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ETTP: The Evil Within

Lucent

Member
My hype is insanely real! Do we know if the kinect or ps camera will play any role in the game?!

I feel like being this close to release they would've had them set up and usable at PAX. I personally couldn't see a use for them in the game though.
 

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
This is a great thread, you definitely deserved to win that Xbox One! The game sounds super interesting, I'm really stoked for it. Thanks bud.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
One thing I want to say is that I'm looking forward to playing on te harder difficulties. If the game was fairly challenging on normal to me, a guy who plays most horror and shooting games on the hardest settings possible from the start, as well as Mikami's track record of making his games harder difficulties more challenging and him explicitably sayin he wanted this game to be challenging and the hardest difficulty to be really difficult, then this game should be a lot of fun for me.

Also posted this on Steam Community to a topic with concerns on the game:

Oh, someone posted my impressions here (I know MD asked on GAF, but yai). I've now played the Evil Within PAX demo a number of times, from what I've experienced to reply to your worries:

-There's probably some jump scares in the game, I say mainly as there have been in Mikami's other horror games. Only thing really like this in the demo is returning down a certain path the door will slam open and a monster will come at you. The noise isn't especially loud and it all happens in gameplay so the camera doesn't zoom in or anything, but closest thing that counts in the demo. This wasn't a climax to a situation, though a brief story. When replaying the demo this enemy burst through the door and he didn't surprise me as I knew it was coming. I had an axe (scarce durable weapon that can kill a weak enemy in one hit but then breaks immediately afterwards), but as I hit him suddenly the stage's stalker, a cloaked man named Ruvik, appeared right behind him and the screen changed colors as it does when he's around an his legitimately super creepy theme started playing. That scared me pretty shitless I will admit, and it was random. In this stage Ruvik works a bit like Ao Oni, if you've ever played that game, or Scissorman from Clock Tower, appears suddenly with music and you escape by running or hiding, he's invincible an completely random, comes through doors usually.

-Pre-Order I agree with completely, I always think it's a dumb pre-order bonus. I have a weak spot to Double Barrel Shotguns, however I don't think that justifies it or makes it any less of an ehhh bonus though.

-Game is more horror/survival than youmay suspect, at least from the one area I played. To explain this fully would take a while, but basically enemies and the environment were a threat, supplies were low, sound design was excellent, and the game doesn't empower the player. You can fight back, but it risks your limited supplies and health, even on normal difficulty (and two higher difficulties than that), and other mechanics that aid in alternate strategies but don't make what you face not feel like a threat, plus a number of odd and surreal scenes and an element of the unknown to keep you on your toes.

There is one thing I will say. There is action here, but the enemies are tricky,not easy to kill, and have smaller Hitbox's for their weak points with a character with looser aim, tackled withlow supplies and them seriously being able to kick your ass makes it much more of a thinking, strategizing, and reacting game than one of mindless shooting, and it becomes worthwhile to not kill all enemies and waste amm, health, and unknown risks on them.

Anyways, if you don't get a headshot (which is harder to do as the enemies bob their heads around a lot, where you need to shoot them is square in the head or else they will just lose part of their face like it was nothin and Sebastian doesn't shoot dead center with his shots), you'll have to burn their bodies with limited matches or else they'll keep getting up making your shoot shoot bang bang a wasted effort.
 
The "burning the body to make sure it's dead" mechanism reminds me of AITD 2008 reboot. I just worry that it might make the enemies a nuisance if the player has to keep avoiding them and they might lose their scariness so to speak.
 

-MD-

Member
The "burning the body to make sure it's dead" mechanism reminds me of AITD 2008 reboot. I just worry that it might make the enemies a nuisance if the player has to keep avoiding them and they might lose their scariness so to speak.

It was an incredibly effective mechanic in REmake, everybody remembers crimson heads.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
The "burning the body to make sure it's dead" mechanism reminds me of AITD 2008 reboot. I just worry that it might make the enemies a nuisance if the player has to keep avoiding them and they might lose their scariness so to speak.
No worries, I am here to save the day! For I have played Alone in the Dark and know exactly what you're talking about.

