Kris Wall reviews The Evil Within….
Shinji Mikami is regularly hailed as ‘The Godfather of Horror Gaming’, it’s a weighty title but when you consider this is the man that created the survival horror genre in the Resident Evil series, it’s more than merited. Since then he’s gone on to create, direct, produce and supervise some of the best games over the past 20 years such as the Dino Crisis series, Devil May Cry, Onimusha, Viewtiful Joe and Phoenix Wright during his time at Capcom and the utterly insane but equally brilliant Vanquish during a stint at Platinum Games. Not to mention that he also went and completely re-invigorated his own genre with the release of Resident Evil 4, a game which regularly tops many best of and favourite lists and is widely hailed as the benchmark in horror gaming, he is nothing if not prolific. The Evil Within is the first game from Shinji Mikami’s new studio, Tango Gameworks. Their aim is simple, to bring horror back in the most horrifying way possible.
The Evil Within casts you as Sebastian Castellanos, a veteran detective in the Krimson City (Yes, really) Police Department. Sebastian is called to investigate a massacre, upon arriving he’s met by the aftermath of some seriously bloody carnage and things immediately go from bad to hellishly worse from there when upon viewing CCTV footage, he watches helplessly as his fellow officers are slaughtered by a seemingly supernatural assailant called Ruvik, who knocks Sebastian unconscious and then the nightmare really begins. The Evil Within’s story doesn’t really make much sense, seemingly just a string with which to tie each nightmare scenario together. As a lead character, Sebastian is definitely no Leon S. Kennedy, seemingly devoid of any charisma and a poor script that forces him to ask ‘What’s going on?’ every few minutes which is really not helped by some seriously bland vocal delivery from Hell On Wheels actor, Anson Mount. The villain, Ruvik, while certainly not one of Mikami’s most memorable villains, fares much better for being infused with menace by the gravelly tones of Jackie Earle Haley. By the end of the game, you’ll be none the wiser as to what has happened, Tango Gameworks end up throwing so much at the story, so many different ideas borrowed from different games (that have done it better) that it struggles and ultimately fails to have an identity all its own.
Where The Evil Within excels is in its sound and visuals. When the engine is playing ball The Evil Within will have you on the edge of your seat, nervously gripping your controller awaiting whatever horror may or may not be lurking around the next corner. The opening segment of the game is a definite highlight as you awake, strung upside down inside a meat locker. The horrifying sound design, every single crunch and squelch, the unsettling use of classical music combined to the grimy gore soaked visuals showing death and decay in horrifying detail really launch an assault on your senses. Much like Resident Evil 4, you’ll never forget the first time the roar of a chainsaw kicks in somewhere behind you accompanied by some frenzied howling screams sending fear shooting up your spine. When The Evil Within isn’t detailing the macabre it’s supremely effective at unsettling the mind with some eerie visuals, creeping through a village while a castle across a fog covered lake casts an occasionally blinding light over you effortlessly invokes a feeling of dread as you know you’re edging closer to that unknown horror while the horror known is still all around you.
However I’m definitely not a fan of the forced letterbox perspective that the game employs (with no option to turn it off), I completely understand that Mikami has an artistic and highly stylised vision much like that of Hideo Kojima, but while the perspective might look really cool it really works against what The Evil Within is trying to achieve here. I’m sure that it’s supposed to induce a feeling of tension and claustrophobia but the camera is simply pulled in too close to the main character for it to be of any help when things hit the fan which on more than a few occasions lead to some deaths resulted from not knowing where the the threat was coming from (which is probably exactly what was intended) but it ended up just being a bit frustrating and annoying than having any of the stylised effects that Mikami has obviously wanted. Not having an option to turn it off at all also feels like a bit of a cheap move and you’ll feel that pinch of anger every time a boss pins you into a corner and you can’t actually see what the hell is going on, obviously resulting in yet another death.
