The Evil Within Review - Psycho Babble

[RaikuFA]

I believe a lot of people didn't get review copies either. Kinda sad when you think about it.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Hey, Jim...us "last gen" people still exist too. This game is apparently released on such archaic consoles too!

Anyhoo, i wholeheartedly agree with the clichèd monster design. Thats what my first negative impression was based on, when i first saw the game pics. Will some horror game developers hire me please? I got some fucked up drawings and imagary that i want to teach these children about!

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Oops double post. Sorry! Blame my phone.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Ever since they started advertising this game and showing teasers i just could not get excited at all. Just looked samey and cliched designs. Loved Alien Isolation, but when when looking at The Evil Within, just looks to familiar. I dont know, anyway will pick it up when its cheaper - just dont think its worth a day one purchase.

 

[Michster]

This game...

Good art-direction(mostly), but the framerate and grainfilter are pretty annoying. WHY does it have that weird aspect-ratio? It's god-damn annoying trying to navigate when all this space on my tv is ignored. Don't feed me that "cinematic experience" BS, Mikami.


Controls are just plain shit. Stamina-meter that runs out in seconds, poor aiming, overall movement feels awkward.




I'd pick RE4's control scheme any day of the week instead of this.

 

[Fsyco]

Is this note leaving tactic a common one? It seems bizarre to me that publishers would actually tell you how to play the game once you've bought it (rather than in the previews or after we realise the game is crap).

It's not "common", per se, but it has happened before. I remember hearing about how Sony sent guides on how to review Lair properly after that game got a universal thrashing for being difficult to play (due to the fact it controlled exclusively with the SIXAXIS, and as we all know by now, motion controls are bollocks).

 

[Pink Gregory]

Not surprised! Survival horror never really evolved. Once you remove the helplessness in the game it stops being survival and becomes action horror. Makes me question the amount of actual involvement Mikami had in this game.

That actually sounds pretty run of the mill for Mikami; when you get down to it, the man wasn't all that great at horror. Sure, the RE games could be tense at times and do the occasional jump scare, but those aren't the same things as horror. Mikami was at his best when he dropped all pretense of horror and went for relentless action. RE4 is the best game of the series solely because of its well paced action set-pieces married to great level design and Vanquish was my favorite shooter of last gen due to its incredible, nail-biting encounters, creative boss design, fun weapons, and unique design choices. Mikami's calling was for action games, not horror. Even as far back as the first RE you could see that as while it was horror at first the games increasingly encouraged just getting rid of enemies due to getting more powerful weapons and plentiful ammo. Trying to go back to horror at this point for Mikami was never going to end well.

Strange how people talked up his involvement when the RE series is probably furthest, chronologically, from his later work.

It's like people see Resident Evil and think that's all he ever did. And hell Resident Evil isn't really all that *good* outside it's niche.

 

[antigodoflife]

This saddens and disappoints me, here I am thinking that this is the best horror game since Resident Evil 4, in which I loved every last thing about (excluding graphics which is passable) and no one else seems to think it's good. Now why I'm fine with people not liking the game but the amount of people not liking makes me worry it'll be another 10 years before I get to play another game like this.

See, I love horror in my games but I just couldn't get into Alien: Isolation, Outlast, Daylight, Slender, Among The Sleep, Amnesiac (besides the invisible water monster which was awesome), but I feel that's all that's going to exist for a while. /Sad Rant

 

[Kitsune Hunter]

I don't get why everyone is dissing the game, apart from Jim, most reviews have been quite positive, you guys need to stop being so pessimistic all the time, it's the reason why I don't post very often anymore. Also this kind of raises the question of "Hate/10" in reviews, I mean the final score maybe average at worst, but when the actual full review paints it as the worst pile of shite to come out in awhile, especially with headlines like "Psycho Babble", it doesn't surprise me when certain gamers get up in arms and are looking to draw blood

 

[Mangue Surfer]

Looks like my tipe of game. Honestly, I have not seen any video and was thinking it was just a hide/walking in the dark simulator. Because, now, these are synonymous of true horror.

It's a good surprise.

 

[awdrifter]

Wow, I'm surprised this game got bad reviews form both Jim and Susan (over at Joystiq). I think these veteran game producers like Mikami have been stuck in the past, we need some new horror game entries. Too bad I don't have an WiiU, the Fatal Frame 5 looks like a solid new horror game.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I don't get why everyone is dissing the game, apart from Jim, most reviews have been quite positive, you guys need to stop being so pessimistic all the time, it's the reason why I don't post very often anymore. Also this kind of raises the question of "Hate/10" in reviews, I mean the final score maybe average at worst, but when the actual full review paints it as the worst pile of shite to come out in awhile, especially with headlines like "Psycho Babble", it doesn't surprise me when certain gamers get up in arms and are looking to draw blood

Just because a minority of reviews is negative it doesn't surprise you that certain gamers are looking to draw blood?! It's actually hard to find negative reviews for this game, and the ones you do find have the comments sections flooded with hate posts against the reviewer. You check out the comments on Susan Arendt's review on Joystiq? Holy moly...

And how can everyone be dissing the game when the majority of reviews is very possitive? Unless ofcourse something isn't adding up.

 

[weirdee]

I think the review is fair. The game is enjoyable, but it's also frustrating as hell for various poorly thought out design reasons. I'll probably pick it up when it's on sale.

I don't think the review is actually mostly negative, I just think that the bad parts of the game are just more glaring when held up with the good parts.

 

[Artina89]

I was planning on waiting for it to come down in price before getting it for the PS4, as £50 is a bit steep for a game in my book, but I am willing to give it a shot, I think I would be heavily disappointed if I pay full price for the game, but I might be pleasantly surprised if I am not too focused on the price tag.

 

[Sylph_14]

From instant-death traps that rely on trial-and-error surprise

Wait when was this? All the death-traps I saw had hints?

 

[RavingSturm]

Lots of mandatory deaths in this game. I played this on Survival difficulty and a lot of the situations are like that scene in "Swordfish" involving Hugh Jackman hacking a computer while being "distracted". The game doesnt give clear hints about what's going to happen so you'll be seeing the loading screen a lot. Imho its a rental or buy at a discount.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

Just quit this after making it to Chapter 5's boss.

Whilst it definitely has it's good points, it's a horribly cheap and repetitive game, which drags and frustrates because of the amount of unfair/annoying deaths you encounter.

It's story is also drip fed to you at far to slow a pace too.

Some real potential here wasted by poor choices. The most damning of which is to make death feel very familiar and acceptable.