The Evil Within

 PlayStation 3
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 332 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 259 out of 332
  2. Mixed: 23 out of 332
  3. Negative: 50 out of 332
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. ii_like_bl00d
    Oct 20, 2014
    8
    This game is exactly what the fans of Resident Evil 4 have been waiting for. The game shows effectively how you can merge 3 different games (Resident Evil 4's controls, Silent Hill's atmosphere and Dead Space's gore) and still make a game that is unique and a blast to play. The visuals and sound merge very well with amazing work from the voice actors. For Shinji Mikami's return to survivalThis game is exactly what the fans of Resident Evil 4 have been waiting for. The game shows effectively how you can merge 3 different games (Resident Evil 4's controls, Silent Hill's atmosphere and Dead Space's gore) and still make a game that is unique and a blast to play. The visuals and sound merge very well with amazing work from the voice actors. For Shinji Mikami's return to survival horror, the game delivers expectation and more.… Expand
  2. metazima
    Oct 21, 2014
    8
    Ordered this game based on all the hype then read some reviews, and promptly got worried it was going to be crap. Requested a refund and while waiting for it to get approved started playing it. Finished it in 5 days and can now confirm it was not at all bad, good actually.

    The bad: The black border top and bottom, what's up with that?! for me that was the most annoying thing, whether    Ordered this game based on all the hype then read some reviews, and promptly got worried it was going to be crap. Requested a refund and while waiting for it to get approved started playing it. Finished it in 5 days and can now confirm it was not at all bad, good actually.

    The bad:

    The black border top and bottom, what's up with that?! for me that was the most annoying thing, whether it was done for an atmosphere or graphics limitations or else, bad idea and I was not impressed!

    The graphics on PS3 is rather dated (The Last of Us or Creed are far superior) however once you get into the gameplay its not much of an issue unless you are truly anal about your fps, polygons etc.

    Some of the dialogue is to say the list cliché and to be honest hilariously stupid.

    Controls, particularly when next to walls are poor. Compared to TLOU or Creed, the Evil is a freaking bull in the china shop, peeking around corners should not be this hard.

    The good:
    Bosses! Most are slightly cliché but so is everything else under the sun. Each had been carefully thought through and I was impressed with the variety, almost every level (15 in total) had a different one.

    The story, although full of terrible dialogue lines, is a solid one with no holes throughout or a silly ending.

    The lack of ammunition does add to suspense and inability of killing some enemies is rather an interesting approach. This is not your usual COD title where killing is the only solution; running is something you need to get used to in Evil.

    Weapons, puzzles, level design, lighting, sounds, music, cut-scenes and general atmosphere are all top notch.

    So all-in-all not a perfect title but very enjoyable never the less.

    Most importantly - be ready to die, a lot! (70 times in my case)    … Expand
  3. dink-buttstinks
    Dec 22, 2014
    10
    this game is fantastic! turn off the lights and play it with headphones. if cannabis is legal where you live maybe smoke some of that too. that's what i recommend. scary. fun. enemies are super cool. one of the best games i've played in the last few years.
  4. BAN_KAI
    Oct 17, 2014
    10
    this game is not flawless and it is not shinji's best work but it is still amazing game i loved the environment design and difficulty of this game you realy should be smart enough and survivalist to survive this game great pick and worth my cash
  5. Johangir
    Oct 14, 2014
    10
    its a good time for the AAA survival horror genre. terrifying ambience, really tough gameplay (in the Dark Souls style of natural difficulty, not scripted trial-and-error), and the graphics are also pretty good. horror or not, Shinji Mikami's games are always a blast to play through, and this is no exception
  6. Darkknight88
    Oct 17, 2014
    10
    Amazing game the graphics is not that bad i really liked the shadows and lightning details the horrific enemies the story is a bit cofusing but it needs more than one walkthrough to get along with it
  7. RevoltingMind
    Oct 17, 2014
    10
    The Evil Within will give survival horror purists a rare contemporary pleasure fix. But be warned: if you prize smooth, silky action above all else, it will drive you insane.
  8. motta88
    Oct 17, 2014
    10
    The Evil Within is a varied, deep, challenging and long game. Shinji Mikami and Tango Gameworks scare us, they mix puzzles and third person shooting in a reborn survival horror that is visually poor. The Keeper, the Alpha mastodon and other ugly deformed will make you have nightmares.
  9. slim1985
    Oct 17, 2014
    10
    it may not be the best game out their but it the survival/horror return in the hand of it father shinji mikami this game have a great atmosphere and require skills to survive bringing back the old school survival horror style "less resources, Puzzles, etc"this game is a must for survival/horror fans
  10. don-G
    Oct 17, 2014
    10
    The Evil Within is a varied, deep, challenging and long game. Shinji Mikami and Tango Gameworks scare us, they mix puzzles and third person shooting in a reborn survival horror that is visually poor. The Keeper, the Alpha mastodon and other ugly deformed will make you have nightmares.
  11. AK47-85
    Oct 17, 2014
    10
    The Evil Within is a varied, deep, challenging and long game. Shinji Mikami and Tango Gameworks scare us, they mix puzzles and third person shooting in a reborn survival horror that is visually poor. The Keeper, the Alpha mastodon and other ugly deformed will make you have nightmares.
  12. Xmark120
    Jan 18, 2015
    3
    Poor man's Resident Evil 4 with The Last of Us' gameplay mechanics that don't work nearly as good.

