My "The Evil Within" Review

    I understand that this game came out about two years ago, and I'm very late to the party, but here's my review regardless.

    Shinji Mikami, the father of the survival horror genre, has returned with more than just a few bone-chilling nightmares. The Evil Within, known as Psycho Break in Japan, is a game brimming with intense sequences and utterly horrifying visuals. When you enter the game, you play as detective Sebastian Castellanos, who has been summoned to investigate some grisly murders in a mental hospital. And from that moment on, the game takes a spiraling descent into chaotic madness.

    Now, the story of the game is something you have to have an open mind for to enjoy. And if you pay attention and refer back to notes and messages, you'll understand it. In my opinion, I think the game has a great story!

    If you're wondering what makes this game so great, well, I can tell you. It's the fact that it actually is a survival horror game, unlike some of these other games parading around as survival horrors yet they insist on throwing you mounds of ammo. The Evil Within is brutal, and very much unforgiving. If you hate dying a lot and being punished for rushing and making mistakes, you'll have a hard time with this game. If you run around wasting ammo, you're gonna have to scavenge. And when you scavenge, you'll only find about two or three rounds. That means ammunition in this game is scarce. Enemies are agile and quick to attack and pursue you. There is a stealth mechanic woven into the game; so use it. Sneak around, stealthily kill zombies and monsters. Utilize the match system to burn their bodies or time it correctly and burn multiple enemies at once.
    Although the game sometimes falls prey to the run-and-gun shooter play of most survival horrors, it does spice up the genre by adding great gameplay elements to the mix. Sometimes, you can simply dash past enemies and move on. Sometimes, you'll find that you're outta ammo and must sneak around to get past the monsters. The sprint system in this game relies upon using your stamina meter, and let me tell you, you can only sprint for about 4-5 seconds (yes I know, you can upgrade it as you progress). Imagine running through a dark corridor and encountering a sinister creature that resembles a spider-woman with four arms and claws. That is how this game likes to scare you. It adds  the sensation of tension mixed with gruesome visuals and terrifying sounds. The texture is very reminiscent of a 90s horror film. In many ways this game feels "old school".

    So all-in-all, is this game actually scary? Yes and no. The visuals are creepy--disturbing even. The sounds are gut-wrenching and fantastically unsettling. Dark corridors, shadowy parking lots, doom-filled catacombs are all terrifying places you'll find in this game. This game isn't about jump-scares. It's about throwing you into a web of psychotic madness, leaving you to twist and writhe in the cold wind as you progress through a journey of gradual, intense insanity. But then again, some of it is predictable. You might just get used to it all and maybe the horrifying charm will wear off. Who knows? But then again, how many horror games today are actually that scary?

 
  Shinji Mikami said he wanted to make a survival horror game that stayed true to its roots, due to seeing all of the disappointing horror games that have come out in the last several years, and I do believe, he--and his team--have achieved that.

I give The Evil Within a 9.5/10. It's one of the best games I've played in a while, and also one of my all-time favorites, if not my favorite game ever.