The Evil Within 2 Review: Resident Evil meets The Matrix

<p><em>The Evil Within<&sol;em> was what you could consider a rough diamond&period; Meaning that through it&&num;8217&semi;s glaring problems&comma; there was a sustainable and engaging game that offered a refreshing experience from old concepts&period; I remember 2014 was a year of hype and for me&comma; it was<em> The Evil Within<&sol;em>&period; While it&&num;8217&semi;s technical issues and certain gameplay choices were slightly off-putting&comma; the game overall was very good&period; Now&comma; 3 years later and the much anticipated sequel&comma; <em>The Evil Within 2<&sol;em> is here&period; Will The Evil Within 2 learn from its predecessor&&num;8217&semi;s mistakes in order to deliver a grander and tighter horror adventure or will it just stink like a rotting corpse&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130705" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130705" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-130705 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;19125748&sol;TheEvilWithin2Bagogames2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130705" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Evil Within 2&comma; Bethesda<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Set a few years after the events of <em>The Evil Within<&sol;em>&comma; we see Sebastian has taken a turn for the worse&period; We can do the check list of typical sequel tropes that other games like <em>Condemned 2<&sol;em> followed&period; Alcoholic&quest; Check&excl; Remembering past events that haunt him to this day even though the original game never mentioned these events before&quest; Check&excl; New voice actors&quest; Check&comma; check&excl; Sebastian is reliving the nightmare of when his daughter died in a house fire&comma; blaming himself and also for the disappearance of his wife Mira&period; However&comma; his former partner Julie Kidman returns and informs Sebastian that his daughter is alive and trapped within a new Stem system created by Mobius&period; Sebastian decides to go into a new nightmare in the hopes of rescuing his daughter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I will say that the writing is underwhelming for the most part&period; The narrative is predictable while the dialogue exchanges between our lead and the supporting cast is dull&period; Most of the characters have little personality and no interesting characteristics to make them memorable&period; Sebastian is the worst offender as he utters the line &&num;8220&semi;What the hell&&num;8221&semi; at pretty much every event in the game&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s about 20 times he says this one line and others similar to it&period; What the game has going for it is motivation and humanizing Sebastian into someone we can care about&period; His suffering and determination to save his daughter is endearing and the finale of the game is beautifully touching&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s now a sense of gravitas to Sebastian&&num;8217&semi;s journey which we can stand by&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130708" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130708" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-130708 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;19125917&sol;TheEvilWithin2Bagogames3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130708" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Evil Within 2&comma; Bethesda<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In terms of gameplay and presentation&comma; <em>The Evil Within 2<&sol;em> has received some long overdue improvements and tweaks that held back the original game&period; For starters&comma; the game looks great&period; Tango Gameworks have done a stellar job at creating grander visuals that implement stronger dynamic lighting&comma; vibrant colours and better quality textures&period; Everything has a clean&comma; more polished look while retaining that horror edge in the disturbing imagery&period; Sound design is much more effective helping to create a greater sense of tension and feedback for encounters&period; Everything about this sequel is much more beautiful in comparison to the original&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There’s plenty more refinements mechanically for <em>The Evil Within 2<&sol;em> as various tweaks improve the handling of weapons while movement is more fluent and organic&period; The major burden from the original were the stealth mechanics&period; Sneaking around was something you really couldn&&num;8217&semi;t do the clunky controls&period; It was fair easier to just shoot your way through or sections that required stealth never came up that often&period; But now stealth feels more comfortable to execute and while it’s bare bones&comma; removing hiding spots altogether&comma; there’s more functionality to using it&period; Better controls and the perks you can upgrade make it more enjoyable and practice&period; It’s not perfect or fleshed out but it works much better than before&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130709" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130709" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-130709 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;19130225&sol;TheEvilWithin2Bagogames7&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130709" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Evil Within 2&comma; Bethesda<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The most satisfying aspect to <em>The Evil Within<&sol;em> is indeed brute force combat&period; Handling weapons is far more responsive&comma; meaning ease of aiming and remaining efficient during an intense encounter&period; There’s more emphasis on interacting with the environmental as a means to execute groups of enemies or at least to buy you some time&period; The crossbow makes a return and allows a variation of bolts to be used to stun&comma; explode or freeze enemies&comma; allowing a greater range of tactics to be deployed&period; I did find even the basic enemies were more challenging as their movements were faster and new enemies can impose a great deal of strain and damage with little effort&period; My favourite were the witch-like maniacs who wield only a knife but can grapple you and kill you very easily&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There’s also crafting which is great as it can help out when the situation is dire or if you need a certain ammo type for an encounter&period; Crafting may take a little tension away from the experience overall&comma; but it enforces the impact of resource management&period; This also encourages exploration&period; You’ll mostly find gun powder and it’s up to you how to use it&period; You can make a full clip of not so powerful pistol ammo&comma; or a couple of shotgun shells&comma; or an explosive bolt&period; This indeed forms some tension regardless&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130710" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130710" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-130710 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;19130121&sol;TheEvilWithin2Bagogames5&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130710" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Evil Within 2&comma; Bethesda<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The biggest change for <em>The Evil Within 2<&sol;em> is the scale&comma; granting players to segments of an open world&period; This is a great change of pacing and allows for a stronger survival experience that relishes on exploration&comma; survival tactics and player style&period; You can sneak around the town of Union&comma; blast your way through waves of enemies while scavenging and searching for vital loot and gear&period; The Town is detailed with small enclosures and interiors which house loot&comma; side quests and optional objectives&period; I love it&period; But then the tone&sol;pacing shifts as half way through the game it becomes more linear and similar to what Shinji Mikami created in the original&period; It’s not bad&comma; as there are plenty of intense encounters&comma; set pieces and the world remains beautiful to observe&period; I just wish the open world segments would’ve expanded later in the game as these were expertly crafted and vastly more engaging&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While a large part of the beginning is tough&comma; were resources and weapons are very scarce and enemies actually pose a genuine threat&period; I found the game to be a little easy on the normal difficulties&period; I highly recommend that fans of the original or veterans of survival horror games just go straight to hard&period; There are also small changes that make this a little less stressful compared to the original&comma; such as the inventory wheel now freezing the game and you can craft on the go&period; Crafting on the go however does use at least 40&percnt; more resources&comma; so it’s only to be used when really needed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130711" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130711" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-130711 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;19130338&sol;TheEvilWithin2Bagogames8&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130711" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Evil Within 2&comma; Bethesda<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The boss encounters are weaker for the most part&period; Aside from a couple of bosses with the laughing guardian being one of them&comma; they’re painfully formulaic&period; They often regard just simple observation&comma; dodging and shooting weak spots to defeat them with a lack of variation in attacks and stages that are far too big&comma; making it easy to avoid them&period; The best battles were in enclosed areas that just relied on you fighting them with everything you got&period; Most battles are grand in scale but shallow in execution making them tedious and dull&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; <em>The Evil Within 2<&sol;em> is a very engaging survival horror experience that fans of the original will vastly enjoy&period; The gameplay is vastly improved with new design choices making the journey highly engaging throughout&period; Plus&comma; there’s plenty of bonuses to collect and tons of replay value&period; Definitely worth checking out&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;