Support NeoGAF

[The Xtortionist]

100% agree

also the gunplay in TEW2 is MUCH worse than the first game, i'm not feeling the gun shots

The sound effects are leagues ahead of TEW1. Though combat can feel messier because enemies are more annoying to shoot.

I like TEW2 a lot, but wouldn’t put it above RE4 or Dead Space 2. The story is too heavily emphasized and really not that great imo, and there’s not much variation in encounter design (like everything is a stealth room).

 

[SomTervo]

It happens right when the enemy ''howls'' at you.

The big Howler enemies? Yea. But what about this:

Here's a random YT vid:

https://youtu.be/gQMJb_xNsGU?t=4735

No canned scare/stun animation when enemies spot him.

?

 

[shpankey]

I'm going to agree with the original poster... for me, it's the "feel" I get when playing... it takes me back. It's pacing is superb and fun factor extremely high as well. Overall A+ game that is seriously nit-picked apart. The sum is greater than its parts and has really nailed it for me.

 

[Soul of the Beast]

Here's a random YT vid:

https://youtu.be/gQMJb_xNsGU?t=4735

No canned scare/stun animation when enemies spot him.

Because he is standing....not stealthing

I said ''stealth'' and ''sneaking'' in my previous post, you think I'm shitting you?

?

That's because he is not even crouching *FACEPALM*

DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT?????????

 

[Wink]

But at the same time you can end up with a Kojima situation where the team is very incompetent on their own.

Don't get me wrong, Mikami actually mentoring and having his team making important decisions on their own is valuable for the growing process, I get that.
On the other hand, talent like him or Kojima or Miyazaki are just rare enough that I'd like them to continue working in a position where they have the biggest possible influence on the end product because their voice is what makes these games special.

 

[chicken_pasta]

OP did you skip on Resi 7?

You can't be serious.

 

[TentPole]

My post has the same level of writing as The Evil Within 2. Actually, it might be better.

Play the game and you will see.

I really didn’t like the story in EW2 either, but it is far more tolerable than your whining.

 

[A-V-B]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";252502374]SOMA beats Silent Hill 2 in every category except for somehow having worse gameplay.[/QUOTE]

 

[SomTervo]

That's because he is not even crouching *FACEPALM*

DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT?????????

Crouching?

Stealth is filled with puzzling, meaningless designs, when spotted by enemies Sebastian would do a scared gesture for a second, and during that moment you really can't do anything, you can't just run away instantly when being spotted like in TEW1, that ''shit I'm spotted'' animation always stops your action.

I'm done with your rhetoric. I'm out.

I really didn't like the story in EW2 either, but it is far more tolerable than your whining.

This guy knows his writing.

 

[BadWolf]

Because he is standing....not stealthing

I said ''stealth'' and ''sneaking'' in my previous post, you think I'm shitting you?

That's because he is not even crouching *FACEPALM*

DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT?????????

https://youtu.be/l-m5sQBdDGE?t=176

Any more bright ideas?

Don't get me wrong, Mikami actually mentoring and having his team making important decisions on their own is valuable for the growing process, I get that.
On the other hand, talent like him or Kojima or Miyazaki are just rare enough that I'd like them to continue working in a position where they have the biggest possible influence on the end product because their voice is what makes these games special.

That's true as well, in an ideal scenario he would be working on his own game while assisting younger staff on another.

 

[Soul of the Beast]

https://youtu.be/l-m5sQBdDGE?t=176Any more bright ideas?

Crouching?




I'm done with your rhetoric. I'm out.

It's simple, if you get spotted when crouching (sneaking) the zombie howl scares you.

It's not that hard, just turn on the game and you will see, or maybe you don't even have the game???

Just crouch and let the zombie howl at you, all of the vids you showed me the streamer all stand up right when spotted.

The scared animation happened so many times during my playthrough it's not even funny.

I really didn't like the story in EW2 either, but it is far more tolerable than your whining.

Disagree.

 

[Bloodporne]

This. Just no way and I think SOMA is quite amazing.

 

[Peroroncino]

Definitely the best survival horror I've played in years, I hope the sales will pick up and that we'll see a sequel.

Despite a few hiccups, the gameplay, atmosphere, pacing, story, all clicked with me.

 

[MiamiWesker]

Do it for me.

I tried to make a quick list, but it could be a thesis if I wanted it to be. My writing skills suck though and so if you can make it a coherent read I would love to see it.

