The Evil Within

 PC
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1960 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,417 out of 1960
  2. Mixed: 255 out of 1960
  3. Negative: 288 out of 1960
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  1. RoOka18
    Oct 20, 2014
    4
    Dear Bethesda,

    I downloaded this game from a torrent site. Why? Because of id Tech 5. I got myself fooled into this engine two times (Rage and Wolfenstein TNO). Let's talk about these: both games are GREAT, especially Wolfenstein. And they are destroyed, only because of id Tech 5. Now you successfully ruined The Evil Within on the PC with that unusable game engine. My problems with    Dear Bethesda,

    I downloaded this game from a torrent site. Why? Because of id Tech 5. I got myself fooled into this engine two times (Rage and Wolfenstein TNO). Let's talk about these: both games are GREAT, especially Wolfenstein. And they are destroyed, only because of id Tech 5. Now you successfully ruined The Evil Within on the PC with that unusable game engine.

    My problems with it:

    - the games are horribly big for nothing
    - the system requirements are unreal for the graphics
    - speaking of unreal, UE 3 looks a million times better
    - games with id Tech 5 are nearly unplayable on AMD cards

    So. I pre-ordered The Evil Within at first, than I looked at its requirements. They were pretty high, but since i don't believe these I checked the engine (yes, because of Bethesda as the publisher). As soon as I saw that it uses id Tech 5 I cancelled my pre-order, and I really hope a lot of people will ask for refunds for this catastrophe. The PC version is basically unplayable. Because of the technical issues I was not able to try the game. No matter what I set in the options it won't go higher that 15-17 FPS, as every id Tech 5 games. That makes the game pointless to play.

    I know that my 60$ won't do any damage to a publisher like Bethesda, but I'm really happy that I downloaded this game from torrent. My 60$ is not burned this way.    … Expand
  2. Smuggly
    Dec 26, 2014
    4
    This could have and yet still might be a great game, currently it is not.

    The controls are extremely unresponsive and the key bindings are terrible. The letterbox screen is terrible. The frame rate is terrrible. The graphics have some nice style, but should have been a lot better. It's a very, very average console port and it's current state is a not worth paying a cent for, demo    This could have and yet still might be a great game, currently it is not.

    The controls are extremely unresponsive and the key bindings are terrible.
    The letterbox screen is terrible.
    The frame rate is terrrible.
    The graphics have some nice style, but should have been a lot better.

    It's a very, very average console port and it's current state is a not worth paying a cent for, demo is out, play that and make your own decision. I love survival horror, but this game isn't worthy.    … Expand
  3. Prfct
    Oct 25, 2014
    4
    I'll completely ignore the fact that the game is locked to 30fps and has 2 black bars but I'm gonna be honest about it, this game is **** and not because of those limitations.

    First of all the game is unnecesary stretched. There are 15 chapters in the game and absolutely nothing important happens from chapter 2 to 8, they play like naruto fillers... there may be some interesting    I'll completely ignore the fact that the game is locked to 30fps and has 2 black bars but I'm gonna be honest about it, this game is **** and not because of those limitations.

    First of all the game is unnecesary stretched. There are 15 chapters in the game and absolutely nothing important happens from chapter 2 to 8, they play like naruto fillers... there may be some interesting sequence once or twice but it could have been condensed in one or two chapters, not 7.

    Chapter 1 is great for setting up the game and really hypes you but after that the game becomes generic third person number 999 with uninsteresting locales like: demolished castle, demolished asylum, demolished sewers and demolished etcetera,

    Chapter 2 to 8 don't deserve any kind of review... really... I think for the first time in chapter 6 someone talks and asks the question they should have asked like 10 chapters ago: what's happening, where are we? etc... funnily enough no one answers.

    Chapter 9 is excellent and it is what the whole game should have been, it has puzzles and great atmosphere, suspense and tension.

    Chapters 10 to 15 are ok... although the ending is ridiculous and so so bad it is not even funny.

    Biggest problem with the game is from the start you know **** is not happening because the story makes no sense and even after finishing it... it still makes no sense. We get glimpses of Castellano's family story through a diary but it doesn't have any kind of impact on the story and the things we learn about rubik are cool but experiments are not explained and we don't know who is working for who or why... it really feels like the game is incomplete lorewise and I'm sure they plan to milk people with DLC, lol.

