I agree there is some redundancy when, say, a workbench is absent from the safe house, requiring you to use the mirror to reach Seb's office.
But where comfort is concerned, TEW1 really has nothing on TEW2. Even the mirror world (the hospital ward) was too unsettling to feel safe or comfortable. You mentioned the time the office area was pitch dark; there were other unsettling instances as well, with activity resembling poltergeists, etc. It just felt so bleak, and the whole time I expected enemies to appear there.
When I think of a rare comfortable place in TEW1, I think of the bombed-out funeral home in Ch. 6 (the churchyard level), where Seb and Joseph have a cutscene. Maybe it was sunlight and abundant greenery, but I felt comfortable there, despite the skulls on the table and the empty caskets lying about.
I think if Evil Within 2 is Silent Hill 2, then Evil Within 1 is actually Silent Hill 3. That game feels like a nonstop nightmare from beginning to end, quite grim and gross. I think it's great, but it is also an exhausting replay because it's so consistently unpleasant.
Silent Hill 2 always beckons like a warm cup of very black coffee, it's bleak, but rich in flavor.
I think if Evil Within 2 is Silent Hill 2, then Evil Within 1 is actually Silent Hill 3. That game feels like a nonstop nightmare from beginning to end, quite grim and gross. I think it's great, but it is also an exhausting replay because it's so consistently unpleasant.
Silent Hill 2 always beckons like a warm cup of very black coffee, it's bleak, but rich in flavor.
So I just started this last night. I usually play games on Hard, especially since Hard usually means Normal. But this is called "nightmare'.
I've played many survival horror games. I love them. I like challenge. But I don't want to struggle in frustration.. I'm playing with a controller, and there seems to be a bit of joystick lag. It might be because I'm playing on steam link, but in any case, aiming seems a little difficult, and assist isn't allowed in this mode.
I thought, okay, resources are low in this difficulty, I'll try knife kills... Haahaa... nooo.. That didn't work at all...
The first normal enemy killed me in one hit with the health at the regen point, too..
Instead of blowing my ammo on the second enemy banging on the door, I kicked it down and ran.. then stealth killed the few enemies in the way of the first safe house..
Not sure how I should play the game.. survival or nightmare? And exactly how rare is ammo? I'm worried it's extremely rare... I don't want to play so conservatively I'm frustratingly dying over and over trying to conserve..
Aiming will be unreliable until you invest in a few low-cost upgrades that reduce weapon sway.
In the meantime, you'll want to sneak around and pick off enemies one by one by approaching from behind and hitting X when given the prompt to do a stealth kill. It will kill them in one hit.
If you're thorough in exploring your surroundings once you reach the first open world, Ch. 3, you will have plenty of resources, even on Nightmare. Enemies you kill will stay dead, so slowly clear out areas and then loot the houses, garages, pickup trucks, trashcans, drawers. Plenty of crafting supplies to create bullets and syringes.
Well, at least for a few chapters. Right now I'm in Ch. 9 and I barely have any bullets. However, I don't have bullets because I kill nearly everything I encounter — which means I've collected a lot of green gel, so I've been able to upgrade my character, maxing out his health, increasing his stamina, etc.
So it balances out.
The game will always provide what you need if you let it. The game also auto-saves frequently, with three different autosave files, so you can always go back one, two or three checkpoints if needed.
Nightmare is really well-balanced. If you like survival horror games, I recommend it.
I just finished the game, and overall I can safely say I enjoyed the experience. Is a pretty good game. But I feel this is one of the key differences between TEW2 and TEW.
TEW2 is a solid, quite polished game.
TEW is unbalanced, with subpar stealth mechanics (something that TEW2 improves) and level deisgn, yet it's has several moments of brilliance.
TEW2 is good, but never reaches these moments of brilliance, because the game design is severely restrained. When TEW2 goes open areas, the game fully shines (chapter 3), with varied situations, decent stealth mechanics and a really good mix of item management and exploration. Is a great feel, of exploring without knowing what kind of situation you might be throw into with the need to explore the areas.
Then this dynamic changes and the game goes linear for the most part of the game. Is still fun, but is evident, this is not the type of the design the game was built into. The linear part of the game, is just good, it throws at you some cool moments and tries to keep the game fresh, but the combat arenas and bosses are a far cry from the first game.
