Here we are again – another day at the office and everything has gone completely balls to the walls. The lights have gone out, you didn’t save that powerpoint presentation before the power cut, there’s a freaking weird monster with a spotlight on its head chasing you, and your only friend’s a black cat with red eyes. Anyway, here’s The Consequence, the final chapter of the downloadable content for The Evil Within.
We’re back in the shoes of Julie “the Kid” Kidman as she returns into the diabolical Stem system to recover the traumatised Leslie from the hands of Ruvik. Julie awakens in a familiar place and soon enters the deepest levels of the Mobius complex which is still deserted (sort of) and plagued in darkness. Julie’s yet again without a gun and, if I’m being honest, losing her gun and finding it only to lose it again is just annoying and a bit tiresome. That the developers should have to slow down the gameplay to increase a feeling of dread and helplessness feels cheap.
It’s also a way to project more orientated gameplay which is fine, even though the mechanics are simple and the controls being slightly clunky make it a little difficult to successfully use the stealth components of Julie’s skills. The game does try to bring in more dynamic elements of stealth gameplay. Using a limited number of chemical lights or avoiding the bigger enemies is engaging, but sadly, the remaining elements feels rather shallow and dull. The more energetic and action orientated moments do have the strongest impact and usually when your with a firearm. The return of the spotlight fiend’s terrifying with some of the more intense set-pieces involving it.
When Julie’s armed with a gun, the game surprisingly becomes more intensifying than the stealth segments. With the low ammo and often overwhelming numbers, Julie and the player will feel the pressure a good survival horror should provide. This includes the few boss battles that become a series of brutal and thrilling engagements, much like the main game of the Evil Within. Coming face to face with the terrifying spotlight foe is just a fierce confrontation, that’ll feel like a huge relieve when your encounter comes to a bloody end. There’s also a nice encounter with Julie’s employer and an army of explosive enemies with a single-fire shotgun.
As for the horror elements in The Consequence…we’re offered a beautifully disturbing-looking world while the atmosphere increases with intensity as the game progresses. Julie witnesses some bizarre and unnerving sights that create the perfect unsettling vibe a good horror game should. The main issue with The Evil Within was that while it was a good horror experience, it relied too heavily on jump scares and horror clichés that made you laugh rather than chill you to the bone. The subtlety’s a vast improvement to the over the top antics of The Evil Within. The best moment in The Consequence includes a long climb down a ladder and witnessing several flashbacks that set up the perfect tone for a part of the game as scary as anything out of Silent Hill 2.
The story gives us more of an insight to the overall plot of The Evil Within and fills in some gaps that the main game created. The Evil Within could’ve left the gaps and the overall mystery that the game left many players in. It gave us gamers the chance to think for our shelves and decipher just what the hell happened. It reminded me of the classic 80’s horror films The Thing and The Shining. Each having a mystery and series of gaps that people to this day still talk about and question. But The Consequence tries to fill in these gaps at the cost of creating new plot holes in the story.
The Consequence continues the scares and brings an extremely frightening experience it its pacing, setup and gunplay. What’s disappointing is that The Consequence sheds some minor light on the story where it should’ve left it alone and only to further complicate some matters. The stealth’s still fairly dull and its hammy controls hold it back from being truly enjoyable. Yet this is definitely worth picking up if you enjoyed the main game before it and its action sequences and boss battles actually make up for dull stealth segments and confusing plot.