The Evil Within 2 is officially live and definitely scarier than the first game. As Sebastian’s quest to save his daughter takes some truly gruesome turns, with nightmarish characters around every turn, the next phase of his journey is not for the faint of heart. Luckily, there are a few different routes players can take when taking on this epic feat, so here’s the breakdown of the three available difficulty settings and what they change – plus how to unlock the fourth secret setting at the end of the game.
To make it easy, these are all of the settings available for The Evil Within 2, with three of them being available at the start:
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- Casual
- Survival
- Nightmare
- Classic
Because players can’t scale up the difficulty once the game commences, they can only scale down, here is the breakdown of what changes come with each setting to get the most out of your first playthrough.
What does the Casual difficulty bring?
There’s no shame in going casual – this mode is there for people wanting to explore the story aspect of Sebastian’s trial. For those looking for a more narrative focus versus hordes of enemies, this mode is the one to choose. There are tons of items around and enemies are still there but much easier to kill. For those that may not have a gun affinity in-game, there is also aim assist available as well as additional meleeย boosts right from the start.ย
There is an ability that can be unlocked later on in the other modes, but with casual the “Bottle Break” is available right from the start. This allows players to be able to break free of the enemy’s hold if a bottle is present within the inventory.
What does the Survival difficulty bring?
Survival is a more balanced play experience. Easy enough to still be an enjoyable story experience, but with enough challenge to make it game-worthy. This mode brings with it fewer resources and slightly more difficulty when it comes to taking out the many nightmarish creatures during The Evil Within 2.ย The developers encourage players that choose this route to take a “slow and steady” approach because resources are limited and need to be properly allocated throughout the game.ย
This mode also houses the aim assist that is available for casual players, but it is not necessary in order to progress through the game.ย
What does the Nightmare difficulty bring?
This mode is definitely for the more experienced. As the name suggests, it is much more difficult than the previous modes. In the first Evil Within, players had to first beat the game before unlocking the mode – for the sequel, Nightmare is available right out of the gate. Because why not?ย
Though this is not an impossible mode, it is definitely a challenge. Resources are incredibly rare, including ammo. Because of this, the crafting in game is no longer an option – it’s a necessity. The enemies are tougher to kill, larger in number, and aim assist no longer accessible. This mode is only recommended for those that are very experienced with this type of game, or have already played through the Nightmare mode of the first one.
Classic Mode – How to unlock it and what it does.
In order to take advantage of the Classic Mode, players must first have completed the entire game all the way through. The Classic Mode can be compared to Nightmare, but does offer additional challenges for players to experience in order to make it to the end once more. For starters, that handy autosave? Gone. Not only that, but players will only haveย seven saves for the whole game so you have to make them count. No randomly saving at every corner: 7 saves only.
Another thing? Don’t expect to upgrade Sebbyย or his weapons – what you get is what you get. This is only for the truly masochistic players looking for the ultimate challenge to achieve 100% completion and show off what a beast they are.ย
The Evil Within 2 is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
