Critic Reviews
A challenging blend of stealth and action, but relies on gross-out rather than real fear. Poor design choices leads to technical shortcomings.
Superb gameplay, a breakneck pace and terrifying enemies makes The Evil Within a wonderful survival horror experience.
Shinji Mikami has yet to make a poor game, and The Evil Within does not blemish his record. But neither does the game enchant and disrupt in the way that Vanquish and the others managed. This is Mikami revisiting his past glories and, as such, it's both a delight and a disappointment.
Despite letting some of its most compelling aspects die off, The Evil Within is still worth a shot for bringing some unique ideas in the first place, and giving us a new way to think about survival horror.
Rather than the future of survival horror this is merely a retread of its defining moments, and even then it rarely manages to equal what has gone before – let alone exceed it.
Is feeling completely unnerved for 15-plus hours your idea of a good time? Then you're in for a treat
The Evil Within has a strong foundation in the past but fails to build on it
The Evil Within is a captivating return to the glory days of survival horror whose various issues keep it just short of greatness.
The Evil Within winds up feeling like an inconsistent rehash of ideas previously executed elsewhere. Its great boss fights aren't enough to justify the tedium and frustration the game puts players through.
Shinji Mikami returns to the genre that defined him, but the result is a jumbled mess of ideas that never quite come together.
The Evil Within is Shinji Mikami's return to the survival horror genre, but that return is muted. Overall, the Evil Within is solid and it definitely has some great moments, but poorly-implemented mechanics and a bland story bring down the overall package. Survival horror fans should pick it up, but others may want to wait until the price drops a bit.
The Evil Within definitely delivers a survival horror game that will scare the s*** out of you, but some may find a few of the combat mechanics to be a bit more terrifying for the wrong reasons.
If you like old-school third-person action games with horror elements, I'd recommend picking up The Evil Within on a console, possibly at a price cut. It will definitely scratch the itch of someone who has been pining for a return to the older days of gaming, but everyone else who has come to expect that certain layer of polish likely won't be amused.
The Evil Within is a survival-horror masterpiece. Anyone concerned this is just another action game soaked in blood needn't worry. Tense pacing, stunning atmosphere, and terrifying enemy encounters come together to create a journey you may never forget.
Despite borrowing a lot of well-worn themes from other games and movies (Hello, creepy shop mannequins from Silent Hill), The Evil Within feels fresh and exciting. It's easy to recommend to fans of the original Dead Space and the earlier Resident Evil games.
Resident Evil fans will have a serious case of déjà vu when playing The Evil Within. It offers much of the thrills and creepy environments that make the series so enticing, along with some of its frustrations.
The Evil Within might not be the resurgence of the survival-horror genre, but it is a fun and varied experience. However, some elements will serve to frustrate more than scare, causing overall disappointment.
Brutal, gory, and one of the most tense games in recent memory - though not without fault.
A Mikami megamix of sorts that doesn't hit the heights of the director's previous work, but is enjoyable all the same.
Creepy, surreal, intense and occasionally very clever indeed, The Evil Within isn't undone by its ludicrous setting – it embraces it to wonderful effect, always ready to add another layer of bizarre hand-stitched horror. But the overall experience is frustrating, never managing to fully escape that narrow field of view, making me feel as boxed in as the game's posterboy.