The Evil within

[VegaLA]

Is survival horror in Video games about to make a comeback?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxlo67zhOWc

Yeah there's that new Silent Hill on the horizon, but this title has been mentioned by Fangoria a lot lately and don't recall there being a thread specifically for this title (I think its mentioned in the survival horror game thread?).  It looks like it may be the Horror game fix I've been yearning since the original Resident Evil.

http://theevilwithin.com/age

Anyone taken an interest?

[ArchieGemmel]

I'm cautiously optimistic about it. The footage I've seen looks really good but have seen some game journalists saying the controls are really horrible. Looks like the reviews are embargoed till release day as well which doesn't bode well.

[Rev]

I was interested in this when it was first announced, because your Resi guy launching a new thing should be something to get excited about, but it's the second abandoned version of Resident Evil 4, isn't it?  The one after the one that became Devil May Cry.  It looked like it was borrowing from Silent Hill far too much back then, and it still does.  The review embargoes and the absolutely crackers pre-order bonus and season pass nonsense attached to this make it look like an absolute turkey.

Seriously:  pre-order to get the option of an easy mode?  What?

[Moribunderast]

Seriously:  pre-order to get the option of an easy mode?  What?

Is that true? Fuck I hate the modern games industry. Picking out bits of the finished product and arbitrarily cordoning it off for "DLC" is such anti-consumer bullshit and I despair that it's become the norm and is apparently accepted by the gaming community. Shit like that almost legitimises piracy, in my opinion.

I'll be very interested to see the reviews for this game. I really want it to be good and I think it will be, but I think the reviews will be mixed or mostly negative. I fucking adored Shadows of the Damned and that was quite divisive among gamers. Really, I have a lot of faith in Mikami, given his recent run of games is RE4, Killer 7, God Hand, Vanquish and Shadows of the Damned. I love all of those games - hopefully The Evil Within maintains the quality, even if one of the enemies looks like a laughable Pyramid Head rip-off.

[Thursday]

An early review drops. Seems it's pretty good.

http://www.videogamer.com/reviews/the_evil_within_review.html

[Consignia]

An early review drops. Seems it's pretty good.

http://www.videogamer.com/reviews/the_evil_within_review.html

Yeah, it sounds very Resident Evil 4-like, which was my favourite in the series. That review has got me interested in it after it not really being on my radar.

[ArchieGemmel]

That review had convinced me to pre-order it, so fingers crossed it is actually good.

[Thursday]

Played for just over an hour, and even though it does look and feel a bit like Resident Evil 4, it's much more of a stealth survival game. It's not going to generously give you ammo and so you have to find other ways through areas. You have melee , but it's not a viable tactic for taking out enemies, you can sprint, but your stamina doesn't last very long at all. There's traps about so you can either disarm them (I think towards crafting items, although I don't think I've collected enough to do that) or lure enemies into them.

Also on the upgrading system, just in case anyone was hoping you could use the resi 4 trick of upgrading ammo capacity to refill your ammo, it won't work here, so no need to try. On that note, the capacity of everything you can carry is also pretty harsh.

The enemies aren't very intelligent, so if they spot you, it's not been too hard for me to run away and hide (so far) before they give up chase. Which actually makes sense with them, unlike say patrolling guards who give up on finding intruders very easily.

[ArchieGemmel]

I'm really enjoying this. Well enjoying as much as you can when you're walking through mental asylums with blood dripping down the walls and multi-limbed nurse beasties scampering after you.

The lack of ammo really makes you take your shots carefully, and I still keep missing!

The main character is a bit bland and the voice acting isn't great. After falling into area flooded with blood he barely yawns out "where am I" instead of reacting with horror. Keen to press on with it though.

[Thursday]

Playing a few hours more and the stealth elements suddenly disappear. There was a slightly odd boss fight, where there's a few traps you can lead it into, but then after I just took the odd shot at it, or set things on fire while I ran away and then at some point, something arbitarily seemed to kill, but it almost felt like there was something else I was supposed to do.

Anyway really enjoying it, the psychological horror aspects is basically an excuse for it to dive around different locations and that's fine with me really.

[ArchieGemmel]

I'm pleased the stealth stuff gets forgotten as it didn't really work for me. You move too slowly when crouched so usually by the time you've got close to an enemy they turn around and spot you.

