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March 28, 2024, 02:45:47 PM

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The Evil Within

Started by Mister Six, October 24, 2020, 05:21:13 PM

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Mister Six

Quote from: madhair60 on November 14, 2020, 06:25:05 PMThere's another ace bit near the end I don't want to spoil, but I can't remember exactly HOW near the end. So I'll wait til you're done before gushing about it.

Coming back two years later, waiting for your gush (fnaar).

madhair60

Oh god, I'm too fried to be eloquent; but that bit near the end when you're in a quite small room and Safe Head emerges out of the fog and you're freaked out as fuck because of the claustrophobia of the space and then A SECOND SAFE HEAD APPEARS

The game just delights in breaking its own rules - but then it was never actually stated that Safe Head wa a unique monster. I absolutely love that sequence.

Mister Six

Ha, yes! That was horrible, although I had a few magnum rounds and flaming bolts by that point, which took the edge off a bit.

The Crumb

I played both of these last year. Overall the first was the more enjoyable experience, I had to admire its commitment to being a deeply weird game, for better or worse. The all release no tension style kind of ruined the horror for me, until dying so much passed black comedy and became a bit psychologically crushing. The shooting felt great when the game gifted you some ammo.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

Season pass is currently £3.19 on PS4.

Mister Six

#35
I picked up the season pass on discount ages ago, maybe when @Elderly Sumo Prophecy posted about it, but hadn't bothered with it until last week, when I decided to give the first DLC, The Assignment, a crack. I almost sacked it off when I realised that it was a "proper" stealth mission, with no weapons whatsoever, but I was intrigued enough by the story and world to push on with it - and I'm glad I did.

First off, it's pretty well designed for what it is: there are no big open areas where roaming baddies can creep up on you unawares, which is essential when you have almost no defence other than a pretty lame staggering kick, and minimal health (and, like the main game, your character appears to have chronic emphasyma so ends up bent double and gasping for air if they sprint for more than six feet). Instead, each section with Haunted or other monsters is basically a little puzzle, with the challenge being more about figuring out how to navigate the linear path than relying on quick reactions and praying the AI doesn't do anything too goofy. Checkpoints are generously distributed, and there's usually a bit of downtime to explore for backstory documents and secret collectibles between the tense bits.

The flipside to that is that there's even more trial and error here than there was in the main game, and pretty soon even the freakiest of the monsters becomes more of an irritation than a gruelling terror. "Awww, it's chewed my head off again! What a dick!"

The good news is that the plot that ties all of this together is pretty intriguing. This time you're playing as Julie Kidman, the police detective who's secretly working for arch bastards Mobius. Her story crosses over here and there with that of Seb and Julian, as it did in the original game, although it makes good use of the STEM setting by having her perception of the events differ from those of theirs, due to her own memories mixing in with everything else that's going on. It's a neat way to blend expository flashbacks with the events of the game, and there are some really neat and memorable sequences, along with some fantastic lighting effects.

As for the monsters, there are a couple of returning beasties - the zombs, the giant in the graveyard - and a couple of new ones: a sac-covered crawling thing that explodes if you get too close and a sort of sexy lamp dressed like Dr Frankenfurter. The latter gets a couple of great setpieces, including a tense evasion sequence set in a power room full of conveninently waist-high boxes to hide behind.

It's not the greatest DLC you'll ever play, and it's frustrating in places, but at 3-4 hours long, it's about the right length, and for less than a fiver as part of the season pass discount it's a must-have.

Next up is The Consequence, which follows on from The Assignment, and after that a DLC where you play as the safe-headed bloke. And then I'll cool off with Psychonauts 2, I reckon, for a slightly more cuddly take on delving into the mind of madness.

Mister Six

Quote from: The Crumb on April 28, 2022, 03:12:40 PMI had to admire its commitment to being a deeply weird game, for better or worse.

