The Evil Within

 PlayStation 4
User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2497 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,894 out of 2497
  2. Mixed: 337 out of 2497
  3. Negative: 266 out of 2497
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  1. Limey
    Oct 15, 2014
    2
    People are desperate for survival horror and will likely accept any release vaguely resembling their desire. The Evil Within was marketed as a return to 'pure horror' and it is closer to a grotesque, senseless misadventure into a variety of misplaced sequences which do not establish any consistent atmosphere for an emotion of dread to develop.

    Shinji is not the saviour of survival    People are desperate for survival horror and will likely accept any release vaguely resembling their desire. The Evil Within was marketed as a return to 'pure horror' and it is closer to a grotesque, senseless misadventure into a variety of misplaced sequences which do not establish any consistent atmosphere for an emotion of dread to develop.

    Shinji is not the saviour of survival horror, he is a figurehead, demonstrating a competent team and ample resources are stronger to a single man's masterminded vision in the current case (in the assumption they had one). Notes to add ambience are nonsensical, ammunition is balanced punisghinly to cause unreasonable circumstance, deaths are regularly cheap and chapters typically requiring routines of trial-error-trial-error-trial.

    There is a fundamental design confusion: "Should we aim for stealth or aciton?" Consequently, as the creators attempted an amalgamation, they have created a situation whereby stealth is often inappropriate considering action setpieces whilst action is mostly discouraged from contrived survival horror elementsboth from the cumbersome controls to the scarce resources. The lack of instructions, too, are not a fun challenge or an endeavour to exhibit how 'hardcore' a player is - they're a lazy scenario which has the player testing for answers through frustrating mechanics invariably leading to mistakes: repetitive stealth, unbalanced enemies, cumbersome action.

    Enemies are not designed to investigate intelligently for any fair calculations to the player - line of sights erratic when not distracted with a redundant throw of a distraction - and patience of the stealth declines into frustration whilst there's neither dread or variety to sneaking. Additionally, environments are inappropriate for stealth, regularly a victim to poor collisions which affect fluid manoeuvring, and they're highly restrictive to have stealth as practically identical to how simply isolated the practice is of waiting inside a locker.

    The Evil Within is a game we want to be success, inspiring excellent survival horror games in the future and also being one, but it is nevertheless a disaster to not only ambition, it's flawed from a design perspective.

    Technical issues range from clipping, textures requiring additional time to load and horrible artificial intelligence for mechanics dependent on these. However, to not be wholly negative, positives include adequate graphics, occasionally entertaining environments and fascinating bosses.

    The framerate inexcusably lowers at times, unacceptable considering it's substandard the standards of PS4 graphics - entailing it should be easier to code smoother - and movement is restricted to a degree that does not increase tension or 'horror', it's an unnecessary restriction: contrived limitations, highly awkward in practice, to supposedly induce 'fear' with their superficial assumptions on survival horror design principles. The aforementioned misunderstanding, too, is witnessed with difficulty as instilling the fear of death rooted into survival, attempting to replicate Dark Souls which punishes players methodically as consequence opposed to irrational punishment as with The Evil Within or any other poorly balanced product.

    You will die until numb. You will die senselessly and scream 'unfair', not 'OH MY GOD'. You will laugh at the repetitive gore that it indulges in as weak attempt at visceral horror. You will be amused at the schizophrenic direction that's embodied well with the disjointed, non-sequitur realities.You will laugh as they try to be cheesy for us to ignore specific flaws.

    The worst element has been the manipulative marketing of the companies involved, hyping survival horror fanabases into a protective frenzy over 'Shinji',, provoking loyalty as they view the success as important for their favourite franchises being restored/returned/ressurected and having people believe it will be an infallible success whilst lacking any of the relevant ingredients.. It is not survival horror, it is a third-person shooter which has been superfluously replicated survival horror elements, trying to not betray their initial intent to attracted fans, that serve as incompatible to all of their other choices.

    Where is the focus and the decisive, harmonious experience? Not The Evil Within. Where is true survival horror? Maybe Fatal Frame V will have to do and I hope it never, ever attempts the current trend in survival horror, horribly simplistic: hide-and-seek.

    I can run long as Sebastian with how much I enjoyed The Evil WIthin and regard it as 'horror'. It mocked any idea of survival and twisted the idea into an empty one of mindless deaths: no suspense or theatrics, purely sadist.    … Expand
  2. TheStalestLoaf
    Oct 14, 2014
    3
    I've only made it to the third chapter and I'm completely disgusted with the state of the game. First of all, the game isn't displayed in 1080p and looks terrible on a next gen console. Second of all, the game may claim to be of the action/horror genre, but all I'm seeing is predictable jump-scares and a laughable atmosphere that couldn't frighten a 3 year old and that is pathetic. Lastly,I've only made it to the third chapter and I'm completely disgusted with the state of the game. First of all, the game isn't displayed in 1080p and looks terrible on a next gen console. Second of all, the game may claim to be of the action/horror genre, but all I'm seeing is predictable jump-scares and a laughable atmosphere that couldn't frighten a 3 year old and that is pathetic. Lastly, the gameplay isn't fun nor is it even the least bit engaging. This is, yet again, another "horror" game that knows little to nothing about how to truly frighten its audience even remotely.… Expand
  3. GordonG
    Oct 14, 2014
    1
    Wow, THE most disappointing game i ever played. It is just horrible unfinished.
    I can´t understand how this game could be ranked this high!?? Are you mad people!?
    -Graphics are 10 years old. I am serious, it is really really bad. -Constant frame drops make it unplayable -Controls are a mess -No ammo so all you do is run, really boring -Feels really unfinished -Glitches everywhere    Wow, THE most disappointing game i ever played. It is just horrible unfinished.
    I can´t understand how this game could be ranked this high!?? Are you mad people!?

    -Graphics are 10 years old. I am serious, it is really really bad.
    -Constant frame drops make it unplayable
    -Controls are a mess
    -No ammo so all you do is run, really boring
    -Feels really unfinished
    -Glitches everywhere

    +Good atmosphere    … Expand
  4. Iberian_Buffalo
    Oct 14, 2014
    4
    When you create game that have graphic quality below the last of us remastered quality, you also add 2 bars on screen so amount of graphic that need to be generated is even less THEN game is not allowed to work 30 fps with a lot of drops to 15 fps... THIS IS NEXT GEN.. (should be). Not even stable 30 fps.
  5. usa5432
    Oct 14, 2014
    0
    This game is a dissapointment, since the lack of emotional moments, to the uninspired characters ever, no scary at all, the team that made the first resident evil games is not working in this game, Mikami was not the only person who made the old resident evil games, there was a team of designers and creators that made the old resident evil games a masterpiece, i have several doubts aboutThis game is a dissapointment, since the lack of emotional moments, to the uninspired characters ever, no scary at all, the team that made the first resident evil games is not working in this game, Mikami was not the only person who made the old resident evil games, there was a team of designers and creators that made the old resident evil games a masterpiece, i have several doubts about this title, all that i see is very far to even look like an old survival horror game