I thought that having a Chapter End screen was a bit stupid at first but quite like it now as it gives you a breather and a natural place to stop if you want.

Which boss was that, the one in the furnace? I came across one a bit later that was like that. There didn't seem to be a proper end to the fight, I just had to go and quickly collect something.

I do really like how it keeps flinging you around to different areas. There was one section that was in almost complete darkness that was dreaming me out a bit as I was playing it at home on my own.

[Thursday]

Yeah the furnace one I think.

I see quite a lot of criticism for the aspect ration/controls etc, but it works for me. Even though it can be a bit annoying when you're just trying to have the character hit a crate right in front of you or something. It's obviously a choice they made for a reason, not a technical failing. It feels like a bad dream where you can't seem to run away and see in front of you properly, I'm convinced that's something they've tried to capture.

I like how powerless I feel throughout the game. Even in earlier Resident Evil games, I'd usually feel like I can clear an area and search for loot. Here I just constantly want to run away until I get to the next check point, if I miss any collectables, then fuck it.

[ArchieGemmel]

I agree about the controls/aspect ratio. It always feels like something is just off screen that you can't see. Especially when climbing ladders.

I need to get into that mindset. I keep trying to dispatch everything I see but I'm forever missing with the pistol as the aiming can be a bit fiddly. As you say though I'm sure it's by design.

I feel like it a contender for GOTY for me but I'm only just at the end of Chapter 6 so we'll see.

[Thursday]

The reversible covert art seems to be a very deliberate RE4 reference.

[ArchieGemmel]

Very nice. I hadn't even realised you could do that.

[Thursday]

Me neither, I saw someone else mention it on twitter. Now I'm going through my games, seeing if any others have reverse cover art.

[The Boston Crab]

Is this worth 40 quid? N.B. I played through RE4 back to back three times when I first got the GC version for the Wii, and then twice more when I got the (definitive) Wii version. I don't much like the idea of pure stealth, though. I like to feel that I could - with enough skill - 'clear the cave', like in Dark Souls.

[Thursday]

Nah as it goes on, stealth stops being an option for the most part, it's only essential in the opening few chapters. There's plenty of areas where you have to defeat all the enemies and some where it's kind of an option, but whether or not you'll want to sort of varies. But certainly as it goes on, you've got a lot more ammo, and you learn ways of taking out multiple enemies at once. I suppose it's worth thinking about the fact that I also played Resi 4 so many times, I got properly pro at it, but I would have struggled a lot more on that the first time.

I'd highly recommend it, but it does seem to have got a few mixed reviews.

[The Boston Crab]

The taking out multiple enemies thing gives me a Resi 4 boner twitch. Like you, I developed crowd control skills which most mortals could only gasp at. I watched a five minute Let's Play and I jumped and squirmed quite a few times, looks very nicely paced and balanced to maximise tension.

[ArchieGemmel]

I think if you liked Resi 4 you'll definitely like this. As Thursday says you barely need to bother with Stealth after about chapter 3.

I think I'm about 2/3 of the way through now and it's still a really tense game. I played for about 3 hours yesterday and was feeling really odd by the end of it. Had to stop playing as it was making me too nervous.

[Thursday]

Finished it and I wasn't disappointed.

Spoiler alert

Genuine laughter at the ridiculous way they brought in the Resident Evil trope of being handed a rocket launcher to finish off the boss

[close]

There were a couple of weaker sections in the game. (I think any time you're in an area with lots of daylight it loses it's atmosphere.) And sometimes the combination of some cheap/unfair deaths/bits combined with some occasionally harsh checkpoints can make it frustrating, but those bits weren't too common.

Thinking about it, it did also share some similarities with The Last of Us, since there's a bit of crafting/upgrading mechanics, it's combat was similar to that at times, in the way that you might have plan, but it'll go wrong and you'll panic and have to improvise. But it's also able to do some more ridiculous things as well.

[ArchieGemmel]

I still have 5 chapters to go but that's good to hear.

I quite enjoyed the one light area I played as it felt like a bit of a respite but I do agree it loses the atmosphere.

[Thursday]

Interesting article to read once you've finished the game http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/10/23/the-resident-evil-within/#more-244005

[ArchieGemmel]

I had a look at that earlier. I thought he made a lot of good points. The stuff about chapter 10 was particularly interesting.