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The Evil Within 2 is the best survival horror game since Silent Hill 2
- Thread starter BadWolf
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People are just having different opinions. Yeah I know, its crazy world we live in.
Let them hate sir. You have my axe.
As someone who has played EW1 a ton, and plan to replay it again now that I am done with EW2, there is no way like I mentioned in the above list of negatives you could come to the conclusion EW2 is a better survival horror experience than EW1.
You MAY think it's a better game, because it appeases what you like in the industry for a fun experience, but as a survival horror experience it completely is a misstep in all categories from its predecessor.
That's like saying "both sides". In a heated discussion, you need to be able to evidence your opinion based on facts, or at least somewhat supportable arguments. Why have reviews, why have opinions, why have anything if there was no even vaguely agreeable standard as to what good and bad are?
I'm enjoying TEW2 entirely as a stealth and survival horror game and enjoying it much more than I enjoyed TEW1.
Like in TEW2 I constantly feel scared and anxious and I'm completely immersed in the gameworld, creeping from cover to cover, watching out for enemies, planning routes and strategies.
YMMV ¯\_(ツ
_/¯100%. In a way its strength is that it focused on worldbuilding, plot and characters over combat etc.
Which Soul of the Beast didn't, hence all the irritated responses like the one you quoted.
Soul of the Beast
Member
Listen guys, I know it's just different opinions.
I am just triggered (mad) as hell, that's all. Let me freak out a bit okay.
I am just triggered (mad) as hell, that's all. Let me freak out a bit okay.
Dane_gerClose
Member
I had it in my list as well, but both of you made valid points. I suppose it's on my list of great horror adventures then! With stuff like Detention and Anatomy.
I can see the community has specific tastes, but as someone who enjoys a wide variety of horror I got to say it's been pretty great these past few years.
I'm enjoying TEW2 entirely as a stealth and survival horror game and enjoying it much more than I enjoyed TEW1.
Like in TEW2 I constantly feel scared and anxious and I'm completely immersed in the gameworld, creeping from cover to cover, watching out for enemies, planning routes and strategies.
YMMV ¯\_(ツ
That's exactly how I played it as well.
MiamiWesker
Member
I disagree with many points, specifically about the combat being better than RE4 which is crazy. There are clear examples of TEW2 being janky in a way RE4 is not, RE4 is polished to perfection, every game system works perfectly as intended to create the best action game ever.
In TEW2 I have seen enemies completely freak out whenever I climb objects. They get stuck, they teleport, they clip into objects. This is never an issue in RE4. Enemy AI is generally awful as they lose you after you run away for a few seconds. You can exploit game systems like corner kill forever if you want. Plus the design of the encounters are no where near as well designed as RE4 or TEW1 for that matter.
Yes TEW2 open world allows for some cool emergent gameplay moments, I have had a few and it's why the game is great. But I felt TEW1 did the traps and improvise how to survive better even in closer quarters because each area was hand crafted to enhance that particular encounter where TEW2 its just a big map with enemies at times.
As for best survival horror, I think SH2 is overrated, I think it's one of the most boring games to play and not close to the best in it's own series. RE4 is clearly the best game in the genre but even if you don't consider that to be survival horror there is still stuff like DS2 and TEW1 which so far I put ahead.
In TEW2 I have seen enemies completely freak out whenever I climb objects. They get stuck, they teleport, they clip into objects. This is never an issue in RE4. Enemy AI is generally awful as they lose you after you run away for a few seconds. You can exploit game systems like corner kill forever if you want. Plus the design of the encounters are no where near as well designed as RE4 or TEW1 for that matter.
Yes TEW2 open world allows for some cool emergent gameplay moments, I have had a few and it's why the game is great. But I felt TEW1 did the traps and improvise how to survive better even in closer quarters because each area was hand crafted to enhance that particular encounter where TEW2 its just a big map with enemies at times.
As for best survival horror, I think SH2 is overrated, I think it's one of the most boring games to play and not close to the best in it's own series. RE4 is clearly the best game in the genre but even if you don't consider that to be survival horror there is still stuff like DS2 and TEW1 which so far I put ahead.