It may not persuade someone to think differently, which isn't the point, but it would be nice to see someone articulate it well on why this is not an evolution of EW1. You can definitely tell this is a game made by a different lead designer by spending 10 minutes with each one.

I also always find it ridiculous that people talk about EW1 being "janky", yet think RE4 is some sort of master piece. Spoiler alert gang: That game's controls are the definition of jank and do not withstand the test of time. RE1 Remake absolutely works in this day and age to let you wrap your mind around the control scheme, but RE4? It's absolute dog shit.

EW1 has about as much jank in its current state as Dead Space 1, or RE7, or just about any game you could compare within the genre. At launch sure there were issues on PS3 especially, but if you played it today it easily withstands the test of time. I can't say the same for RE4 just on controls alone.

This is one of the worst posts I have ever read. What are you even talking about. RE4 controls perfectly, every action works exactly as intended, every aspect of the design of that game fits the controls perfectly. No glitches, no jank what so ever. It may not have all the options a player wants, bunch of people complain about not being able to move and shoot but that's is a design decision and the game would break in the state it is in if you change the controls.

Also RE4 and remake share the exact same control scheme, only the perspective is different and there are context sensitive actions, wrap your head around that...

 

[Brix]

It's crazy how one little opinion causes people to freak the fuck out. Some of the responses in here are ridiculous.

I enjoyed the evil within 2, it's a solid survival horror experience.

 

[Soul of the Beast]

This is one of the worst posts I have ever read. What are you even talking about. RE4 controls perfectly, every action works exactly as intended, every aspect of the design of that game fits the controls perfectly. No glitches, no jank what so ever. It may not have all the options a player wants, bunch of people complain about not being able to move and shoot but that's is a design decision and the game would break in the state it is in if you change the controls.

Also RE4 and remake share the exact same control scheme, only the perspective is different and there are context sensitive actions, wrap your head around that...

RE4's gameplay is extremely precise, it's like a perfectly working machine with zero tolerance at all.

Who would have thought that kind of precise control didn't become a gaming standard after I grew up. I'm just glad I got Dark Souls.

It's crazy how one little opinion causes people to freak the fuck out. Some of the responses in here are ridiculous.

I enjoyed the evil within 2, it's a solid survival horror experience.

With ridiculous opinions comes ridiculous reactions, you can hate me and my whining but that's just how it is.

Trying making a thread with title called ''Sonic'06 is the best Sonic game since Sonic 2'' and see what happens.

 

[MiamiWesker]

It happens right when the enemy ''howls'' at you, trying running away at that moment.



Your aiming is completely off when enemy gets too close, I test it out with the ''slow mo'' ability in-game and it turns out your point of impact is completely off to the left of the reticle when enemy is right in front of you. Hence why it's impossible to hit them when they gets too close.

Yup this is a problem with a bunch of third person games where enemies right in front of you create this problem where the aiming doesn't work correctly.

Once again this is something RE4 had figured out and was never an issue because enemies would STOP before getting in your face and their attacks would come from a distance where you can still aim correctly. Another example of RE4 getting all this right and games still not being able to match it.

 

[kromeo]

I have a load of problems with RE4 but I wouldn't say the controls are one of them

 

[Dusk Golem]

Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.

I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1

 

[Ooccoo]

The OP is so wrong.

 

[rtcn63]

It's crazy how one little opinion causes people to freak the fuck out. Some of the responses in here are ridiculous.

I enjoyed the evil within 2, it's a solid survival horror experience.

If you're making a thread about that opinion, you're basically making a bold declaration with the expectation of defending it from opposing viewpoints. It's not just a throwaway post in an OT. Although no one's threatened physical harm on anyone else so it's been fairly civil.

 

[Brerlappin]

.

The story is great
The setting is great
The combat is great
The stealth is great
The pacing is great
.

The story is bad
The combat is awful
The pacing is all over the place

 

[AAK]

I'm on Chapter 13 and I'm really really enjoying The Evil Within 2. It's not a masterpiece like Dead Space or RE7, but it's a damn fine product. Sorry to the people who aren't enjoying it as much as I am.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Surely OP didn't play RE 7

 

[MiamiWesker]

One problem with comparing horror games is it really is just a matter of taste. Horror games with the same mechanics and focuses are a bit easier to compare, but horror is a rare genre where there isn't really just one gameplay style to it, and often gameplay alone is less important for horror games as much as some other elements. Horror is an anti-thesis to many game design ideas and pushes getting a reaction out of the player and being an interactive narrative (not just story focus stuff, as in gameplay narrative) rather than gameplay loops or trying to make the gameplay tight or something.