    Instant Death is horrible and sequences sometimes feel like Dragon's Lair... a tense situation quickly becomes boring and tedious and it really screws with the general atmosphere, you know something is wrong when instead of slowly opening doors you're kicking them open while charging with almost unlimited ammo shooting everything in the head.

    Graphics are really good and character progression (through skills) feels good except for some useless skills like melee... but in the end this game is a mediocre third person shooter, not a survival, that will not scare anyone but children... and will not hold anyone's attention with its stupid lack of story.

    It's like this people really forgot what makes a horror game great: suspense, tension and exploration.

    Shinji retire... or make a whole new game like chapter 9.    … Expand
  4. infin
    Nov 15, 2014
    4
    The Evil Within had a lot of potential. The story centres around a generic type detective who, upon attending the scene of an asylum which has been subjected to an unexplained revolt by its inmates, is drawn inside the asylum to investigate. He is instead captured by the force within and must survive through a range of horrifying and deadly encounters not of this world.

    The problem    The Evil Within had a lot of potential. The story centres around a generic type detective who, upon attending the scene of an asylum which has been subjected to an unexplained revolt by its inmates, is drawn inside the asylum to investigate. He is instead captured by the force within and must survive through a range of horrifying and deadly encounters not of this world.

    The problem with the PC game is that it constantly crashes for me and the frame of view is weird with top and bottom black movie-type banners. Perhaps best to wait to get this one in the bargain bin/Steam sale. Hopefully by that they will have patched all the bugs.    … Expand
  5. Jetpil0t
    Oct 16, 2014
    4
    Unfortunately this is a poor quality port of a reasonably good game.

    If you enjoyed any of the Resident Evil games you will know what to expect and quite certainly enjoy what is on offer here. If you look at the finer points of the level, enemy and overall gameplay design you will start to notice while this is a solid survival horror game, the overall design and execution is a little    Unfortunately this is a poor quality port of a reasonably good game.

    If you enjoyed any of the Resident Evil games you will know what to expect and quite certainly enjoy what is on offer here. If you look at the finer points of the level, enemy and overall gameplay design you will start to notice while this is a solid survival horror game, the overall design and execution is a little rough around the edges and becoming a little dated. Still an enjoyable game, but likely only if you already a fan of the genre.

    On PC however, this is a really poor quality port. The framerate is locked to 30fps, aspect ratio and FOV are both locked and the framerate is both poor and inconsistent.
    You can boost the framerate to 60fps by enabling the console, however this has various problems associated with it. Various environmental effects are noticeably still rendered at 30fps, you will get noticeable frame time and stuttering issues, as well the game struggles to stay above 60fps consistently even at only 1080p. Despite the use of a high end graphics card, you will still experience poor performance as the game underutilizes the GPU, as well it is has horribly unoptimized multi-threaded CPU performance to boot.
    Altering the aspect ratio reduces the effective FOV and you cannot increase the FOV, leaving very little adjustment available here.
    The Ultra Wide aspect ratio also will not display full screen on Ultra Wide displays, which is especially horrid as you end up with black bars on top and on the side of your screen.
    The game also crashes infrequently throughout.