    Paired with the game's poor graphics and limited screen, the game has close to zero immersion, IMO.

    I highly regret shelling out 60 EUR for it. I wouldn't go higher than 15 EUR.
  13. Calmaff11
    Oct 25, 2014
    2
    I bought this game NEW, but the code I was given for the added content was invalid, it had strangely expired, that was the first issue right there. Of course that's not the games fault. The rest of the review is however.

    I remember seeing all the hype that this game was scary. I bought this game because I'm a huge fan of horror and love getting my pants scared off of me. I could recall    I bought this game NEW, but the code I was given for the added content was invalid, it had strangely expired, that was the first issue right there. Of course that's not the games fault. The rest of the review is however.

    I remember seeing all the hype that this game was scary. I bought this game because I'm a huge fan of horror and love getting my pants scared off of me. I could recall all of those paid actors being terrified of the game so sadly I purchased it in hopes of getting something...oh...I don't know...SCARY!! Nope, not from this piece of junk.

    My absolute biggest gripe was it wasn't scary one bit. I played this thing for about seven hours, which in that time you'd expect something scary to happen. Instead I got chased by a chainsaw guy which wasn't scary in RE4 and wasn't scary here. Got chased by a naked man in a hoodie (not scary), and shot an onslaught of zombies in the face. To be fair the atmosphere looks like a polished version of RE4 and I wonder why? I wonder?

    The graphics were alright, but nothing to be amazed of, and the characters are all pretty damn bland. Your character is a stoic tool who seems to be pretty damn nonchalant about his current situation. Then you've got the Leslie guy who is the generic link to the evil. Then the rest of the completely forgettable cast whom I have already forgotten.

    The gameplay is a lot like Resident Evil 4...with worse mechanics. It's funny that a game from the same asshat made long ago on the Gamecube can play and look nicer then a game on the PS3/4. I was not a fan of RE4, because it ruined the franchise, so I was not a fan of this. To be honest the first Resident Evil on PS1 is far more terrifying then The Evil Within.

    Also after 7 hours of story I ended up not knowing what the **** was going on. It was a giant mess. I had very little clue as to what was actually going on. In the end I felt the game wasn't what I wanted, or expected. It was not scary, end of story.    … Expand
  14. PhelipeRomano
    Oct 23, 2014
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Again you are before a extremely difficult horror-survival game and you'll surely get disappointed if you're only interested in completing it to enjoy the history behind it. The facts are way too crazy for anyone to get minimally involved. But the worst part is that one I said before: even in the supposedly easiest difficulty level, you’ll face too much hard work to play it as an enjoyable game. Believe me, I don’t often have trouble with advancing in games like these, but this one is trouble for sure. And that’s not even good if you’re thinking that being hard is a feature that dares the player to play more and more. The checkpoints are pretty rare, so whenever you fail and die in the game, you’re set back in like 20 minutes before. So, just imagine that if you fail 3 times, you’ll spend an hour playing at the same place in the game and not seeing any new stuff while you play it. For example, you’ll get bored like I did right when you reach in Chapter 3… I got stuck there and I’ve heard and seen many people that had the same problem. It looks like the developers didn’t care about players who play only to enjoy a –movie-like game and don’t wanna spend a life trying to pass hard levels. They should have followed a similar gameplay difficulty of “The Last of Us” – easy (if you want to), brilliant and it’ll even become a movie (that you were not forced to play too much to see the end).… Expand
  15. SweatyHog69
    Oct 18, 2014
    1
    "I don't know if that was a bad dream, or this is."

    Horror games seem to flourishing these days, as there is a wide collection to choose from. While playing The Evil Within, I saw a lot of odds things, and even a whole lot of gore. But the terrible thing about this game is that there is zero suspense, no tension, and no reason to keep playing. I was poorly disappointed by the gameplay    "I don't know if that was a bad dream, or this is."

    Horror games seem to flourishing these days, as there is a wide collection to choose from. While playing The Evil Within, I saw a lot of odds things, and even a whole lot of gore. But the terrible thing about this game is that there is zero suspense, no tension, and no reason to keep playing. I was poorly disappointed by the gameplay that is completely outdated, and the graphics were very underwhelming for a AAA game.