No worries, nothing like that. And here's why: In Alone in the Dark, like many things it did, it did them poorly, fire in that game was mostly brought to burn enemies from picking up and object and lighting it on fire and approaching the enemy and burning them before the fire went out, or Molotov cocktails, or the like. Backed by this, the enemies themselves behaved in an intrusion and in-fun matter ad how objectives an the camera worked made them a nusiance in coming back, and the clunky system made it more of a chore than anything enjoyable.

In Evil Within, you don't need to set anything on fire besides the enemies. You have matches, they're limited in number, but you can use them immediately. They'll even burn the enemy if you throw it right as their starting to get up. But it's as simple as approaching a corpse and pressing a button. However, you can't burn every body, and it's hard to tell sometimes when or if they'll get up. Some enemies will get back up mere moments after they were killed, but most take some time. Some for a long time, and some never get back up. Some even fake being dead to try and swing a weapon at you while they're down if you approach them. You have to determine, is it worth it? Even if you get a headshot the game will let you burn the corpse, but it would be a waste.it'll let yu burn corpses that were there when you got there, and may not re-animate at all. So you have to ask is this corpse really worth a match or not and if it's in the way or if you can get out of it's way before it reanimates. It's a risk with unknown factors, sometimes there are clues like the obvious headshot, on rare occasions some bodies twitch that are still alive, but you have to make the call if it's worth a match or better to save one.

After playing for a bit, I'd decide to throw a match or not based on if I thought I'd skimmed and some all I wanted to do in the area or not. I made some right and wrong calls.
 
It was an incredibly effective mechanic in REmake, everybody remembers crimson heads.
Yeah, it was one of the few occasions where an undead was pulled off extremely well.

Well.... damn. This game is so going to be a day one buy for me now. The randomness I feel is the best part because otherwise I would have been mighty pissed. The headshot thing sounds really interesting. Thanks for the gory and in-depth details, much appreciated!
 

Vaiim

Member
In Evil Within, you don't need to set anything on fire besides the enemies. You have matches, they're limited in number, but you can use them immediately. They'll even burn the enemy if you throw it right as their starting to get up. But it's as simple as approaching a corpse and pressing a button. However, you can't burn every body, and it's hard to tell sometimes when or if they'll get up. Some enemies will get back up mere moments after they were killed, but most take some time. Some for a long time, and some never get back up. Some even fake being dead to try and swing a weapon at you while they're down if you approach them. You have to determine, is it worth it?

It's probably a bit late to ask you now, but did you notice if you can headshot an enemy who's lying on the floor, like if you're short on matches, but have bullets to spare. Kinda like ZombiU style, where you smack up any corpse you see, to make sure they don't get up later lol.

Thanks again for all you've written too! Really useful to read.
 

djshauny

Banned
Yeah nothing I've stormed the net for has revealed anything about that. Also working on a new preview video for Evil Within with as much info that we known of so far. Like a recap for people before it releases but nothing that's super long. Quick, to the point, and informative.

Looking foward to that mate.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Crimson heads were terrifying and, in my opinion, an elegant, intelligent addition to Resident Evil that objectively improved and enhanced the overall game. Simple genius.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Just to confirm one thing, going to play the EW demo today again, though will ask a Bethesda representative if I can record the trailer, though it'd be in crappy quality caught by phone even if they say yes. XD;
 
Crimson heads were terrifying and, in my opinion, an elegant, intelligent addition to Resident Evil that objectively improved and enhanced the overall game. Simple genius.

Absolutely. That one mechanic added so many more layers of depth to the core gameplay, item management, level navigation, and sheer tension. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it's handled in Evil Within.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
It's different than Crimson Heads as the game works different than REmake, but it's a fun mechanic that adds an interesting element to the enemies and conservative thinking versus threat. Based off the demo area, at least.

The line for The Evil Within demo has gotten longer and longer as each day of the panel has gotten out. First day it was pretty short, now it's ridiculously long. XD;
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I might stand a chance since the line has gotten so long they allow people to walk in and watch people playing as opposed to playing themselves, but I am standing in line anyway because I want the headphones to at least try and record audio, I want to test a few more things about the game, and my last chance to play until release anyways.
 
It's different than Crimson Heads as the game works different than REmake, but it's a fun mechanic that adds an interesting element to the enemies and conservative thinking versus threat. Based off the demo area, at least.

