Reviews from the Crypt Part 4: The Evil Within

Happy Halloween!

For a special and final Review from the Crypt we decided to end on a brand new horror game from Bethesda and Shinji Mikami, The Evil Within.

The Evil Within has been on our radar since it’s announcement back early last year. Known as Psycho Break in Japan, the game was created by the team at Tango Gameworks under the direction of Shinji Mikami, director of Resident Evil 4 and Combat director for Shadows of the Damned. The game Mikami made the game due to the fact that he was disappointed with how modern Survival Horror games were leaning more toward Action Games, stating that he wanted to make a “true” survival horror game. The question is, does The Evil Within deliver on that.

The story follows 3 detectives as they were called to a deal with a gruesome mass murder at Beacon Mental Hospital. Players then take control of Sebastian Castellanos (voiced by Anson Mount, who is best known for his work on AMC’s Hell on Wheels as Cullen Bohannon) as the trio investigates murder. Shortly after seen a man in a white hood and burn scars, Sebastian is knocked out. Waking to a distorted version of Krimson City.

As the environments distort and change to nightmarish locations, Sebastian discovers the Haunted, a hive-mind group of creatures that take on grotesque forms. Sebastian is also chased by an apparition of the White-hooded man, name Ruvik (played by Jackie Earle Haley, who is best known for his work as Rorschach in 2009’s Watchmen.) As Sebastian fights his way through these nightmares, he attempts to put the pieces together on what is happening.

The story has a lot of good ideas happening but attempting to explain them correctly without going into major spoilers is a difficult task. That being said, the story is very predictable, with a fairly small amount of twists and turns that actually affect the story itself. One of the best things about the game is a look into Sebastian’s Psyche through the various “safe points” which are found in Mirrors, after staring into a mirror Sebastian is transported to a psyche ward which gives him the ability to unlock bonus ammo, upgrades and find key elements about Sebastian and Beacon Mental Hospital in a way that is reminiscent of Silent Hill and Resident Evil.

The characters themselves are never really fleshed out, with only Ruvik and Sebastian getting the most backstory, other characters tend to be just there as background noise or something to attempt to protect.

To put the gameplay in the most simplest way possible, the game plays almost identical as Resident Evil 4. Sebastian has access to a number of different weapons, including a handgun, shotgun, sniper rifle, grenades and a few other variations. The camera is regrettably close to Sebastian and features the same zoom feature as RE4 with an updated move and shoot mechanic as well as a shaky aim that we see in modern shooters.

There are some other updates to the gameplay as well, players can pick up one time use weapons such as hand axes and torches which will kill normal Haunted in one hit, while knocking down Haunted will give you the ability to set them on fire using a match, which is a great way to conserve the very scarce ammo. Sebastian also has the ability to disarm traps to give him parts, these parts allow you to create bolts for the Agony crossbow, these bolts take up various different upgrades including ice, fire, explosion, poison, flashbang and an old fashion harpoon.

The last addition to the gameplay is the Stealth mechanic. Stealth will allow you to preform quick kills on unsuspecting or stunned enemies, while allowing you to move slowly and quietly.  It’s a feature that I’ve used very Rarely, only to keep myself from getting blown up in a trap or avoiding arrows. The rest of the time it causes the already close camera to move closer, making it nearly impossible to use properly.

The Evil Within is running on the impressive idTech 5, the engine helps push the game’s impressive graphics. Character Animations and damage look amazing, with headshots and normal bullet wounds show an amazing amount of damage, which includes to split open heads and amputations. The thing that sells the game the most is the voice acting, with the already mentioned Anson Mount as Sebastian, and Jennifer Carpenter (Debra Morgan in Dexter) who plays Sebastian’s partner Julie Kidman in an underused amount of screen time. The real treat is Jackie Earle Haley who portrays Ruvik with a lovely sense of wickedness and twisted brilliance.

While The Evil Within fall short of the hype we have given it, it is far from a disappointment. The story while predictable is well thought out and presented quite well, gameplay is is familiar yet includes enough to keep it fresh, and the horror focuses on both Psychological and Gore. What really hurts the game though is the terrible camera that is way too close for comfort, cheap deaths (most caused by the camera) and it’s frequent share of glitches that occur too often for comfort.

The Evil Within is not the best horror game we’ve ever played, but does make a good start for a series.