But as horror goes in many different directions, above simply pure quality there is also a wide stroke of different tastes on hand. As a random example, like F.E.A.R. and Dino Crisis are two pretty good horror games, but one person could love F.E.A.R. but hate Dino Crisis, and visa versa. It doesn't strictly mean one is 'better', they're both trying to be very different things, but they're both also horror games.

I believe horror can be attached to any other type of game, it's the opposite side of the coin to comedy I view in many ways. It's grown its own tropes, copycats, and stylings, but there's everything at this point to horror driving games to horror multiplayer games. And some people like the broader strokes of the genre (like I do), but others only like specific kinds. Aid to that just different people enjoying different things in horror games, and you will find horror games more than most genres have people with some radically different tastes. This is true of all genres of course and entertainment of course, and horror does have some darlings on hand that are widely considered the 'best' by many, but it functions somewhat in a different more concentrated yet spread way than we usually see when it comes to these darlings and why they become that. I think that's also why horror fans can be more at each others throats sometimes than other genre fans (that and horror is often a required taste and some are very passionate about it, and some even get to the point of defensive because they want certain types of horror games that they may no longer get if something else catches on so they have their best interest in mind).

This is relevant to this topic and all of these opinions. The truth simply is horror is a very divisive genre with a wide stroke to begin with, and certain games are more likely to find themselves in that divide than others. There's a reason you'll see TEW2 be brought up by a few people to be in their top 5 horror games of all time, and others be incredibly disappointed and vocally upset by it.

I don't think horror is a game genre, it's a thematic choice, it's the setting not the genre. Horror games come in all kinds of genres, action adventure, point and click adventure, FPS, TPS and so on. But horror itself is just a theme that ties all this together.

Survival horror became this subgenre that got birthed with the popularity of RE and now a bunch of different games fall into this bubble because you "survive". While there is a core thread that makes a game survival horror the types of games associated with that term is quite varied and leads to odd debates where one person is arguing that what makes a game good is how scary and tense it is and another person saying it's how good the gameplay and design is.

 

[CaptainofIndustry]

Never played the first Evil Within, do they recap the story or do a good job of catching up the player with background info?

 

[psychotron]

I can't say where it falls in the grand scheme of things, but I'm 11 hours in and just started chapter four. It's pretty damn fantastic so far. The only things bugging me is the aiming, but it's making me stealth more, which is a lot of fun. If I've already put in this much time and just got to chapter 4, it's been well worth paying full price.

 

[Bloodporne]

Yup this is a problem with a bunch of third person games where enemies right in front of you create this problem where the aiming doesn't work correctly.

Once again this is something RE4 had figured out and was never an issue because enemies would STOP before getting in your face and their attacks would come from a distance where you can still aim correctly. Another example of RE4 getting all this right and games still not being able to match it.

Still not sure why after so much time has passed, it seems to be such a simple thing that most games of its ilk just can't grasp. Why any studio thinks trying to controller-aim at some jittery, hyperspeed shit as a sluggish Survival Horror Dude is remotely cool is beyond me.

I get not being a killing machine in a Horror game, sure, but that type of scenario doesn't inspire fear in me as much as it does controller-smashing frustration.

I shouldn't comment on this aspect of TEW2 I guess since I never got far with the upgrade trees and don't know the final movement speed etc, but I really disliked that it's yet another game with that issue.

 

[Johndoey]

Never played the first Evil Within, do they recap the story or do a good job of catching up the player with background info?

I'd say the opening cutscene tells you what you need to know. Which really isn't much.
--
Also god no OP no. It's a decent game but Christ.

Even just this year Res 7 blows EW2 out of the water.

 

[Formosa]

RE7 is much better. Gameplay, story, graphics, download contents.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.

I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1

 

[Soul of the Beast]

One problem with comparing horror games is it really is just a matter of taste. Horror games with the same mechanics and focuses are a bit easier to compare, but horror is a rare genre where there isn't really just one gameplay style to it, and often gameplay alone is less important for horror games as much as some other elements. Horror is an anti-thesis to many game design ideas and pushes getting a reaction out of the player and being an interactive narrative (not just story focus stuff, as in gameplay narrative) rather than gameplay loops or trying to make the gameplay tight or something.

But as horror goes in many different directions, above simply pure quality there is also a wide stroke of different tastes on hand. As a random example, like F.E.A.R. and Dino Crisis are two pretty good horror games, but one person could love F.E.A.R. but hate Dino Crisis, and visa versa. It doesn't strictly mean one is 'better', they're both trying to be very different things, but they're both also horror games.

