The Evil Within 2 review
Overcome your fears
Tango Gameworks’ first foray into the survival horror genre was met with a mixed bag of reactions, with some calling it a return to form for a genre that was slowly growing stale and others calling it a misstep in the wrong direction. Directed by Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil, Resident Evil 4), The Evil Within had the potential to bring survival horror back to the forefront of the gaming industry, but unfortunately missed the mark in a variety of ways. However, with The Evil Within 2, Tango has done a fantastic job of fixing some (but unfortunately not all) of the original title’s flaws and creating a game that is solid and enjoyable in its own way.
The Evil Within 2 reintroduces players to the original title’s protagonist Sebastian Castellanos, now no longer working as a detective for the Krimson City Police Department on the verge of alcoholism as he attempts to forget the harrowing events of the The Evil Within three years prior. Unfortunately for him, the returning Juli Kidman drops the bombshell that his supposedly-deceased daughter Lily is still alive; Sebastian just needs to rescue her from the deranged world of STEM, a physical manifestation of a collected consciousness. After some minor coaxing, Sebastian agrees to work with the secret society known as Mobius and return to the centre of his nightmares to rescue his daughter.
The story itself isn’t difficult to follow, but neither is it unique. The “father discovering that his child is still alive and that he must rescue them” storyline is a trope that is becoming quite frequent of late, but it works well for The Evil Within 2. Although it’s rather cliché and doesn’t particularly stand out against other titles in today’s horror market, the story is a very welcome departure from the original title’s convoluted plot that continued to confuse players even after multiple playthroughs.
Players aren’t required to have played The Evil Within in order to appreciate the artistic and mechanical changes that make The Evil Within 2 a worthy and much-improved spiritual successor to Resident Evil 4. With a new director at the helm, The Evil Within 2 experiments with many new ideas that enhance the experience, even though they occasionally weaken the impact of some of the horror elements in this survival horror title
Instead of the linear-directed hallways and chapters that connected the first game, The Evil Within 2 flirts with an open-ended environment. Careful exploration of the environment rewards Sebastian with ammunition and crafting supplies to improve his chances of survival, and the game’s more open-ended nature allows the player to avoid confrontation whenever necessary; that’s important because, as one would expect from a survival horror title, ammo and supplies are quite limited. Although the thought of being able to craft ammunition and healing items on the fly might make some survival horror veterans cringe, I never really found that Sebastian was overpowered in any way.
Like in The Evil Within, Sebastian can upgrade menial things such as health and stamina with green gel recovered from enemy corpses or found all around the world of STEM. Some of the more powerful abilities, such as the ability to slow down time when aiming for a brief moment, can be unlocked and upgraded with red gel. It was always a joy finding vials of red gel, especially after completing one of the game’s simplistic puzzles or exploring the far corners of the map. Upgrading to Sebastian’s full potential isn’t necessary to get the most out of the experience, though — in fact, I focused mainly on health and stamina throughout the 20 hour playthrough and found it to be enough. Only a handful of times did my health fall to critical levels, forcing me to use a healing item. Unfortunately, the game’s difficulty suffers to a small degree due to the ability to craft those healing items on the fly, making it difficult to run out of them. Where The Evil Within 2 shines, however, is the refined control scheme and art direction that caused the survival horror fanatic in me to never want it to end.
Unlike the dreary and, dare I say, boring Beacon Mental Hospital from The Evil Within, the idyllic small American town of Union works as a better arena for the game’s frights throughout Sebastian’s time in STEM. It definitely gives the game a more realistic vibe and a more varied colour palette that the first game lacked. As with the original title, the monster designs still caused hairs to stand on end; from deranged creations that are made from the severed pieces of murdered women wielding a large chainsaw-blade (a staple of many survival horror games that reminded me of a similar creature within Resident Evil Revelations), to a literal walking camera that has the ability to slow down time, they’re very well thought out. Despite these unique and damn frightening designs, the standard enemies grow to become quite familiar as the game progresses, with many of them sharing designs, but that is to be expected when a game starts to become open-ended in design. Unlike the uniqueness that some standard enemies brought to the experience in making Beacon Mental Hospital a place of horror, the roaming creatures of Union brought literal sighs and groans after seeing the same designs again and again. Without spoiling anything that happens late in the game, enemy variation thankfully gets better as the story goes on, with some of the creepiest looking creatures coloured an innocent milky-white with very little gore. Unfortunately, though, the inevitability of coming across familiar designs and creatures all too often in the early moments of the game threatens the excitement and scares in a survival horror game — this brings to light the game’s other problem; it lacks a sense of direction.
Although the game does make myriad improvements over the original title, it is disappointing to note that Sebastian’s nemesis this time around, Stefano Valentini, never meets the potential for frights that his predecessor Ruvik brought to The Evil Within. Although there were scenes and moments where Stefano stole the scene from Sebastian and some of the deranged creatures found in the game, I found myself wishing that the pair would interact a little more. The first third of the game can be summed up as such: Sebastian finds a lead on Lily’s whereabouts; he discovers that Stefano has been following her too; she escapes to another area and the two follow her to that area; rinse and repeat for about four to five hours. It’s understandable that, since Lily plays a massive role in the overall narrative, objectives will focus on Sebastian trying to find her in some way, but the early game’s cat-and-mouse feel felt really uninspired. There could have been a bigger emphasis on Stefano as a villain during this stage, or more interactions between the two opposing forces that could have led to some of the best interactions in gaming over the past twelve months. Unfortunately, it seemed that Tango Gameworks came up with an idea for an intriguing villain but didn’t know what to do with him, leading to a very disappointing, one-dimensional characterization of what could have been one of the best villains in horror gaming if executed correctly.
Even though Stefano doesn’t manage to steal the light in the way I had expected him to, the game’s final moments did strike an emotional chord that is difficult to describe without spoiling too much. Tango Gameworks managed to give Sebastian Castellanos a purpose this time around, and it hit the right emotional chords when needed. When being chased by a grotesque and bloody creature, the tense moments caused me to hold my controller a bit too tightly, while players can literally hear Sebastian breathing heavily out of fright. The atmosphere resonated with the frightening feeling that the game tries to convey, and it does so effectively. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the entirety of the game. Survival horror veterans will find themselves shrugging at most of the attempted jump scares, which is a considerable issue; in fact, most the frights come from the atmosphere and not from the creatures or the cutscenes themselves. Although there were a handful of times where I did hold my breath while trying to sneak past enemies, that was mainly because I wanted to conserve my ammunition rather than because I was actively afraid of the threats at hand.
The Evil Within 2 is definitely an improvement over the first game, but with very few scares and some minor issues with the narrative, it isn’t perfect. Moments that could be accentuated with carefully placed scares and some opportunities for characterisation and interactions for other characters beside Sebastian Castellanos are left in the dark in favour of cheap attempts at drama and scares. Whereas Sebastian’s motivations are clear and definitely more realised this time around, with successful attempts at some emotional weight behind his reasoning to return to STEM, other characters — such as the wonderful Stefano — are underutilised. Mechanically, the game responds quite well to button inputs, so none of the deaths I experienced felt unfair. It also made for some of the most intense shooting I’ve experienced since Resident Evil 4, with some fantastic and unique bosses to boot. The Evil Within 2 is definitely a massive step up from the first game and an example of how a sequel can improve over the original in a variety of ways.
Our Verdict:
Far from being a perfect survival horror game, The Evil Within 2 improves over the first game in the most important departments. It’s not as frightening as the first, but with a narrative that gives the main protagonist purpose and a handful of great monster designs, The Evil Within 2 is a well-developed spectacle of a sequel.
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