The line for The Evil Within demo has gotten longer and longer as each day of the panel has gotten out. First day it was pretty short, now it's ridiculously long. XD;

Yeah, I'm wondering how it will play out due to the differences in level design. In REmake you are only in a couple major locations the whole game so you have to think far ahead, but if Evil Within is more linear will you only have to really worry about them in chapters like the mansion where you do a lot of exploring and backtracking? I suppose the randomness in the time it takes for them to come back (if the come back) could make up for that though.
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Here to confirm 100%, the puzzles are scaled to difficulty. Played on Easy difficulty to see the differences, all the puzzles were slightly different, and the enemies didn't seem randomized and set to set places. I purposely redid sections to check this.

On the first brain puzzle the solution is different (and is easier to take more of than in the normal difficulty puzzle). The second brain puzzle is the same except made easier as the dialogue now says the number of the sectio you need to inject into, not just the emotion in passing. The third brain puzzle has the same solution but been moved to a larger, easier inject part of the brain. The safe puzzle is now super simple, you now can just spin the single lock you can turn (which is two locks to turn on normal) in a full circle and get the answer accidentally, which is silly easy. However, I theorize on the harder difficulties turning one lock might turn another lock, that sort of thing.

So it looks like easy difficulty doesn't have random enemy placement, has easier puzzles, as there were a few more items laying around now found in crates.

I can confirm you can shoot an enemies head off while on the ground rather than burning him now.

They wouldn't let me record anything unfortunately, I did manage to jot down the number of collectible in the game from the archives menu.

Personal Documents: 16
Documents: 16
Map Fragments: 28
Newspapers: 21
Missing Person Photos: 15
Audio Tapes: 10

And an undeterminal number of key items, it saves a photo and the description of key items you pick up in the game.

I found out you can use some agony bolts as traps, like shoot an explosive bolt on the ground, and if an enemy gets close it explodes.

There's a flash of screens at te very end of demo, they flash by way too fast to make out much, could make out (minor spoilers)
an owl, a spiderweb, Ruvik, the house surrounded by sunflowers, The Keeper, a forest, and I think I saw a room with dangling brains.

About all I pulled from the last session with te game, looking forward to the full release.
 
Crimson heads were terrifying and, in my opinion, an elegant, intelligent addition to Resident Evil that objectively improved and enhanced the overall game. Simple genius.

It has its ups and downs, for sure. On the one hand, I understand and agree with the point you're implying: by making it so that killing a common foe will, in most cases, result in a far more difficult enemy appearing later you force the player to really consider the risks in the long term. It gives the player that little push he or she needs to really decide whether it's worth standing your ground now with the risk of a tougher fight later on, or if it's worth risking a chunk of precious health to attempt avoiding the encounter. It adds another layer onto the survival elements of the game and really helps the game stand out from its initial version and the sequels that came afterwards.

However, I think it's a bit of a stretch to say it objectively improved the game. Adding Crimson Heads also added the feature of burning corpses in order to prevent them from coming about. In theory, this would cause the player to gauge the risk of expecting a fight but sacrificing two slots of much-needed inventory in order to carry around the fuel and lighter (or just one for the fuel, if you're Chris) in order to minimize the possible collateral damage. In practice, however, you get circumstances where inconvenient enemies end up tying the player to the nearest item box and kerosene can so the player can burn the necessary amount of enemies, drop off the items, and then continue along his or her way. You're simply adding time as a resource cost for safety and wasting time can be annoying. Crimson Heads add an exciting dimension to a familiar formula, but they also added inconvenience as well. Like I said before: ups and downs. For the record, I do prefer the game with Crimson Heads than without. :)

The way that Evil Within deals with faux-Crimson Heads seems to strike a good balance: you're given the tools you need in order to avoid them simply by playing well and employing stealth attacks, head-shots, and explosives, but you also have a reliable back-up in the form of matches just in case the unexpected happens and you need to take enemies down quickly with body shots. The limited nature of these matches keeps you from playing things like a shooter and makes sure you're constantly reminding yourself to play properly. However, I may be looking into this a bit too much since I haven't played the game myself yet and there's more than a month to release, so I could end up being completely wrong.

