The EVil Within, what are your reactions to it so far?

[Wrathborne]

From what I've been seeing the game has pretty huge environments(the city environment towards the end of the game is actually really impressively detailed), even if it doesn't usually have more than 3-7 enemies on screen, so I dunno(haven't seen to much loading time in this game). I do like the gore effects in the game though, you blast a zombie and the blood spray sticks to the zombie, the environment and Sebastian if hes close enough to the enemy(the gore does dissolve off after a few seconds but its appreciated).

Some of the bosses are quite large and their HR Giger inspired looks are damn impressive. The School buss boss is actually one of the more unique ones that I thought really stood out.

I'd say the thing I find most interesting about the game is that it does play off the concept of "limited resources" and "RE4 amounts of enemies". In the walkthrough I'm watching the player does his best to stick to the stealth kills to save his resources and has done a damn good job, but once you get to about 70% of the game you start getting more mobs of enemies coming your way and he's regularly running out of pistol ammo.

Even though hes got a shotgun, a sniper rifle, and a crossbow that shoots various types of bolts(explosive, lightning, freezing) the games putting him in more situations where the pistol is more effective but hes out of pistol rounds.

I'm still kind of irritated that I dont know much about the protagonists, those moments where the characters have little bits of small talk to reveal themselves to the audience are present, but they aren't being used.

[Rombie]

Scream - Yeah, but the reason I posted it is they have officially confirmed they will work on better support for 60 frame options so hopefully it will help and the aspect ratio is an easy fix and not worth complaining about. What was more telling about the lack of support for the it was the Eurogamer DF testing on both bottom and top of the line graphics cards and they still had problems with the higher framerate on the top of the line cards.

I'm still kind of irritated that I dont know much about the protagonists, those moments where the characters have little bits of small talk to reveal themselves to the audience are present, but they aren't being used.

My understanding is there is some files and so forth that flesh the whole thing out including his background but I haven't played it yet so I'm not 100% on that.

[Wrathborne]

Well thats the thing, they shouldn't be relying just on the files to explain things. There were lots of moments in the game where the characters could have sat for a moment and talked which would have said so much more about who they were.

its just the storyteller in me really, I see moments pop up and if they aren't used it doesn't sit well with me. I get that back in the late 90s things were different and survival horror was all about the files to explain things but with how much more cinematic games are now, developers shouldn't be afraid to take a moment and let the characters be themselves.

If for a moment after a boss fight Sebastian and Joseph or Kidman spent a moment taking a breather and instead of saying "well thats over with, who do you think is behind all this?" instead did a little small talk, like "Do you think the mets are gonna make it to the playoff this season?". Even if its just a small 15 second conversation before they get back to business its moments like that which show the player who their character is and the example may sound silly, but this is actually really important stuff since we know more about the character as a person.

I still don't know much of anything about Sebastian as a character after watching the walkthrough other than hes an alchoholic, very protective of his partners, and a detective. This is the limitation of the file system to explain the protagonist, because its explaining and not showing. When a character shows you who they are, they're opening up and thats one of the key elements of screenwriting and since games are almost surpassing movies while using a lot of the same techniques, this is one technique that should seriously be used.

I know that they have different approaches in Japan, but this is seriously a wonderful technique to use in telling a movie or a video game.

[RaccoonSurvivor]

I got this and thought I could just look past it's flaws and play it - managed to get to chapter 3 and found the shotgun.. but the game is just SO boring.
I literally forced myself to play it ..
I think my problem with it is that it just felt like RE4 all over again, and the controls were god awful, to the point I no longer wanted to play the game at all..

Very sad, as the environments do look well detailed and spooky looking, but the clumsy controls and those horrid black bars were so off-putting.

Bought the game for £44 and will definately be trading it in to get something else later on... shame

[Guest]

I have issues getting back to my flat. Basically a long story!

My PS3 is there. Yes, I got the PS3 version of The Evil Within as I am not a graphics whore and I assume that graphically, there was nothing altered between the releases - I am hoping at least. Hope I don't regret that, but I didn't buy an XBO or a PS4.

[Renard]

I've been talking with my brother who just got the game. He's a long-time RE fan and his favorite is RE4, he's been looking forward to this game for a while. He really dislikes it so far though lol. He got really frustrated at the beginning with the chainsaw guy because he kept dying, to the point where he almost turned the game off. He also said the lack of ammo at some parts of the game makes it feel clunky.

[Graco]

Well, my impressions of the game after the first several chapters have been somewhat unremarkable. I was really hoping that Shinji was going to to release something more captivating. The controls are learned easily enough and it doesn't waste time setting up the atmosphere but from the beginning it's been a gradual decline. I can't comment on the story or the characters as I haven't finished the game yet but I find none of these aspects to be intriguing.

I'm disappointed with the level design especially. I was hoping the "Father of Survival Horror" would take notice of the overly linear design of modern games and bring the labyrinth format back to glory. What good is ammo conservation and making crucial decisions with potential consequences when you're not going to have to worry about your current area in the future? Revelations did a better job of addressing this despite its faults and was a better game because of it. The Evil Within was an opportunity to reinvigorate some old and abandoned techniques in more modern ways for the genre but seems to have opted for playing it safe and using the same format established with RE4 and borrowing creatively from Silent Hill and The Last of Us.

