Hands-On Preview: The Evil Within

Many modern day gamers may hail Resident Evil 4 as being the best all-round experience when it comes to survival horror: the pinpoint accuracy and intensity which the third-person view presents, and the frantic nature of some of the enemy designs always kept you guessing, just when you thought you were getting comfortable. While that was released nine years ago, Director Shinji Mikami has since worked on titles including Vanquish, God Hand and Shadows of the Damned. Now it seems as though Mikami is ready to try and better his 2005 masterpiece by providing an experience which the player will never forget. The Evil Within is the latest title published by Bethesda and developed by Tango Gameworks that will leave players cowering under beds and running for their lives.

With the game being a month away from release, I had the chance to play a 40 minute demo of The Evil Within at a lock-in event at my local GAME store in Glasgow. As the game was not yet 100% complete by the time this demo was produced, it wasn’t an accurate representation of the final product but ran very smoothly on an Xbox One. The demo I played was from a section of the 9th chapter which took place in a deserted mansion. While you were provided with some backstory, there were no narrative spoilers.

Prior to being in control of protagonist Sebastian Castellanos, I was able to view a short tutorial which described some of the gameplay mechanics and provided a brief summary on the events prior to the beginning of the game. When I first interacted with Castellanos, the screen was colourless and as you heard the screeches from crows, you hear several people whispering as you make your way through a dank forest towards a single sunflower. While the sunflower has been frequently used in trailers, this occasion was less colourful and soon you were met by the constant thorn in your side, Revik.

The team who were promoting the game warned us beforehand about the threat of Revik and how he can appear at any time, which occasionally happened. From the section I played, it seems as though Revik plays a key part in this section but, obviously, I don’t want to spoil anything in the slightest. This foe can appear at any time and you are made aware of his presence by the screen flashing blue which leaves you with 2 choices: run and hope that he isn’t on your chosen path or quickly hide in a nearby location. Some of these locations include under beds, tables and inside closets and these are among the most terrifying moments I experienced in the demo. The consequence for Revik catching you or seeing where you are hiding is that your health is reduced to almost zero which means that you always have to be ready to either run or make use of the environment. As you are hiding out in the wardrobe, you have a small glimpse of what is outside and you will see Revik trying to track your every move. While his spirit does disappear after 20 or 30 seconds, you are never quite sure when that is when you’re hiding. I was terrified to open the wardrobe as you can see next to nothing and there was no sound at this point meaning that it was all building up to a huge scare, which fortunately never came to pass. While Revik is a terrifying enemy, who cannot be killed, there were many more intimidating enemies inside this atmospheric mansion.

While the mansion is not a vast area, there are still plenty of rooms to explore and several areas where enemies are waiting to dismember you. There were only two enemy types I faced and they were only a slight variation between the two: Standard enemies sometimes had hooks, poles, knives, handguns and some had flesh-exposed faces with barbed wire around their mouths and all over their body. I must admit, it felt strange facing enemies who were trying to eat you one minute and shoot you the next, but it did make sense with what you were exposed to in the environment. Again the enemies help to add to the harrowing atmosphere which the game provokes as you constantly need to ensure that they stay dead.

Headshots have always been effective when trying to take down an enemy in games. While that changed with the dismembering in Dead Space, you are provided with a choice in The Evil Within. Fans of the Resident Evil remake on the Gamecube will know that once you kill a zombie, you will have to burn the body to prevent it rising up and causing you even more problems. While you can collect matches to set fire to the bodies with, you can also headshot enemies to ensure that they won’t cause you any further problems. If you have spare shotgun shells or are a great shot with the handgun then you may be able to defeat enemies by simply taking their heads off, but if you run out of ammo then you will have to burn them because they don’t go down so easily. If you knock them down quickly enough with a shot or two, then you can immediately rush them and set them on fire with a simple press of ‘B’. While matches are quite scarce, I killed two enemies who were gorging on someone and managed to kill both and burn all three with one match as they were in close proximity to one another.