The first game has some incredible sections, that favoured inventive use of the scenario and your arsenal. Yet in TEW2 most of these are basically simple arenas where you get thrown a lot of enemies, or dull stealthy areas.
Bosses are dull and not very fun to fight, compared to the incredible tense, nerve wrecking bosses from TEW1 that asked the player more than just shoot the baddie.
Is a shame, because I think TEW2 played it too safe, instead of keep going for the open areas of chapter 3, they scale back to linear scenarios that aren't as fun or even when they got back to an open area, is particularly less dense in terms of exploration, side quest and situations.
I might sound negative, but definetly this is a good game, but that never reaches any resemblance of brilliance, which is a shame, because if the game expanded what they managed to create in chapter 3, it could have been something special.
So I just started this last night. I usually play games on Hard, especially since Hard usually means Normal. But this is called "nightmare'.
I've played many survival horror games. I love them. I like challenge. But I don't want to struggle in frustration.. I'm playing with a controller, and there seems to be a bit of joystick lag. It might be because I'm playing on steam link, but in any case, aiming seems a little difficult, and assist isn't allowed in this mode.
I thought, okay, resources are low in this difficulty, I'll try knife kills... Haahaa... nooo.. That didn't work at all...
The first normal enemy killed me in one hit with the health at the regen point, too..
Instead of blowing my ammo on the second enemy banging on the door, I kicked it down and ran.. then stealth killed the few enemies in the way of the first safe house..
Not sure how I should play the game.. survival or nightmare? And exactly how rare is ammo? I'm worried it's extremely rare... I don't want to play so conservatively I'm frustratingly dying over and over trying to conserve..
There will be a lot of upgrading as you explore in level 3. You'll probably want to pour some upgrades into removing aiming sway, and upping the firepower on your handgun. That'll help a lot. I also can't recommend the faster sneak movement upgrade enough, and obviously upping your health.
Don't be afraid to run away from overwhelming encounters rather than wasting your ammo. You can often lose your enemies and then sneak back and take them out more conservatively.
You'll be making lots of your own ammo throughout the game. Resource management requires you be economical, but it's not unfair.
In the original, I would try to stealth the fuck out of enemies. Somewhat unintentionally earning their patterns over a period of playthroughs was interesting. Also bottle to the face as my backup.
That said, the game was super easy to cheese with the crossbow. The locker system could get you to a fully upgraded standard harpoon well before mid-game (which you could then main because of how cheap it was to craft), and the freeze bolts were just boss killers.
Man when your side quest is just to send me back the way I came across town and back into the Marrow and then ALL THE WAY BACK AGAIN just fuck right off with that.
Man when your side quest is just to send me back the way I came across town and back into the Marrow and then ALL THE WAY BACK AGAIN just fuck right off with that.
Just starting chapter 4 on Nightmare. Much harder than survival. I like the difficulty spike though--doesn't feel unfair. Enemies take quite a few more bullets and I can't go around killing everything---ammo conservation seems pretty important. In survival if I ran into a group I could just pump bullets into them but in Nightmare it feels like i could run out of ammo doing that.
The Evil Within 2 is a AAA release with no dystopian business practices.
No loot boxes, no pay to win, no digital deluxe edition, no overpriced pewter statue edition, no "games as a service" features, no season pass. Pre-order customers get like one special item that's completely unnecessary. That is as bad as it gets.
The game is full of crafting, but the economy of things to be found in the world is carefully thought out to keep you on your toes. You don't go online to spend real world money to upgrade your guns. Nope, everything in the game is simply designed to make sense within the context of the game environment. No "social" features, no psychological "gamification" designed to rob your pocketbook. It's a one way relationship between you and the experience.
It's a well made, full featured single-player game that provides a great ride and asks nothing more of the player than the initial buy in. In twenty years, when the PSNs and Xbox Lives are offline and irrelevant... this particular game from 2017 will still work and still make sense.
Yeah, last time I had that feeling was with The Last Guardian. It really feels awesome to think that you're actually playing the complete package, the team's vision, or the closest they could get to it, no bullshit.
The Evil Within 2 is a AAA release with no dystopian business practices.
No loot boxes, no pay to win, no digital deluxe edition, no overpriced pewter statue edition, no "games as a service" features, no season pass. Pre-order customers get like one special item that's completely unnecessary. That is as bad as it gets.