    i agree    … Expand
  6. Bouncycheetah
    Jan 11, 2020
    1
    A truly disappointing title. Terrible controls, poor story, appalling AI and boring, memorization gameplay techniques kill any sense of dread or horror and turn it into a repetitive, frustrating drudge. Stealth doesn't work in horror Imo... If you're good at it, it means you're invulnerable which isn't frightening, if you're not good at it, it means you get killed immediately and have toA truly disappointing title. Terrible controls, poor story, appalling AI and boring, memorization gameplay techniques kill any sense of dread or horror and turn it into a repetitive, frustrating drudge. Stealth doesn't work in horror Imo... If you're good at it, it means you're invulnerable which isn't frightening, if you're not good at it, it means you get killed immediately and have to repeat the same scene over and over which also kills the horror. The two genres don't mix for me, which is sad because stealth and horror appear to be becoming inextricably linked in the minds of game developers.… Expand
  7. AndersL
    Apr 12, 2017
    4
    I should have checked the Metascore on this one before I got it. A bitter disappointment, perhaps my biggest on the PS4. A not-so-good version of The Last of Us. Just didn't seem to be an interesting story there.
  8. LadyAshe
    Jun 11, 2017
    0
    horrible graphics, horrible story, boring characters. it just terrible and I can't believe others are rating it above 5! it's bad, very very bad. I was very disappointed.
  9. Edmundante
    Nov 20, 2014
    0
    Utterly bloody disgusting, nonsensical story, sloppy controls, characters aren't fun with little to no expressions. Bloody hard to win, ending is just a big "wtf" that I don't even the creators understand it. They tried to create a badass villain but it backfired, it is not. Overall the game is more stressful than fun to play and leave more questions and plot holes than answers in the end.Utterly bloody disgusting, nonsensical story, sloppy controls, characters aren't fun with little to no expressions. Bloody hard to win, ending is just a big "wtf" that I don't even the creators understand it. They tried to create a badass villain but it backfired, it is not. Overall the game is more stressful than fun to play and leave more questions and plot holes than answers in the end. The only great thing are the graphics and the atmosphere, those are a 10. This could have been a truly great game should they have put more thought on it.… Expand
  10. djalex
    Jan 8, 2015
    3
    This game definitely has its strengths and seems to be a world built by some very talented and smart people. Half the time its really fun and I'm waiting for it to get better... but then it doesn't. So I'm not really on board with making this in a top ten oor even top twenty list. This game could be amazing but it just misses the mark on way too many levels, too many areas that need aThis game definitely has its strengths and seems to be a world built by some very talented and smart people. Half the time its really fun and I'm waiting for it to get better... but then it doesn't. So I'm not really on board with making this in a top ten oor even top twenty list. This game could be amazing but it just misses the mark on way too many levels, too many areas that need a polish. For example as a casual gamer I find that it does not teach you the world very well. i was up to chapter four before i realized there were keys to collect. I dont think the tutorials are very clear throughout. If you power up your character or your weapons it seems to offer small changes in such minuscule increments that it hardly seems worth your time unless you know whats coming. The time it takes to actually upgrade your character's abilities or weapons is way too long too. for example, if I need to find a broken mirror to upgrade I shouldn't also have to walk down a long hallway and sit in a chair and then go through a long complicated menu. why make me do that when it adds nothing to the game. here is a suggestion: My character finds a broken mirror and is immediately in a power-up chair and the menu is simple and easy to follow with clear obvious logic and the upgrades are larger upgrades. The same problem goes toward the other bonus things in the locker or the map pieces in the map room. why do i need to walk around these long twisted halls and through these doors just to access these things.its irritating and kills the momentum of the game. Also, some of the story seems a little crazy and disconnected as well. I'm not sure why I have to battle a long haired bloody monster after i already killed the long haired bloody monster 3 chapters ago.. (out of monsters? recycling?). also the controls are frustrating. I understand that its supposed to have tension and be a bit challenging at times but if I understand a foe and a battle and I make choices that should work then my character on screen should survive. half the time it feels like i'm dying because of a glitch from the controls (like picking up an object which doesn't happen unless i am faced exactly in the right position of the object, or sneaking up on an enemy and the sneak attack option doesn't activate periodically in the same scenario, or I try to use a match ad it doesn't activate ). also it seems the logic of my character in aiming or preparing doesn't suit the heighten story and horror. at some point if anything like this was really happening my character should already have his gun out and aiming. but I find i have to reload, re aim and re build my character into being prepared for every scene even after i repeat the same challenge. shouldn't the logic be built into the game that this guys has seen some terrible things and knows he needs to be ready for some of it? its like the character is a child with no memory of the last horrific thing that just happened. (btw do i really need to upgrade space to hold matches? shouldn't they be small enough to carry a box of a thousand?) So the story and the dialogue really don't connect to the experiences that the gamer is having as his character goes through the story. For example: why does he have a lantern that gives off this terrible impractical light, shouldn't he have found a flashlight by now? why is he still wearing his vest and tie through the whole story? there are so many annoying illogical choices from the dialogue, story, game play, upgrading weapons and abilities, character arc, that this game is just a C plus or B minus at best. As I first noted though its not entirely terrible, there's a lot of great art direction and some interesting puzzles and some intriguing and scary story elements. It just feels like its half baked. It needed a few more story revisions and some streamlined game play revisions. The hiding in cabinets aspect is really useless too. After the novelty of the first scene i don't think i used it ever again. I find myself frustrated and dissatisfied with this game and I'm tempted to put it down before i completely finish. It doesn't seem worth the time as the enjoyment is sporadic and fleeting. I would say get this game used or at a heavy discount if its your favorite genre and there is nothing else out there for you to play otherwise its more fun playing a fifth round of The Last of Us or Tomb Raider.… Expand
  11. at0g
    Nov 29, 2014
    4
    Extremely dissapointed with this title.
    The main protagonist is dull and generic, graphics are last-gen and the gameplay is frankly boring. Controls are clumsy and arkward. Generally the game has a unfinished feel to it, like the team started with best intentions and then got really half-arsed about production. Theres no way this title deserves a 10, there are just too many faults with it    Extremely dissapointed with this title.
    The main protagonist is dull and generic, graphics are last-gen and the gameplay is frankly boring. Controls are clumsy and arkward. Generally the game has a unfinished feel to it, like the team started with best intentions and then got really half-arsed about production. Theres no way this title deserves a 10, there are just too many faults with it
    Some of the character design for the monsters is cool, but overall the evil within just feels dirivitive, linear and uninspired. Scariest moment - realising i could not return it after paying full price. Best thing about the game is the promotions team that gave it 10 scores on here (because no one else would).    … Expand
  12. madmonkey00
    Oct 27, 2017
    1
    While everybody else is super exited I am not. The gameplay is just boring and bad implemented. Most of all it's ridiculous slow, especially when sebastian is in danger you can move around like a drunken snail. Sometimes it is just frustrating, for example there are enemies you cannot fight and only flee or the game is just too buggy or to slow so you simply die because of nothing. TheWhile everybody else is super exited I am not. The gameplay is just boring and bad implemented. Most of all it's ridiculous slow, especially when sebastian is in danger you can move around like a drunken snail. Sometimes it is just frustrating, for example there are enemies you cannot fight and only flee or the game is just too buggy or to slow so you simply die because of nothing. The story looks good in the beginning but this is only teasing, after a few capter's you realize its just cheap. Animations and graphics are pretty bad as well.… Expand
  13. matt6g
    Oct 17, 2014
    3
    The Evil Within is one of the WORST games I have played in the last year. First off, the graphics are similar to that of a PS2 HD remake - perhaps even a little worse. In other words, the graphics are simply unacceptable. On top that, there is absolutely no story whatsoever along with some serious rendering issues. To add to the list, the game has also failed to master the art of a quickThe Evil Within is one of the WORST games I have played in the last year. First off, the graphics are similar to that of a PS2 HD remake - perhaps even a little worse. In other words, the graphics are simply unacceptable. On top that, there is absolutely no story whatsoever along with some serious rendering issues. To add to the list, the game has also failed to master the art of a quick loading screen. The game is by no means "easy" and reloading a checkpoint can take as long as two minutes - which, in this day and age, is not acceptable - the developers have really failed to capitalize on the PS4's processing and graphical capabilities. However, as a true horror fan, the enemies do look pretty cool and there are some decent concepts - which is why my score is a "3" and not a big fat "0". Although that may be true, it is more than clear that the developers decided not to put any amount of effort into this game. The Evil Within truly raped my expectations and I am very dissatisfied with the insane lack of application put into the game. Very unprofessional.… Expand
  14. SiraitX
    Mar 21, 2015
    0
    The game was marketed as a return to 'pure horror' but actually is nothing more than just a desperate attempt to make money in game horror competition.
    Remember this game was designed by game designer who lack of creativity. Shinji Mikami designed RE and Dino Crisis at the same time with exactly same gameplay, and now he created the worst game I ever play (the worst thing is he dubbed the    The game was marketed as a return to 'pure horror' but actually is nothing more than just a desperate attempt to make money in game horror competition.
    Remember this game was designed by game designer who lack of creativity. Shinji Mikami designed RE and Dino Crisis at the same time with exactly same gameplay, and now he created the worst game I ever play (the worst thing is he dubbed the game as 'return to pure horror' .... LOL).    … Expand
  15. Narcess
    Dec 2, 2014
    0
    Take Resident Evil toss in some Bioshock and put in cement mixer. Then mix in a huge pile of control issues, crappy camera, and utterly garbage story line. Bake in a dumpster full of graphics glitches, and controller snapping movement issues, and you have The Evil Within.
    I have played many games, and have never felt the urge to write a review till this flaming pile of dog crap. I    Take Resident Evil toss in some Bioshock and put in cement mixer. Then mix in a huge pile of control issues, crappy camera, and utterly garbage story line. Bake in a dumpster full of graphics glitches, and controller snapping movement issues, and you have The Evil Within.
    I have played many games, and have never felt the urge to write a review till this flaming pile of dog crap. I bought the hype and have been kicking myself ever since, this game is the worst of the worst.
    From boss fights that range from kindergarten finger painting easy, to advanced quantum physics there is no rhyme or reason. The most difficult enemy in the game is the useless camera. The story line is a mash up of the most cliché “survival horror” items in all games. Inventory and upgrades make no sense and only serve to make the game drag on.
    In all this game is utter garbage and Bethesda should be slapped in the face and kicked town a flight of stairs for even having their name on it.    … Expand
  16. DedBraneMike
    Dec 16, 2014
    4
    The biggest disapointment of the year. This is only a collection of things we have seen SO many times before. If you've play Resident Evil 4,5,6, Revelations and Dead Space 1,2 and 3, you have no reason to play this.
  17. cam387
    Oct 18, 2014
    3
    I don't usually go to review websites to talk about a game I dislike, but The Evil Within has shown me a whole new level of dislike for a video game. First of all, it's not hard by design. It's hard by poor game mechanics. The AI has next to no line of sight most of the time, but god help you if so much as a strand of hair moves on your characters head while behind cover. Unless you canI don't usually go to review websites to talk about a game I dislike, but The Evil Within has shown me a whole new level of dislike for a video game. First of all, it's not hard by design. It's hard by poor game mechanics. The AI has next to no line of sight most of the time, but god help you if so much as a strand of hair moves on your characters head while behind cover. Unless you can hit them with a headshot over three times with the poor aiming mechanic you are out of luck. Even then, the game fails to register hits in some circumstances. Take a enemy "Sleeping" on the ground. I pumped four shots to the head point blank before and during its animation to stand up. Somewhere in there, god mode is activated and it doesn't matter what you do. Trying to melee a enemy is futile unless you are doing a sneak attack. You can hit them as much as you want, they will not stagger. Poor game mechanics is just the beginning of the games terrible life. On a 65'' television, why is my vision limited to half the screen width? I'm sorry, I thought this was 2014 developers. The fact this game was launched on the PS4 and Xbox One for full price when it is clear the developers made this game for the last generation consoles is sick. The entire game is nothing more than a hide in the dark and watch patrol paths simulator, while being forced to have your television display a game in letterbox. Just another bad game made by developers published by Bethesda. Bethesda, please stick to publishing your own games.… Expand
  18. DerAleckz
    Oct 22, 2014
    3
    Here is my rating for The Evil Within (XONE)

    +sound
    +pacing
    +good potential (but not used)

    -lack of suspense
    -storyline
    -characters
    -graphics
    -bugs
    -unintended funny moments
    -does not live up to the hype
  19. RealLeather
    Dec 10, 2015
    4
    It's kind of spooky yeah but the framerate is the real scary bit. Overall, absolutely shocking performance and headache-inducing overzealous use of bloom and film grain filter. Graphics/framerate aside it's just an incredibly cumbersome game to play, stay away. Played it for forty minutes and traded it in.
  20. Shazalia
    Dec 25, 2014
    4
    The most disappointing aspect of rewarding The Evil Within a dismal 4/10 stars has nothing to do with the game being particularly bad, but rather the fact that the game fails to perform at a consistent frame rate. The game stutters unbelievably in open ended terrains, however, in enclosed environments it achieves a somewhat respectable pace in regards to the usual sub 30 FPS. I reallyThe most disappointing aspect of rewarding The Evil Within a dismal 4/10 stars has nothing to do with the game being particularly bad, but rather the fact that the game fails to perform at a consistent frame rate. The game stutters unbelievably in open ended terrains, however, in enclosed environments it achieves a somewhat respectable pace in regards to the usual sub 30 FPS. I really wanted to like The Evil Within but the despicable performance often got in the way of my enjoyment. Shame on you Shinji Mikami, I thought you'd know better.… Expand
  21. brianforbes
    Dec 27, 2014
    4
    If you are the type of gamer that likes to play the same 5 minutes of game, over and over, dying repeatedly, before you can advance to the next area, this may be for you. If you're looking for a horror experience with some creepy atmosphere, you won't see that here.