The Evil Within plays a hybrid of Resident Evil 4’s high intensity action married to Silent Hill’s psychological warfare. Sebastian has access to handguns, shotguns, rifles and the wonderfully titled, Agony Crossbow which can be adapted to fire explosive, shock, poison and freeze bolts but the game doesn’t just hand out ammo, each shot must be calculated and used sparingly. The Evil Within leans more towards stealth, creeping around and hiding from its many threats rather than facing them head on and it’s here where The Evil Within starts to share more in common with a forgotten horror gem called Forbidden Siren and Rockstar’s Manhunt. Sebastian is outnumbered by enemies far more powerful than he is so it pays to sneak around and isolate threats and pick them off one by one. The game does a great job of making you feel like a frail human, the more damaged Sebastian becomes the more sluggish he gets, it’s terrifying enough trying to escape from a chainsaw wielding madman when you’re able bodied but when your limping and hopping about with a damaged leg, the fear is breathlessly pulse pounding and it’s this thrill of fighting tooth and nail to cling to life that The Evil Within nails so well . It’s not entirely successful as there are times when you’ll be sneaking up on an enemy for the kill and they’ll magically sense you’re there and start to separate your limbs from your body but those instances were few and far between.
Sebastian can also upgrade his abilities through the game by collecting ‘green gel’ which acts as the games currency and then spending that at electro shock therapy units spread throughout the game to tap into these abilities, it’s certainly a new and novel way of having a character discover new powers and level up. You’ll need to level up as The Evil Within is very very tough and unforgiving, mistakes are rewarded in bloody and violent death and you will die frequently. In the first 15 minutes alone, I’d had my arm and head severed, been eviscerated to bloody pulp, impaled through the face and blown to bloody bits. It’s not Dark Souls level tough but it was certainly a challenge that caught me off guard
Unfortunately The Evil Within is held back by some serious bouts of semi frequent frame rate drop outs and slow down. The Evil Within runs on ID Tech 5, which was designed to run at a solid 60FPS, but Tango have apparently modified it to suit the game, it hasn’t work. You could have the greatest looking game in the world but if the tech running it clearly struggles to handle it, it’s really quite self defeating and especially given that The Evil Within struggles to hold a standard 30FPS anywhere near consistently. There’s a great game somewhere in here that is being crippled by technical issues that shouldn’t even really be a problem on this generation of consoles, and given that The Evil Within already suffered a hefty delay from its original August release date, you have to wonder where the extra time was spent. During this review I have reached out to Bethesda to see if there are any plans to address the issue but haven’t received anything back. Hopefully it will get a post release patch real soon as it really takes the edge off what is otherwise a really intense horror.
The Evil Within is a frustrating review, I wanted to love it but its current flaws prevented me from doing so. It’s still an enjoyable if anticlimactic game and horror fans are very well served at the moment with this and Alien Isolation covering opposite styles of what horror gaming can deliver. It’s not Shinji Mikami’s best work, the story isn’t great and its lead is pretty bland, the difficulty curve might put some people off and it’s also currently riddled with technical issues that really hold it back from realising its true potential but if you’re willing to overlook that then there’s some fun to be had here and gorehounds will lap up the macabre situations the game throws at the player. Ultimately as much as I was wanted to love it, The Evil Within is somewhat of a missed opportunity and not the greatest of starts for Tango Gameworks. It stings just that little bit more that the biggest disappointment of 2014 is also the brainchild of the legendary Shinji Mikami, here’s hoping his next outing is a return to form.
Pros
Shinji Mikami
Great visuals
Incredible sound
Oppressive atmosphere
Satisfying combat
Cons
Borrows too much from other games, struggles and fails to have an identity of its own
Glaring technical issues and frame rate drop outs
Forced letterbox perspective doesn’t always work
Inconsistent and weak story, bland lead character
Punishing Difficulty
Watch the trailer here.
Rating: 6/10
Kris Wall