MaximusPayne
Member
Doesn't the
Sykes side quest count as a side mission that grants you weapons and resources?
He was definitely being hyperbolic and emotional, but he *was* trying to make an argument... initially. The side quest thing I don't agree with, even if it's just going back to an old location and pressing a button, that's sort of par for the course of when it comes to them these days. You often get a reward even if it isn't exactly a useful one.
I found an opinion that restates what I said but more to the point so I'm quoting it for emphasis ^^
The best part of the TEW2 was the atmosphere and the improved gameplay over the first.
They nailed some really good set pieces, enviorments and monster designs.
But the story tho.....was fucking terrible.
And the climax that tied everything together felt like belonged in some shitty CSI halloween episode.
Great game, awesome game, terrible awful no good story, characterization and ending.
They nailed some really good set pieces, enviorments and monster designs.
But the story tho.....was fucking terrible.
And the climax that tied everything together felt like belonged in some shitty CSI halloween episode.
Great game, awesome game, terrible awful no good story, characterization and ending.
I think for many people, TEW1's story didn't really get in the way of the game itself too much. TEW2 is heavily narrative focused.
Can't guarantee it would have changed your mind but I've enjoyed it a lot more since leaving the open world section at the end of chapter 3
SargerusBR
I love Pokken!
Question, which horror games have LEGIT great stories? I can only think of SH2 and maybe SOMA.
If being janky shit is what defines "Survival Horror" than Im glad they're not making games like that anymore....
Soul of the Beast
Member
The atmosphere might be decent but it is much worse than TEW1.
The art direction in general is a huge step back, the world design is uninspired, enemy mobs are just generic ''American'' zombies with design similar to the infected from The Last of Us. Unlike the haunted in TEW1 which had incredibly detailed and diverse design.
I elaborated further on that argument afterwards - yes technically these can be called side quests, but the point is that no structure or UI is hung upon them, they're just tangential scripted moments in the game world. Some of which you certainly don't get resources from. You can find all of them without speaking to NPCs, IIRC.
They are just scripted moments/storylines in the gameworld.
Because TEW2 is not janky?
Just the first three chapters of TEW1 are atmospheric as fuck. I think people in the OT mentioned how TEW2 is more comforting and TEW1 feels more oppressive. The open-world versus linear set piece design emphasizes that.
TEW2 is definitely better on a technical level.
Kain-Nosgoth
Member
silent hill 4 story is fucking great, but a lot of people dismiss it because the other flaws the game had unfortunately!
Yeah TEW has much better combat(huge reason why I loved it), but overall RE7 was the magic I never expected. Loved it so much.
Wow, A lot of mixed opinions. Personally I'm on chapter 13, I think?
and I really couldn't stand everything up to this point. Open world ruins pacing and tension, writing and acting are shit, and up until this point any sense of style or atmosphere from the first game seems to be gone. I've been enjoying it for what it is, and it seems like it's going to get better from here, but man is it messy.
sometime after learning the plan to take down mobious
I keep wanting to try the game but like you said, all the negativity around it has made me hold back.
SH4, even though it was never originally intended to be an SH game in the first place, is more Silent Hill than Downpour. Downpour's story was ass.
Homecoming has the SH atmosphere (meeting your mother for the first time and the hotel with the lady behind the door). Too bad the PC version has a LOT of problems that make it mostly unplayable.
One of the now optional pillars of a survival horror game is that the main character is usually not some military-trained badass, will use available weaponry poorly and probably die in big combat situation because they are usually fighting supernatural monsters that are stronger and/or faster. It's more about negotiating around enemies using the environment, stealth or your wits.
The atmosphere might be decent but it is much worse than TEW1.
TEW1 Atmosphere was all over the place, and it was ham fisted as all fuck. Nothing was cohesive or made any sense (But that's the point! you yell at me) but it makes a for a jarring sense of pacing that left me feeling irritated.
Even with TEW2 doing the same thing, at least I felt like everything was more coherent than the first.