    I have just put this game aside for good, at the end of chapter 7, so would like to give my impressions for anyone    If you are the type of gamer that likes to play the same 5 minutes of game, over and over, dying repeatedly, before you can advance to the next area, this may be for you. If you're looking for a horror experience with some creepy atmosphere, you won't see that here.

    I have just put this game aside for good, at the end of chapter 7, so would like to give my impressions for anyone contemplating playing this.

    I love horror movies and games, so end up buying most horror games. Silent Hill is the best among them, with lots of terrifying elements and a minimum of frustrating boss fights. The Evil Within will take you back to the days of the original NES (think original Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania), where you must pass 5 levels in sequence, perfectly, and if you die anywhere along the way you need to repeat all 5 levels from the beginning.

    Plenty of enemies have one hit kill attacks, which send you right back to the beginning of the last cut sequence to navigate the whole thing from scratch. It's like having all the frustrations of your workplace at home ! Who needs time off when you can be beaten down by both your boss and your choice of video game.    … Expand
  22. HeatherN
    Nov 14, 2014
    3
    I'm not really sure why this got the ratings it did. The trailers were very interesting and the game looked promising from the advertisement. But overall, it was quite a disappointment. As a survivor horror it's not very scary and I can't make heads or tails of the plot. A lot of horror games are vague as far as story goes, but not to this level. I can't even come up with a summary. MainlyI'm not really sure why this got the ratings it did. The trailers were very interesting and the game looked promising from the advertisement. But overall, it was quite a disappointment. As a survivor horror it's not very scary and I can't make heads or tails of the plot. A lot of horror games are vague as far as story goes, but not to this level. I can't even come up with a summary. Mainly because I have no idea what's happening in this game. At all.

    The characters aren't very interesting. Because there isn't a lot of back story, I'm not really invested in what's going on. There's nothing personal or meaningful about the imagery I am seeing--it's just random. Gameplay and fighting isn't too terribly fun either. From other reviews I read, a lot of people complained didn't have enough ammo. I didn't have that issue, but that's mostly because I avoided as many monsters as I could.

    Honestly, I wouldn't waste your money on this game. It's just a confused mess. It's like the game developer didn't know want he wanted this game to be. It's not action pack enough to be action horror, not scary enough to be survivor, and too campy to be taken seriously.    … Expand
  23. dirtinhand
    Feb 10, 2015
    2
    Letterbox, that can't be turned off, traps out of nowhere, **** superzombies, and a **** story. That's would be so cool in 1998, but in 2014 it's just a big big disappointment.
  24. Skellington25_
    Oct 16, 2014
    4
    Shinji Mikami is an overrated name in the industry. This game getting scores like it is, is shocking to me. It's a horrible mess.

    Besides the fact that the plot is almost non-existent... in single player story driven game... big issue there... and the fact that the main character and the rest of the cast, are all about as entertaining as watching paint dry... the game is built HORRIBLY.    Shinji Mikami is an overrated name in the industry. This game getting scores like it is, is shocking to me. It's a horrible mess.

    Besides the fact that the plot is almost non-existent... in single player story driven game... big issue there... and the fact that the main character and the rest of the cast, are all about as entertaining as watching paint dry... the game is built HORRIBLY.

    Controls are completely screwed. The camera is always fighting you. Yes games like this are supposed to be hard, but not hard to control. That's what sets in frustration. Dying won't bother me if it's my fault, but if the game itself isn't letting me do what I want to do, when I want to do it... that will piss me off.

    Horror is supposed to be horror, not forced. The game shouldn't have to be out to get me, in order for me to be scared. Alien isolation, that alien scared the crap out of me... Because it was scary. No enemies in this game are scary in the least bit. This game just repeatedly tries to throw items of shock value in your face continually until it shoves you in an extremely tight area after it robs you of your ammunition and other supplies.

    How scripted everything is in this game is nauseating. Everything happens when the game wants it to. Never any other time. No thought went into this, it's completely unoriginal. Felt like I was playing a reskinned RE4 the entire time.

    Ammo conservation. This annoys the **** out of me. I don't mind when a game is telling me to be careful and save my ammunition. what I do mind, is that when the game decides whether or not my bullets are capable of killing. Several times you will run into enemies, the first thought in your mind is to shoot it. Later on, after you've wasted all of your ammo, you find out that your bullets never would've killed it. No matter how much ammo you had in the first place. Another thing on this subject is critical hits. This does not belong in shooters. Borderlands is fine... weakspots are visible I get it. The problem is, is when the enemy in front of me, a regular joe, I aim for the head to conserve ammo. Surprise it takes five shots in the head to kill this one. The next one only takes two. Seriously?

    Don't leave resource management up o chance. Leave it up to player skill. Being careful with things not to run out, not just robbing the player of all hope because.... well... just because.

    This is not horror. If you are just another sheep that's in love with all the terrible, cliched, stereotypical same bull**** over and over with Re4, 5, and 6. Then welcome home.

    If you want a game that will ACTUALLY be scary, rather than just forcing that horror by making you limp only when it's necessary for something to chase you with a chainsaw... and take all your ammo away... and kill you with bad camera angles... Then stay away.

    This is just another case of "Big names are more important than good games."    … Expand
  25. strondbokken
    Oct 17, 2014
    3
    If you see a score of 8-10 for this game, assume it's either a paid-for review or someone who doesn't understand how ratings work. Seriously. There is NO WAY anyone who has actually played this could score it above a 6. I see 10s and I can't believe they are real reviews. They couldn't be. And frankly, it's really sad to see companies still hiring people to post positive reviews afterIf you see a score of 8-10 for this game, assume it's either a paid-for review or someone who doesn't understand how ratings work. Seriously. There is NO WAY anyone who has actually played this could score it above a 6. I see 10s and I can't believe they are real reviews. They couldn't be. And frankly, it's really sad to see companies still hiring people to post positive reviews after Gamergate. Some are even saying "game of the year". Yeah.... ****ing.... Right.

    I really wanted to enjoy this game. Truly. But the MISERABLE controls and shoddy graphics make me feel like I'm in a time warp. It's sad when the scariest thing about a horror game is how badly it plays. The ambiance and all that is scary, but in a cheesy, gory way. Nothing new and I've seen it done better many other times before. And the moment you feel immersed and wanting to get into the game, you will inevitably find yourself cursing at how your "tooltip" on how to disarm a trap popped up milliseconds before the trap exploded (even though you saw it a mile away and crept up on it). Or perhaps you'll be cursing at the stupid haymaker punches your character throws to defend himself. Or perhaps the mediocre graphics will ruin your immersion. I don't know.

    The thing is, it's supposed to be a difficult game, but difficulty shouldn't come from poor design and implementation. ESPECIALLY on next gen consoles. There's so much wrong here that I don't even know where to start. Just goes to show you that a fancy name doesn't make a good game. Sorry Shinji, this is total garbage. You may have had a scary story lined up, but I can't even get into it because of how poor the game controls and mechanics are. 3/10 and that's being generous.

    Trust me. Don't believe the hype/fanboys. And no, I'm not out to "get someone", nor do I work for another company. I'm just a guy who wasted $60 on this and felt compelled to post this review BECAUSE the game was so bad. Honestly, I literally stopped playing and came to warn others. Hope that speaks to the "authenticity" (or simple laziness) of those people scoring it a 10....

    I hope anyone truly wanting a REAL review of this game can read this and know the truth. There are WAY too many "10s" on here for a game of this quality. Like a seriously suspicious amount. Just saying...    … Expand
  26. Turbodowg
    Feb 10, 2015
    3
    I've only recently bought the game for 25.00 and it wasn't even worth that. I've been a long term survival horror fan and have played SH games since they began, I also enjoyed the change in pace in games like RE4 which lead to great games like Deadspace 1. But Evil Within is bad, really bad.

    To start, the black bars destroy the experience, I spent the first hour trying to figure out how    I've only recently bought the game for 25.00 and it wasn't even worth that. I've been a long term survival horror fan and have played SH games since they began, I also enjoyed the change in pace in games like RE4 which lead to great games like Deadspace 1. But Evil Within is bad, really bad.

    To start, the black bars destroy the experience, I spent the first hour trying to figure out how to turn them off. Finally after going online I realised they couldn't be removed. They take you out of the experience and block your view. Very bad if playing on a smaller TV which I often do if the wife kicks me out on the front room to play upstairs!

    The graphics are good but are spoilt by the restricted view, which is unnecessary, if The Last Of Us can look great in full screen running at a higher frame rate then there is no excuse for the ridiculous black bars!

    The controls are sluggish and a step back, most areas are very dark and too hard to see any of the 'action'.

    The game cannot decide if it is a SH or an action game. On one hand you have no ammo or weapons and are forced to use stealth but stealth doesn't work and often you are forced to confront enimies with nothing to fight with. At these points when surrounded I just put the pad down and waited for the character to die as there is no way to escape. To me this is bad game design.

    The story is bland and uninspiring. The first level is fun, the rest are like a very poor Resident Evil 4 clone lacking all the thrills, set pieces and story which made Re4 so great.

    I had no reason to complete the game and I will not be returning to it. If you like SH games stick check out Alien Isolation and Outlast on PS4 instead of this unfinished nearly broken game.    … Expand
  27. J-pex
    Jan 13, 2016
    2
    This 'Horror' game is a black mark on Bethesdas record for me.