I would recommend this game to someone looking for a generally fun game but for a genuine horror experience, no. As of now I can't comment on the plot so this aspect of the game could be a plus but I haven't seen enough development in this area to give me a solid opinion.

[Wrathborne]

Labyrinth pops up at about chapter 6 or so then becomes an on and off thing through the remainder of the game.

I wish the game was a bit more engrossing after watching it all on youtube, but its a bit lopsided in what it tries to do.

[Grem]

I'm not very excited by what I saw up until now. It looks so unnoriginal. The gameplay seems too clunky and slow paced. And technically the game is not very impressive.

[Scream]

Interesting to see the mostly negative reaction on here! I wasn't really expecting that for some reason. So it's not even that good compared to RE4?

[imacwesker]

I am at the end of the game. Here are a few thoughts, without spoilers. There are some good things about TEW… and some not so good.

GOOD
- The ammo management is close to RE1’s… but you have enough weapons that it shouldn’t be a problem, anyway (for the fans used to RE1 - RECV)
- Plenty of gore and gruesome deaths awaits the monsters and the hero.
- The sound design reminds me of the first Silent Hill. Don’t expect to be scared by the game but to be disturbed/creeped out by the visuals and the audio.
- The inventory and leveling up of your abilities and weapons
- The nurse and the hospital
- The mansion
- There is a story… even if it isn’t the best and told in the best way.
- Replay value is huge (from what I have seen, you get extra weapons in a new game plus and new difficulty modes)

BAD (kinda)
- The same bosses keep coming back. You meet one in level 2, escape him; then kill him in level 4. then kill him again in level 6 (that’s an example, not what’s really happening in the game). It seems to me that they just tried to increase the length of the game with this process, instead of creating unique bosses for each levels.
- Too many boss fights.
- The game, as a whole, lacks of polish. I am playing it on PS4 and it is obvious that it was developed for PS3/Xbox and ported for PS4/XBox one. The scene with the first “zombie” is the perfect example of how bad some 3D animations are.
- Only 2 puzzles in the whole game, so far.
- Sebastian is annoying. The “tough hero with an attitude” was fine in the 80s and 90s, but not today anymore. His one liners suck most of the time.

CONCLUSION
TEW is a good enough game if you buy it as used/get it for cheap. There is lot of blood and gore and it should keep you on your toes, until a better game shows up. TEW isn’t worth $60 thought. It suffers from the same problem as TLOU: it is way too long and the game would have been better if it was one third shorter instead of dragging on forever. There are several bugs/glitches and some levels look far better than others; the game should have been more tested before being released.

[Wrathborne]

Its biggest drawback I think is its a very slow game, that doesn't start to build up until about 4 hours into it. I think that they could have trimmed out a few things here and there at the beginning to pick up the pace because its a large long game.

I also think that they needed a few more characters to keep things moving forward because for a game thats like 28 hrs long on its first playthrough a cast of about 7 characters in total is pretty slim, the fact that you only get to know 2 of them moderately well is even worse...especially when the ones you get to know better are the villains.

[CODE_umb87]

Just finished the game. Overall I really enjoyed it. The atmosphere and enemy design are the major + in this. Can't believe some people are even complaining about that. I think the reason people here are reacting negatively is because they're too used to what Capcom has given them with RE5/6/REV. A lot of people probably went in thinking they were going to be able to do boulder-punches/jump kicks and cartwheels with ammo pinatas everywhere...

I didn't even care if we saw character development or if the voice acting would be top notch. That's what Naughty Dog does, not Shinji. The enemies and atmosphere are the main stars of this game, not the protagonist. And the story wasn't even that bad. If people call that unoriginal or cliche than they have a really high standard. It did a great job at being a survival horror game. Can't say the same thing for any recent RE titles......it's a bit sad as it seems this community considers Revelations as the standard for survival horror.

[Wrathborne]

Whats sad is that Revelations is the standard for survival horror, its not that we consider it to be, contrast it with RE5,RE6, and...ORC, and its the only of the three that really sticks to SH(even though its still got a bit too much action to be SH).

Even what I played of Leons campaign from RE6 did not feel like SH. All I recall was having to fight and avoid zombies as the game directed me towards the sewer. There was a little bit of atmosphere at the very beginning, that was lost when the first zombie encounter kicked in.

Revelations lets you enjoy the setting and atmosphere and does allow you some sections to explore on your own, I didn't see that with 6. In fact I'd say that RE6 had some of the worst level design I've played in a RE game. They spent more time disguising a single flat linear path look like an open world than actually making stages that were fun to run around or explore.

Granted these are from when I played Leon and Chris and I only played a few hours of each, but I had enough real fast. 5 hours of Resident Evil 6 was 5 hours of frustration, disappointment, and anger for me.

[REmaster]

Replaying on Nightmare mode at the moment.

Only complaints:

1.) The story is pretty weird and convoluted, leaving much to be desired after the ending.

2.) The protagonist is one of the most dry and uninteresting characters I've seen in awhile. I don't know if it was intentional for him to deliver his lines with so little enthusiasm, but I couldn't care less about this guy.

Other than that, the game itself is pretty good.