I believe horror can be attached to any other type of game, it's the opposite side of the coin to comedy I view in many ways. It's grown its own tropes, copycats, and stylings, but there's everything at this point to horror driving games to horror multiplayer games. And some people like the broader strokes of the genre (like I do), but others only like specific kinds. Aid to that just different people enjoying different things in horror games, and you will find horror games more than most genres have people with some radically different tastes. This is true of all genres of course and entertainment of course, and horror does have some darlings on hand that are widely considered the 'best' by many, but it functions somewhat in a different more concentrated yet spread way than we usually see when it comes to these darlings and why they become that. I think that's also why horror fans can be more at each others throats sometimes than other genre fans (that and horror is often a required taste and some are very passionate about it, and some even get to the point of defensive because they want certain types of horror games that they may no longer get if something else catches on so they have their best interest in mind).

This is relevant to this topic and all of these opinions. The truth simply is horror is a very divisive genre with a wide stroke to begin with, and certain games are more likely to find themselves in that divide than others. There's a reason you'll see TEW2 be brought up by a few people to be in their top 5 horror games of all time, and others be incredibly disappointed and vocally upset by it.

Listen, I really appreciate your passion for horror games and I can't thank you enough for all the info and threads you provided. I too love horror games and consider it one of my favorite genre, maybe that's why I care so much, maybe too much.

I know you probably hate me now, which is very understandable as I'm a picky, nagging and emotional person, I am the very definition of a vergo man, to make it worse I'm also an artist.

but still, I want to say thank you, for all the effort. I believe people who loved TEW2 would want to thank you even more.

I have standards, and sometimes those standards are pretty strict and even unfair, there're many details which I'm overly obsessed with too. If I am a game critic then 80% of games I reviewed would be just 5/10 or 6/10, that's just who I am. For me there's a really big gap between games like Shadow of the Colossus and games like Shadow of Mordor, to most people they might be 10/10 vs 8/10, but to me they are 10/10 vs 5/10.

SH2 and RE4 have special place in my heart and I guess the original post kind of triggered me a little bit.

I know I should support this AAA horror game because there aren't many in this era but It's really just not up to my standard, and I don't really want to compromise my opinion.

Sorry for the trouble and bad mood, that's all I can say.

Hope we agree on each other more in the future.

 

[TGO]

One of the worst survival horror games I've ever played. There's near zero atmosphere because of several reasons. Firstly, the nonsensical setting, which works neither as zombie outbreak nor Silent Hill ripoff - plus the cringey (constant) dialogue is a total turnoff. There's practically no tension in game design, because they copied a bunch of cheap open world tropes (instead of making careful levels like classic survival horror,). I.e. fetch quests, too much looting, arbitrary map placements, map icon hunting instead of real exploring/puzzle solving. Also, the art direction is bland and uninteresting.

I'm getting easily nervous in horror games if they are done at least somewhat competent, but in this one not even jump scares had any effect. Nothing feels like it matters.

This is nonsense, how can you play through the town hall and say it has no atmosphere.
The game has bucket loads of atmosphere, there is more tension and sense of dread in the that area alone than in the whole of RE7.
It also has the most memorable moments in a horror game I've seen since the PS2 era.
And the little visits to see Tatiana is probably up there with the original RE games save rooms as a standout amongst other games.
As for jump scares, despite RE7 being laughable with its jump scares I not easily jumped so I am embarrassed to admit that the Camera part in TEW2 did make me swear out loud.
But from everything you said I really don't know what game you played.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.

I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1

 

[tzare]

EDIT: What I mean is that this game is the best in the genre compared to the games that came after SH2. SH2 is still king.

Just finished it and I’m completely floored, Mikami and Tango nailed it.

The story is great
The setting is great
The combat is great
The stealth is great
The pacing is great

Have little to no serious complaints, just a fantastic overall package.

The balance between action and survival horror is just right. The combat is more competent than RE4 and an evolution of that system but in a way that is more logical for the genre, rather then going all out action like RE6. It favors timing and strategy more, often making you feel like a hunter with the traps you can set and bait into etc. Oh and it has one of the most satisfying use of critical shots in any shooter.

I was a little worried when they talked about both stealth and action being viable since stealth is so easy to screw up but I’m happy to say that they nailed even this part of it. With the first game it felt like they took inspiration from Siren for the stealth, in this game it feels like they looked at MGSV. It feels tight and works right. And the stealth mechanic even applies to the bosses. A lot of the boss areas are set up specifically to let you do this and screw with bosses via traps etc.