    Its silent hill meets SAW...just boring, not to mention the terrible graphics. The game does little to create any atmosphere and once you die a few times it leaves nothing to the imagination. And tactics take over from thinking 'omg what's coming next?!' aspect you want from a horror game, because that's what they're about    This 'Horror' game is a black mark on Bethesdas record for me.

    Its silent hill meets SAW...just boring, not to mention the terrible graphics. The game does little to create any atmosphere and once you die a few times it leaves nothing to the imagination. And tactics take over from thinking 'omg what's coming next?!' aspect you want from a horror game, because that's what they're about right?

    The story doesn't even need to be delved too far into, as if you have read any other reviews you'll know its garbage, thrown together by some guys that must have just watched saw/hostel and played a few higher calibre horror games. Its not scary it's just gross.

    2/10    … Expand
  28. Nobilis1984
    Oct 18, 2014
    3
    Unfortunately, more like horror splatter.

    This game is a disappointment. they promised and got a lame horror splatter game. The atmosphere is a few hours back and you only have to compete against hordes of stupid enemies. The burst then times really hard.
    But there are not really enough of them ??
  29. Marshma11ow
    Jan 18, 2016
    3
    I honestly can't believe some of the reviews I'm seeing on here are they serious? It's a slap in the face to compare this to The Last of Us or Resident Evil 4. I finally picked up this game after a few months of owning it and decided to give it a shot. I have tried so hard to find some enjoyment out of it but I just can't. I disliked it so much I was compelled to write my first review hereI honestly can't believe some of the reviews I'm seeing on here are they serious? It's a slap in the face to compare this to The Last of Us or Resident Evil 4. I finally picked up this game after a few months of owning it and decided to give it a shot. I have tried so hard to find some enjoyment out of it but I just can't. I disliked it so much I was compelled to write my first review here on Metacritic. There is basically no story to this game and is just a gorefest. It takes every horror cliché and bundles it all into this one game. Everything about it is unoriginal and just flat out boring. Creepy doll faces, walking dead, scary hospitals, psychopath with chainsaw it's all been done. Has the feel of an old PlayStation 2 game. All of the characters are very one-dimensional. It's more frustratingly difficult than it is challenging. Even Silent Hill Downpour is more entertaining than this game.… Expand
  30. Game_Row
    Nov 12, 2014
    4
    I am not going to write a huge review, it's too much when people take the time to write a big one where no one reads it anyways. All I've got to say about this game is that, it is much like Resident Evil 4 with the game mechanics, enemies, and environments. To be blunt, it was poorly made. I have been disappointed lately with games. A huge hype before the launch and then BLAH! WithI am not going to write a huge review, it's too much when people take the time to write a big one where no one reads it anyways. All I've got to say about this game is that, it is much like Resident Evil 4 with the game mechanics, enemies, and environments. To be blunt, it was poorly made. I have been disappointed lately with games. A huge hype before the launch and then BLAH! With this game and Watch Dogs, big disappointments. So, will I recommend this game to you? Sure, but don't expect a WOW game. PEACE!!!

    Look me up on YouTube for The Evil Within: Game_Row    … Expand
  31. SidfriegM2928
    Mar 21, 2015
    4
    Advertised as a return to form for the horror genre, "The Evil Within" comes off more as a best of compilation for every horror game released over the last 10 years. Not only that, but featuring bad frame rate, hideous character animation and dull gameplay. You can skip on this turd.
  32. OutlawTX
    Sep 1, 2017
    4
    I've sludged through to Chapter 10 and I'm done playing this trial in frustration. I picked it up for 5 bucks during a new release dry spell knowing I played it at release and didn't get very far before abandoning it. This game has proved to be annoying enough for me to put in my 2 cents and review it. First off, the controls feel lumbering and clunky which makes for bad aiming and combat.I've sludged through to Chapter 10 and I'm done playing this trial in frustration. I picked it up for 5 bucks during a new release dry spell knowing I played it at release and didn't get very far before abandoning it. This game has proved to be annoying enough for me to put in my 2 cents and review it. First off, the controls feel lumbering and clunky which makes for bad aiming and combat. Combined with a really bad camera that always feels too close and always seems to keep you at a disadvantage, enemies that kill you with one hit, save points that are too far from areas with one hit enemies and far too many instances of trial and error gameplay and you have a game that's more annoying than fun. Story wise it's incredibly meh. I don't care about any of the characters.
    By chapter 10 I just wanted to be done with it. When I got to another part with a one hit enemy and had to figure out how to kill it again while dying over and over, I realized I don't care. I have no idea how this has so many 10s here but hey, there's people out there that get off on people pooing on them so apparently some people like poo. All I can say is, "I don't."    … Expand
  33. DavidHoltzer
    Nov 18, 2021
    3
    This game is quite bad. It looks very cheap and uses a lot of tired ways to try to be scary like jump scares, a lot of dead bodies, a ton of gore and cliché enemy designs. The story is very convoluted and random things just happen in it and it's pretty hard to follow, the characters are also poorly written or some of them are annoying. The gameplay is boring, clunky and offers nothing new.
  34. themostunclean
    Oct 22, 2014
    3
    Honestly not much more than an RE4 re-skin. Even many of the enemies AI behaves the same. I was pretty disappointed with this game, it does nothing to move the genre forward but is instead firmly entrenched in the past. I know some people will defend this game to the end and I have no idea why. The atmosphere gets boring quickly, it relies too much on surprise to scare you instead ofHonestly not much more than an RE4 re-skin. Even many of the enemies AI behaves the same. I was pretty disappointed with this game, it does nothing to move the genre forward but is instead firmly entrenched in the past. I know some people will defend this game to the end and I have no idea why. The atmosphere gets boring quickly, it relies too much on surprise to scare you instead of creating real tension and the general design is just a carbon copy of better games.

    In another note, anyone who experiences motion or "simulation" sickness should NOT play this game. The buggy framerate, tight camera and narrow FOV (because of the black bars) combine to make playing absolutely nausea inducing.

    I won't even get in to the laundry list of bugs this game has. I've gotten stuck in walls and objects more times than I can count. Just awful design.    … Expand
  35. JoshLuck1995
    Oct 15, 2014
    4
    Played the game yesterday and today, and thats enough, i just cant play anymore, its so boring and flat so i thought well its time to give it some scores on what i think should define a game review

    graphics - 6/10 gameplay - 6/10 story - 4/10 sound - non existent lasting appeal - none i give Evil Within a 4/10. It is a 99p version of resident evil, the graphics are crap for    Played the game yesterday and today, and thats enough, i just cant play anymore, its so boring and flat so i thought well its time to give it some scores on what i think should define a game review

    graphics - 6/10
    gameplay - 6/10
    story - 4/10
    sound - non existent
    lasting appeal - none

    i give Evil Within a 4/10. It is a 99p version of resident evil, the graphics are crap for X1/PS4, the story is flat, the main protagonist is boring, the enemies are stupid, and the levels feel the same and are also boring. was really looking forward to this but sadly it dissapoints.    … Expand
  36. Gordono
    Oct 14, 2014
    3
    What a disappointment. The graphics are weak, very last gen. and there’s something about the cropping of the game, maybe it’s the letterbox format, but you always seem to be standing in your own way. The controls are terrible; you’re constantly getting stuck on some unseen obstacle, and the third person camera is madding; it’s always getting lost in a wall or a hay bale, or a zombie’sWhat a disappointment. The graphics are weak, very last gen. and there’s something about the cropping of the game, maybe it’s the letterbox format, but you always seem to be standing in your own way. The controls are terrible; you’re constantly getting stuck on some unseen obstacle, and the third person camera is madding; it’s always getting lost in a wall or a hay bale, or a zombie’s shoulder, or your own head. The combat is lame; it’s not a shooter or a stealth game, it does neither well. Survival/ horror give me a break, there’s nothing scary or suspenseful about the game, it’s just a bad zombie game with a terrible and unsatisfying combat system. It’s not difficult, it’s just frustrating. It’s the lousy camera and terrible controls that make it hard; the biggest challenge in the game is overcoming its shortfalls. This is possibly one of the worst games I’ve played in a long time, a waste of sixty bucks and I can’t believe the great reviews it got from the main stream gaming community.… Expand
  37. thunderball001
    Oct 16, 2014
    1
    cliché, after cliché, after cliché. not scary at all. random as hell in fact. I mean comn on. lets just give a few dead bodies and a chainshaw. yer that's gonna scare me. lets compare it to silent hill where u haven't got a flying basterd to what going on. a phone rings. a baby cries. and then BAM. crazy bith kill u. now that psychological **** right there lets compare it to another game.cliché, after cliché, after cliché. not scary at all. random as hell in fact. I mean comn on. lets just give a few dead bodies and a chainshaw. yer that's gonna scare me. lets compare it to silent hill where u haven't got a flying basterd to what going on. a phone rings. a baby cries. and then BAM. crazy bith kill u. now that psychological **** right there lets compare it to another game. aliens isolation. u got a tracker and one nasty basterd alien that you kill and if u make the slightest sound it will kill u. I mean it somewhat scary but at least it is exciting and not just walking in a cliché foggy town with in a graveyard. u get thrown into a **** ton of bodies without any tension or atmosphere. that whats horror about. whats going on. where I am. this game is basically hey. heres a dead be scared. plus it scripted so u know whats going to happen once u died. in alien ioslation it 90% uncripted so would ****ting urself thinking 'when is it going to rip my **** head off'. but this game fails to do so. u couldn't be any less original and as boring as this game.… Expand
  38. shadow11
    Oct 22, 2014
    2
    It's really a shame to see such a mediocre game is made from the great Shinji Mikami we know. Visually the game looks great but technically suffers from frame drops even with high end PCs. The story sounds like it was written by an 11 years old kid, the characters are boring and added nothing interesting to the story, the soundtrack is weak and the gameplay is a combination of frustratingIt's really a shame to see such a mediocre game is made from the great Shinji Mikami we know. Visually the game looks great but technically suffers from frame drops even with high end PCs. The story sounds like it was written by an 11 years old kid, the characters are boring and added nothing interesting to the story, the soundtrack is weak and the gameplay is a combination of frustrating stealth and some ideas taken from old RE games.

    Ultimately the game fails to build any tension and doesn’t deserve to be called “survival-horror”.

