The Evil Within Review

Gore and spooky

I am not very versed into survival-horror.

Pros (+): 

• Ambiance 
• Music 
• Design, art

• Gameplay 
• Bugs 
• Fighting and sneak mechanics

First of all, I was scared more than once and had some stress induced moments. But it was more than that, it was not just jumpscare, you tend to be on guard at all times. I don't feel like waiting for something to happen, more than reacting to events and mostly, escaping from them. 

Especially those moments when you are trapped in a very small room with one crazy opponent, your brain calculating the odds of success especially fast. Just to conclude that... you should run. The stressful music adding to that fact it is necessary to escape while keeping your distance from the enemy. You can use your surroundings to your advantage, using a multitude of traps to inflict damage. 

The stress is here, growing in you the more you advance in the game. The game challenge yourself to keep your cool and analyzing the situation while it happens. **The Evil Within** is filled with moments like this and I believe they are very well made. Those elements are what makes the game great. 

The graphics and the art is very well made and showcase a dark and gore environment. While always playing with the head of your characters and yours at the same time. The monsters you will encounter aren't simple zombies and will make you rethink how twisted some stuff can be. 

Story-wise, it is very tough to grasp and isn't made for you to fully understand until the very end.. And even then. Lots of symbolic, very few explanations and it is thought that way. I believe this made the entire experience very good Characters are well developed, all with a tragic story. 

You will always lack ammunitions. Enemies come in horde and are extremely tough to kill. Traps are also everywhere on the map and you need to learn how to use them against your enemies. I think the idea is great, too bad that the AI is extremely weird and will either never respond to your aggression, or just overreact. 

The usage of weapons (or even punches) is strange, and there's a lot of bugs, clipping of textures. The problem is that it happens extremely frequently. I can't say the amount of time I missed a shot while the enemy was standing right in front of me, simply because the gun went through the enemy. There's multiple examples with almost all the traps and or weapons. Cumulated to bugs and bad AI, the usage of checkpoints is strange as well and makes the gameplay experience. I really hated the fighting and sneaking mechanic, I feel it was too clunky, especially the sneak part. 

Checkpoints are placed at random spots in the maps making you question why they made some spots this way. Sometimes too close one another, most of the time forever away. 

On the other hand, there's barely any repetition, always have different way to play the game, beat the maps and enemies. 

I played the game on PS4 and PC, the same bugs and review would be made. The lifespan of the game is very reasonable and between 9 to 12 hours. 

In the end, I believe the Evil Within was a good Survival Horror game that deserved more attention, it is a good game, especially for the price it is right now. It will not be a revolution of the genre, neither will it be a game you will want to replay times and times again. The story and ambiance is amazing, but the gameplay is pretty bad. 
I will finish with a positive rating and slight disappointment because it isn't the quality it could have been.