    I would recommend this on PS4 or Xbox One, but the framerate drops away from 30fps quite often. So while on one hand I wouldn't recommend this game on PC, as a PC game, I would still recommend it over the console counterparts. Load times on the PC are significantly faster and you will be able to maintain a steady 30fps at a native 1080p with a reasonably powerful PC, just expect to have virtually no level of customization and essentially a console style experience from top to bottom.    … Expand
  6. vladapn
    Oct 21, 2014
    4
    Like most users say - bad screen aspect ratio and 30fps eclipse almost everything good with this game...
    It killed it for me, at least....
    4/10 i don't recommend
  7. SuperkenGaming
    Aug 9, 2017
    4
    The evil Within
    This isn’t going to be pretty
    The Evil Within is a 3rd person survival horror game where you play as detective Sebastian investigating a scene of a mass murder at a mental hospital and then all of a sudden things start going crazy… I don’t want to spoil the story but the games setting is actually a pretty cool twist.. But for the most part at least in the beginning the    The evil Within
    This isn’t going to be pretty
    The Evil Within is a 3rd person survival horror game where you play as detective Sebastian investigating a scene of a mass murder at a mental hospital and then all of a sudden things start going crazy…
    I don’t want to spoil the story but the games setting is actually a pretty cool twist..
    But for the most part at least in the beginning the game mixes settings and scenery up…
    In fact the first half of this game is great and guaranteed this game a spot on my game of the year least when the time came.. but it didn’t stay this great…
    As a survival horror game youre managing your health with pick ups.. your health will regenerate but only slightly.. and when your health is bwelow a certain point you move slowly and aren’t able to run…
    But a bit like the game alone in the dark you have weapons here… as you progress the game youll get a pistol, shotgun, sniper rifle, a cross bow like weapon, there are grenades.. a great variety of weapons for survival and devent drop rate of ammo.. but just enough to keep you staying carful with what you use..
    Unique from most survival horror games is that there is an assassins creed like stealth mechanic where you can take out most unaware enemies from behind..
    you also have to stealth to disarm traps and get parts the craft cross bolts for your bow…
    there are also jars of brain juice around the levels and off of enemies that act as a currency you use to upgrade your stats, buy ammo, and increase the stats of your weapons..
    There are mirrors that take you back to the hospital this allows you to save the game as well, but the game will ocassionally autosave
    The first half of the game I found to be really enjoyable and terrifying..
    I was stressed in a good way and enemies put up a great challenge…
    Missions were varied, I felt like I was in a movie..
    And then halfway through the game it starts to fall apart..
    The game goes from being scary to just frustrating..
    Its becomes an anxiety fest of dealing with insta kill enemies, and recourse draining section after recouce draining section.. dealing with spongy bosses, having to thow switch after switch doing it multiple times in the same area to pregress further…
    The games initial near perfect progression crumbles and stumbles to a crawl…
    Made worse by this games awful checkpoint and autosave system…
    The game wont constantly autosave once you find an important item…
    And again there are cheap instakill enemies and moments in this game…
    They are sometimes completely random, they’ll hit you and you have to go through the 10 minutes of recollecting supplies over and over and over until you get lucky enough to either get away or not activate this random spawn…
    And also again… the 2nd half of this game is focused more on anxiety than it is horror..
    its not fun replaying these anxiety filled moments
    They aren’t even fun the first time…
    And the games 2nd half is filled of these moments and trial and error chases with no indication of what you have to do, so you just keep doing it until you get it right with no checkpoints..
    But still I pushed forward.. I was overlooking all of the bad because of the intriguing story going through this anxiety fest…
    The game would freeze on my a couple of times causeing me to resatart it… no big deal, ill forgive it.. the first half was so good and im so close to this games end..
    8 and a half hours into the game.. im on chapter 11 out of 15.. about 2 and a half to 3 hours away from this games credits.. and I run into a game breaking bug…
    That’s right… 3 years later… a Bethesda game (go figure) still has a game breaking bug…
    I did play the ps3 version of this game and thought that’s clearly the problem.. so I went to google and no.. this chapter is full of game breaking bugs, more than just the one I ran into that wouldn’t let me progress the game..
    I was an hr deep and nothing I did helped, shutting down the game, reloading checkpoints..
    dying.. nothing… the game wouldn’t let me progress…
    The only thing keeping me from just giving this game a 0 and walking away is that restarting the chapter could’ve probably let me continue.. but once more..
    the 2nd half of this game is filled of anxiety, frustration and cheapness…
    I wasn’t about to go through that hour and a half I just went through again..
    Im walking away from what I thought was initially a great game that crumbled into a good game, but left me with the taste of a bad game…
    I give the Evil Within
    a very generous
    4/10    … Expand
  8. Rushrush2meyayo
    Dec 24, 2014
    4
    What I liked:
    - the creativity and imagination poured into this game is unsurpassed
    - the protagonist reminded me of a certain John Marston - game was very stable - the ending.. at long last What I disliked: - saving the game is very cumbersome and painful - ammo is very scarce that I ended up using the clunky melee attack more than I'd use guns - the handgun/magnum is    What I liked:
    - the creativity and imagination poured into this game is unsurpassed
    - the protagonist reminded me of a certain John Marston
    - game was very stable
    - the ending.. at long last

    What I disliked:
    - saving the game is very cumbersome and painful
    - ammo is very scarce that I ended up using the clunky melee attack more than I'd use guns
    - the handgun/magnum is horrendously inaccurate
    - early encounter with Ruvik is nothing but nuisance
    - some portions where the game locks your camera at a certain angles can be very disorienting
    - very poor visibility in dark areas
    - extreme visual effects can make your eyes and head hurt in epileptic proportion
    - inconsistent damage from fire

    A marriage between Resident evil and Silent Hill, with The Matrix as venue - an experiment gone wrong.