    I give it 2 for the level of details and effort put into designing the environment. I don’t recommend it to any horror fan, avoid it and wait for a real horror game.    … Expand
  39. Angelwolf
    Mar 25, 2015
    3
    I was so excited to get this game at Christmas. Having just played through Alien Isolation and The Last of Us, I was in the mood for another survival horror title. What I ended up with was a clunky, unfair and overall poor experience.

    The game tries to be Resident Evil 4. That's great, if you liked RE4. If you didn't (like me) then push this game to one side. The atmosphere is spooky    I was so excited to get this game at Christmas. Having just played through Alien Isolation and The Last of Us, I was in the mood for another survival horror title. What I ended up with was a clunky, unfair and overall poor experience.

    The game tries to be Resident Evil 4. That's great, if you liked RE4. If you didn't (like me) then push this game to one side. The atmosphere is spooky and the monsters are genuinely scary when you first come accross them, but that doesn't fix the problems with the experience. The game is very action orientated and it's difficulty comes when you cannot control your character (Sebastian) properly. He's a clunky wreck and gets in the way of the camera when you need to see most. Disarming traps for parts can easily have you killed if you're not quick enough to disarm them during the disarming mini-game.

    With the number of positive reviews this game has received, I'm sure many will find it an excellent title to play. But if you're hoping for something different and more original from what the Resident Evil series has become, then stay well away from The Evil Within.    … Expand
  40. premium_sauce
    Mar 9, 2015
    2
    Not sure what to think about this game. Very disappointed that's for sure. I'm 28 years old, I work full time and bought a PS4 to relax because I've been gaming since the age of 13. This game will heavily frustrate you. At my age, I like to relax after work, that's about it. I just finished the game after 22 hours of gameplay on survival mode and died 107 times. The way how you die in thisNot sure what to think about this game. Very disappointed that's for sure. I'm 28 years old, I work full time and bought a PS4 to relax because I've been gaming since the age of 13. This game will heavily frustrate you. At my age, I like to relax after work, that's about it. I just finished the game after 22 hours of gameplay on survival mode and died 107 times. The way how you die in this game is so repetitive that I pretty much yawned all the way through. Constantly running out of ammo, nothing makes sense (jumping from one scene to the other) - half way through I kinda felt like the developers were Japanese (didn't know they were initially as into shows Bethesda to be the main developer *big Fallout Fan here*) - why am I saying this? Because only Japanese would be sadomasochist enough to endure so many deaths. It comes to a point that I stopped enjoying it but since I'm addicted to collect trophies I pushed myself to finish the game. Usually I like playing games on hard mode. With Evil Within, so many times I was tempted to decrease the difficulty down to casual level.

    Honestly, if you are in my situation and game to relax, have a good time then this game is not for you. I recently finished Shadow of Mordor - Now that was really cool :D - and switching to this game right after felt clumsy, slow paced, heavy and dragging the story.

    God how I used to love Silent Hill back in the good old days - this game tries to reconciliate too many genres. It tries to be The Last of Us, tries to be Resident Evil, tries to be Silent Hill.

    Now that I have finished the game. I have unlocked the RPG and machine gun. I ll play a little to get as many trophies as possible. But I will NOT replay under AKUMA or Nightmare mode.

    I would definitely not recommend this game at all.    … Expand
  41. Bubsy3D
    Nov 5, 2014
    3
    If you are expecting a fantastic survival horror come back to our gaming world, well, it was not this time..

    First thing many of us heard about this game is it was created by Shinji Mikami, the mind behind Resident Evil series. While classic Resident Evil games are known by many (specially players from the 90's and early 2000) as quality games, they're not really well known for a    If you are expecting a fantastic survival horror come back to our gaming world, well, it was not this time..

    First thing many of us heard about this game is it was created by Shinji Mikami, the mind behind Resident Evil series.

    While classic Resident Evil games are known by many (specially players from the 90's and early 2000) as quality games, they're not really well known for a groundbreaking story.

    Actually, in terms of storytelling, the Resident Evil series always stayed far away behind Konami's Silent Hill series, which involved much more deeper themes involving human feelings, while Resident Evil always focused more on cheap scares than anything else.

    The Evil Within is much closer to the Resident Evil series in this aspect, what is a really bad thing considering that the series popularity heights was more than 10 years ago.

    I did not found anything interesting in the plot, and the whole game remains unexplained from chapter 1 to chapter 15.

    The whole plot just looks like an excuse to throw some very bad developed characters for a gore bloody bath, cheap scares, and some very annoying design decisions.

    First thing I must comment is the graphics.
    They're average at best and there are games from 2007 like Heavenly Sword that looks prettier! This is really a shame for a 2014 game that got ported to new systems like the PS4.

    This applies specially in the character design and animation department, where The Evil Within is really poor. Just look at Leslie model... it looks like it was made with The Sims 2 sim creator (the tools to create your sim and share over the community..).

    This is unaceptable for a 2014 ambicious production like The Evil Within.

    There are also many frame rate problems and texture popup, low resolution textures and low polygon models.

    The sound effects are nice and does fit the theme, like the screams and the environmental sounds (water, fire). The bloody explosions from bursting corpses looks very realistic to me, so in this aspect the game is ok.

    The music is forgettable, not a single piece of the soundtrack will remain in your memory after you finish the game (in Resident Evil many tracks did, like the save room from RE2).

    Voice acting is average, the characters personalities are just bland as they look, none of them express emotions and everything sounds artificial.

    The only character I think deserves a mention is Tatiana, the nurse from the save rooms, which is just as cold as her voice actress makes her look like, and does fit her role very well.

    All the others are bland and uninspired, specially the main protagonist, his two supporters, and the villain.

    From the main characters, only Leslie (modeled in The Sims 2 editor...) will be remembered, not because his design choices are good, but because the rest of them are very poorly developed.

    The gameplay is mediocre too, and feels a lot like Resident Evil 4, a game released a decade ago.
    The Evil Within main problem is that it relies too much in a bloody gore bath, with some of the most cheap scares ever that are very predictable and not scary at all.

    The enemies shows how poor the design choices are. While some does look interesting, most of them are stupid and annoying, like the zombies with machine guns...

    Other enemies are not very original and looks like extracted directly from Resident Evil 4, like the chainsaw guy. The safe-head guy looks like a copy from Silent Hill 2 Pyramid Head. The long haired monster looks like ripped from Silent Hill 4...the list goes on.

    The way you fight these enemies is also boring because most of the fights are more annoying than fun, involving run from infinite re-spawning enemies (safe-head guy).

    The art direction is very well done, when we talk about the environments, constructions, and all the objects that helps to give this game a very dark atmosphere.

    The city levels are poor designed, and the over the top cutscenes in the last chapter are laughable, specially the way you fight the last boss.

    Many bad design choices were made to extend this game lenght too, as this is a long game with 15+ hours of gameplay (most of them very frustrating by the huge ammount of deaths against enemies you dont stand a chance or cheap one hit kills that will probably make you angry and want to give up).

    At the end of the first playthrought the game gives you some nice rewards for a new adventure, but this game does not have any replay value at all.Actually I coudn't wait to finish it the sooner as I could and my suffering got extended to the 15 more hours I mentioned before. My final opinion is this game doesnt worth, and will only be remembered by its ammount of blood and gore. There's no story, no memorable characters, no good music, not even in the main purpose this game is good. In the parts it doesnt fail completely, it does only average. Sorry Mikami, but it wont sell enough for a sequel. It doesnt deserve one.    … Expand
  42. K5000i
    Jul 27, 2016
    3
    yawn , eh & i cant see whats happening ! those are the words said the most playing this thing ,., see it done it better in other games with these tank controls , the fear factor isnt there & the plot just bounces & makes no sense at all ,., just throw in random levels at random times ,., but the the big bad has to be them damn letterbox view that just blocks out the view ..,, the guy isyawn , eh & i cant see whats happening ! those are the words said the most playing this thing ,., see it done it better in other games with these tank controls , the fear factor isnt there & the plot just bounces & makes no sense at all ,., just throw in random levels at random times ,., but the the big bad has to be them damn letterbox view that just blocks out the view ..,, the guy is almost as high as the screen & you can see **** in front of you ,., not very good at all… Expand
  43. ShireDweller27
    Feb 17, 2022
    1
    By far the worst game I have ever played Terrible inventory management weapons sucks ammo is really limited stop at chapter 10 that elephant bosses literally a huge headache to beat in such a tight corner space died so many time I just gave up and uninstalled the game I would recommend giving this game a huge pass and play the more better sequel.
  44. blopho
    Oct 14, 2014
    3
    What a disappointment. Where do I begin?

    First of all the game is in 16:9 ratio--which isn't a bad thing in itself except that they decided to include those obnoxious black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. What the hell is this?! I realize the intention was to make the game seem more cinematic but the fact that I'm controlling everything the character on the screen does acutely    What a disappointment. Where do I begin?

    First of all the game is in 16:9 ratio--which isn't a bad thing in itself except that they decided to include those obnoxious black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. What the hell is this?! I realize the intention was to make the game seem more cinematic but the fact that I'm controlling everything the character on the screen does acutely reminds me that I'm playing a video game as opposed to watching a movie, so why bother?

    Second of all, the controls. They would be tolerable if not for one thing, the camera. In RE4--a game where a control scheme like this actually worked--the camera would be fixed behind leon with him being SLIGHTLY to the left of center. Then, when he would draw his weapon, the camera would jump to his right shoulder and give the player a more clear field of vision to work with. In this game the camera is not fixed, but instead floats in a very awkward way; when the camera is directly behind the character, he's pushed ALL THE WAY to the left. To make matters worse it is very difficult to see around him. Essentially this creates a blind spot. Then when you take into account the camera can't see anything to his left without the player manually moving it--because that's where the edge of the screen is--there is second massive blind spot that you can only see by rotating the already-clunky camera around. Also the camera gets hung up on walls and obstacles with is very distracting.

