The Evil Within Screenshots Contained Within

[The Wooster]

The Evil Within Screenshots Contained Within

We have the usual assortment of dead people and kind-of-dead-but-not-really people. Enjoy.

Resident Evil creator, Shinji Mikami, has made a lot of big claims about his upcoming title. If the hype to be believed, The Evil Within, will be the legendary dev's grand return to his survival horror roots. Considering Mikami hasn't made a survival horror game since 2005 (or 2002 depending on your feelings on Resident Evil 4 - I thought it was to survival horror games as Airplane! was to disaster films) and the genre has sadly fallen into disrepair in his absence, fan expectations and doubts are running high.

The live-action debut trailer [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123394-Bethesda-Reveals-The-Evil-Within], hokey as it may be, invoked fond memories of Resident Evil's infamously goofy intro, but the following screenshots paint a darker, more disturbing image of the game.

[gallery=1451]

So, we've got the obligatory "mutated dude with a torch," apparently keen to reprise his role from Resident Evil 4, and a nice close up of some kind of zombie/skeleton kind of thing, but it's the shadowy, multi-limbed creature in the operating room that caught my eye. I don't know what that thing is - thanks to a clever use of shadow that I hope makes it into the final game - but the Silent Hill-style uncanny exaggeration of a recognizable human form works brilliantly. Provided it isn't bright pink or announced with grating strings every time it appears in game, that thing should be scary.

The Evil Within is set to hit PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and next-gen consoles next year.




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[ScrabbitRabbit]

Oh, please let this be devoid of cliché string stabs. They annoy me more than startle or scare me.

Still, I'm really liking the way this looks. If the game matches up to the aesthetics, this could be the best AAA horror game in years.

 

[Bug MuIdoon]

I'll be keeping a beady eye on this one. Looks like it could be promising. I like the fact it has a slight Noir feel to it with the camera angels, shadow and lighting. hell, the protagonist is wearing a shirt and waistcoat and there's even a trench coat!

I don't like the look of those zombie/skeleton things though. Not very 'scary' in my opinion.



Edit:

I just wanna tell you Mikami, good luck. We're all counting on you.

HA HA! Nicely done my friend, nicely done

 

[hazabaza1]

Oh god yes it looks like a darker RE4.

*fapfapfapfapfapfapfapfap*
Hope this ends up good.

 

[St3rY]

Mikami and Bethesda. I'm cautiously optimistic. I hope they don't get tempted by the pretty graphics and show too much of the monsters, like it happened in later SH games.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I'm actually really excited for this game, I was saddened by the cynicism in the announcement thread. Resident Evil was creepy as hell back in the day.

 

[Bat Vader]

I am happy to see this is getting a PC release. From the looks of what the character wears it seems he is most likely going to be a detective or some sort of police officer.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

I'm actually really excited for this game, I was saddened by the cynicism in the announcement thread. Resident Evil was creepy as hell back in the day.

Iunno, I still thinks its pretty creepy.
And the REmake... *shudder* Lisa Trevor still makes my skin crawl.

OT: I can get excited for this. It kind of looks like a darker and creepier Resident Evil 4, I can get down with that.

Heres to hoping it turns good *raises drink*

 

[Smertnik]

Doesn't look like anything special if those screenshots are anything to go by. Same old flesh zombiemosters in dark, blood encrusted hallways with flickering lights. Meh.

 

[Ftaghn To You Too]

The multilimbed thing and what looks like a stealth section to avoid some butcher dude look really interesting. The other screenshots, not so much.

I'm still optimistic.

 

[The Random One]

Dead Space starring Jaunty Fellow, it seems.

 

[piinyouri]

So wait, I thought it was said this was going to be a pre-rendered backdrop type game? (Maybe I'm wrong)
Then why do we have the RE4 camera angle??

 

[Smooth Operator]

So it's a third person shooter looking very reminiscent of Resident Evil, well I can't say I'm all that surprised.
And actually if this is just someones way to improve the old formula without clashing horns with RE fans and IP holders then it's a pretty cool move (up to the point I find QTEs and waggle shit, then I'll stab someone).

 

[triggrhappy94]

5 and 6 look like something out of Dead Space.
And in 3, you can see there may be stealth mechanics.
7 looks a lot like RE4.
And there's shooting mechanics in 2 and 5.

I'm still pretty sold on this. I'm happy they're moving away from the live-action thing. Live action horror video game monsters never work.

 

[Mahorfeus]

That multi-limbed thing reminded me of The Thing. Kinda creepy-looking. Granted, a lot of things will depend on how well the ambiance is executed. Will it be scary because this thing is coming closer while I'm wrestling with crappy controls? Or will I genuinely panicking?

Also, from my experience, give the player too much power and the game becomes less scary, no matter how it looks. Part 1 of Penumbra lost a lot of its horror factor for me once I realized you can just kill the dogs with the ice pick. Which is a shame, because a lot of effort was put into giving the player more creative ways of subduing them, which mostly became pointless. I felt that Mikami was able to pull this idea off pretty well with several of the encounters in RE4; even when you had your guns, there was still that feeling that you were kinda screwed.

 

[Ninjat_126]

I'm always a little concerned about horror games. I guess the main thing is pretty simple:

A DEAD BODY IS MUCH SCARIER THAN LOTS OF DEAD BODIES.

One dead guy is "oh no, someone died!", but 70 dead guys just blends into the background. Empty hallways and ambient noise, the occasional signals that shit has gone down but little of the aftermath...

Lost in Nightmares from Resi 5 scared me a lot more than Resi 5 did on its own: big scary monsters that are pretty tough to kill, combined with a severe lack of ammo and a lot of empty corridors to make you imagine your own threats.

A flaw with the Amnesia-style horror, however, is the knowledge that there' always an escape. If there's a monster chasing you, there's a hiding place. If there's something breaking in the door, there's a secret passageway. And if all else fails, you can run.

A truly amazing horror game would not give you those options. You could run, you could hide, but you could always (try to) fight or distract your enemies. You can't give your players an easy escape. That said, an emphasis on combat is bad. So yeah, I don't know how you balance that.


So anyway, I'm optimistic.