The game is full of crafting, but the economy of things to be found in the world is carefully thought out to keep you on your toes. You don't go online to spend real world money to upgrade your guns. Nope, everything in the game is simply designed to make sense within the context of the game environment. No "social" features, no psychological "gamification" designed to rob your pocketbook. It's a one way relationship between you and the experience.
It's a well made, full featured single-player game that provides a great ride and asks nothing more of the player than the initial buy in. In twenty years, when the PSNs and Xbox Lives are offline and irrelevant... this particular game from 2017 will still work and still make sense.
Nope. On my first playthrough I had it at chapter 13. On my current, chapter 10. You just need to focus on the upgrades that will enhance the way you're playing is all. You really only need the two crouch speed upgrades, and after that you can simply horde everything until you have 75K after Steady Hands 3 (which I could have had around chapter 6). I ended up grabbing Low Profile 1, Prowler 2, Ambush, 3x Increased Stamina, 1x Stamina Regen, Steady Hands up to 3 (requirement) before saving up.
The health and recovery trees are clearly traps. Zero points should go in either.
One thing TEW2 does that I appreciate is something not discussed very often when talking about horror games: comfort.
Areas that feel safe and cozy are important for contrast in a horror games. TEW1 was devoid of them — even its safe room equivalent (the hospital ward) felt bleak and unnerving with its strange occurrences, etc. And then the levels themselves were soul-crushing in their darkness and depravity. It was a very "cold" game. I loved it, but it rarely gave you any semblance of safety or comfort, and so the tone became numbing after a while.
Dat achievement name after completing ch13,almost made me tear up a little.
I'm pretty low on every resource and still have to deal with these
Flamethrower guys
,i don't know what i'm going to do tbh..sneaking up on them is tricky and the positioning and distance has to be very well calculated.
Things are getting exciting at least..
Dat achievement name after completing ch13,almost made me tear up a little.
I'm pretty low on every resource and still have to deal with these
Flamethrower guys
,i don't know what i'm going to do tbh..sneaking up on them is tricky and the positioning and distance has to be very well calculated.
Things are getting exciting at least..
Maybe it's too late for you now due to spending all of your upgrading materials, but
Rank 3 Smoke Bolts completely destroy those guys. They die in three stealth stabs.
IMO, those are actually the best bolts in the game too. They function similarly to two other bolts, yet are better than both aside from those really random hydrant + swarm scenarios that barely exist.
1. Synaptic Focus and Ambush are both great. Some people think Predator is all that, so YMMV. I'm actually going to test out Predator vs Low Profile 3 later. I suspect that they are going to work similarly. One allowing you to move at a normal walking pace quite a bit longer, getting closer before needing to crouch and the other just makes you rush towards the enemy once you're already kind of close to them already from a crouched position. The two would probably work okay together, but getting both just seems too expensive and redundant.
2. No
Maybe it's too late for you now due to spending all of your upgrading materials, but
Rank 3 Smoke Bolts completely destroy those guys. They die in three stealth stabs.
IMO, those are actually the best bolts in the game too. They function similarly to two other bolts, yet are better than both aside from those really random hydrant + swarm scenarios that barely exist.
I don't think i have the green gel neccesary to upgrade it either,at least i know that they die with 3 sneak attacks now.
Thanks for the tip anyway,i'll find the way somehow.
In the original, I would try to stealth the fuck out of enemies. Somewhat unintentionally earning their patterns over a period of playthroughs was interesting. Also bottle to the face as my backup.
That said, the game was super easy to cheese with the crossbow. The locker system could get you to a fully upgraded standard harpoon well before mid-game (which you could then main because of how cheap it was to craft), and the freeze bolts were just boss killers.
From what I can tell, the throw arc in TEW2 is a lot wider, making it easy to overshoot enemies. So aim down a bit.
And after a standard enemy sees you, I've noticed they'll often do this weird dance then posture in place before attacking, allowing you to bottle them.
Anyone that gave up on TEW without at least finishing up to chapter ten did themselves a disservice. Chapters 9 and 10 in particular are simply some of the best horror the video game medium has to offer. Chapters 11 and 12 are real low points, though.
Anyone that gave up on TEW without at least finishing up to chapter ten did themselves a disservice. Chapters 9 and 10 in particular are simply some of the best horror the video game medium has to offer. Chapters 11 and 12 are real low points, though.
Getting near to the end of the game, and collected all of the slides.