    Which brings me to my third biggest complaint about this game, the framerate. It's bad. A lot of people on this site complained about it having "last-gen graphics" but I found the opposite to be true. The developers of this game spent so much time polishing the environments that they forgot that the framerate would suffer. Either that or they just didn't care. The character models are nothing to complain about but it's EXTREMELY noticeable that the framerate isn't keeping up when you're looking around. The game would be soooo much more immersive if this wasn't an issue. But sadly, it is.

    My last complaint and ultimately the biggest one is that there's nothing here you haven't seen before if you've played Resident Evil 4 or 5, Dead Space, or any other similar third-person survival-horror/action hybrid game. The environments feel like they've been ripped off from a different game.

    There goes $64 I'm never gonna see again. Since I've bought my PS4 I've owned four different games and of those four only one has been a 9/10 or 10/10. Games like this really are making me think that the future of gaming is going to be nothing more than games that get enormous amounts of hype and build-up, then turn out to be mediocre. Game like this are starting to make me regret picking up a PS4.    … Expand
  45. Hellion
    Oct 16, 2014
    0
    The Evil Within sucks. That is all you need to know. Otherwise if you really need to know. It's not scary in the slightest. It's got bad graphics. Cheap enemy AI that bum rushes you. Wonky controls and aiming system. Lack of ammo or anything else around forcing you to run through levels. Terrible level design at that. Stupid boss fights (hair lady was super easy). You can't see anythingThe Evil Within sucks. That is all you need to know. Otherwise if you really need to know. It's not scary in the slightest. It's got bad graphics. Cheap enemy AI that bum rushes you. Wonky controls and aiming system. Lack of ammo or anything else around forcing you to run through levels. Terrible level design at that. 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.… Expand
  46. NHL15isSHlT
    Nov 9, 2014
    0
    Just a bad game in general. Too much effort put into graphics and trying to make the story interesting, which is essentially the same as every Resident Evil ever made - save the world from the zombies, while ignoring the actually important features like game mechanics and the method by which you acquire loot (I don't know who thought that making people walking around swinging their arm 3Just a bad game in general. Too much effort put into graphics and trying to make the story interesting, which is essentially the same as every Resident Evil ever made - save the world from the zombies, while ignoring the actually important features like game mechanics and the method by which you acquire loot (I don't know who thought that making people walking around swinging their arm 3 feet above a massive wooden box and then having it magically collapse into pieces without you ever actually making contact was a good idea). This stupid game exemplifies everything wrong with the Gaming world; **** awards and over-hyped features that had nothing to do with the developer what-so-ever but are rather simply a by-product of progress in terms of hardware. How this idiot has become a celebrity among game development is beyond me, recycling the exact same story and mechanics for over a decade should make you a pariah not a celebrity.… Expand
  47. jasperlmk
    Oct 16, 2014
    0
    This game is a real life time machine!!!!!! i thought i was back in 2006 during the 2 hours of playing this game.
    I paid $79 to buy this games (same as the other ps4 games i paid for). Seriously, how could they publish this game with this graphic of quality. If the Outlast graphic was 7 this game would be 3. I wouldnt call this a next gen game. This game makes me feel like im player    This game is a real life time machine!!!!!! i thought i was back in 2006 during the 2 hours of playing this game.
    I paid $79 to buy this games (same as the other ps4 games i paid for). Seriously, how could they publish this game with this graphic of quality. If the Outlast graphic was 7 this game would be 3. I wouldnt call this a next gen game. This game makes me feel like im player Resident Evil 4 on ps3. Bethesda really took a huge step back compare to what they have published in the last 5 years. This game simply is a total disappointment.    … Expand
  48. HeartsOff
    Oct 23, 2014
    2
    This game is just boring and the story is devoid of any originality. I thought I could be scared... but I suppose the developers forgot what's the source of the fear: some really unexpected events. I don't even understand why that game is considered as a survival/horror one. The graphic quality is decent but there's a lot of problems with textures.
  49. Pico619
    Jan 19, 2016
    4
    When I played Last Of Us I said to myself "great now the bar has been set for stealth and horror", so when evil within was said to use stealth I was excited.
    Man was I wrong. It's as if nobody from Bethesda or Shinji played last of us or new how to do stealth. When crouching in evil within you are less noticeable but your twice as slow than the slowest enemies crawl. This means you can't    When I played Last Of Us I said to myself "great now the bar has been set for stealth and horror", so when evil within was said to use stealth I was excited.
    Man was I wrong. It's as if nobody from Bethesda or Shinji played last of us or new how to do stealth. When crouching in evil within you are less noticeable but your twice as slow than the slowest enemies crawl. This means you can't get to any enemy from behind crouching. So now you have to play the frustrating game of trial and error of trying to figure out how close you can get to a enemy running before they detect you, then you crouch hoping they stop their movement so you can grab them. With this crap mechanic you can only grap stationary enemies but they don't stay still, oh and they all have random patterns. Basically stealth is out the window accept for those who master the "run then crouch before they turn" gimmic.

    Also enemies are sponges and you barely have bullets, it's like resident evil 6 again! If naughty dog handled the engine and game-play this game would have been a perfect ten! The best thing about the game and why I say rent it is the bosses. Super cool but also sponges.    … Expand
  50. Autheria
    Feb 3, 2016
    3
    Oh...my...GOD!!! This has to be one of the WORST game I ever played, maybe not THE worst, but definitely Top-5.
    I would describe it like walking through a muddy swamp in misty rain with a 50 kilo backpack.
    The dramatic pacing is awful, the music and sounds are boooring as hell, and the graphics are crap. The mechanics feel broken and/or sluggish. It's not fun to play...it's    Oh...my...GOD!!! This has to be one of the WORST game I ever played, maybe not THE worst, but definitely Top-5.
    I would describe it like walking through a muddy swamp in misty rain with a 50 kilo backpack.

    The dramatic pacing is awful, the music and sounds are boooring as hell, and the graphics are crap. The mechanics feel broken and/or sluggish. It's not fun to play...it's FRUSTRATING, feels more like a chore or a homework that you're forced to complete.

    Play the Dead Space series instead of this abomination!    … Expand
  51. super_absorber
    Nov 28, 2020
    0
    This game is garbage in 2020. You will despise the game if you have played modern horror games such as Resident Evil 7 or Until Dawn, which are so much better. The control, graphics, characters, combat in this game is just plain boring and not engaging
  52. The_Darkness
    Oct 15, 2014
    3
    I Dont want to speak about the graphics(is not better from last of us) or the gameplay.
    The only thing i want to say is who have that stupid idea with the black bars???
    Really make update on the game if its impossible and change them. 4 points for the black bars and i hear the order 1886 also have black bars... no way to buy them is better for me to play again and again the last of    I Dont want to speak about the graphics(is not better from last of us) or the gameplay.
    The only thing i want to say is who have that stupid idea with the black bars???
    Really make update on the game if its impossible and change them.
    4 points for the black bars
    and i hear the order 1886 also have black bars... no way to buy them
    is better for me to play again and again the last of us.
    The game is scary yes....but i am big dissapointed now and i dont have good things to say.    … Expand
  53. Learnding
    Oct 18, 2014
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Absolutely horrendous game, I went into the hype for this game thinking it was going to be mix of Amnesia, Outlast, and some form of actiony game, when all I got was Resident Evil 4 [ 2 ]. There was so many problems with this game, coming from the PC side, I couldn't even imagine the issues on the Console versions.

    First of the many problems, the story line. The story is almost non-existent. You're left in the dark for a good 5 or 6 hours until you reach chapter 9, I mean literally, you have no idea what to fathom because there is a empty pocket where the story should be. You are just fighting monsters and trying to save your partners again, and again, and again. Then you cycle through another zone, the many scenes you endure will not alone lead you amiss but will confuse you more than you already were.

    Graphical issues are atrocious, I have to unlock the console to get 60FPS? Are you kidding me, what year is this, 1994? Why do you lock FPS at 30 expecting the game to run smoothly, especially since the size ratio is like 16:4. Apart from the terrible FPS, there are graphical bugs such as monsters flying through the air, or, or my favorite, you falling through the floor doing an action.

    Originality is completely misconstrued. There are so many stolen parts to this game I can't even begin to describe them. The first that caught my eye and confirmed this theory true was chapter 7 or 8. When you have to place the stone slabs into the wall to proceed through the locked wall. Seems familiar right? Yeah, because it was taken out of the Ramon Salazar zone from Resident Evil 4. They share almost identical scenarios. The grabbing of the tentacles pulling you into the rotating cylinders of spikes, where you must shoot the glowing button on the top to release yourself; stolen, Dead Space 2. I mean there is some forms of originality, such as the step into taking the game towards more of a emotional ride whether you can stomach the gore, or deaths scenes, but aspects of game-play are nothing new, this game does nothing new other than ramp up the death and gore, all that's new nothing to see here. I resorted to cheating to make the game more of a meal to stomach, but eventually it just continued to go down a path of the same **** over and over and over again, I had to stop.

    Monsters, guns, ammo etc was absolutely mind boggling. I found more ammo for a pistol than I did a gun that would actually help me, I mean, I have 4 **** guns for christsakes and I get ammo for the pistol almost religiously. The sub-bosses were a nightmare, because of the lack of ammo or simply the lack of control over the character resulting in a 1 shot kill from almost any sub or regular boss in the game. This only proves further that the game is no where near a 'Horror', but more of a run and gun scene. The only time I felt some slight form of horror was the very very very beginning when the monster was slaughtering the alive corpse next to you. As I progressed, the game-play just extended past the horror aspect and just delved straight into a Action game.