    The game is peppered with cheap traps, cheap deaths, mediocre scares, levers and cranks, and distasteful visual effects that leave your head and eyes hurting.

    The only horror to you'd face here is that curiosity got the better of you to pickup the game.    … Expand
  9. Nizidramaniyt
    Aug 14, 2015
    4
    + Few hours of decent horror surprise elements
    + Not too much ammunition

    -PC port gone wrong. Know your target audience and don´t try to make something for everyone.
  10. CharlyPlayman
    Dec 26, 2015
    4
    The game starts interesting but then it goes into a disappointing story nothing related with the beginning. I was hoping much more of this game. It's like RE4 but very far from be a funny game as that.
    Cons: technically it's well done + the starting
    Pros: bad story + the screen game is narrow and very close (sometimes you can't see what is happening) + the camera is totally manual + no    The game starts interesting but then it goes into a disappointing story nothing related with the beginning. I was hoping much more of this game. It's like RE4 but very far from be a funny game as that.
    Cons: technically it's well done + the starting
    Pros: bad story + the screen game is narrow and very close (sometimes you can't see what is happening) + the camera is totally manual + no maps (several times you don't know where to have to go) + etc    … Expand
  11. Vulfie
    Dec 18, 2015
    4
    A truly fantastic video game, who's full potential is lost amongst a miasma of corporate-publisher bulls**t, extremely low quality testing and 'questionable' design decisions.

    For every one thing this game does right, there are 10 things it did wrong. It's visually impressive with an amazing atmosphere, but it runs like crap. It can be set to 60FPS, but it's made immediately clear that    A truly fantastic video game, who's full potential is lost amongst a miasma of corporate-publisher bulls**t, extremely low quality testing and 'questionable' design decisions.

    For every one thing this game does right, there are 10 things it did wrong. It's visually impressive with an amazing atmosphere, but it runs like crap. It can be set to 60FPS, but it's made immediately clear that it was never meant to do that, resulting in nasty screen tear and other visual issues. It's more than happy to crash on you and save points are few and far between for most of the game. A mild checkpoint system kicks in eventually, all too late I might add. The characters look good and have fine animations, but the dialogue between them is stiff and unnatural. Nobody tries to make sense of what's going on, even though they are suppose to be police detectives.

    If you can get past the performance and character issues, then the Publisher issues kick in. It seems that this game was going to be much closer to Silent Hill and less like Resident Evil. This is demonstrated for most of the early game, I'd say at least the first 5 chapters. But I imagine Bethesda coming to Tango Gameworks and saying "A game that is not 90% combat is not going to sell, so put more combat in the game", because that's exactly what happened. From chapter 6 until the end of the game is a non-stop rollarcoaster of very, very bad combat sections. Suddenly it becomes obvious that the game wasn't built with combat in mind. Aiming a gun causes the camera to zoom in by a ridiculous amount, making aiming genuinely difficult in a game consisting mostly of tight and narrow levels. Melee is utterly useless, you've probably heard enough about that from others by now. Almost every boss in the game is a one-hit-kill to you if they get into range (I am not exaggerating, the bosses in this game are perhaps the worst bosses I've ever seen), and just like Resident Evil 6, they just keep coming back over and over again removing any sense of satisfaction from defeating them. To top this off, some of the weapons really get brokenly powerful if upgraded right. The Crossbow has bolts that can be upgraded to do 240% more damage per shot to enemies and cause them to catch fire, or stun every enemy in a room and leave them vulnerable to be stealth-killed (A single button) for up to 16 seconds. Yes, 16 seconds. This ammo can be manufactured by the player at will too. Please keep in mind, this is supposed to be a Survival Horror game, by a company well versed in this genre.

    But enough about the combat, carrying on with the Publisher bulls**t, some of the most powerful equipment in the game is pre-order bonus only, such as Incendiary Bolts. While most of the bolts in the game need to be upgraded to be useful, the Incendiary Bolts are instant-kills against any enemies, including groups in range and are extremely powerful against most bosses in the game too. The story is never explained well either. This is something else I'm sure you've heard many people complaining about, such as the deeply unsatisfying ending, but it is true. Character's never discuss the important parts of the game, and the story as a whole is full of loopholes. It smacks of bad writing, until you realize that the story was left this way intentionally because it's going to be explained in the future DLC. That's right, they're pulling the EA Tactic, buy the game now and then pay more later for the privilege of being allowed to experience the full story.

