The Evil Within begins strong with some great concepts, and a dark storyline involving insanity and madness. However six hours into the game and I grew tired, and bored of the repetitive segments of shooting through the zombie-like enemies to turn a valve, or open a gate as the enemies did not change, nor did anything truly stand out to keep me playing on.
The best example of this is the game's over-abundance of bosses, which would not be an issue if they were not reusing the same spider-like boss, or the chainsaw maniacs. At first they are fun to outrun, but soon enough you are fighting the same spider-like boss over and over again in the same environment being burning furnaces and boiler rooms that involve the same method of dispatching the boss using fire. But they never die and soon enough you're facing it again a chapter later.
To add to the negatives of the experience is that even though this game was made by Shinji Mikami who created Resident Evil the same scares in the Resident Evil games, especially the early ones were missing here. There were some jump scares but they weren't as shocking to take me by surprise as Resident Evil was, The Evil Within tries to be scary but is more of a survival-horror game that is more focused on combat, and of course the enemies who don't scare you.
By chapter eleven I felt I was forced to play on just to finish the game, but found myself giving up as I began to resent the game in that I was forced to fight the same bosses over and over again, only to be chased by the main antagonist who also cannot be beaten probably until the final chapter.
The thrill of exploring was not here as it was present in Resident Evil games of old, and it was only recently I discovered a patch now made it possible to remove the irritating letterbox display of the game to have a full-screen view of the game. This made exploring much easier but it only served for me to find some health packs and ammunition.
By this time however I was already bored and tired of playing on in The Evil Within.
There is a good, varied arsenal of weapons to use against enemies ranging from revolvers and magnums to shotguns and a crossbow. This does make it easier, and of course slightly more fun in taking down your enemies but not so much against bosses where it is mandatory to beat them.
Enemy types range from zombie-like creatures who can use guns, pitchforks, axes, and Molotov cocktails up to bosses ranging from spider-like bosses to chainsaw wielding maniacs who are repeated over and over again usually in the same environment as the first time you faced them.
Characters are not fleshed out enough to like or even truly dislike them for their personalities, they are simply there for the story to progress and you can't get attached to them as perhaps you can with characters from previous Resident Evil games.
Graphically the game is nice, perhaps low in comparison with some Next-Gen titles out there but they serve their purpose for the game especially with the blood and gore you see throughout the game.
The Good:
- Strong gameplay and gun mechanics, especially when fighting droves of enemies.
- Graphics are slightly dated, but look good with some enemies and cutscenes.
- A varied arsenal of weapons and tools you can use against enemies.
The Bad:
- Not an original plot or story, with some clichés and twists and turns you could see coming before they do.
- Bosses are used over and over again, becoming boring and dull as you search out the same means to beat them.
- Some of the chapters are so difficult to traverse you are forced to look up walkthroughs online to get through them, but this is more of an issue for me personally as not enough guidance is given for certain tasks.
The Evil Within is a good game, without a doubt otherwise it would have a lower score but where it was promoted for fans of Resident Evil I think the game was misleading as the game veers more off to a new IP than any relation to prior Resident Evil games.
For those looking for a good horror game, The Evil Within is good enough for the job but don't expect anything special or unique within it. It is alike to many games of the same genre on the previous Gen consoles, run and gun survival horror games. Now as it has been some time since it's release you can pick it up for a good price on both PS4 and Xbox One, and it's worth trying as it was for me but again it didn't truly have anything unique about it for me to keep playing on or to remark on about.