    Overall this game should not be bought unless you want a 'slightly' better looking Resident Evil 4. If you want a game 100% better, make sure to check out every Dead Space, and Resident Evil games to understand the true ploy of horror and suspense.    … Expand
  54. MarquisDeMizzle
    Nov 8, 2014
    0
    Best slow-opening door sim of the past decade. Lousy graphics and bland, monotonous textures combine to leave you guessing if that's a zombie or a drape. And don't worry if you die, you'll have plenty of time to rethink your strategy during the excessively long load time.
  55. Visitor5150
    Nov 14, 2014
    3
    This game is a mess. They waited a few months to polish it? Where? I never know where I'm supposed to go, what I'm supposed to do. Make a little advancement and some random trap auto kills you. The graphics are so bad that I'm not even sure if I've been in a certain area before because it all looks the same. I love survival horror but this game plays like it was slapped together fromThis game is a mess. They waited a few months to polish it? Where? I never know where I'm supposed to go, what I'm supposed to do. Make a little advancement and some random trap auto kills you. The graphics are so bad that I'm not even sure if I've been in a certain area before because it all looks the same. I love survival horror but this game plays like it was slapped together from a movie tie in. Shinji is no longer the master of survival horror. I'm assuming people are rating it higher than they should because they don't want horror games to go on hiatus for another 5 years.… Expand
  56. Taipan_19
    Oct 31, 2014
    4
    I was quite excited about this title but when I played it I found it to cumbersome and annoying. Like Dead Rising there is very little give to the player which makes most of the gameplay way to difficult and frustrating. Example there are plenty of weapons such as rakes and sickles laying around on the ground but you can't pick them up to defend yourself from several enemies at a time. TheI was quite excited about this title but when I played it I found it to cumbersome and annoying. Like Dead Rising there is very little give to the player which makes most of the gameplay way to difficult and frustrating. Example there are plenty of weapons such as rakes and sickles laying around on the ground but you can't pick them up to defend yourself from several enemies at a time. The gun shooting is horribly inaccurate and when you shoot the zombies in the head they don't die. When you run of bullets and swing your axe once you are left defenceless against impossible AI like a giant chainsaw wielding zombie. Running is your only hope and the stamina gauge is way to small to run long distances. The cutscenes were very good and I enjoyed the look and feeling of the game but overall it's just to biased against the player.… Expand
  57. SpaceNinja
    Oct 14, 2014
    0
    Game is default running at 30 fps and there is no option in settings to make it higher, you need to enable it in console. The game has black bars on top and bottom on the screen that is used only to cut your screen and make it smaller, no real reason. Voice acting and dialoge is extremely bad. Overall game is a really bad console port.
  58. RoyalMeanier
    Oct 15, 2014
    0
    The story of it made no sense. The voice acting was off, the AI's had no type of real reactions towards the changing environment. The antagonists seemed to have potential but the way he was put was utterly ridiculous. It seem as if it was straight of a manga. The enemies in this game are poor to react to you, it's slightly choppy as well (within the combat). The camera angle is weird,The story of it made no sense. The voice acting was off, the AI's had no type of real reactions towards the changing environment. The antagonists seemed to have potential but the way he was put was utterly ridiculous. It seem as if it was straight of a manga. The enemies in this game are poor to react to you, it's slightly choppy as well (within the combat). The camera angle is weird, making it a distraction. If I were to compare this to silent hill, or Alien isolation, you would see that they actually have a purpose and it makes sense with and where the protagonist is. If you were a true hardcore "Horror survival" gamer, than you would immediately see that his is **** Not worth the money.… Expand
  59. sp00kym0053
    Oct 29, 2014
    4
    To get a feel for how The evil within is to play dust off your PS2 and put in Resident Evil 4, have someone stand in front of your screen and periodically mess with your controller, then limit yourself to 3 rounds of ammunition for the whole game.

    As connoisseurs of subtlety were clearly not the target audience for this game allow me to be clear: This game is a monumental    To get a feel for how The evil within is to play dust off your PS2 and put in Resident Evil 4, have someone stand in front of your screen and periodically mess with your controller, then limit yourself to 3 rounds of ammunition for the whole game.

    As connoisseurs of subtlety were clearly not the target audience for this game allow me to be clear: This game is a monumental disappointment. The trailers painted this game as being a psychological horror, riffing on the Cthulu mythos and Clive Barker-esque Gore, and coming off the high of playing the excellent P.T. and Alien: Isolation I was keen to see what Bethesda had in store for me.

    Frustration and disappointment, it turns out.

    Visually, the game is a step backward. Very rarely does it look like something current-gen. It's not that the models aren't well realised; they are, but jagged shadows, low resolution textures and a lack of depth of field betray a lack of polish. The monsters themselves are uninspired to an almost comical degree, and I found myself accidentally referring to them as Los Ganados more than once.
    This, of course only applies to what you can see, which is very little. Black bars obscure the top and bottom of the screen. Whether they're there "for cinematic effect" or because Tango game works had trouble getting the game to run at the desired resolution is immaterial, it makes it hard to see what you're doing. The camera is constantly obscured by long grass, hanging cloth and other environmental decorations as well meaning you will frequently blunder into harm's way because you have no way of telling what's in front of you.
    The camera itself is also unhelpful, with control frequently taken from you for dialogue, passing doorways and sometimes no clearly discernible reason. Even when it is technically under your control it seems to delight in filling the screen with the protagonist's torso rather than show the environment.

    The characters look like they were lifted from some third rate anime about ghost detectives and I haven't heard such unconvincing dialogue since "there was an incident.... *waves arm vaguely*.....involving zombies..." I still have no idea who any of the characters are, except for the female cop at the start who is hilariously called Officer Kitten, or something that sounds very much like it and have no real motivation to learn.

    This is a game that doesn't know what it is. There are flashes of resident Evil, snippets of Silent hill, hints of Battletoads and more than a whiff of that awful Evil Dead game on the PS1. There's stealth bits, but you can't play it as a stealth game. There's places to hide, but you can't really play it like outlast or Alien: Isolation, you get a gun, but only 3 bullets and the noise of it brings the horde. There's stuff to collect, but gameplay that discourages exploration by infrequent save points and enemies that are effectively unkillable in a direct confrontation. You get melée weapons that are moderately effective, but are destroyed after one use or disappear when you save, if you get to save. There's things you find that hint at a deeper story worth uncovering with careful exploration, and monsters that jump out shouting "OOGA BOOGA BOOGA" that flat out tell you there isn't.

    Then there are some frustrating design choices. The game frequently takes control from you as your character, gruff blandson, grimaces his way through the story. Sometimes you can only run, sometimes you can't run.
    The decision to have to burn enemies to make sure they stay down is one I can understand, but not condone. Re-generating enemies aren't fun. I put them on a par with escort missions and platforming bits in a first person shooter. We forgave it in Resident Evil 2 because it was new, and we didn't know better, but even then it was reinforcing the tenacity of what was to be the final boss, not every douche-level zombie in the game.
    The levelling system seems out of place. There's no explanation as to why Gruff Blandson is ok with being hooked up to a brain injecting machine, nor why he's collecting the goop to inject. Neither is there an adequate explanation for why he's content to inject himself with syringes he finds lying around in the dirty gutters of a lovecraftian nightmare but that's none of my business, maybe he wasn't hugged as a child.

    I'm not a purist. I enjoy schlock horror nearly as much as I enjoy finely crafted tension. I have no problem with lifting elements from other games and making them your own. My problem is when you are lifting elements from so many great games and still manage to MESS IT UP. Shinji Mikami did great work with the Resident Evil series, Dino Crisis, Onimusha etc but still does not seem to understand how to build tension, to make a fear greater than the sum of a game's enemies.

    This game could have been more, SHOULD have been more.

    TL:DR - Son, I am disappoint.    … Expand
  60. eduardin
    Dec 1, 2014
    0
    horrible. a very very bad history and jogability, i didn´t play something too horrible a long time ago. if you want ti buy , dont do it. You will lost your money. ridiculous
  61. 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
  62. Cuki28
    Oct 18, 2014
    0
    The IA's enemys... where is gone? I dont see it.... well for all the pubblicity I thinked was amazing, but the story no have sense, ANY SENSE! I stop playing the 5th chapter?! the graphic (bethesda's hand) is so beautyfull but the gameplay it's ridiculus, looks like a japanese movie of second order... I'm realy disappointed :(
  63. Crazye2000
    Oct 30, 2014
    4
    Wow don't I wish I could play this game, if only it could run on my PS4 without stuttering or huge FPS drops . Only if the game was optimized well, even after the day one patch it isn't. The story and atmosphere is what you'd expect from the creator of Resident Evil. Too bad it's unplayable, more unplayable than how Skyrim was on the PS3.
  64. kingofkoopas
    Dec 9, 2014
    3
    I am a big fan of horror games. My favorite three are Doom 3, Dead Space, Resident Evil 3. So when I first heard news of The Evil Within, I was stoked! But all that changed when I started seeing those awful commercials claiming the people playing weren't paid actors! That commercial left a bad taste in my mouth. Video gaming is targeted at the idiotic masses who swallow up whatever theI am a big fan of horror games. My favorite three are Doom 3, Dead Space, Resident Evil 3. So when I first heard news of The Evil Within, I was stoked! But all that changed when I started seeing those awful commercials claiming the people playing weren't paid actors! That commercial left a bad taste in my mouth. Video gaming is targeted at the idiotic masses who swallow up whatever the media says. I don't recall the three games I mentioned earlier having to do such nonsense. But I now know that they were paid actors, this game is not scary or suspenseful at all! It's on the opposite side of that spectrum,nits funny and boring. I am now on chapter 15 and I got a perfect way to describe this game, it's a bad beta of Resident Evil 4. The game starts out strong, it really does give you an a RE4 feeling but by the time you hit chapter 5, you have seen all this mediocre turd has to offer. The biggest offenders are the incredibly easy difficulty, now wait, but isn't everyone saying that you will die a lot? Yes it is true, but not because the game is challenging, but because it is designed to kill you, you will die a lot but because the game wants you to die. There is no escaping that. The combat is so boring for 2014, the enemies all behave the same way. They are all bipedal, expecting to fight creatures and monsters? Too bad! Because all I've gotten so far is incredibly mediocre zombies. It's not just boring, but also extremely clunky. Two out of ten shots from your pistol or sniper rifle will not hit the enemies, they will just pass through them. The me lee system works on one vs ones but only after you hit them a good ten to fifteen times. The biggest offender is not the awful nonsense story, the incredibly weak characters or the pretentious villain. It is the scripted nature of the game. Everything is scripted here, nothing happens without the game forcing it on you. Kinda like the turdish new tomb raider reboot. I worry. About the state of video games ever since the Wii and girls started coming to a hobby made by men for men. Yes girls suck at all things, I don't care for political correctness. Go read the evil within review at ign by a girl. Lol, I feel bad for any pathetic person who takes girl gamers seriously.… Expand
  65. MaxPayneIsGod
    Jul 19, 2015
    3
    Convoluted garbage. I had high hopes for this game, a mature , dark, story driven game. All I can say is its a huge let down and a sign of where the survival horror genre is going. Down the blood filled toilet.