Much like the rest of the game, the sound design of the enemies is suitably terrifying and intriguing. Even though the groans and moans of the enemies are horrific, the atmosphere is created by the subtle background music and creeks from the environment. Playing the game with headphones might be the best way to play this game as there are so many past events to witness and tapes to listen to that you don’t really wish to miss anything. As well as the blue screen appears to notify you of Revik’s presence, the obvious change in pace of the music makes you panic even more. This is definitely an experience you want to give your full attention to; much like many other survival horror games, the sound quality is crucial to the experience. In addition to the enemies and mansion sounding terrifying, the weapons feel and sound very satisfying.

With a limited arsenal, The Evil Within provides you with restricted ammunition meaning that you have to kill enemies in a variety of ways. As well as shooting enemies and burning them you will find axes, which I didn’t find too effective, grenades and a variety of bolts which can explode, electrocute or pin enemies to the wall. The grenades do take a bit of luck and getting used to because enemies that are walking towards you are often unpredictable with their movement and can almost move in any direction when they have you in their sights. Of the weapons available in the demo, the shotgun felt very solid and was very impactful while the handgun seemed to buy time and, eventually, knock enemies to the floor for a quick flame-filled death. One of the uses I found for the handgun was to use it to headshot enemies who were on the ground waiting for you to pass so that they could catch you by surprise. While headshots with the shotgun are effective, the handgun takes several shots to the head to make it worthwhile as enemies continue to walk even with half of their head missing. If you prefer to do things a little more quietly however, there is something here to suit you.

Crouching plays an important part in the game as it offers more than a stealthy approach to dealing with your enemies, but even if the stealth is very satisfying it isn’t always effective. Whether it was the demo allowing for players to get used to the game or if it’s a fair representation remains to be seen, but it seemed far more reasonable to try to take out the enemies at a distance rather than get up close and personal with these hideous creatures. You can sneak up on enemies by holding ‘RB’ to crouch-walk and run the risk of being spotted by foes who have been very well designed as they react to sounds either from running, walking and doors being kicked open. Another benefit of sneaking is that you can crouch under bombs which are placed on walls throughout the mansion. These glowing red bombs can be disarmed and salvaged for spare parts if you successfully a complete a mini-game where you have to stop a spinning needle in the blue zone, otherwise it will explode.

While everything I have mostly explained so far is exciting and gruesome, the main aim of this section of the game was to try to reach someone who had been taken away by a doctor. The person and doctor had gone through a huge door just before Castellanos could reach them. With three huge glass containers and three long tubes, it was obvious that you had to fill up all three in order to progress. When you were first able to take control, you had the freedom to go wherever you wanted in the mansion. As you make your way past various enemies and bombs, you eventually reached a puzzle. In order to progress, you needed to perform a specific disgusting act to make it to the next stage. Once this puzzle was completed, various pieces of dialogue played out in, what I can only assume is, Castellanos’ mind. In addition to this, the protagonist is required to collect various pieces of a safe in order to progress and there is a terrific puzzle element to it all which you have to work out for yourself by reading the documents which are scattered around. There was a great sense of achievement once I had worked out what it exactly was and I sense that fans of the Resident Evil series will be more than satisfied with the puzzles on offer in The Evil Within.

While I twice played through the demo, I was more than satisfied with what I played. As I’m a massive fan of the survival horror genre, I feel as though all the correct ingredients have been mixed in well together and the end result will suit so many playing styles. You can run in all guns blazing, you can down your opponents and set them alight or you can stealthily dispose of them if you dare. From the brief experience I’ve had with it, I predict that the puzzles will be in-depth and disgusting at times, but that will certainly suit a lot of horror fans. The game is out in around a month and it will be interesting to see what the final version is like. You can run and you can hide, but I don’t think you’ll be able to resist The Evil Within.

The Evil Within will be released on PS4, PS3, Xbox One and PC on October 14th while the Xbox 360 version is available on October 17th. Release info courtesy of Bethesda