Coming to this comment a wee bit late, but I just wanted to echo this. I'd much rather play an idiosyncratic game that's kind of wonky than something that's slick and generic.

madhair60

Quote from: Mister Six on August 23, 2022, 05:47:20 PMa sort of sexy lamp dressed like Dr Frankenfurter. The latter gets a couple of great setpieces, including a tense evasion sequence set in a power room full of conveninently waist-high boxes to hide behind.

that bit fucked me up! it's essentially just memorisation but the sheer oddness of that monster and the tension of the situation made for genuinely one of the scariest setpieces I've played. it's so silly that I feel stupid saying it, but it's true. the fact you're completely helpless and no benefit will in any way give you an advantage makes it quite brilliant imo.

Mister Six

#38
I dunno, I wasn't really feeling the fear for much of The Assignment, probably because I died too many times, although I rarely find games scary in any case (tense, yeah, but not scary). Also, as soon as I walked into the room I guessed what the situation was and who'd be subjecting me to it, so I was maybe a bit too self-aware.

I really like the very literal headlamp, but the rest of that design feels very "generic post-Silent Hill oddity". Sexy lady legs, bloody rags and a steampunky vibe, the usual, but also kind of random and not terribly cohesive. But I'll see if The Consequence has a decent explanation for what exactly it's supposed to represent.

I was much more impressed by
Spoiler alert
the spooky grasping hand things in the final chase, especially when the shadows they cast became tangible and turned into hands themselves. Them, combined with the giant besuited backlit bastard striding along behind me felt far more original and striking, if not as traditionally scary.
[close]

Also, what's with the snails you have to find to get models for the model gallery? The ones that made a sound like orgasming women when you shine a torch on them? Really glad my wife had stepped into the kitchen when I found one of them. I've never live it down otherwise.

madhair60


Mister Six

Maybe I'm not scared enough. :(

Mister Six

Sacked off The Consequence for a bit, because I'm at the bit where you have to shoot lamphead in her lampface and I'm shit at it.

Thursday

I did like The Assignment and The Consequence, but if I'm honest, it was mainly because of the lighting.

Goldentony

got this for next to fuck all in a sale with the sequel but it reminded me a bit of Deadly Premonition so I turned it off to get the hubris out of my head and ive not gone back since and now I clearly need to because I want to experience lamp face woman

Mister Six

It's nothing much like Deadly Premonition at all, in terms of structure, gameplay or tone. Not the first one, at least. Haven't played the second yet, although I know that one opens on a Twin Peaks reference.

Mister Six

Lampface is in the first game's DLC, BTW, but you really ought to play the main game first (per most DLC, I suppose).

Goldentony

I think the point I left it at was a bloke in a suit slowly walking through a farm with otherwise quiet zombie lads idling about which reminded me a lot of the point where I split from Deadly Premonition. Ill definitely get back into it

oggyraiding

Very weird game. Couldn't decide if it wanted to be bombastic Resi 4 style action, or creepy harrowing Silent Hill psychological horror. Perhaps even a dash of Alan Wake. I really need to replay it, I got very close to the end but reached a point where I had very little ammo and lots of dudes to fight, I tried dozens of times but I fucked myself over with my sloppy usage of resources.

madhair60

what i found to be the brilliance of Evil Within was that no matter how much stuff I found, I never, ever quite had enough - I was always just scraping by. I played on the harder mode, Survival, and found it rewarding as hell.

fuck AKUMU mode though, i'm not doing that

Thursday

It's kind of an alternate timeline Resident Evil 4 sequel in a way. Some of the ideas in it are things that Mikami scrapped from one of those early versions of RE4 before they changed it.

Instead of doubling down on the action, it's like if Mikami had stayed on at Capcom and said "Okay but we need to go back to horror for the next one." Also there's a Spencer Mansion in it.

So it's like Resi 4 but your movement options are more awkward, which I can understand is off-putting to people but it adds to the feeling of barely hanging on, and it makes sense for Sebastien. (Also it's a small thing, but making a mechanic throwing bottles when he was an alcoholic is good.)

Resi 4 is a better game, but it isn't as harsh with ammo, and that's fine it's going for something slightly different, but it's a braver decision to give you so little ammo.