Compared to TEW1? Absofucking-lutely.
As far as being scary, neither Evil Within game was scary to me, but I don't really care about that.
The horror part in this RE4 style of Action Horror game that I really appreciate comes in the form of enemy design and overall game design. You wouldn't have shit like the ghost sidequest and how it affects your game if it wasn't a horror themed game. The limited resources part also makes basic combat decisions a lot of fun.
So I don't really think too much about which one is more scary, because I don't really care.
The reason why I love the enemy and boss design in the first game isn't because it scares me, it's because it's creative, looks great, has memorable silhouettes and the fights are a blast, even with one hit kill mechanics.
You wouldn't get the crazy kind of enemy design and variety you find in Action RE without the horror themes, you just need to look at basically every other TPS around. The Last of Us has the best enemy variety in any of the modern Naughty Dog games, and it also has its horror influences. Horror is simply an endless source of awesome enemies, so every game like this benefits from those themes, no matter how scary it is.
Not that I don't appreciate games that are actually scary, but when they go too far in just trying to scare you like in the recent wave of Amnesia-inspired horror games, the moment they fail to do so, there's not much of an interesting game left. It's why I really dislike Outlast. It didn't scare me, so it was just a slog. Nothing in RE4~6 comes close to being scary, but I'm still having the time of my life playing these games because they're fantastic. Stunning folks and then kicking the shit out of them never gets old, hiding in lockers and waiting certainly does.
The horror part in this RE4 style of Action Horror game that I really appreciate comes in the form of enemy design and overall game design. You wouldn't have shit like the ghost sidequest and how it affects your game if it wasn't a horror themed game. The limited resources part also makes basic combat decisions a lot of fun.
So I don't really think too much about which one is more scary, because I don't really care.
The reason why I love the enemy and boss design in the first game isn't because it scares me, it's because it's creative, looks great, has memorable silhouettes and the fights are a blast, even with one hit kill mechanics.
You wouldn't get the crazy kind of enemy design and variety you find in Action RE without the horror themes, you just need to look at basically every other TPS around. The Last of Us has the best enemy variety in any of the modern Naughty Dog games, and it also has its horror influences. Horror is simply an endless source of awesome enemies, so every game like this benefits from those themes, no matter how scary it is.
Not that I don't appreciate games that are actually scary, but when they go too far in just trying to scare you like in the recent wave of Amnesia-inspired horror games, the moment they fail to do so, there's not much of an interesting game left. It's why I really dislike Outlast. It didn't scare me, so it was just a slog. Nothing in RE4~6 comes close to being scary, but I'm still having the time of my life playing these games because they're fantastic. Stunning folks and then kicking the shit out of them never gets old, hiding in lockers and waiting certainly does.
Kain-Nosgoth
Member
watch some let's play then, the story is really worth it!
Bloodporne
Member
I just rented it the other night, played for three hours and I'm good.
It's certainly an adequate game and probably cool in its own right, it just is the opposite of what I wanted from a TEW sequel...which I didn't even actively lust for in the first place.
It somehow makes me now fondly look back on the first game, which is quite an achievement seeing how I thought it was a maybe a potential diamond in the rough, but not even good game overall. It just made me mildly wonder what a fleshed-out, less messy and tight sequel to those ideas would be like.
Well, here we are at The Current Design Cliches Within and I was just insanely disinterested and bored already after an hour after playing gems like Prey for the past few months. The first TEW may have not worked overall, but at least it was nutty and kind of crazy which I appreciate...and the combat was actually awesome in some ways.
Dead Space, Dead Space 2, Siren games, SOMA, Cry of Fear...those are just from the top of my head that I think take a dump on TEW2.
It's certainly an adequate game and probably cool in its own right, it just is the opposite of what I wanted from a TEW sequel...which I didn't even actively lust for in the first place.
It somehow makes me now fondly look back on the first game, which is quite an achievement seeing how I thought it was a maybe a potential diamond in the rough, but not even good game overall. It just made me mildly wonder what a fleshed-out, less messy and tight sequel to those ideas would be like.
