The Evil Within Review (Moth Master)
A civil engineer with a brain tumor lashes out at the world years after the burning passion between him and his sister comes to a shrieking halt. After receiving reports of a mass murder, Jonathan Brandis and his two partners are sent to a hospital to investigate the psychotic weaboo’s endeavors. Can they determine the engineer’s mission and break free from the shackles of unreality before he is able to kill more people in their nightmares, or, at the very least, prevent the invasion of Zion? What will happen to the president’s daughter? Sneak, burn, run, hide, disarm, die, and wonder what the hell is going on for 15 schizophrenic chapters to find out.
The Good:
The game has a strange tone and atmosphere to it that don’t really feel like anything else.
AKUMU mode. If you so much as get tapped on the shoulder by an enemy, you die. Kim’s DLC has KURAYAMI mode which turns out all the lights so everything is pitch black.
There are things in the game world that make more sense as you progress in the story. It’s an interesting touch.
I went for 100% in this game, and it didn’t really feel like a chore doing it (even the no upgrades run). Like a certain other survival horror series, replaying it was fun. It helps that the game doesn’t really feel like it drags anywhere.
Remember in Bioshock how you would prepare a little killbox for a Big Daddy before you initiated a fight with him? You’d shoot a few trap bolts here, put proximity mines there. There are moments that are definitely reminiscent of that, and I don’t see how killboxing enemies isn’t a positive.
There are times where you can go stealth, but you don’t have to.
Body-burning simulator.
The DLC actually improves the story and gives more insight into what’s going on.
Tense and sometimes unnerving soundtrack by Masafumi Takada.
The Neutral:
10 weapons: revolver, shotgun, sniper rifle, agony crossbow (harpoon, flash, freeze, shock, and explosive bolts), magnum, burst handgun, HP Sniper, brass knuckles, machine gun, and RPG.
15 chapters.
It’s survival horror, but you don’t manage resources the way you do in other titles in that genre. Don’t expect to shift your inventory around and manage it so you have 800 shotgun shells and nothing else.
The Bad:
I had an issue with the mouse sensitivity resetting every time I booted up the game. Setting the right config file to read only solved the issue.
There can be FOV issues with the game, but Flawless Widescreen will fix that.
The targeting system for melee will sometimes cause you to kick corpses instead of a threat that’s right in front of you.
Only parts of cutscenes are skippable, so you’ll have to put up with a little bit of that on repeat playthroughs.
People who pre-ordered got access to 2 bolt types (poison and incendiary) and a double-barreled shotgun.
Pro Tips:
If you’re wondering why you can burn bodies, it’s not because they come back to life like crimson heads in Resident Evil.
Tap fire once with the pistol equipped to run faster in water you’d normally wade through.
Play the crow minigame to farm gel. It unlocks after you complete the game.
The last locker has 200k gel.
You can unlock a few extra weapons: machine gun and RPG (complete the game), burst pistol and high-powered sniper rifle (get all map pieces), and brass knuckles (beat the game on nightmare).
Aim your weapon to move faster during segments where you’re forced to walk slowly.
If you go into this expecting it to be a Resident Evil clone, you’re going to be dissatisfied. If you expect it to be vaguely similar to it, and to have a schizophrenic campaign, then good for you, pal. I’d say it’s worth it and to get the DLCs.