    Summary:

    If you really like character-action games in horror settings, like Resident Evil 4 or the Dead Space series, then stick with what you already have. This game is not the next big RE4. It will not deliver what you want.

    If you love Survival Horror games then The Evil Within is sure to disappoint. From its mounted-turret sections to its QTE's to its one-shot-kill recurring boss fights... It is just too crippled from it's performance and design issues and is just not satisfying to complete. Nothing happens in the end to make the struggle worth while.

    If you love Shinji Mikami, like I do, and want to follow his work then Resident Evil Remake has just been released in the form of a HD Remastered version. Pick that up instead.

    (EXTRA)

    I can also confirm that not only is the game crash-happy on PC, but also on PS4 as well (I didn't even know a PS4 could blue-screen crash, but apparently it can).

    In other news, I finally finished 2 of the 3 DLC packs for the game. The Assignment and The Consequence are quite a step up from the main game, they do more to explain the story and they are much shorter than the main game, which I feel is good. However they still suffer from many of the main games faults (Such as one-hit-kill bosses, single-use melee weapons, etc). I tried my best to play and finish the third DLC, The Executioner, but alas the game glitched out on me, spawned me in an empty black void and I was unable to proceed. I lack the motivation to try again.    … Expand
  12. stop9091
    Jan 8, 2017
    4
    A game with potential, marred by lack of polish.

    Between the many flaws mentioned, the camera is truly abysmal. As a player, you will constantly fight against it, which is paradoxical, since camera placement is a foundation of stealth gaming.

    It's a shame, because I liked the atmosphere.
  13. sunstorm76
    Nov 29, 2019
    4
    Got it on sale. It's pretty bad. I hate episodes in games and I don't like the pacing in this game at all. The walking and running is shaking and clunky all the time it gives me headache. This should be better than RE4? Really? What did the testers smoke?
  14. Antares8001
    Dec 15, 2018
    4
    When developers confuse oldschool with outdated, nostalgia quickly starts to turn into necrophilia which then results in a game like this.

    Here we have a survival horror game that apparently also wants to be a 3rd person shooter, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing in it of itself, however unfortunately the scariest thing about it are not any of the monsters but rather the    When developers confuse oldschool with outdated, nostalgia quickly starts to turn into necrophilia which then results in a game like this.

    Here we have a survival horror game that apparently also wants to be a 3rd person shooter, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing in it of itself, however unfortunately the scariest thing about it are not any of the monsters but rather the horrendously clunky controls, outdated graphics and gameplay mechanics.
    Alright then then, it is rather unimpressive on a technical level and the controls aren't amazing, which again wouldn't be the end of the world, as there have been plenty of games with clunky or outright bad controls that have become genre defining because the story made up for it. Unfortunately the Evil Within is not one of those games. Instead the poor graphics and clunky controls are accompanied by writing that feels like they hired an elementary schooler, embarrassingly dull characters that fail to make you relate, much less care about them at every turn possible, twists that M. Night Shyamalan would roll his eyes at and last but not least game design straight out of 2001. The overarching plot can best be described as pseudo-intellectual pretentious garbage that has been done better a hundred times over. And it actually manages to get even more nonsensical with every twist.

    Well to point out some good things the game has some creative visceral monster designs thrown in between the generic "definitely not zombies" and diverse similarly creative set-pieces. However it never manages to properly utilize any of them for the reasons stated above. Even the most creatively designed foe starts to become annoying rather than scary pretty quickly and even the most awe inspiring set-piece will make you sigh once you realize that you actually have to navigate through it.

    If this game came out in the early 2000s it might have competed with the Resident Evil series but the standards for horror and survival game design have significantly increased since and what would have been good back then is simply unacceptable nowadays. Overall this game leaves the impression that someone set out to create a supercut of the early Resident Evil games, without thinking the whole thing through. It adopts pretty much all of their weaknesses without improving or adding anything new. We're left with a game that feels like little more than a Shinji Mikami wankfest, that has no business being released in 2014    … Expand
  15. Lazzakz
    Aug 21, 2023
    4
    Have not played the sequel, but I hear it's a great improvement from this one. Some great ideas here and there, but nothing worth the whole playthrough.

