The Evil Within 2

A mashup of several different horror games. Imagine throwing Silent Hill, Alan Wake and Resident Evil into a blender. Now leave this same blend on the kitchen counter and forget about it for 3 years. The result would be Evil Within 2.

It feels like watching a mediocre thriller on the TV in a friday night after work during Halloween: bad acting, predictable jumpscares, cheesy soundtrack, forced 'emotional' cutscenes and poor character development, despite being a sequel. I had no reasons to care about the characters - not even Lily. All the drama felt dragged out and a pain to endure, getting on the way of the atmosphere, which is the highest point this game has to offer.

I had incredibly high expectations for this game coming straight from playing the first, which was one of my favorite games ever. I must say, I was a little disappointed to begin with. I am not a big fan of the more open-world parts, it just takes away most of the horror element of the game. Oher than that, the game was pretty amazing. All of the enemies and bosses were just as horrific as the first game, if not a little more. I'd almost go so far to say I enjoyed the story of this game more, but I definitely enjoyed the ending more. It was very unexpected but I couldn't imagine a better ending. It's just a shame this game never got DLCs.

I really, really like The Evil Within, and The Evil Within 2 is the rare sequel that improves in almost every way over the original. The story is handled much better in this game, and the new open-world environments are immersive and fun to explore. One advantage the 1st game had was that I found it a little bit scarier because of that game story's ambiguity, and also the creature designs were much stronger I feel. Overall, both are extremely solid survival horror experiences that released during a sea of Amnesia and Outlast wannabes.

Solid but unremarkable survival horror with glimpses of greatness. Overall succumbs to the same lack of character as the first game, but at least there was actual art and cinematic direction in this one. Lots of neat setpieces that play into the mind-bending impossible space of the setting, which plays into the horror aesthetic of keeping you on your toes even if nothing is truly scary or mentally stimulating. The first half is pretty close to great, with an open world framework that works really damn well with survival horror design. Resource management is clutch; I never had more than two clips for any of my guns, so any detour off the beaten path was either a risk on my short-term health or a drain on my long-term supplies, which is always a great risk-reward incentive for survival horror.

Unfortunately, as with so many of these games, the second half kinda ditches the established framework and becomes just another action game, and while still decent, its flaws become too big to overlook. Shooting is really finicky, the field of view is incredibly small in an attempt to match the overt letterboxing of the first game, and dodging is just not feasible. It makes combat feel a bit undercooked in an environment where the smallest mistake means failure. The story would make zero sense to someone who has not played the first game's DLC, and even then, it all felt a little half-baked. For a setting based on an unstable collective unconsciousness, it sure felt weird that it took human guns to solve all of the game's biggest problems. The story is about on the same level as the first, too; much more direct this time and more emotionally engaging, but with no mystery or sense of wonder to the plot. With a narrative this dumb played entirely straight, it comes off as something I've seen a thousand times before. (Though the few moments of deliberate comedy also come off tone-deaf)

Still, there are moments that really rocked my socks off, and might have been an inspiration for RE Village, even if this game is clearly indebted to The Last Of Us in turn. Very decent, almost great, a damn sight better than the first game, but just falls short of any sort of essential recommendation.

Like a phoenix rising from Ashes, The Evil Within 2 rises gloriously above its predecessor. While The Evil Within 1 isn't bad, per se, it was pretty generic with some good moments here and there but wasn't really super fun overall, as well as having characters who felt more like cardboard cutouts rather than actual living, breathing people.

The Evil Within 2 succeeds in every regard the original didn't. Right from the start, I have to mention how significantly better the story and character development is. Sebastian goes from the rough and gruff stereotypical gumshoe he was in the first game, where he had only a vaguely hinted at tragic past we never actually see him truly reflect on, yet here he truly feels like a broken man with actual emotional goals beyond just "Damn this mysterious place is overrun with monsters, better shoot shit". All the characters in this game feel and act like actual human beings in a tough situation, and the great writing is amplified by just how impressive the voice acting is. Seriously, the voice acting in the first game was so wooden, yet here you can actually hear what the character is feeling. Without spoiling much, I really want to say I truly enjoyed the story of this game and it actually pulled on my heartstrings in some of the more emotionally driven moments.

Now, as for gameplay and level design, vastly improved. The combat and skill tree upgrade system is so much more fleshed out. And the fact this game goes from the narrow and linear levels the first game had to incredibly open levels with lots of optional areas to explore. I had a ton of fun just exploring the 3 main open areas of the game and finding secrets and collectables. Although, once you get to a certain point you can no longer backtrack to earlier areas and the levels from there on out are a bit more linear. I didn't mind too much though. However, if you want to explore the first open world segment, heads up that you can no longer access it after Chapter 7 is completed, so be sure to explore all its nooks and crannies while you still can.