They also struck a great balance between how much action and 'down time' there is. This I think was inspired by Silent Hill 2 where your own mind just builds a threat because of what you see and your expectations instead of due to actual enemies.

Another great thing they picked up from MGSV is giving the ability to climb objects that are higher than the waist. That’s right, Sebastian can climb over fences his height and can even climb on top of cars. I was running from a boss and my first reaction was to think of ways to run around stuff but then I remembered this and ran straight into a head high fence and jumped right over. Felt so damn good to do something like this freely in a survival horror game.

The open world also feels inspired by MGSV with it being geared specifically to compliment the combat and the main game instead of being a collectathon with a lot of useless stuff.

Oh and another quick combat improvement, you can reload and heal while sprinting (yeah sprinting, not just running). Found this out in the middle of a boss fight and had a O_O face.

The story was also better than I expected, it’s told in a more straight forward way than the first game and is much better for it. Really liked it and the cast SPOILER:

Spoiler

Though I was really bummed that certain characters actually died, I really liked them :/

So yeah, really hope a lot of people play this game and see how you can have both great survival horror and excellent deep combat at the same time and also have a great campaign and pacing throughout. In this regard I think Tango completely owned Capcom.

Guess i have to hurry and put the first part on top of backlog list. It is necessary to understand the second?

 

[Paragon]

I can't agree with this at all. I'm not seeing where comparisons to Silent Hill 2 are coming from. This game is trying to be Resident Evil 4, not a psychological horror game.
I think the story is pretty bad, the dialog/VO is terrible - not intentionally bad/cheesy, or intentionally stilted to be unnerving, just bad - and this "gamer dad" hero fantasy that middle-aged game devs are pushing is really tired.
It felt like everyone was disappointed with The Evil Within for not being Resident Evil 4, but the sequel is trying so hard to be RE4, and fails to capture anything which made that game good.
It takes itself too seriously for that, and your combat options feel so limited in comparison. The

Spoiler

cabin sequence

at the start of Chapter 10 really highlights everything that it gets wrong compared to RE4 and was the point that I considered giving up on it.
The environment / setting is very bland and uninspired, which stands out even more when compared to what the first Evil Within was doing.

I think the technical issues on console really hurt the original game, as well as comparisons to RE4, and an apparent hate for the intentionally disorienting / disjointed narrative.
TEW1 managed to be a very tense game at times, while TEW2 has none of that. TEW1 felt threatening, while in TEW2 you can sprint around a corner or two to break line of sight and most enemies just forget about you.
I started quoting and responding to some of them, but there are too many good posts in this topic comparing TEW2 to the original game both mechanically and its narrative/atmosphere, as well as other survival horror games, and it makes me happy to see that I'm not alone in my opinion of TEW2 and the survival horror genre in particular.
I don't think the people who like TEW2 are really looking for survival horror at all. Games like Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 are what I'd probably call "action-horror" rather than "survival horror" but TEW2 doesn't even feel like it belongs with those games. It's more similar to something like The Last of Us, with a light horror aesthetic.

 

[BadWolf]

Guess i have to hurry and put the first part on top of backlog list. It is necessary to understand the second?

You can play the second on its own but as with all direct sequels you'll get more out of it if you play the first game first.

The first one is definitely worth playing imo, it takes tension to another level. If you do play it then make sure to check out the Kidman DLC, even if to just watch it on YT, as it adds to and explains the story a lot.

 

[MiamiWesker]

In my humble opinion. I think games need a genre and some sort of 'tag' (but with a better name for it) system. Game genres right now are honestly really bizarre, with some talking about straight mechanical things (like Shooters, First-Person Shooter, Third-Person Shooter, etc), to others being region based (JRPGs and WRPGs are a big one), to then thematic ones, like horror here. It's honestly an inconsistent mess.

Horror in general is a theme, but it's treated like a genre. What actually was the game genre name of course was survival-horror, which was an offset of adventure games, but it exploded and many didn't like survival-horror being applied to all the off-sets so it just became horror games. Horror is a thematic, but it's a categorization for a certain type of game, and in many ways I think it's a better categorization than many we have in video games at the moment, but there's no consistency right now to what defines a game genre so it both neither fits nor doesn't fit at the time being.

