RETRO REBOOT | The Evil Within (Xbox One, PlayStation 4)
Shinji Mikami returns to survival horror, with a franchise that stumbled out the gate, but deserved much better
RETRO REBOOT
"ColonelFancy" Mike Lind
8/11/20265 min read
Developer: Tango Gameworks
Published by: Bethesda
Released date: 2014
The Evil Within is a game I initially really hated when I first played it. As time has passed, and a replay later, my views on it softened a little. While I have a newfound appreciation for the psychological thriller universe Shinji Mikami was establishing, the core game itself still suffers from a few problems. It's still a victim of being yet another survival horror game that really cluttered the 2010's to a near embarrassing degree, and little about it separates itself from the foundation Resident Evil 4 built more than a decade ago by this point.
I’ll get into technical aspects shortly, but I can’t believe not only how similar these games are, but that some locations and scenarios are lifted from RE4.
Well, okay, two creepy, old-time styled villages and zombies seem to be married to each other, much like criminals and bad guys are magnetically drawn to construction sites, but you tie in the spacious, looming mansions in the distance, the fact that enemies are making cameos…
And to top it all of, your main antagonist is a deluded lunatic who speaks in riddles and floaty dialogue every time he appears on the screen! I like Ruvik as a villain better than Saddler, at least. This sounds like nitpicking and I’m looking for a reason to dig into this game, but when I’m allegedly playing a cutting-edge PS4 that promises to elevate gaming to the next level and I play a game that feels and plays like a clunkier version of a game I played a decade-plus ago, you’re DARING me to do this! Stick to what you know, I suppose.
With the graphics, this was relatively early in the eighth generation of consoles, so it was still a little on the choppy side. Aspects look a little under baked, which makes me question the budget Bethesda allowed, The Evil Within was pretty stylistic with what it was going for. A lot of psychedelic filters, even grainy filters are added to further try to sink the player into its twisted world of madness and carnage. It does look cool for a while, but it starts to get old and takes you out of the game for seemingly no reason other than to show off how impressive it looks. You go from a sewage drain full of blood and sinew to a clean lit hallway, and then out in the woods with your lantern as your only light source.
Perhaps I would care more if these locations meant anything more than trying to shock the player since nothing you do initiates them. It just hops you around when the game wants you to, so I’m temporarily jarred before I reset myself and press on. Nothing sinks in, nor is it given time to, so nothing matters. Character models are decent, but close-ups really reveal some weaknesses. The face mapping looks off and the lip flaps (especially on Joseph) sometimes don’t match. The zombies and monsters suffer the most. Some of the bosses, again, look like recycled Resident Evil ideas.
They fail to capture the twisted imagination of the being behind this. Unlike Silent Hill, where the mangled, unspeakably horrible beasts look legitimately disturbing, The Evil Within just parades glowing-eyed Las Plagus-styled minions that occasionally carry guns (eeeearrgh!!). There are variations, like some two-headed, bigger zombie, and this really cheap monster with grappling hooks, they lack the personality or memorable moments that the first appearance of a Licker provided, or being pursued by Nemesis. Oh it’s trying to establish some iconic creature designs. Like BoxHead…BoxHead…I just can't.
Oh yeah, people are gonna forget Pyramid Head ever existed once they lay eyes on this menacing brute!! People will be cosplaying him for the next decade!! Get the fruck out of here with this nonsense! Overall, come for the seizures. Stay because you can’t move, due to the fact that you’re having a seizure.
The voice acting is pretty good, while it won’t blow anything else out of the water. Ruvic and Sebastian sound way too alike for my tastes. While listening to the various recordings of a doctor’s research, I assumed that Sebby was talking. The music is eerie and kind of the only thing that will keep players on their toes. Hey, you know what has become an easy trick to lure audiences into a state of unrest these days? Play some soothing Victrola music. It's quite effective.
While I am mostly disappointed that Evil Within failed to break any kind of new ground I imagined it would, you pick a pretty safe bet by emulating the modern Resident Evil games. People are more familiar with them, so there isn’t this huge learning curve to master in order for some novices to combat the odds. Despite the fact that this game a character study of sorts, or at least a psychological thriller, it does absolutely nothing to capitalize on this, and this is the biggest drawback of the game for me. Than again, a character study wouldn’t work since there is no reason at all to give a damn about any of the characters in this game. They’re all underdeveloped and what we DO learn it exposited in goddamn notebooks.
The Evil Within is a rough entry game on a few fundamental levels, but it's enjoyable enough. The sequel made considerable improvements over the first, in both gameplay and game directing. There was indeed enough here to make for a fascinating series, but bad luck seemed to follow Psycho Break. Some elements may be unbalanced, like the Agony Crossbow and the shotgun, but if you have a hankering for some RE4-style action, it does fit the bill.