The Evil Within

After a clumsy opening, The Evil Within hits its stride towards the end and the fist act and the tension rarely lets up. [Christmas 2014, p.114]

The Evil Within returns to the horror genres roots and becomes a rather surprising breath of fresh air of action in a horror climate where the players are usually mostly helpless. The game may be more cozy spooky than terrifying but the problem lies more in its graphical shortcomings and the flat story. Likewise Shinji Mikami is still a better game designer than most even when he's not bringing his best.

What it does at its core it does so well that all those issues floating on the periphery eventually fade away to reveal a satisfying if slightly blemished return to classic survival horror.

Overall, the Evil Within is solid and it definitely has some great moments, but poorly-implemented mechanics and a bland story bring down the overall package. Survival horror fans should pick it up, but others may want to wait until the price drops a bit.

The Evil Within offers the right horror atmosphere with strong gameplay and lots of challenges. That makes it extra unfortunate that the story is weak, the camera is annoying and there are lots of bugs.

The Evil Within is the game Resident Evil 5 should have been. The problem is that in the last 5 years videogames have evolved and some gameplay solutions have become obsolete.

Despite The Evil Within's attempts to mimic RE4, it plays like a game that preceded RE4 instead. It has many minor flaws, annoying problems and nagging issues that its spiritual predecessor didn't have.

The Evil Within is an example of a great idea that lacks execution. There are scares a-plenty and very often, the fear factor is sky-high. The pacing and variety we see in this adventure are worthy of praise as well, and I appreciate how the atmosphere continually drags you into the experience. But with a decidedly outdated feel, difficulty that too often feels cheap rather than fair, old-fashioned AI and a sub-par camera, one can’t help but be moderately disappointed.

It takes a few chapters, but even if this horror is far from a true one, eventually, it is able to move you by its elegant action, and to impress you by some of its juicy moments. Roots cannot be renounced here, however, they are restraining it to no avail.

Despite letting some of its most compelling aspects die off, The Evil Within is still worth a shot for bringing some unique ideas in the first place, and giving us a new way to think about survival horror.

Unfair difficulty spikes swap out the title’s pervading sense of fear for outright frustration at times, while technical issues undo the developer’s outstanding art direction. Thankfully, legendary director Shinji Mikami doesn’t disappoint in the gameplay department, forcing you to get creative with your plentiful combat options due to an unending absence of resources.

In the last few chapters The Evil Within finally becomes what it was set out to be: a disturbingly creepy, challenging survival horror game. But in the 10+ hours before that it's too often a frustratingly unfair, aimless mess, in which the technical issues and the old-fashioned development-tropes are not only an eyesore, but a nuisance as well. Survival horror? More like Trial & 'Terror'.​

When the game works, it is fantastic. Unfortunately, the rest of it feels average and frustratingly built to make players fail. While obsessive collectors might see replay value in New Game+, the story and gameplay simply aren't compelling enough to warrant more than the original 20 hours for completion.

The Evil Within has great moments where the excellent combat and creepy environmental design come together. But those moments are fleeting, inevitably sapped of their delightful terror by design choices that feel trapped in the glory days of a decade ago.

Good old-fashioned action horror will please Resident Evil 4 fans especially. Anyone won’t be pleased with his technical errors. [Issue#247]

Overall, it’s a shame that the final game feels like a missed opportunity to bring the survival horror genre back into the spotlight. Between the poor story and characters, familiar elements from other games and the problems I had during my playthrough, it seems as though The Evil Within is content to live in the past instead of than drawing inspiration from it and moving forward.

The best thing to say about The Evil Within is that it is a good survival game with some decent mechanics, the worst thing I can say is that it is a poor horror game that doesn’t live up to its design or the talent of the director.

Rather than the future of survival horror this is merely a retread of its defining moments, and even then it rarely manages to equal what has gone before – let alone exceed it.

The Evil Within is a noble attempt at bringing back classic survival horror, but it could have learned a thing or two from games that aren't almost ten years old. It has its moments of brilliance, scattered through periods of antagonizing design.

It’s an atmospheric slog with some cool art direction, granted (although its anemic, somewhat confused mad science story doesn’t add much on that front). But it’s a slog nonetheless, constantly punishing the player for not reading its mind. Dying in a game isn’t scary — almost dying is. The Evil Within, however, never figures that out.