The Evil Within 2 – An Ordinary Matrix [REVIEW]

Sebastian Castellanos and Juli Kidman are back finally to once again plunge into the minds, and horrors of the insane. While The Evil Within 1 was an interesting experiment, with weird levels, and boss fights, plus a story that unless you paid attention made very little sense at times. A twisted world, and psychotic monsters the game, while was divisive, was a commercial hit back in 2014. After nearly three years we finally got our hands on the sequel, and …. it turns everything upside down regarding an expectation for a sequel.

The Evil Within 2 is not just a small tweak to the first game’s formula, but instead makes big changes to the way the narrative is told, to the overall gameplay, music, and atmosphere. It is a heavy shift, and an actual gamble as to whether it turns out great, but it is good to see Sebastian back in the gaming world.

Layers within layers

The story of The Evil Within 2 picks up three years after the horrific incident at Beacon Mental Hospital in Krimson City. Sebastian Castellanos has been considered to be a paranoid whackjob, and nobody believes him as to what happened on that day. After waking up in a bar from a heavy drinking spree, he finds himself face to face with Kidman, who informs him that his daughter is actually alive, and is being used by a shadowy organization. From this point, Seb is forced to go once more into the STEM to locate his missing daughter.

That’s the basic plot for the sequel, and while I will not go into much more than that, as it is full of twist, and turns I have to say it is a better story compared to the first one. In fact, the developers seem to have gone the other way. There is barely, or no mysteriousness or even vagueness of the entire plot in the sequel. On the one hand that can be disappointing to some, however for me, it felt like a perfect balance as a sequel to a survival horror franchise. The first game put down the groundwork for something unique, and the second entry decided to reveal all of the weirdness. In fact, the game is much more character-centric now and provides somewhat interesting motivations for the shadowy organization, and of the other side characters. 

No longer is the story a bunch of random levels pieced together, but instead have proper cohesive narrative and atmosphere attached to them. While the level design lacks the punch of the first game since there is less randomness, but instead the levels of craziness is now tuned to the pacing of the story. This might result in some to feel bored when looking at the environment, but I can assure those doubters that the settings go crazy later down the line, just like in the original game, and the same happens to the story. While it is no Inception, the story is good and is better compared to The Evil Within 1.

Stealth, and Crossbows

The Evil Within 2 is a much more lenient entry to the franchise regarding stealth compared to the previous entry – at least on normal difficulty. You can easily run and run in the sequel, but also stealth is now a much better option compared to The Evil Within 1. Due to its linear nature, there was not a lot of opportunities to use stealth as a viable option (unless you savescummed, or were really good). Here though the enemy can be taken down silently, and if it all goes to hell, you can still run and hide in buildings or vegetation.

There’s also now the option to craft ammunition, and not just to craft Crossbow ammo. Plus there are two options to craft ammunition. The one is at a workbench in the safe house, and the other is on the field, while it might not seem like a big deal when the player crafts on the field it costs twice as much as if it was at a workbench. There are still situations sadly though where the player will need to drench the enemy in bullets or arrows, as some situations will force the player to do this. So crafting at times is a necessary route, and it is not enough to just collect ammo from the world.

There are also sidequests now that the player can complete with Sebastian, plus hidden story sequences, furthermore special resonances that reveal information about the world of Union. 

The game takes place in the world Union, which is basically an Anytown U.S.A., but all goes to hell once the Core goes missing that keeps this world in balance. The player will have to spend a lot of time in these open environment, and while this may limit the horror factor for some, the developers were able to leverage the environments to create rather a more disturbing horror for the player.

The boss battles are also much more enjoyable in the sequel, and the encounters themselves are varied. Plus there are now mini-boss battles throughout the open-world, and some bosses have to be defeated in rather creative ways (also some fan favorites return for the sequel that spice up the boss roster).

Blood and open world.

The gameplay, however, does suffer a bit from the unpolished combat, which is weird since the first game had great combat for most of the part. Now in the sequel enemies are just too damn fast, and can end up with the player running around, before having a great aim for the enemy. Sadly most enemies are bullet sponges, so if you are not able to hit them in the head, or in a critical point, you will be wasting ammunition. Stealth is also a mixed bag, as while it is fun to stab the knife to the crazed zombies, you can end up with a rather silly cat and mouse game, and hiding around bushes so that you will not end up wasting health, and ammo. 

In the end, the gameplay ends up being a mixed bag, and while I did consider the open world part to be fun, a bit more polish would have been needed in the end. Also while it is great to see stealth is much more applicable, the AI being „brain dead,” and forced action sequences are still a weak point for the series. Even if you try to be 100% stealthy due to certain situations that are not doable, or at least when it happens you will be wasting ammo quickly. An interesting change for the gameplay, but some of these changes are questionable.

Not quite the Grindhouse style

Sadly one of the biggest negatives for the sequel is the graphics. While the game is made for the PS4, and Xbox One it still ends up being looking not that great. This is especially true for the outdoor environments, where for up until Chapter 7 most of the game looks unimpressive. After that Chapter, the game can muster up the force to look better, and the environments will look better. The faces are highly detailed, but the enemy models feel a bit too blurry, and at times even the effects have issues, as they seem to be either low poly count or place holders.

It also lost some of its charms, as instead of Mikami directing, he is now only a producer, and that shows in certain scenes and camera work. So while not only the graphics are problematic, the game might lack memorable scenes for some (if the person was expecting Mikami’s weirdness for the sequel).The sound design is luckily still fantastic, and every weapon and monster has a unique sound, and music to them. Plus there is a really great cover of a Duran Duran song at the end. Also, the boss battles have their own separate themes, and all of them are superb.

The Evil Within 2 ends up being a bit inferior in terms of graphics due to its open world nature, but the closed environments still look fantastic.

A new breed of horror.. again

The Evil Within 2 is a sequel that is too bold in certain areas and tries to do many different things; it falls apart at times. The open world is great, but it is not too varied, and also the gunplay somehow became worse than the first game. The graphics also evolved, but also still has issues, which is probably due to the developers using ID TECH 5 and another wizardry to get the game running.

It is a shame that there are these hiccups, as the overall package is still quite solid in the end. For fans of the series, this is a must-have, but for those who are hesitant should wait for a sale.

-Dante-

Too many new ideas, and concepts, a solid game that falls apart between the myriad of a design decision. It is still a must-have for franchise fans.

Developer: Tango Gameworks
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Genre: Survival Horror
Release Date: 13th of October 2017

Pro: 

Great story, fun antagonists
Boss fights are actually fun
Tries to do a lot of new things...

Con:

... this makes the game a bit unfocused
Graphics are still a mess in the open world
Controls are not the best for combat

Gameplay: 78

Graphics: 81

Story: 83

Music/Audio: 85

Ambiance: 79

Total: 81