    So yeah, I played Evil Within. May have even given it a 4/10, if it didn't me brain cancer. I contemplated suicide, but I figured that's what the game developers wanted me to do. It upsets me deeply that douche bags like the developers of this game are living a great wealthy life, while a nice guy like myself is slowly dying from a terrible disease. 1/10.    … Expand
  16. jchu524
    Nov 19, 2014
    3
    Good graphics, some suspenseful moments. However, the overall flow of the game seemed clunky, slow, and not interesting. Seemed like a poor attempt at combining RE4 mashed with The Last of Us. Not a fan.
  17. Crytzch
    Jan 2, 2015
    2
    The intro chapter was decent, if a bit slow and clunky. For a game released in 2014, I really expected so much more in the way of graphics and sound effects, even on a PS3. Instead, I get lots of pixilated darkness and a huge guy with a chainsaw going "URGH! RAWR!"

    It just got really, really boring.
  18. Hellion
    Oct 16, 2014
    2
    The Evil Within sucks. That is all you need to know. Otherwise if you really need to know. It's got bad graphics. Cheap enemy AI that bum rushes you. Wonky controls and aiming system. Lack of ammo or anything else around. Terrible level design. Stupid boss fights (hair lady was super easy). You can't see anything thanks to the black bars (especially on any tv 32 inches or lower). You haveThe Evil Within sucks. That is all you need to know. Otherwise if you really need to know. It's got bad graphics. Cheap enemy AI that bum rushes you. Wonky controls and aiming system. Lack of ammo or anything else around. Terrible level design. Stupid boss fights (hair lady was super easy). You can't see anything thanks to the black bars (especially on any tv 32 inches or lower). You have to protect a partner (yeah that crap again). You name it. Not to mention all the clipping and minor bugs. Not scary in the slightest. A rental only.… Expand
  19. KateUptonsDcups
    Oct 16, 2014
    5
    Honestly the game isn't that good. It actually blows. Been there done that..Copy of Rockstar's Max Payne/Manhunt to the extreme, a crappy knockoff. The camera angles are terrible and you'd have a whole hell of an easier time controlling your onscreen character with a banana in a bowl of pudding. 5/10 is generous.
  20. Quinzel
    Nov 1, 2014
    4
    I only ended playing through the first chapter through this game. First off the intro of this game felt unnecessary. It could have been used as flashback cut scene or just a regular cut scene in the beginning because it quite boring to play through. Although after that, you end up getting into the your first dilemma pretty quickly. I think the build up for this just wasn't very good. TheI only ended playing through the first chapter through this game. First off the intro of this game felt unnecessary. It could have been used as flashback cut scene or just a regular cut scene in the beginning because it quite boring to play through. Although after that, you end up getting into the your first dilemma pretty quickly. I think the build up for this just wasn't very good. The feel of the game and the gameplay felt fine as I was playing it, but there's one glaring problem that I had while I was playing. Shinji Mikami seemed to want to have the story drive the gameplay around, rather than what he's done with his other survival horror games, having the gameplay drive the story. Games like the Metal Gear Solid series or even the Last of Us, which is a game I didn't particularly like all work fine in having there story's drive the gameplay. The game is also quite linear. Although it can give the illusion of non linearity. I do like the overall design and feel of the game but the game isn't all that scary, there's to much gore and there doesn't seem to be much substance to this game. Also if your expecting something similar to Re4, your going to be very disappointed because quite frankly The Evil Within just isn't very fun like Re4 was, or even most of the other Resident Evil games for that matter.… Expand
  21. Zeydlitz
    Oct 20, 2014
    0
    This game is only intended to be survival-horror. But after first blinking enemy you find that they are common in this game. And fighting with enemy, who love to teleport behind you back is frustrating.

    Also game design is lame, areas are pretty small but empty, nothing to see. Paired with "darkness" -- most of the time you screen shows some abstract 2d picture (badly textured wall).
  22. houxh
    Oct 6, 2021
    10
    The gameplay, the story and the concept are very good and way better than the sequel.
  23. archonome
    Oct 20, 2014
    10
    I'm not a graphics whore and I don't appreciate how people are too easily influenced by them. However, they definately dissapoint(they dumbed it down on purpose so as to encourage you to buy a PS4 early, IMO).

    Regardless, I have waited and waited for a survival horror game that was made with the 1990s touch with an authentic and genuine feel. This game has it all!! There isn't too much    I'm not a graphics whore and I don't appreciate how people are too easily influenced by them. However, they definately dissapoint(they dumbed it down on purpose so as to encourage you to buy a PS4 early, IMO).