If there will be an Evil Within 3, we're definitely getting some kind of expansion pack to bridge the two, there are a ton of nods to future plotlines already ingame
One thing TEW2 does that I appreciate is something not discussed very often when talking about horror games: comfort.
Areas that feel safe and cozy are important for contrast in a horror games. TEW1 was devoid of them even its safe room equivalent (the hospital ward) felt bleak and unnerving with its strange occurrences, etc. And then the levels themselves were soul-crushing in their darkness and depravity. It was a very "cold" game. I loved it, but it rarely gave you any semblance of safety or comfort, and so the tone became numbing after a while.
TEW2, by contrast, presents an idyllic American town Union with cozy homes you can explore and nicely furnished business interiors. After sneaking past a horrifying
Guardian
in Ch. 7 and reaching the hotel, I just relaxed in the lobby while the abomination continued to patrol the streets outside; I enjoyed looking at the crackling fireplace and the tacky furniture and the varnished wood floor and the stained-glass lamps. It felt safe in the hotel lobby, and it felt comfortable.
The same goes for many of the safe houses. They're more spartan and utilitarian in terms of furnishings, but there's always a nice hot cup of coffee, and Seb's drinking animation, while protracted, gives me a moment to imagine what he's feeling, which is some measure of relief from the cold windy lightning storm outside, where an ominous eye stares down from the sky and monsters prowl the streets and alleyways.
Moving from a cozy environment like the hotel lobby or a safe house back out into the streets with their unpredictable monsters makes the outside world feel suitably hostile, and that contrast is exciting to me. I like that contrast in horror games, moving from cozy areas to uncomfortable ones and back again.
I'm not sure if I'm explaining this well, but for me I think it's part of what makes this game so immersive and allows me to play for eight hours straight without growing weary.
Nah. I've already seen some others make the same comparison, and while I get it, he's way too different looking and the biggest similarity is the blue shirt and how he looks in the photo. In game he looks nothing like and sounds nothing like Ash.
There's a particular scene though where he has blood all over his face that did make me think of Evil Dead 2. I was really just talking about Sebastian's new voice actor and the way he delivers all of his lines. Both of them being a cop was a bonus.
Right now I'm in Ch. 9 and I barely have any bullets. However, I don't have bullets because I kill nearly everything I encounter — which means I've collected a lot of green gel, so I've been able to upgrade my character, maxing out his health, increasing his stamina, etc.
You can kill the majority of the enemies in this game without a single round of ammo. Also, why upgrade health at all? You can take two hits usually from most enemies, or one from a boss. But with how generous the game is with health packs, replenishing your health in between attacks is a non issue.
Aside from a couple of intense boss moments and a couple of environments, I genuinely struggle to recall any of TEW1.
But I already know I have at least 7-8 moments from TEW2 already, as well as every environment I've seen so far, that I'm not going to forget for a long time. It's going right in. Great tone, great vibe, repeated bosses/motifs that fill you with dread, brilliantly rewarded exploration and good play... For me it's way more memorable than TEW1.
Sebastian finally forgives himself and learns to accept that Myra and Lilly werent his fault, then he wakes up and sees Esmeraldas corpse laid out on the bench and he immediately slams his head against a wall and goes ITS ALL MY FAULT! AGAIN!
Stealth in this game can verge of parody at times. The knife-girls, who were originally very intimidating to me, are so helpless against stealth. Just need two sneak attacks and they are out. Yesterday, I was able to completely dominate one by walking around a 2x2 stack of boxes.
In comparison, the chainsaw boss is real tough to get away from (without using smoke bolts).
I agree there is some redundancy when, say, a workbench is absent from the safe house, requiring you to use the mirror to reach Seb's office.
But where comfort is concerned, TEW1 really has nothing on TEW2. Even the mirror world (the hospital ward) was too unsettling to feel safe or comfortable. You mentioned the time the office area was pitch dark; there were other unsettling instances as well, with activity resembling poltergeists, etc. It just felt so bleak, and the whole time I expected enemies to appear there.
Agree a lot with this. TEW1's hospital safe area was unsettling beginning to end, even when I started thinking, nothing bad is going to happen here it started adding small effects and moments to it to always make me do what I needed to do and get out lol.
You can basically cheese the shooting galley once you unlock the assault rifle. Easy way to rack up rewards without ever needing to stop firing. No stakes, all reward.