Strangely, despite having so much optional exploring, this game is shorter than the last one (at least on standard difficulty), even as someone who explored as much as I could while I could, it only took me a rounded 18-19 hours to finish the game where as the first one took me around 22ish. I don't mind though, as the levels in the first one had a wide range in quality compared to how consistently good the second is.

This game is also a lot more scary, and imaginative. For a game that took place entirely in someone's subconscious, almost all the enemies in the first game looked super generic with the exception of maybe some of the boss fights. While there were explanations of why most of them were just disfigured humanoids, that didn't make them any more interesting. Here a lot of the monsters, even the regular zombie-like ones, look super creative and like something you'd actually see in a dream. Whereas the first monster in the first game was just a big guy with a chainsaw, this game's first monster is. a gargantuan creature made out of hundreds of decapitated heads with a massive buzzsaw for an arm. Awesome. I also like how the zombie-like "Lost" enemies in this one actually have meaning to each different variant of it you find across the map, where each different variation has unique AI and behavior.

The bosses in the first game were mostly just "shoot it until it dies" type creatures that were unfun to fight. While there are still some bosses in this game that are just bullet sponges, there are some that are a lot more interesting.

Really, I wouldn't recommend the first game, but I would highly recommend this one. Great story combined with fun gameplay and some good horror segments make for a fantastic experience. Now that both games are on Xbox game pass, I'd recommend them as they're easier to play (at least for xbox players) than ever. And really, you can skip the first one, it's okay but you only really need to know the basic premise of it to follow this one's plot.

I have to admit, Evil Within was a game I never cared too much for, but had a bit of respect for at least. I remember hearing a lot about it when it came out and ended up renting it from my library a few months after it came out, I believe in late March of 2015, so its been roughly 3 years since I played Evil Within. Despite it having a mediocre story, characters, and bland design, it did have some memorable moments and it did do some interesting things. I did enjoy the upgrades and weapons, along with the progression, even if the game was a tad linear, but it did seem like an RE4 clone.

Well, 3 years later and a sequel came out which was shown at the past E3 and many were excited for. The game claimed it would be changing its style and be a different experience than the first game. And well I finally got this from my library this past week and played through it, and well it is essentially an entirely different game. Instead of the game being broken up into linear levels, you have chapters and many chapters consist of big, open areas where you can explore and do side content between missions. The first few hours of the game are actually the best, you have a bit of a long prologue, but then are thrown into an open World survival horror town similar to something you'd see in Siren, and you have to make your way through the town to complete the missions. Meanwhile, you have tons of enemies roaming around, and if you play on harder difficulties, the game practically begs you to stealth or get torn apart since early in the game you are weak with no abilities or upgraded health.

Chapter 3 is probably the most open, and it is a bit of a tease, because it makes you think the entire game is going to be one open map. But the thing is once you complete the chapter you leave that area and go to a new open area, that isn't quite as big, and then the next you go to a new area as well, but none are as big or have as much to do as in chapter 3. The game has many linear chapters and moments to, some where you just navigate through corridors and inside a building. Of course you get the upgrades too, the mirror that takes you to the hospital with the nurse is back and you get the upgrade chair and lockers, although I didn't care much for the new design of the hub.

Now in terms of story, Evil Within 2 is lacking. Yeah Evil Within had a pretty bad story that left a lot unexplained if you didn't play the DLC and it had a pretty generic bad guy, but at least Evil Within tried to make you care for the characters, and set the villain up with some backstory and a whole chapter where he'd stalk you, and for the most part I could at least appreciate the first game's story, even if I didn't care much for it. This game on the other hand the story didn't interest me, and I just didn't care much for Sebastian's family, the ending just feels a bit cliche too and the characters outside of Sebastian and his wife just come off as really generic and bland.

Gameplay is actually about the same, I felt 1 was more action based, where this is way more stealth based, now only problem is this game does force you into situations where you must fight and if you focused on stealth upgrades, you can get really frustrated having to face hordes of enemies. The first game was designed a little better for these kinds of fights and had you better prepared I felt. In fact I actually preferred the more action design and pacing of the 1st game because it really never felt scary or tense enough to be a stealth horror, this on the other hand tries to go mostly stealth and it only works in a handful of areas. The game just gets tedious and repetitive stealthing through everything. The boss fights in this were also pretty weak and frustrating, sure the first game didn't have good bosses wither, but they weren't as frustrating of poorly designed.

Now this game does have a good amount of upgrades you can focus on, tons of weapon upgrades, it has side content, and is way more open, but I feel like none of this matters when you don't have good design, a good story, or good progression. Evil Within 2 should have just went for a bit open World and had each chapter take you further into a big town, but instead we get a mix of chapters that all take you to different areas that aren't connected. Evil Within 2 isn't a bad game, but its just a mediocre one and even more forgettable than the 1st game. 3 years from when I played it I still can remember the bosses, the different areas, and segments. But this game I don't think I'll remember even half of this games areas or bosses in a year from now. Evil Within had a good run while it lasted, but I think its just time the series retire, RE 4 clones are just getting old at this point.