    About a quarter through the game I WAS enjoying TEW, to the point I bought the season pass on special. We'll get to that nightmare later. The guy who came up with this steaming    Convoluted garbage. I had high hopes for this game, a mature , dark, story driven game. All I can say is its a huge let down and a sign of where the survival horror genre is going. Down the blood filled toilet.

    About a quarter through the game I WAS enjoying TEW, to the point I bought the season pass on special. We'll get to that nightmare later. The guy who came up with this steaming pile is riding first class on the nostalgia train. TEW is pretty much every Resident Evil game mashed together into HD Gore. The game is genuinely unsettling but the bleak, dark environments wear thin quickly, the characters are dull, the story is riddled with plot holes. The DLC tries to explain what is going on but its just as bad as the main game. I can't even be bothered continuing the review on this utter garbage. Jennifer Carpenter does a good job and she's the ONLY glimmer of light in this, the game that has written off the survival horror genre for me.    … Expand
  66. sgtdegrandis
    Jan 8, 2015
    3
    Completely disappointing this is not a "horror game" its a Resident Evil 4 action game
    Pros
    The game runs got to give it that Cons Story is uninteresting Weapons are weak which is to be expected in a “True Horror game” however in an ACTION game it just starts to suck Not much weapon variety Dumb AI for partners and enemies Too many invincible mini bosses and of course the main boss    Completely disappointing this is not a "horror game" its a Resident Evil 4 action game
    Pros
    The game runs got to give it that
    Cons
    Story is uninteresting
    Weapons are weak which is to be expected in a “True Horror game” however in an ACTION game it just starts to suck
    Not much weapon variety
    Dumb AI for partners and enemies
    Too many invincible mini bosses and of course the main boss is also invincible
    No crafting system at all
    Overall the game looks ugly    … Expand
  67. 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
  68. thebashmora85
    Dec 23, 2014
    2
    all i can say is wow. I played survival games and this one really really bad, its a updated version of condemned. and at least condemned was more creepy. The controlling sluggish and the angles are bad, if i would have known i would have never lent out my cod out for this junk. no fun factor at all and no where near resident evil. and the graphics where not even that good. not worth a buyall i can say is wow. I played survival games and this one really really bad, its a updated version of condemned. and at least condemned was more creepy. The controlling sluggish and the angles are bad, if i would have known i would have never lent out my cod out for this junk. no fun factor at all and no where near resident evil. and the graphics where not even that good. not worth a buy if a friend has it barrow it and u will see what im talking about.… Expand
  69. Reverse_Flash
    Jan 29, 2015
    1
    Horrible skills, its on sale at Gamestop for $30...dont get it, save your money. Hprrible game I cant believe Bethesda published this. Horrible Camera, horrible acting, its all sneak no action.
  70. Dawg76
    Feb 20, 2015
    1
    I was really looking forward to this game as they did a excellent job promoting it, but it was shiddddddy slow, the acting sucked the plot was confusing as hell, and the graphics were early PS3 graphics so disappointed the only reason i completed the game was because i started it so i felt like i should finish it. and i thought maybe the story would start to make sense the more i playedI was really looking forward to this game as they did a excellent job promoting it, but it was shiddddddy slow, the acting sucked the plot was confusing as hell, and the graphics were early PS3 graphics so disappointed the only reason i completed the game was because i started it so i felt like i should finish it. and i thought maybe the story would start to make sense the more i played but no it just bot more confusing and the ended didnt help clear any of it up.… Expand
  71. Lucariomain05
    Jul 23, 2022
    3
    Mediocre horror game at best. While it does have some potential in its atmosphere and survival aspects, it does not make up for its bland protagonist and boring, tedious pacing. In addition, the graphics look noticeably outdated for a 2014 game. The textures are muddy and the picture throughout is grainy and blurry. This looks more like a PS3/Xbox 360 game from 2008 than a product fromMediocre horror game at best. While it does have some potential in its atmosphere and survival aspects, it does not make up for its bland protagonist and boring, tedious pacing. In addition, the graphics look noticeably outdated for a 2014 game. The textures are muddy and the picture throughout is grainy and blurry. This looks more like a PS3/Xbox 360 game from 2008 than a product from just 8 years ago. Too many of the interactions are slow and require almost perfect precision just to overcome. The mechanics are also not properly explained at the start, even on the casual difficulty, making the experience confusing for new players. At times, I found myself stuck in certain scenarios without a clue or walkthrough to guide me. What is a visual object and an actual game-changing item is hard to figure out unless done through trial and error. I do not recommend this game at all. Go play Resident Evil 7 or Village instead. These games are far better than this.… Expand
  72. Lenders
    Aug 14, 2022
    3
    Un juego con mecánicas y movilidad de ps2, algunos resident evil con 10 años más son mejores.
  73. Patryk6
    Apr 15, 2022
    1
    -1 point for outdated graphics
    '1 point for forced camera shake
    -1 point for terrible fps
    -1 point for not enough checkpoints
    -1 point for bugged trophy
    -1 point for annoying things like traps mines invisible enemies
  74. FeiYun
    Jul 29, 2022
    1
    Terrible diffixulty spikes and In general artificial diffixulty all set to make the player die suddenly! Let's not talk about the caretaker section then…
  75. CoreGamer1408
    Jun 3, 2020
    4
    Ok it is like Resident Evil meets Silent Hill sort of-ish. It does all the cliché trope horror things. So at no point was I even scared. I liked the action orientated gameplay. It was fun shooting up those freaky freaks. Stealth was ok and mostly not needed. Some meh QTE and scripted instant kill BS, but not that many. The bosses were fun and Silent Hill type memorable. I liked how theOk it is like Resident Evil meets Silent Hill sort of-ish. It does all the cliché trope horror things. So at no point was I even scared. I liked the action orientated gameplay. It was fun shooting up those freaky freaks. Stealth was ok and mostly not needed. Some meh QTE and scripted instant kill BS, but not that many. The bosses were fun and Silent Hill type memorable. I liked how the environment was used to make it more challenging and also helpful to the player. Progression based skills with scavenging lite and ultra basic crafting is a ok carrot on stick.

    The story is ok, but the VA is mostly bad and the dialogue is just crap. The game play and level design is where the fun stuff is at. Thankfully multiple saves even though they are only check point saves. So no save anywhere or any time. I almost thought I would need to reload for lack of health midway, but I scraped through on a tiny bit of health for one entire level. The game throws out a lot of cheap tactics and cheap traps. Which is compounded by a bad camera angle at times with a constant poor frame rate. The purposely wobbly aim and terrible lighting in some sections doesn't really help.

    The atrocious frame rate was such a big issue on the PS3 I literally gave up on the game. Optimization is barely better on the PS4. I had bought this game twice now So I was determined to finish it on the PS4 and I did. I have no wish to replay this atrocious unoptimized game ever again on the PS4.    … Expand
  76. kuiriz
    Apr 11, 2020
    1
    No es bueno hay mecánicas de juego muy mañas que te harán perder, atorarte al correr o minas de proximidad en la pared que no explotan cuando les disparas etc etc
  77. SebbyMakesMusic
    Sep 22, 2022
    4
    Just based on the first chapter:
    There's a comical amount of gore in this game. I can't take the horror element seriously. There's a frickin blood-drenched slip n slide 10 minutes in. Honestly, I find this game to simply be more unpleasant than horrific. The slow pace of moving around the environment isn't really setting a mood for me. Hiding just makes this feel like Outlast.
    The guy    Just based on the first chapter:
    There's a comical amount of gore in this game. I can't take the horror element seriously. There's a frickin blood-drenched slip n slide 10 minutes in. Honestly, I find this game to simply be more unpleasant than horrific. The slow pace of moving around the environment isn't really setting a mood for me. Hiding just makes this feel like Outlast.

    The guy with the chainsaw bounces around like a kid throwing a tantrum. While I'm sure it'd be a "wtf" moment in real life, it doesn't translate into the game.

    Yet somehow, I have to watch the camera bounce with Sebastian as he limps. Odd what they choose to emphasize.

    Speaking of, the characters are so lacking in character that they pretty much fit the role of meatbags which the bad guys treat you as. So it doesn't really feel like much is at stake. Just a whole bunch of trial and error. Might as well call it Trial And Error: The Game (Soaked in Blood edition).
    There isn't any way to revert to the last checkpoint without dying so you're literally just going to stand there taking 5 chainsaw slashes waiting to die, meanwhile the first guy you see auto kills you? I don't understand the pacing choices.

    The grainy filters are really monotonous, btw. That actually references the overarching issue here: it's just a mix of random horror elements thrown into an action game without much explanation.

    Okay, he just limped for a while, and then something pounded on the ceiling and he started running. Umm... Why? Did the vibration somehow heal him? You know what, I'm just going to accept that this game makes zero sense.

    I'll update my review as I continue to play, but this isn't looking very promising. Really don't see what the hype is about.    … Expand
  78. BolilloMazapan
    Feb 1, 2023
    0
    A este juego le tengo mucho cariño, lo jugué cuando tenia 12, y esa sensación de peligro es inolvidable, no se ni como me lo pase porque sufría cada que lo jugaba, el mejor survival horror que he jugado, este juego no es un 10, pero para mi si lo es

Awards & Rankings

67
#67 Best PS4 Game of 2014
10
#10 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2014
7
#7 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 65 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 42 out of 65
  2. Mixed: 22 out of 65
  3. Negative: 1 out of 65
  1. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Dec 28, 2014
    80
    It's lean, with few repeated ideas, and boasts one of the best save rooms you'll ever experience. [Christmas 2014, p.88]
  2. Games Master UK
    Dec 21, 2014
    81
    Bold and brutal, it has the guts to stay true to its horror roots without feeling outdated. [Christmas 2014, p.58]
  3. Edge Magazine
    Dec 6, 2014
    70
    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]
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