Goldentony

QuoteAlso there's a Spencer Mansion in it.

aha, deffo getting this back on then

madhair60

honestly, thinking about it this might be a top twenty/thirty game for me; that doesn't sound like much but i've played a LOT of games lol.

one of my favourite gags is
Spoiler alert
when you're just about comfortable enough with headshots and have the pistol upgraded enough to make them viable, the game introduces enemies with two heads.
[close]

Thursday

Quote from: Goldentony on August 31, 2022, 09:18:28 PMaha, deffo getting this back on then

It's only one chapter, so don't go expecting too much from  it.

Goldentony

YOU SOLD ME OUT, THURSDAY!!

Thursday


Mister Six

#55
Quote from: madhair60 on August 31, 2022, 09:26:35 PMhonestly, thinking about it this might be a top twenty/thirty game for me; that doesn't sound like much but i've played a LOT of games lol.

Same here, although I've not really thought about a proper ranking. One of the things I love the most is
Absolutely massive spoilers for TEW 1, don't read it if you haven't finished it
the idea of STEM, what it means for the characters and how it's used. It's such a horrid, existentially crushing idea, this notion that you're trapped inside the mind of a madman, being attacked by the remnants of the people who were absorbed into his consciousness. At least in Resident Evil or whatever, you could conceivably just break a window and leg it through the woods - especially once you got a bit of proper firepower and the dogs weren't such a challenge any more. In The Evil Within, though, you're basically trapped in there until either someone pulls you out, you get killed or you have a mental breakdown and turn into another near-mindless zombie minion of a spoiled little shit who spent his childhood vivisecting people and can't get over the death of his sister.

And occasionally you're buffeted by the memory of someone else who's in there, or who was absorbed by Ruvrik, so you get glimpses of other people's lives, or the environment itself warps and changes around you. Or you bump into Nurse Tatiana, who's been robbed of her body and now has nothing left to do but hide in her little mental hospital (literally! Ho ho) in a pocket of STEM and hope Ruvrik can't penetrate her mind.
[close]

It's great!

Anyway, I can't quite bear to return to The Consequence because I'm so shit at shooting the leggy lamp. It's driving me mental. Any tips?

Thursday

Stop being a cack-handed twat?

Mister Six


Mister Six

Finally managed to get my shit thumbs in order and killed Leggy Lamphead (aka The Shade, apparently, even though shade is precisely the opposite of what a lamp provides). The rest of The Consequence went off easily after that, including the final boss, who's a total cakewalk. It's not quite as interesting as The Assignment, because a lot of it crosses over with the narrative of The Evil Within and you already know how that goes, but the lore stuff is interesting and there are some really neat setpieces.

I also really like
Spoiler alert
the explanation for how Kidman manages to get away with trying to turn against Mobius at the end - the Administrator was never actually "real", just a copy of his consciousness embedded in her brain, so Mobius are actually clueless as to what happened within STEM. I don't know if there'll ever be an Evil Within 3, but it'd be neat to make Kidman the protagonist and have her subverting Mobius from the inside. Although maybe give her some proper shoes for running about in next time. No wonder she can only sprint about six feet.
[close]

I've also played about half an hour of The Executioner, which is pretty neat in that it does the opposite of the Kidman DLCs, eschewing tense stealthiness for bezzing about with a big hammer twatting zombies' heads in - and while The Assignment/The Consequence did away with the upgrades in favour of a more diegetic storytelling focus, The Executioner embraces them wholeheartedly, with the player picking up coins like a fucked-up Mario Brother in order to buy chainsaws, dynamite and other fun toys. There's even an arena where you can battle waves of baddies to earn more coins.

There's also a bit of a plot, with the player having to knock off other people locked into STEM to free their daughter, although I'm guessing
Spoiler alert
the daughter isn't actually real, but a projection of STEM as part of their research. Or she'll turn into the horrible spidery Ring monster from TEW1 at the end. We'll see, anyway.
[close]

So aye, if you see the DLC going for cheap in a sale, pick it up for sure.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

Will you be playing Evil Within 2 after this? I don't remember much about it.