    DECENT 4
  16. imalynxcat
    Aug 30, 2023
    4
    Optimizasyonu çok kötü, Bölüm tasarımları kötü, atmosferi ilgi çekici olsa da oynarken eğlenemedim.
  17. goodterling
    Nov 20, 2014
    3
    The choice to make your character LIMP through huge parts of the game is a deal breaker for me. It's just too slow to be fun. Also, it's like you're playing as someone's grandma. It's far easier to shoot a gun, dodge a haymaker punch, or just sprint for more than 2 seconds in REAL LIFE than in this game. Developers can increase difficulty through making tougher enemies or throughThe choice to make your character LIMP through huge parts of the game is a deal breaker for me. It's just too slow to be fun. Also, it's like you're playing as someone's grandma. It's far easier to shoot a gun, dodge a haymaker punch, or just sprint for more than 2 seconds in REAL LIFE than in this game. Developers can increase difficulty through making tougher enemies or through gimping your character. Choosing that 2nd option is a recipe for frustration.… Expand
  18. JunkmanUK
    Jan 24, 2015
    3
    Piss poor attempt at horror, cliched, over produced, too much unskippable dialog and forced pacing.

    Buy Outlast instead if you want a proper horror game.
  19. Tubey
    Oct 15, 2014
    3
    The real horror of this game lies in how scary bad the PC port is. Just incredible.

    Keybinding is a mess, and it feels like a constant fight against the games desire to be played with a controller. The frame rate is a joke at 30fps. Yes, it can be unlocked, but we shouldn't have to do that, it should be an option in the game, instead of a lazy port which requires you to be a techie    The real horror of this game lies in how scary bad the PC port is. Just incredible.

    Keybinding is a mess, and it feels like a constant fight against the games desire to be played with a controller.

    The frame rate is a joke at 30fps. Yes, it can be unlocked, but we shouldn't have to do that, it should be an option in the game, instead of a lazy port which requires you to be a techie to get the best out of it.

    The controls are outright bizarre. It's a difficult enough game as it is, but when you combine that with having to drag your mouse around like it's stuck in tar and it's a recipe for disaster, and you simply have to use a control to get anywhere close to the meat of the game.

    The game doesn't look too impressive either, certainly for a 2014 game. It feels like a game from the PS3 era. Frame rate drops are persistent too, camera angles throughout vary between making little sense to being utterly stupid in their placement, and this is one of the only games to give me an acute feeling of motion sickness throughout; when a game literally makes you feel like you're going to vomit, you know you've done something wrong.

    But for all that, there's a decent game lying underneath the problems. For PS4/XB1, this could very well be a good title on a platform which obviously demands controller support and therefore doesn't feel gimped by ONLY offering you that option, but PC gamers have different expectations and this title doesn't meet them in pretty much any way.    … Expand
  20. LXQUICKJUSTICE
    Feb 12, 2015
    3
    BORING. I've played a lot of games, challenging games, easy games, fun games and frustrating games, and this one most definitely falls into the latter category. The Evil Within is supposed to be scary, but it's ridiculously bad controls make it just excruciating to play. I tried enjoying this thing with a mouse and keyboard, an xbox 360 controller and even an xbox one controller, but theBORING. I've played a lot of games, challenging games, easy games, fun games and frustrating games, and this one most definitely falls into the latter category. The Evil Within is supposed to be scary, but it's ridiculously bad controls make it just excruciating to play. I tried enjoying this thing with a mouse and keyboard, an xbox 360 controller and even an xbox one controller, but the problem is the game, not the input device. The developers wasted an inordinate amount of time animating the player's movements to the point where normal actions like turning around, walking sideways and combat are painfully clumsy. To make matters worse, this game forces you into a bunch of stealth gameplay... That is in third person... Wow, now that sucks. Seriously? You have to decide whether you want to use your lantern to see what the heck you're doing but if you turn it on the monsters see you and ruin your day. Oh but you can't move around in the dark either, because some douchebag mischievously placed bear traps in every level that make you roll your eyes every time you step in one. But it gets even better. There are instant kill proximity bombs all over the place and as soon as they start beeping you're already dead. I said screw this game after the third time one of them blew me up. I could waste 1000 hours of my time trying to learn all the little tiny intricacies of this game just to be able to play it, but I've got to go to work and school. I don't want to play a game if it isn't fun. So to say things in another way, the Resident Evil 1 remastered remake on Steam has BETTER controls than the evil within. Now that's bad. The controls and terrible camera angles completely ruin this game. Enjoy.… Expand
  21. MixedFeelings
    Oct 14, 2014
    3
    Is this how you treat PC gamers? There is no way of playing this game in fullscreen if you have a ultrawide cinema display. You guys force 2.35:1 aspect ratio yet when I run the game on my 21:9 monitor I get black bars all around even when I have the resolution at 3440x1440 in settings. Removing the black bars with the console only remove the top and bottom bars. The game is still stuck atIs this how you treat PC gamers? There is no way of playing this game in fullscreen if you have a ultrawide cinema display. You guys force 2.35:1 aspect ratio yet when I run the game on my 21:9 monitor I get black bars all around even when I have the resolution at 3440x1440 in settings. Removing the black bars with the console only remove the top and bottom bars. The game is still stuck at 16:9 aspect ratio. Points lost.

