Review — The Evil Within 2

Descend into madness once again as you try to uncover the secrets behind Mobius and try to save your daughter in The Evil Within 2.

The first The Evil Within was a widely anticipated game, as it marked the return of Resident Evil-creator Shinji Mikami to the genre of survival horror. While the game was far from perfect, it did well enough to merit a sequel. Once again, we get to descend into a nightmarish world as detective Sebastian Castellano, who is still traumatized from the events of the first game.

Welcome to Union

The main setting of the game is a virtual town called Union. Here, your job is to find Sebastian’s daughter Lily who was apparently taken by Mobius and served as the Core for a STEM machine that creates this simulation for the connected people. Of course something went horribly wrong after they lost contact with Lily, so they’ve sent Sebastian in to find her. Very soon, Sebastian discovers that Union has been turned into a hellhole inhabited by mutated people and other hellish creatures.

The first game was mostly critiques for its disappointing and nonsensical story, aside from the technical issues. This time around, the story is much more straightforward and easy to follow. This is a positive note, but it does mean the games lost some of its trippy vibe, even though it does get seriously weird at certain points. It now has become a more conventional survival horror game with some science-fiction overtones.

Run, hide and scavenge

The change in setting from the mental hospital and the mind of a deranged lunatic to the the town of Union also brought a more open world level design with it. In between more linear story sequences, you’re free to roam and explore the small town while scavenging for ammo, medkits and crafting materials. All the while avoiding or killing the monstrous inhabitants of the town of course. Funnily enough, during these moments the game felt more like those zombie survival games that are so popular these days, like DayZ or H1Z1. Because of this, the game can feel very different from the first one. But in all honestly, these scenes can kill the momentum of the game a bit as you’re wandering aimlessly looking for supplies.

There are also some side quests to undertake, which expand the game world and the lore of what happened in the game, but feel rather insignificant. And aside from the town of Union, you’ll also be taking small trips to the Marrow, some kind of secret facility that serves as an interconnected travel system to traverse different parts of the town. Add several buildings to explore to this, and the game certainly offers a great variety of things to do and discover. Each location also looks great and the overall atmosphere of the game can make you feel really uncomfortable at times. Though I didn’t find the game to be as scary as the first one.

Killing monsters

Part of the reason why the game felt less scary, is that there is a bigger focus on the action. Especially on the easier difficulties, it’s hard to run out of ammo and healing items. Therefore I wouldn’t recommend playing the game on easy, even if you’re not accustomed to the genre, as it makes the game feel almost like a third person shooter. One with mediocre controls that is. Because the aiming system is still fare from perfect, partly due to the camera placement. If you’re running into a monster that’s a bit wiggly, it can be annoying to kill it properly.

The design of the monsters is somewhat disappointing however, as they are very generic. The basic enemy type for example, feels like a crossover between a slower Clicker from The Last of Us and the infected from Resident Evil 4. The main antagonists of the game also look rather bland, especially the very first one despite having an intriguing first encounter with him. I mean, honestly, a posh guy with a camera isn’t particularly scary in my eyes.

So while the game lost some of its scariness compared to the first game, it does run a lot better. The Evil Within 2 looks great, even is some of the facials of characters lack some detail, and I didn’t experience any technical issues. Loading times were a bit long at certain moments, especially if you enter or leave the Marrow. But in general the game offers a rather smooth experience. As many people weren’t fan of the 2.35 aspect ratio of the first game, they also removed this, though you still have the option to adjust the level of film grain. And totally aside from this, but the fact that you don’t have to burn bodies anymore, is a blessing. So whether you liked the first one or not, if you have any interest in the genre then The Evil Within 2 is worth checking out, even if it isn’t particularly original.

3.5/5

Reviewed for PlayStation 4