Last year at E3 gamers and media got their first glimpses into The Evil Within, the new survival horror game from the godfather of the genre himself, Shinji Mikami. This year, instead of just cringing as we watched a trailer, media was able to get their hands on the game and give it a bit of a run. Being the overgrown sissy that I am I can say without a shadow of a doubt that other crybabies like myself better get a package of Depends before venturing too far into the world of Detective Sebastian Castellanos.
Dropping into the demo I found myself moving through a black and white forested area as I came upon a mansion. Making my way inside I’m trying to save someone being hauled off by some ghost doctor. Of course as I make my way into the mansion they disappear through these massive double doors that lock behind them. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that my task is to figure out how to open that bad boy. The rest of my playtime is spent tip toeing through this house of horrors trying to solve the puzzle and progress through those doors. In true survival horror fashion every move is made in a very deliberate and calculating way as not taking the appropriate care and attention will almost always end up with Sebastian choking on his own blood.
As I wandered the halls it seemed that at almost all times I was either grossed out, terrified or afraid to even move. Every single corner, door, and dark hallway seemed to hold something pant shittingly scary. In order to survive I had to be very careful to manage my resources as they are hard to come by. If you’re aim stinks (like mine) you’ll often be out of bullets and fodder for some creature from the void. Be sure to pick your shots carefully though and you can take them down. That being said you should never leave without setting the corpse on fire because more than one time they came back to life on me with disastrous results. Of course if you don’t run out of bullets you’ll likely run out of matches so that’s kind of a bitch.
None of this would work if the sound didn’t suit the game’s eery setting. In the dark with headphones on will undoubtedly be the way to experience this game if you’ve got the stones for it. For a guy like me this will be a lights on, low volume, crying pillow at the ready type of game. Every creak, moan, scream and sinister laugh chills you right to the bone. Judge me all you want but if there’s one thing Shinji Mikami can do right it’s scare the living bejeezus out of people.
In the end there really wasn’t much changed on the show floor from what I saw over a year ago or what our man Trevor saw back in May of this year. My most basic of impressions are while it will indeed be absolutely terrifying I’m not seeing anything that will blow minds. The grainy presentation helps set the mood and every step you take you can feel yourself tensing up for the inevitable scare but it falls short of taking it to a level that we haven’t seen in survival horror dozens of times before. Of course this is all after seeing a mere 30 minutes or so of gameplay so it’s unfair to pigeon hole the game this early. I’m guessing that Tango Gameworks still has some tricks up their sleeves for this one. Keep an eye out here on COG for a full review when The Evil Within drops this October 21st.