Had a nice long chat last night with NeoGAF's very own Net Wrecker to parse out thoughts on the game. I think the game is really good overall, but goddamn it isn't what I wanted. I'm a huge fan of the "Mikami rollercoaster shooter", so to speak, and the first Evil Within accomplished that to a decent degree. The framework was all there, but the execution was significantly botched with tons of jank and poor performance on console. Instead of polishing it up for an iterative sequel, Evil Within 2 forgoes the propulsive and scripted formula of the original for more methodical, emergent gameplay. That isn't a bad thing, and the result is a sequel that's generally more consistent than the original in quality. The gameplay is also polished up significantly, though a bit of wonkiness can be found if you look for it. It also has the best headshots in any game ever - topping the first game.
A few pages back the city section of TEW1 came up, and I brought up the gondola encounter as being some "Mikami-ass Mikami". Last night I tried to drill down what a "Mikami" encounter really means to me and why I love them so much, so here's what I got. I believe many of the best encounters in both RE4 and TEW1 are recognized as such because they would make a reasonable player say "oh, you GOTTA be kidding me!". The encounters tend to accomplish this by one of two ways: 1. Immediately placing the player in a compromised or otherwise disadvantaged position by way of a unique twist or gimmick; good examples would be the confined space of the RE4 cage match or gondola in TEW1, and the poison gas threat of the Keeper encounter in TEW1. 2. Unexpectedly escalating the threat mid-fight; examples would be RE4's Dr. Salvador shattering the player's sense of comfort in the village's two-story cabin, the one-two punch of the rain of harpoons and subsequent Sadist appearance in TEW1's chapter 6, or going back for Joseph's glasses. Also, defending Kidman in the water trap where first it's a wave of regular enemies, then dynamite guys flooding in, then finally having to make a mad dash to the control panel to frantically input the right code.
The Evil Within 2 doesn't really go for this stuff. There are brief flashes of it in sections like chapter
13's escort
, but generally encounters are clearly telegraphed, mostly emergent, and don't significantly escalate once initiated. The combat survives because of how damn fun it is, but there's little actual encounter design that impressed me.
TEW2 also leans harder into horror sequences when compared to the first game. The obligatory opening walking simulator section is longer than before, and nearly-entire chapters such as
5
are devoted to this stuff. It was neat on a first playthrough, but the hampered pace makes it a bit rough on replays. The game also leans too hard into a story that I really didn't care about, with even more forced walks and some repetitive dialogue.
Yeah, I get that Seb's family loves each other. Pls stop saying it.
The more-open sections are when TEW2 is at its strongest imo. These levels are well-designed, very dense, and filled with rewarding interactions. Stealth killing a group of enemies with clever tactics is endlessly satisfying. Still, the linear sections lack the urgency and setpieces of the original game, and The Marrow sticks out as a pretty boring environment with not a whole lot going on; it has a few moments, but they're mostly fleeting. Boss fights aren't as numerous or memorable as the original for me, with many enemies presented as bosses feeling like glorified mini-bosses instead (Guardian, Harbinger). Final boss was pretty great, though.
A major nitpick I have with the game is that it's just overanimated. It takes too long to perform simple actions like drinking coffee, rummaging through trash cans, and scavenging from dead bodies. Sitting in the upgrade chair also takes a while, since the nurse has to settle in before any options can be selected. A lot of this stuff could have been cut down without harming the experience.
This post might seem really negative on TEW2, but I honestly like it a lot. I think I'd give the edge to TEW1 since its scripted, rollercoaster design is more to my tastes. Both games have flaws - TEW1 often devolves into a janky mess, though the sequel is less memorable and impressive to me overall. I'm glad the games exist because there isn't a ton out right now with spooky atmosphere and frantic, backfoot-oriented survival combat, and I really want a TEW3 to happen.
Im only on chapter 6 (11 hours in holy shit) and Im having a blast with the game, but I pretty much agree with all this. Definitely wish they had cut down on the story stuff and amped up the batshit insane encounters. So far Ive only had one encounter that felt like it could have been from the first game with its tense escalation and player disadvantage:
in chapter 4 where the security doors unlock one by one slowing spilling more and more enemies into the little room youre in
. Its a great moment and I hope there are more like it throughout the game to compliment the cool open levels and spooky hallucinatory stuff.