Horror can latch onto any other genre, and these genres will blur even more as gameplay mechanics evolve and change. Honestly since theoretically mechanics can expand and go in wild directions in the future, I think while the mechanics do deserve a spot in game categorization I almost think game genres would be better if they followed a bit closer to almost every other media' genre systems, IE Horror, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Romance, etc. Though I do understand it's complicated since games are an interactive medium and people want to know what style of gameplay they're in for. Horror is weird in game genres in that it doesn't specifically mean any type of game mechanics, there are more popular styles used but there's not a real consistency in that stretch.

But it does lead to weird arguments. Like to be honest I think this topic is a weird one since Silent Hill 2 and The Evil Within 2, while they can be compared, have completely different focuses. Honestly, Silent Hill 2 gameplay wise isn't that great, what makes it such a classic is what it does narratively, atmospherically, and artistically. It is a successful narrative-focused game where all faucets of the game, including the gameplay, tie into story. It's not a very 'fun' game in a traditional sense, its gameplay loop is honestly shit and if you took everything else away from SH2 except the gameplay it'd honestly be a pretty bad game, and it even hardly has a 'survival' element like many survival-horrors, but it makes sense for what SH2 is trying to be. The choices in gameplay and everything else make sense for how it all comes together, and how SH2 focuses on its 'narrative-loop' in gameplay rather than a strictly engaging gameplay loop. And what TEW2 is trying to be is very different than what SH2 is trying to be, so even before you begin to compare them you'll have people biased for one side or the other simply for what interests them personally in the matter, what they're looking for in horror games.

Good points, especially that last one about SH2. I am mostly a gameplay first gamer, it's what I care about, it's what I judge games based on so if your game is just about story and is crap to play I probably won't like it. SH2 is not a great game to me, I was hugely disappointed cause SH1 to me is an excellent game, so the drop off floored me.

I am also a stickler for classic genres so that's what I like to see but you make good points on the changing landscape.

 

[Gbraga]

For me there's a really big gap between games like Shadow of the Colossus and games like Shadow of Mordor, to most people they might be 10/10 vs 8/10, but to me they are 10/10 vs 5/10.

You're being way too generous to Shadow of Mordor.

 

[Soul of the Beast]

You're being way too generous to Shadow of Mordor.

It's just an example.

I never did finish Shadow of Mordor, it's just too repetitive and mundane. Bought the game day 1 sold the game day 3, guy in the store was like ''damn what's wrong?''

 

[Orochinagis]

I thought SH were about phsycological horror rather than survival horror

 

[LegendX48]

All these complaints about the story being straight trash are pure hyperbole.

It’s a great game but not quite as memorable as the first (so far).

 

[The Xtortionist]

All these complaints about the story being straight trash are pure hyperbole.

It’s a great game but not quite as memorable as the first (so far).

The concepts and events that happen are fine, but the story bogs the game down with a lot of forced walks and long cutscenes. Certainly more than the first game, at least. RE4 has a similar plot of "guy enters hostile territory to rescue someone", but it doesn't intrude on gameplay to the same extent.

 

[LegendX48]

The concepts and events that happen are fine, but the story bogs the game down with a lot of forced walks and long cutscenes. Certainly more than the first game, at least. RE4 has a similar plot of "guy enters hostile territory to rescue someone", but it doesn't intrude on gameplay to the same extent.

It all adds to the game for me though. Forced walking tends to irk me with most games but not TEW. The story hasn’t bogged anything down but I know that’s subjective.

 

[BadWolf]

The concepts and events that happen are fine, but the story bogs the game down with a lot of forced walks and long cutscenes. Certainly more than the first game, at least. RE4 has a similar plot of "guy enters hostile territory to rescue someone", but it doesn't intrude on gameplay to the same extent.

I didn't find the forced walks for story to be that much of an issue in TEW2 because Sebastian is still active. Unlike most other games where you are usually locked in and can't do anything during the walk.

He can't engage in combat or anything but you can still walk around an area and grab items while he's talking. So I'd just take that time to loot an area.

 

[Duchess O'Death]

I hope they stick with this setting. I hated the first game's look.

 

[Alebelly]

Got it yesterday, and I think its great. I mostly didn't care for the first game, I almost feel they made this one just for me. Its got lovely art design and just the right stink on the cheese.

 

[rtcn63]

Nevermind, I'm just repeating myself

 

[Curufinwe]

Fatal Frame 3 is better than Silent Hill.

This is true.

 

[-MD-]

TEW2 is a downgrade from the first one in almost every way. It's still good but it's not greatness like the original.

They made an Evil Within game for people that didn't like The Evil Within.

It's not even the best game in its own franchise

^