done, between the open world design and the dark, moody design of some of the interiors. For instance, there’s one house you come across where you see some warped mother force feed her large child with a bunch of food, only to charge at you with weird feelers coming out of her face. Between the haunting design of the house (with flies all around, mind you) and the strange creature design, this game has “Mikami classic horror vibe” written all over it.
The dialogue’s okay as well. The voice acting is far more serious than you’d find in a Resident Evil game, but it’s still pretty leveled when it comes to its characterization. For instance, one character you come across threatens to kill you at first, but then shows his nervous side and admits he’s nothing more than a tech – though that doesn’t make him completely useless. And he’s certainly a lot more reliable than the priest you come across, who stops at nothing to exude a demon from his body – and then transforms anyway as others come crashing into the building. Dang it.
The Evil Within 2 has a great deal of promise over the first game, thanks to a more open-ended design, better combat and some other great ingredients that bring it all together. It’s sure to be another classic Mikami hair-raising experience when it arrives for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on October 13th. Hit the lights before you hit the start button, though. So much better.
Disclaimer: Bethesda did provide accommodations to QuakeCon for this hands-on.
