The long-awaited survival horror title "The Evil Within" was released earlier this week with a bloody flourish. And I do mean bloody, as this game dumps more blood and gore on you in its first 10 to 15 minutes than most games do in their entirety. Seriously.
This grisly experience was developed by the legendary Shinji Mikami, and his new studio Tango Gameworks. Mikami rose to fame as the main creative force behind many of the early "Resident Evil" games. That classic series' influence is clear here, as the very first playable chapter of the game apes 1999's "Resident Evil: Nemesis" to a rather large degree.
The narrative thrust of the game itself centers on police officer Sebastian Castellanos, and his investigation into a grisly mass murder. During this investigation, Sebastian encounters a powerful, malevolent force which casts him into a twisted, parallel universe where nothing is what it seems. Pushed to the limits of his own sanity, Sebastian embarks on a formidable journey to resolve the mass murder, and the true nature of this evil force.
Actual gameplay in "The Evil Within" is clunky, bogged down and sluggish, I'm sad to report. I'm not sure if this is because I'm playing the PC version where the frame rate is locked at 30 fps (frames per second). The frame rate can be unlocked then bumped up to 60 fps, and this may alleviate the "clunkiness" I felt while controlling Sebastian (especially when I was attempting to fire a weapon), but I shouldn't need to essentially hack the game to make it more playable. Other than that, it plays like the many other survival horror games before it: terrible creatures try their damnedest to mutilate, stomp and eat you...and you must prevent that sort of nasty end with the very limited resources at your disposal.
After playing the game for approximately four hours, I found it to be lacking overall. I'm not sure I'll be going back to it anytime soon because I have another survival horror-styled title, "Alien: Isolation" waiting in the wings.
Let's see what my gaming contemporaries thought of "The Evil Within":
Chris Carter of Destructiod says: "If you like old-school third-person action games with horror elements, I'd recommend picking up 'The Evil Within' on a console, possibly at a price cut. It will definitely scratch the itch of someone who has been pining for a return to the older days of gaming, but everyone else who has come to expect that certain layer of polish likely won't be amused."
PC Gamer's Christopher Livingston mirrors my concerns, stating: "The controls are sluggish, the video options are limited, and the aspect ratio decision is utterly stupid. All of the above drags 'The Evil Within' from enjoyably challenging to needlessly frustrating."
On the other hand, Tim Turi at Game Informer exclaims that the PS4 version of "The Evil Within": "...will keep your palms sweaty while delivering a harrowingly rewarding gameplay trial. Watching the credits roll with a sigh of relief doesn't feel like winning; it feels like surviving."
While playing the Xbox One version of the game, Shacknews' Daniel Perez also saw the similarities with Mikami's "Resident Evil" works, affirming: "'Resident Evil' fans will have a serious case of déjà vu when playing 'The Evil Within.' It offers much of the thrills and creepy environments that make the series so enticing, along with some of its frustrations."
As of this moment, "The Evil Within's" Metacritic score stands at 83 (6.9 user score) on the Xbox One, 76 (7.4 user score) on the PlayStation 4, and 72 (5.4 user score) on the PC.