    Why on earth would you cap the game to 30fps. I almost puked 20 minutes into the game. Not because of the gore but the motion sickness and low fps. Can be fixed in the console. The game should run at 60fps by default. Points lost.

    The only reason why I gave this game 3 points is because its a good game. I was really excited when I saw the trailer for this game. I love survival horror games but I have to be able to play it on my ultrawide monitor or it will lose its immersion.    … Expand
  22. Veska
    Oct 14, 2014
    3
    30 fps locker and "movies black stripe" for better playing? Really? It isn funny. This **** is so bad as the first version of Dark Souls on pc. I try to play with K+M and result? Terrible...Moving the cursor is the same as using analog on a contoller. This game on pc i so bad. In year 2014 we have graphic from year 2009, fps lock and other "feature"....If you want play it, buy it on30 fps locker and "movies black stripe" for better playing? Really? It isn funny. This **** is so bad as the first version of Dark Souls on pc. I try to play with K+M and result? Terrible...Moving the cursor is the same as using analog on a contoller. This game on pc i so bad. In year 2014 we have graphic from year 2009, fps lock and other "feature"....If you want play it, buy it on console. And if you want good horor game. Buy new Alien, Outlast or play older games from Resident series.… Expand
  23. peterf28
    Oct 31, 2014
    3
    very poor game . the first 30 minutes are OK, nice graphics, enigne demonstration, some monster, but then it get very boring. the surrounding is very dark, the story is somehow pooor ... i did not even finish the game . i was very interested in the ID software engine id tech 5 which this game uses, but i am very dissapointed .
  24. Fostin4
    Dec 31, 2014
    3
    It's a great horror game but it runs like crap on john carmacks abomination of a game engine called IDTech 5 with those same issues since ever..texture pop ins,low fps etc.Thank you john carmack.
  25. ProstoTelo
    Oct 16, 2014
    3
    The game is nice and scary but PC version is a total disaster. Black bars they are everywhere. Do not buy it if have PS or XBOX. Buy this game for the console instead.
  26. life234
    Oct 22, 2014
    3
    This game is ehhhhh.... Good concept and game play, but dear god what did you do to the PC version of this game!? Wide-screen view and locked frame rate! This game is 360 graphics by far and on steam it say the minimum requirements is an i7 processor? Get out of here with that crap, hopefully there is an HD update to fix this nonsense. Will play once that has been fixed and update my review.
  27. Jeek
    Nov 14, 2014
    3
    After the patch when you could put 60fps from options and really play fullscreen i decided to give this game second chance. I really tried but just couldn't really enjoy playing this, it wasn't fun. When you play good game, you don't want it to end, but must say that after 6th chapter i already was waiting this game to end.

    Plot is very confusing and not entertaining. Bossfights were    After the patch when you could put 60fps from options and really play fullscreen i decided to give this game second chance. I really tried but just couldn't really enjoy playing this, it wasn't fun. When you play good game, you don't want it to end, but must say that after 6th chapter i already was waiting this game to end.

    Plot is very confusing and not entertaining.
    Bossfights were boring.
    It's not fun to break every single barrel or vase and watch if you get more bullets or keys.
    And extra minus from Spider-Lady boss. Probably the most hated and the most frustrating boss in this century. Some people likes it, but i couldn't stand it.    … Expand
  28. HHHippo
    Nov 6, 2014
    3
    I thought it was just me that was getting motion sick from the 3rd person view, glad to read other people are having the same problem. I'm pretty disappointed with the controls too. Play the demo before you buy it.
  29. Rafael117
    Oct 20, 2015
    3
    "Next gen Game", remember that this is a game from the year Two Thousand and Fourteen.
    This is probably the MOST HONEST review you can have. You like the game? Buy it, but don't blame me for not warning you.
    - Next Generation 3rd Person View The game features horrible 3rd person view, an enemy is close to you, be ready to not be able to use your gun, because the game is absent of a    "Next gen Game", remember that this is a game from the year Two Thousand and Fourteen.
    This is probably the MOST HONEST review you can have. You like the game? Buy it, but don't blame me for not warning you.

