The highly anticipated Tango Gamework’s game The Evil Within has arrived and it is terrifying.
I have a lot of experience with horror games over the years and many make the mistake of confusing gore with terror. This game does a great job blending both into one, singularly frightening experience.
Trying to avoid spoilers: immediately after the opening game cinematic, when I first gained control of my character, I felt like I was in danger.
I died four times in a particularly gruesome fashion in the first two minutes of the game because I could not figure out what to do. However later sections of the game were easier as a result of having substantially more control over the situation than the first chapter.
My wife, completely unaffected by gore struggled, with the terror aspect and abandoned me to face these horrors on my own. A task I did poorly with. The entire first chapter is fleeing, hiding, and if you are as bad as I am, dying.
Upon completion, a bizarre and disturbing transition sequence leaves you wondering what is actually happening, or if it’s all in your characters head.
The play system emphasizes stealth and resource allocation very similar to The Last of Us. Use a stealth kill here or waste ammo which is hard to find. At least as far as I am into the game which is about 20%. The actual combat though is more similar to Resident Evil in how much slower the enemies are. Even if you’re spotted you can basically slow walk away from them and lose them behind obstacles or pummel them with your melee attack.
The graphics are average in my opinion with the game-play graphics actually surpassing the cinematic graphics in clarity. My television isn’t the greatest and only puts out 760 pixels but older games are sharper with better textures and animations. The voice acting also has room for improvement, your character sounds and talks like Horatio Caine with slightly more imaginative dialogue than CSI: Miami introductions.
The plot is a bit hard to discern thus far, but it seems to be a stereotypical survival horror game with a skeletal role playing skill level up system where you improve very limited things such as the ability to carry more matches. Some of the little events they put in as a shock factor are cliche and easy to predict based on what you’re hearing before reaching the site.
Whether the events are occurring in reality or in the character’s head I don’t know. What I do know is it’s a fun and exceedingly disturbing game which is not for the faint of heart or weak in stomach.
What about you? Were you scared by this game or am I just a wimp?
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