Zero Punctuation: The Evil Within - As Bad as Bad Horror Games Can Get

[ObserverStatus]

RE 4 is probably the only horror game ever to actually successfully bring fear at points without being a stealth game. I think its just the combination of both the chainsaw guys insane loudness and the fact that to retreat at a decent speed, you need to put your back to blockable throwing axe attacks. Regardless, while it was rarely that scary, its still a shitload scarier then RE 1-3 and 5 and 6. 1-3 are garbage with no redeeming features, and the only redeeming feature of 5 and 6 is their graphics for fuck sake.

The only game to ever successfully bring fear at points without being a stealth game? You must be kidding, even Dead Space 2 was scarier than Resident Evil 4.

 

[RavingSturm]

chainsaw guys in RE4 scary? I just kept knocking these mooks off the ladder and shooting them! Also the barn defense with spanish guy was hard? Err you just need to line them up and use grenades or melee thru them. Difficulty doesnt equate horror. Horror and frustration are two different feelings.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

1st bit of news I heard about TEW: Horror game published by Bethesda. -Sounds good.
2nd bit of news I heard about TEW: By the guy that did the Resident Evil series. -Yep, no longer interested.

RE isn't bad, if it's your cup of tea then good on you but I did dislike this re-branding. All it was missing was the Capcom label and I would have seen it coming a mile off.

 

[altdoom]

Let's recommend Alan Wake.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

Lots of post with "isn't horror". I think there's a misconception.

If it has gruesome imagery is horror.

If it has gruesome imagery + action is action horror.

If it has gruesome imagery + action and the odds are against you is survival horror.

If it has the feeling of uneasy but not the gruesome imagery is terror.

Since terror can kill without turn into horror there's no such thing as survival terror.

Action don't mean bullet in the head. Shoot, stab, run, send your dog, all these are actions. It's silly to want shooting be banned of horror games because of some random sense of superiority.

At least it's my shitty opnion. And remember, if you don't know how to classify call it Action Adventure.

Terror is horror. They are the same thing. Action horror isn't a thing. You can have scares in action, but its either terrible action horror or it isn't horror.

Gruesome imagery is not required, like, at all.

The difference between Terror and Horror is the difference between awful apprehension and sickening realization: between the smell of death and stumbling against a corpse.

Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm...

Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there...

 

[Darkbladex96]

The game is like RE4? Wow, I have seen no promotional materials or articles written that seemed to suggest that. Marketing in gaming is completely broken.

The biggest problem is that RE4 is barely a horror game. Capcom doesn't understand this either, but Resident Evil 4 ruined the Resident Evil series. Because it was such a good game, Capcom mistakenly thought that this is what people wanted out of Resident Evil and horror in general. Nope. RE4 was just a really good game, but it wasn't a good Resident Evil or Survival Horror game.

And so we have another game dancing about how it's such a great horror game that modeled itself after RE4 without understanding why.

RE4 didn't ruin Resident Evil. That's like saying Aliens ruined Alien...Why do people think that a franchise or universe isn't allowed to change up the way they do things or provide different experiences without 'ruining' what came before it?

 

[LoneWolf83]

Lots of post with "isn't horror". I think there's a misconception.

If it has gruesome imagery is horror.

If it has gruesome imagery + action is action horror.

If it has gruesome imagery + action and the odds are against you is survival horror.

If it has the feeling of uneasy but not the gruesome imagery is terror.

Since terror can kill without turn into horror there's no such thing as survival terror.

Action don't mean bullet in the head. Shoot, stab, run, send your dog, all these are actions. It's silly to want shooting be banned of horror games because of some random sense of superiority.

At least it's my shitty opnion. And remember, if you don't know how to classify call it Action Adventure.

Not even close. The gruesome imagery, grotesque imagery, gore, torture, death, etc, these do not make horror, yes they can be aspects of horror but they don't have to be, one can have horror with out any of those and terror is a form of horror. Horror isn't determined by the imagery, it's determined by the emotions the imagery creates. Horror can come from many things, paranoia, fear, the unknown, the uncanny, the bizarre, the unusual, the twisted, the other, etc.

Action horror doesn't exist, I'm not saying a horror games should be like Amnesia, it is more than possible where the player can fight back and the game still be horror (and we need more games like that, games like the original Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2), but when action elements are introduced into horror games the action overrides the horror.

 

[Joseph Hardie]

For Uncivil War's finale they should play XCOM: Enemy Unknown and put the two mighty intellects against each other

 

[KungFuJazzHands]

1st bit of news I heard about TEW: Horror game published by Bethesda. -Sounds good.
2nd bit of news I heard about TEW: By the guy that did the Resident Evil series. -Yep, no longer interested.

RE isn't bad, if it's your cup of tea then good on you but I did dislike this re-branding. All it was missing was the Capcom label and I would have seen it coming a mile off.

Outside of a handful of diehard opinions, I haven't seen any enthusiasm for TEW now that it's live. Makes me wonder what people were thinking they were going to get - it's made by Bethesda, a company generally not known for taking creative risks, and Mikami, a man with a limited creative palate. The end result in those kinds of situations will almost always lead to something derivative and tedious.

I don't think anybody would have batted an eye if The Evil Within had been released by Crapcom as a Resident Evil reboot or offshoot.

 

[gridsleep]

Yahtzee, you missed your chance at 1:07 "...a beautiful dream that vanishes on waking...." by not putting a huge bulge in those pretty pink panties. That WOULD have been a nightmare. Don't want no more of this Far Cry game.

 

[Biodeamon]

The thing that really irked me about the Evil Within is that it had all the trimming of a action horror game like RE5 but lacked the critical ability to counter moves or at least dodge moves, so you're stuck with the stupid run or shoot paranoid ammo conservation of a pre-RE4 game but with the enemies jacked up and hyper like a deadspace or RE6 enemy. The action horror worked in deadspace or RE4-6 because you were just as quick on your toes as your enemies, and the run or shoot mechanics worked in "classic" survival horror games like RE1 or Silent Hill because sure your enemies could soak up alot of bullets but they moved slowly and with semi-predictable patterns (as well as the fact combat was almost always entirely optional). In the Evil Within it tried to make people eat their cake and have it too, and ended up making their audience choke to death on a sawdust cake.

 

[ZodiacBraves]

Shame this. I had read other reviews that yes, said it was basically RE4 all over again, but that's cool and that was enough. I totally believe Yatzhee too.

*sigh* why hasn't RE4 come out on Steam yet? *sigh*

Resident Evil 4 is on Steam. It's a bit of a dodgy port, but it's definitely there.

At least it wasn't the original port from 2004(?). No mouse support. Worst port I've ever played.