Another big thanks to Dusk Golem for his comprehensive previews. You rock, dude!
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I'm happy the game details sell it, there's actually a lot of depth to the game and currently it's my most anticipated game (why the avatar change). But 6 weeks away from release, I have a trip to Europe for the first three, that should help, then when I get home the Vanishing of Ethan Carter comes out, so that should distract me a bit as another game I've been anticipating for a while.

Thank you for checking that for me :D

Of course, I realized I didn't try it and thought I could test it as well as Casual difficulty to see the changes fully.

Didn't know if I should make its own thread for this, but I got done creating a good five minute video recapping a lot of information so far on the game play, the story, and enemy's.
The Evil Within Ultimate Preview - Evil Takes Hold Oct 14th. Thanks to Dusk Golem for providing some of the info from his on hands impressions.

Oh my, I liked it. I'm hoping Bethesda will think about maybe talking gameplay for a trailer, I think it might help as there's a pretty good amount of depth and detail here it seems, I know they don't want to show too much but if they show too little... But guessing they want word of mouth and critics to maybe help push this, and one can't say that they haven't been making this demo available at every gaming con recently.
 

djshauny

Banned
Here to confirm 100%, the puzzles are scaled to difficulty. Played on Easy difficulty to see the differences, all the puzzles were slightly different, and the enemies didn't seem randomized and set to set places. I purposely redid sections to check this.

On the first brain puzzle the solution is different (and is easier to take more of than in the normal difficulty puzzle). The second brain puzzle is the same except made easier as the dialogue now says the number of the sectio you need to inject into, not just the emotion in passing. The third brain puzzle has the same solution but been moved to a larger, easier inject part of the brain. The safe puzzle is now super simple, you now can just spin the single lock you can turn (which is two locks to turn on normal) in a full circle and get the answer accidentally, which is silly easy. However, I theorize on the harder difficulties turning one lock might turn another lock, that sort of thing.

So it looks like easy difficulty doesn't have random enemy placement, has easier puzzles, as there were a few more items laying around now found in crates.

I can confirm you can shoot an enemies head off while on the ground rather than burning him now.

They wouldn't let me record anything unfortunately, I did manage to jot down the number of collectible in the game from the archives menu.

Personal Documents: 16
Documents: 16
Map Fragments: 28
Newspapers: 21
Missing Person Photos: 15
Audio Tapes: 10

And an undeterminal number of key items, it saves a photo and the description of key items you pick up in the game.

I found out you can use some agony bolts as traps, like shoot an explosive bolt on the ground, and if an enemy gets close it explodes.

There's a flash of screens at te very end of demo, they flash by way too fast to make out much, could make out (minor spoilers)
an owl, a spiderweb, Ruvik, the house surrounded by sunflowers, The Keeper, a forest, and I think I saw a room with dangling brains.

About all I pulled from the last session with te game, looking forward to the full release.

Thanks for all the info man. Looking foward to this one :)

Cheers.
 
Oh my, I liked it. I'm hoping Bethesda will think about maybe talking gameplay for a trailer, I think it might help as there's a pretty good amount of depth and detail here it seems, I know they don't want to show too much but if they show too little... But guessing they want word of mouth and critics to maybe help push this, and one can't say that they haven't been making this demo available at every gaming con recently.

Thanks again for the info. I think we've seen the most will see aside from maybe a launch trailer is my guess at this point.
 
Awesome write up, dude! Really enjoyed reading your impressions. I also got half an hour with the game at PAX as the expo hall was closing one night - spot on stuff. Game was great and I can't wait for it to come out.
 
Thanks so much for the information. Your impressions and the recent twitch playthrough by Pete Hines has me really interested in picking this up.
 

Lucent

Member
*TEW avatars*


Ohhhh time for a picture change. Great idea.

The time has come.

lol. I'm going to have to make my avatar look like Sebastian I guess. Last time I made him look like Delsin. This is the next game I'm getting so I might as well hype it up with my avatar.

.
1456517_10203516054804940_754349154_n.jpg
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
I'm hoping those that play it at the upcoming GAME event in the UK will share impressions. Be interesting to see what others think.

Also can answer questions people have, been soon that on te game's Steam forums.

Also apparently TEW Xbox One comes in towards the end of September probably. Will take pics~
 
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