The Evil Within 2

The Evil Within 2 is a Survival-horror video game developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda Softworks in 2017. A direct sequel to 2014's The Evil Within and produced by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, the game follows detective Sebastian Castellanos as he's forced to enter the horrifying world of STEM once again.

Plot
Three years after the haunting experience at Beacon Mental Hospital, and losing his daughter Lily in a horrific house fire, Sebastian Castellanos has left the Krimson City Police Department and become a traumatized alcoholic. He's suddenly visited once again by Kidman, who reveals that not only is Lily alive, but she's the new core of STEM, forcing Sebastian to go inside once again in hopes so saving her and bringing Moebius down once and for all.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) While the original game was good, it was often criticized for it's story elements and mashing together several plots. This game, on the other hand, focuses much more on the story and consistency, keeping the world of the game in one major location and having much less jumping between plots and settings, making it arguably much more engaging as a result. There's even parts that takes place in Beacon as somewhat of an homage.
 * 2) The story is pretty well-written, with plenty of legitimately emotional moments interspersed throughout all the horror.
 * 3) Detective Castellanos, who wasn't very interesting before, is given a complete overhaul with his character. Now, he's not only given a family, but also a backstory, and a wildly different personality to go with it, making him a much more interesting and likeable character to play as, as well as adding plenty of stakes to the story and his arc. Said backstory also becomes a major part in the plot, like his failed marriage and lingering guilt at failing to save Lily in the first place.
 * 4) Kidman is also given a complete overhaul as it gives great reason for her actions in the previous game as well as making her a much more morally complex character rather than a simple traitor.
 * 5) Arguably better voice acting than it's predecessor.
 * 6) Many new characters are introduced, and most of them are pretty well done and given plenty of personality and development as the game goes on. There's also plenty of new villains who are arguably more interesting than the original.
 * 7) Stefano Vallentini is a disturbed individual who sees death as a form of artwork, having presumably killed his girlfriend in the real world in order to feel something. He's also often accompanied by a lovecraftian horror eyeball with a camera lens inside.
 * 8) Father Theodore is a religious fanatic who secretly desires power above all else and has an innate ability to brainwash people completely.
 * 9) A pseudo-open world style, where there are some sidequests to complete for some characters that give you useful items as well as expanding the lore of the world. There's also plenty of other things to do altogether, like finding resonance points (memories), finding fallen Moebius members and looting them for useful items, and so on, and even a shooting range at your room that gives plenty of prizes. You can also find photographic slides of Sebastian's past and talk to Kidman about them, which give both plenty of character growth and even easter eggs to Bethesda's other games in the form of collectibles.
 * 10) The main story mode alone is up to 20 hours long.
 * 11) Amazing graphics that are arguably even better than the previous game, which makes sense considering there's loads of absolutely gruesome and disgusting violence.
 * 12) Even the environments are more unique from the previous game, choosing for the most part to forgo grunginess and excessive gore for more normal-seeming environments, which arguably makes it more scary as it gives the implication that such horrible things can happen literally anywhere, even in a town like Union.
 * 13) Pretty fun and unique boss fights for the most part that manage to be pretty tense due to your limited resources and the sheer amount of power some of them have.
 * 14) An absolutely horrific atmosphere with plenty of parts resembling earlier Resident Evil and other parts being scary because of the thoughts of what happened to plenty of innocent people and could happen to Sebastian in addition to his wife and daughter.
 * 15) A wide variety of enemies, while there's plenty of typical zombies that need a couple headshots to take down, there's also ones you can't kill even with a sneak attack and ones that not only look horrifying, but prove a powerful physical threat as well.
 * 16) The game also includes a field crafting system, where you can craft ammo at any time if you get into too much of a bind.
 * 17) An excellent musical score with plenty of standout songs, especially the ending theme, a cover of The Ordinary World by Duran Duran.
 * 18) A highly satisfying ending that, for the most part, avoids being sequel-baity, with a pretty satisfying post-credits scene as well.

Bad qualities

 * 1) The story, while easily better than the previous one, has some flaws, notably some cliches and characters who aren't very interesting. For example, the main villain, the head of Moebius, is a pretty stereotypical villain with no real personality and Tatiana still doesn't have much personality either.
 * 2) Some technical issues throughout, even if they're rarely, if ever, game-breaking.
 * 3) The gunplay is still slow and has pretty big weapon sway, and the melee combat is still pretty messy and not very entertaining and the movement is quite slow even when you're sprinting.
 * 4) The game mostly revolves around stealth, especially if you're out of ammo and supplies to craft more. Just as much, some parts of it could be frustrating or pretty stereotypical, making it feel somewhat like a Last of Us clone.
 * 5) Theodore's area clashes with the rest of the game as it's pretty much a bloody medieval castle which was also present in the first game. Admittedly the tower has a bit more saving grace, but still feels kind of out of place.
 * 6) The final boss fight, against Myra, is pretty disappointing compared to the others. Admittedly, it's pretty intense, but the area is pretty limited as are the move sets, and it uses the trope of using plenty of smaller enemies to artificially make it harder.
 * 7) The sections where you play as Kidman are also disappointing as they're pretty much a glorified third-person rail-shooter followed by a walking segment.
 * 8) A kind of forced plot device towards the end to ensure the hero's success.
 * 9) The post-credits scene, while mostly satisfying, ends with a post-game stinger that could be seen as sequel bait.