    Regardless, I have waited and waited for a survival horror game that was made with the 1990s touch with an authentic and genuine feel. This game has it all!! There isn't too much shooting where you feel it's an action game and there is alot of atmosphere, yet you feel it was done very artistically.

    I bought it for 70$ and I usually wait for used games so that prices come down but I WANTED TO SUPPORT THIS KIND OF GAME. You can tell it was made for niche audience in mind. There was even a homage to resident evil 1 with the zombie turning his head around in the introductory phase. I'm telling you this to show you that this game is for the thoughtful person that enjoys the little nuances and like to "feel" the game in their head and not just mash buttons. TEW is a game that oozes passion and you can tell it was made with love and has that "japanese" touch.

    For those that say that the acting was mediocre, please go watch a hollywood Movie with Sylvester Stallone or start reading books!!! This was done on PURPOSE. They didn't want to create a movie like The last Of US... Instead they chose VERY few words for the actors and purposely limited their expressions so as to make it more eeerie. THIS is actually something that I appreciated! Unlike American games where you feel you are watching a hollywood movie; in this game, you actually believe you are in some sort of Comic book or mysterious horror plot. You are supposed to USE YOUR IMAGINATION. IF they overdid the acting part, it would come out as cheesy or it might actually limit the fear inside your mind(70% is in your imagination because you fear the unknown).

    Gameplay wise, it is very simple and yet there are very nice combat features but they are not overdone to the point of making this a ridiculous button masher.

    The music, the sound effects, are all well done and the game definately spooks you.

    Also A+++ for the introduction... You just can't beat that, Shinji Mikami really delivers unless you are a YOLO who is born in 1994 who thinks he knows everything about games because you are "top 100 COD player" (lol! You guys focus so much on graphics and explosions that you can't appreciate art).    … Expand
  24. Axebrossia
    Jun 30, 2015
    4
    iukk what a horrible game!! Much things about a psichologyst history doesn`t make sense and if yoy play re4 or re 6 , is the same, no innovations, and extreme action and destruction scenarios is not a survival game...
  25. z0nbi
    Oct 18, 2014
    3
    Just plain...ugh...decent game, but extremely boring...the game just couldn't keep me interested...I was yawning by the end of chapter 3...wait till it goea down in price, or better yet...rent it first.
  26. 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
  27. beatlemnkyhuman
    Nov 27, 2014
    5
    The voice acting is terrible.

    The story makes no sense.

    The combat is tedious and not clever at all.

    There's no puzzles.

    The graphics are nice but the art direction is bad,

    it's bad.
  28. nocfirst
    Jan 1, 2015
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The intro to this game was the only interesting thing. I was legitimately scared running away from the Leatherface ripoff with no weapons. No hud, no weapons...I thought I was in for a real survival treat. Then the story really started. The plotline was all too predictable and rehashed. The controls were clunky. Don't even bother trying to melee anyone because the camera will just zoom in on your character and not the enemy so you can't even see what you are attacking until it starts attacking you. The graphics look like they should be on Gamecube, except on Gamecube they would have at least been smooth and the game wouldn't freeze every time monsters spawned. I'm just going to go play Resident Evil 4 again.… Expand
  29. MyTopREVIEWS_LV
    Jan 15, 2015
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It has been a very long since i have played a horror game. Evil Within could have been the one of the best, but in some ways it failed.

    First off, the story was all over the place. The characters had little to no development. Some moments felt like im playing RE6. This game "in a way" has it all....walking silently through an asylum and creapy sewer labirinth while being chased by a respawning monster with a hammer, climbing on a military jeep and shooting at monsters with an maching gun, and getting a lobotomy just to get a few useful upgrades.
    I mean Wow! Oh,,and undead minions with dynamite....

    The graphics were good, but major texture popins were way to frequent. Some unimaginative level designs. The character design was ok, but lipsyncing was awful. This game was ment to be a PS4/Xbox One, PC only game, but it was brought back to the old gen as well.

    Overall, the game was not so bad. Some chapters were preaty darn good, but some were just awful. Imo Chapter 9 was the best and some early chapters were good. Some later chapters and the Final boss were just wrong. Some timed jump scares and a lot of gore, thats all i can say about the horror elements.    … Expand
  30. BritishWolf
    Sep 21, 2015
    7
    A major fan of Resident Evil 4, I was deeply looking forward to this game. It's easy to see the Resident Evil influence, however, it does not match it. Plagued by terrible gameplay mechanic choices, a seemingly endless supply of glitches, and awful optimisation, The Evil Within has more problems than the average game. With these issues rectified, the game could be an 8, maybe a 9.
prev
Page:

Critic Reviews

All reviews »

There are no critic reviews yet.