    - Next Generation 3rd Person View
    The game features horrible 3rd person view, an enemy is close to you, be ready to not be able to use your gun, because the game is absent of a decent, offensive meele. Did i mention that you have a knife? You can't use it on close quarters wherever you need to.

    - The next generation AI, Part 1.
    Probably one of the worse I've seen in years, you've seen this kind of AI behavior on those good old early 2000's games, where the Npc just follows you like there were no walls, just a straight line, ignoring obstacles.

    - Next Generation Horror Game.
    Horror? Terrifying? Scary? Honestly you don't feel any kind of psychological fear, unless you eat some depressive drugs (alcohol, heroin...). Yes, you'll make a "ugh, ugly creepy boss" (the Keeper looks amazing) and that "oh not he's going to kill me" because you can't just aim at him because of the next gen 3rd person view. In short, it could be better. The horror part of this game is the rage due to bugs.

    - Next generation AI, Part 2. Difficulty is ok i guess, can be hard sometimes. For instance, you think you ave to hit that boss's eye some times, in order to trigger the next phase, when you just needs to spam grenades until it falls dead. There's people on the top reviews talking about how this game is so "old school", well...take a look at Metal Gear Solid bosses and how you just can't mindlessly spam Grenades or Pistol rounds in order to kill it, a game from like...1999?

    - Next Gen face rig/expression system: Characters have no emotions, their internal scream is clear (voice actors were ok), but nobody can save then from the almost-poker-faces they make. (please, watch Dead Space 2 acting, from characters to dialogues)

    This could be an amazing game, a Triple A masterpiece, something totally worth of a sequel and probably a movie. Those games you would play again next year, and maybe in the next year too. But no, unfinished game, looks like an Alpha version of a future great game that needs a serious mechanics fix.

    Btw the story is pretty interesting if you're into mind bending stuff, you know Psychology stuff, that's why it gets a 3.

    Want a good horror game? Play Dead Space, then play Dead Space 2.
    Bad port etc? Nah, it's just bad...    … Expand
  30. iseeall
    Dec 2, 2015
    2
    I only tried the demo but dropped it without even finishing because it was beyond annoying and nothing like scary. This isn't even a game, but a clumsy movie where you should be just sitting and watching without ever touching the keyboard. Every minute they take control away from you and show you yet another lengthy animated sequence. The Shift key is supposed to make the character run butI only tried the demo but dropped it without even finishing because it was beyond annoying and nothing like scary. This isn't even a game, but a clumsy movie where you should be just sitting and watching without ever touching the keyboard. Every minute they take control away from you and show you yet another lengthy animated sequence. The Shift key is supposed to make the character run but sometimes it doesn't work - sometimes it does - as the script pleases. The whole game feels like it has no generic gameplay mechanics at all, and all there is is an endless row of special places where you can do the only required things and that's all. No sense of freedom or even choice. The camera is placed at an awkward angle. It's never clear which objects can be interacted with and which can't. The gameplay is about entering a room, getting killed and by that guessing what the designer wanted you to do in that room, and doing just that upon reload. Pathetic.
    It's far, far from Silent Hill or Resident Evil. I have no idea who they made this game for. Still giving it 2 and not 0 because I see the great work artists have done there - unfortunately to no use.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

22
#22 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
38
#38 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
68

Mixed or average reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 18
  3. Negative: 1 out of 18
  1. CD-Action
    Jan 9, 2015
    50
    It seems the developers were not entirely sure what they wanted to achieve and got caught between traditional and innovative approach, properly employing neither. [13/2014, p.56]
  2. PC PowerPlay
    Nov 30, 2014
    70
    Borrowing heavily from past survival horror games, The Evil Within still manages to create fear in its players despite some clunkiness. [Dec 2014, p.58]
  3. Pelit (Finland)
    Nov 15, 2014
    82
    As the Japanese survival horror genre goes, The Evil Within feels a bit old fashion but in a good way. It certainly has the potential of becoming a cult classic. [Nov 2014]
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