The Evil Within

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- Mack of Worth A Buy

The Evil Within is a 2014 survival horror game developed by Japanese studio Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda Softworks for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. The game was directed by Resident Evil series creator, Shinji Mikami.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The game offers a classic survival horror experience which is both frightening and challenging.
 * 2) Many genuine scares instead of cheap jump scares.
 * 3) Terrifying and gruesome monsters.
 * 4) Axes and torches can make dealing with enemies less stressful since they can kill them instantly 97% of the time.
 * 5) The addition of New Game+ allows you to keep your gear from your previous save, while allowing you to play with some new toys rewarded from your previous run. Depending on the difficulty you finished on, your rewards will be different.
 * 6) Many puzzles which require wits to solve.
 * 7) Developed by Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil series.
 * 8) Several DLCs were released, among them The Evil Within: The Executioner.
 * 9) A lengthy experience that can take up to 20 hours to complete.
 * 10) The atmosphere is genuinely creepy, with some very solid ambient sound effects. The sparing use of music only amps up the effect.
 * 11) Amazing graphics and soundtrack.
 * 12) Lots of blood and gore.
 * 13) Many scary monsters which become very popular, such as Reborn Laura and Boxhead (The Executioner), which are considered two of the most terrifying monsters in gaming history.
 * 14) In spite of its difficulty, it can be a fun challenge to those who seek it.
 * 15) Being a game directed by Mikami, there is a very familiar reference to the first zombie encounter in Resident Evil.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Controls sometimes feel stiff or tank like.
 * 2) Uninteresting characters with little development during gameplay.
 * 3) Some of the game's elements are very cliched.
 * 4) The game is infamous mostly due to its difficulty since most of the enemies, specially bosses have an instant death attack, which adds up to the already high difficulty. Even on "Casual" difficulty, the game is still quite hard.
 * 5) Convoluted and confusing plot, complete with slow pacing.
 * 6) Some puzzles and many stealth sections which can be tedious to complete over and over again due to the game's difficulty.
 * 7) Several performance issues such as spotty hit detection, long loading times and choppy frame rate. There are even time where enemies can shrug off an axe to the face!
 * 8) Questionable design choices that make the game harder than it needs to be. Including, but not limited to:
 * 9) * Even the trivial letterbox view can cause issues, such as cutting traps on the floor off from view, or putting your throwing arc off the screen when you throw a grenade or bottle into a crowd/at an enemy.
 * 10) *Gun play suffers from poor accuracy; in addition to having gun sway, shots sometimes will NOT hit their target, even if your reticle is directly over whatever it is you are trying to shoot!
 * 11) *Horrendous detection for context sensitive actions. A good example is the matches; even if you stand directly on top of the enemy, the prompt to burn the body doesn't always appear, which can lead to moments of panic where you either take damage, or die due to waiting to perform an action that should've happened.
 * 12) *The game doesn't give the player invincibility frames during context sensitive actions, leading to getting a cheap shot from enemies you can't defend against. This becomes a nightmare on AKUMU mode.
 * 13) *Speaking of AKUMU mode, everything that touches you kills you. Doesn't matter how minor the attack is, you will die in one hit. Making the difficulty even more frustrating is that some checkpoints are stripped out.

Reception
The Evil Within received a generally positive reception upon release; praise was mostly directed at the game's horror elements, gameplay and atmosphere, while criticism was directed at the game's story, high difficulty and characters.