Wow, it's been a while since I've reviewed anything, hasn't it! Or at least that's how it feels. I thought since I feel very strongly about this game and I just finished it today after receiving it for my birthday last week, I'll review The Evil Within! As stated in the title, this review will contain no spoilers, so if you plan to play the game and don't want anything ruined for you, have no fear!
Let me start off by saying I'm a huge gamer and I binge on survival horror games. They make up the majority of my game collection. I've been playing horror games since the remake of Resident Evil came out back in 2002, so I'd like to think I'm a connoisseur of this genre.
Imagine Resident Evil 4 with cosmetic surgery done on it and more psychological elements and that's pretty much what this game is. Seriously, if you've played Resident Evil 4, this game is strongly reminiscent of it. It's not hard to tell Shinji Mikami was using the previous game as a reference for this one, which disappoints me. He promised to bring the survival horror genre back to its roots and while the premise of the game was promising, it had too much 'action' at times for it to live up to those expectations. He led us to believe we would get something like the first Resident Evil, but were given a repackaged RE4.
The game doesn't provide a challenge so much as it does make you incredibly frustrated. I can't tell you how many times I was left swearing and trying to keep myself from throwing the controller across the room after dying the millionth time at certain parts. I was playing on medium, which is the hardest difficulty you can select on the first playthrough. I've encountered seasoned gamers who've played on the easiest setting and they still claim it to be a struggle, and not in a good way. It's enough where I honestly question whether I want to play through the game a second time or not. Ironically, the final battle is the easiest you will encounter. That was the only boss fight in which I didn't die once, let alone 100 times. You can change the game's difficulty at any time during gameplay and I was seriously considering it. A lot.
The story, while engaging, is frayed. Numerous questions raised during gameplay are never answered, a few of which are rather important. Perhaps it was Mikami's intent to leave things to speculation, but the ends are so loose that proper speculation is difficult, if not impossible, and this is coming from someone who normally catches what others don't see immediately.
I have played this game for about a week straight, nearly 30 hours in total, and yet I still had trouble with the controls by the game's completion, mostly toggling through the inventory. Maybe it's just me, but it felt very counterintuitive.
My biggest problem with the game is that it doesn't feel like a brand new game. It feels like I'm playing Resident Evil 4 again, but with different graphics. That may not be a problem if you like RE4, but if you were expecting something totally different like I was, prepare for disappointment. This game has so many elements taken from RE4 (and a nice nod to the original RE) that it doesn't feel like Mikami was merely inspired by RE4, but more like he completely forgot what it's like to make a survival horror game and mistakenly used the last Resident Evil game he worked on as a guide. It feels like he was borrowing numerous aspects of it as opposed to just referencing it for the RE4 fans. The concept of this game isn't something I recall seeing before, so I imagine Mikami was afraid of stepping too far outside the box and chose to play it safe using what made RE4 so popular, which wouldn't be a problem if that's what he was promising, but he instead just gave us a rehash of a game that came out 10 years ago.
Furthermore, these RE4 elements make the game feel disjointed. It's like two different games combined into one. Sometimes it's an eerie survival horror game and then there's the more action-oriented parts that would feel more at home in games like Resident Evil 5/6 or even one of the Metal Gear games. In fact, during the first encounter with the action-packed segments, I became angry because I could no longer tell myself I was only imagining this game is only rehashing elements from RE4. I KNEW at that point that's exactly what was happening. In fact, I had this feeling since the moment the first glimpses of gameplay and promotional art were released. I said to myself, "This looks like it's just a prettier version of RE4." And I was right.
I must give props to the psychological impact of the ever-shifting environment. There were many times where I would look at something that seemed amiss and I would wonder if it was always like that and I didn't notice or if it changed when I wasn't looking. In some cases, I could confirm a change had indeed taken place, but others left me questioning myself. I loved that aspect. In other games like Silent Hill, the transforming environment would happen right in front of you, whereas here if you turn yourself away for a moment and then turn back in the original direction, something may have changed and if you weren't paying close enough attention, you'll begin to wonder if you yourself are slipping into the madness as well. This tactic effectively immerses you into the game, although this primarily happens in the beginning of the game and slows to a stop when the gameplay starts to get more action-like.
This game isn't a bad game, I would say, but I had very high expectations for it that it did not live up to. If I had purchased this game as opposed to receiving it as a present, I would probably return it. I don't hate this game. I can't even say I dislike it. However, there's no doubt I didn't enjoy this game as much as I anticipated. Mikami had a great concept, but his reluctance to stray from the safety of RE4's foundation crippled what could have been an amazing game. Although I did like The Evil Within enough to see it to the end, I wouldn't recommend it, especially not to casual players.