Well, here we are at The Current Design Cliches Within and I was just insanely disinterested and bored already after an hour after playing gems like Prey for the past few months. The first TEW may have not worked overall, but at least it was nutty and kind of crazy which I appreciate...and the combat was actually awesome in some ways.
Dead Space, Dead Space 2, Siren games, SOMA, Cry of Fear...those are just from the top of my head that I think take a dump on TEW2.
Soul of the Beast
Member
I can really tear this game apart with detailed analysis and comparison, but I doubt you would want to see that.
I am tired, as a survival horror fan.
I am tired, as a survival horror fan.
Well i don't know how it is not one. Sure, you aren't constantly in danger. But it has that same opressive atmosphere. I think most people don't think of it as survival horror, because many think its encounters just aren't very good. Though i liked most of them, especially the one, where you couldn't look at it or else it would know where you are. Felt as dangerous as most of Resident Evils enemys. Managing of limited resources is not a necessary criterium for me, in condidering if it is one.
I meant technically, and what you described is Dead Space 1/2 basically which are my favorite games in the genre.
But they played smoothly and never had the IMMMENSE CRIPPLING technical issues of TEW1 which made an already mediocre horror game into a bumbling hodgepodge of a haunted house simulator.
Kain-Nosgoth
Member
Might do just that then
try to find one where he read every documents, and like the other silent hill, you might not catch everything with only one playthrough, the silent hill stories are always full of symoblism, secrets and well crafted stories and mysteries
TEW1's story clearly served the purpose of disorienting the player, that was its primary goal. I think it's essential to what the game was about, deep diving into psychological horror.
If you mean performance- yeah, the game was trash at launch, and still isn't great on consoles. The PC version still suffers from microstutter on older hardware when moving the camera (with an unlocked framerate), unless you use certain framerate counter software at the same time. (Don't ask it just works)
I enjoyed the narrative style, more on replays, but many people seem to really, really hate it. Some refer to the differences in Eastern versus Western storytelling and I think there is definitely something there.
Don't get me wrong, TEW1 has some big problems. It's a game that I would consider a soft 7 out of 10. But I came away liking it despite its flaws. The things it does right like oppressive schizophrenic atmosphere and constantly putting you in tense situations worked for me. What didn't work for me is it changing into action horror arbitrarily by the end of the game.
Bl@de
Member
I'm in Chapter 5 and still have a way to go. It's a very good survival horror game. But the best since Silent Hill 2? No. In my opinion Dead Space 1&2, Silent Hill 3, Forbidden Siren/Siren: Blood Curse are better. Another one would be The Last of Us. Some may not like that mention because it's a AAA game, but on hard (and optionally without listen mode) the game is very much a survival horror game.
Lord of Ostia
Member
Finished the game yesterday, can't agree with this sentiment at all. It's better than TEW by virtue of being more consistent, but it doesn't have the high points of that game either. I really don't think it compares favorably to Silent Hill 2 & 3 or RE7 as a horror game, nor does it compare to RE4 or Dead Space 1 and 2 as an Action game.
Soul of the Beast
Member
You have to be kidding me, TEW2's atmosphere is a mess, it literally looks like a different game in every chapter. Especially during the open world chapters like 3, 7, 13.
They won't understand, they just want something easy to understand and clear from the get go, to them, it's good writing.
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
To me TEW 1&2 aren't scary but they are intense, especially in Nightmare difficulty. The games I personally find really scary are Silent Hill and Siren games.
It is survival, if you play it on survival or Grounded difficulty but it's definetly not horror.
Crazy Diamond
Member
Resident Evil: Dead Aim says hello
I think this an important distinction actually. There are games that make you feel tense and on edge and then games that actually scare you, unnerve you and make you want to keep the lights on for a little bit longer after.
SargerusBR
I love Pokken!
Yep, and you can definitely see this in some of the enemies designs.
TEW1
TEW2
Notice how TEW1 enemies feel more grotesque while TEW2 are generic infected zombies version No. 87