The Evil Within Reviews
A Mikami megamix of sorts that doesn't hit the heights of the director's previous work, but is enjoyable all the same.
The Evil Within takes the survival horror genre back to its roots and executes it in an extremely cinematic fashion with great atmosphere. Slightly jarring bugs and frustrating camera angles can be totally overlooked as you bask in Mikami's excellence.
A masterful demonstration (perhaps a little too gory), both from the point of view of the realization as well as the narration, the atmosphere or the playability, even if it is not always the most accurate.
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The Evil Within loves to give the player a challenge in various different ways with the lack of ammo being one already mentioned, but even the normal enemies in the game will give you a challenge.
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 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.
Director Shinji Mikami's latest fright-fest is pretty much just what our reviewer has been aching for in a survival horror game for the last decade.
The Evil Within is a noble attempt at bringing back classic survival horror, but it could have learned a thing or two from games that aren't almost ten years old. It has its moments of brilliance, scattered through periods of antagonizing design.
The Evil Within could be leaner and more technically sound, but the blemishes on its blood-stained carapace fade against its thick atmosphere and the frantic thrill of battling its monsters in the dark.
Brutal, gory, and one of the most tense games in recent memory - though not without fault.
Is feeling completely unnerved for 15-plus hours your idea of a good time? Then you're in for a treat
Tango Gameworks have successfully ticked all the right boxes when it comes to the survival-horror genre and the game is beautifully presented on the PlayStation 4 from its exceptional opening sequence to the twisted and sometimes sickening story of Detective Sebastian Castellanos. The relationship that you form with the game is one of love and hate that I could happily recommend to any gamers that want a true challenge on the PlayStation 4.
In this sense The Evil Within becomes less of a game and more of a haunted house ride, where you just roll with the changes and wait for the scares.
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.
The Evil Within is an odd beast of a game that straddles the line between helpless atmosphere horror and zombie action shooter. It is certainly a huge step above the Michael Bay-esque Resident Evil 6. If not for the unfortunate frustrating points, which really take you out of the bleak atmosphere, I would say this would set the bar for horror excellence. Unfortunately, these small drawbacks will cause you to frequently put the game down, and that simply doesn't mesh with a horror tone. Overall, The Evil Within is a horror game that outdoes other horror offerings by leaps and bounds, but just isn't perfect. If you want a game to scare the crap out of you this Halloween season, then The Evil Within is a safe bet.
While this may not be the scariest game you will have played, it will probably be up there in terms of suspense as it definitely provides an ample amount of it throughout its entire play through. It is a game with evident flaws, but not enough of them that it will deprive you of the solid, survival horror-filled entertainment.
It might not be the scariest game out there, but The Evil Within brings the scary and the tension. Unfortunately it trips over its feet in key places.
The Evil Within has a strong foundation in the past but fails to build on it
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.
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.