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IGN says The Evil Within fails at horror
- Thread starter IcyRhythms
- Start date
That's because Wolfenstein comes out next month and The Evil Within is still 4 away.
I bet once we get 1-2 months within the release date of TEW, they'll start marketing it. Probably more than Wolfenstein, too.
EightBitNate
Member
Does anyone get extreme Outlast vibes from the trailers?
Mr Fahrenheit
Member
Sounds like par for the course in horror games nowadays. As long as every single room doesn't have bodies that are no-guys-really-we're-totally-dead-and-not-going-to-pop-up or a million air vents for enemies to totally not pop out of like in Dead Space, then I don't see how it could fail where IGN's seventh best horror game of the gen succeeded.
Such a strange response. This is parody, right?
Ehh? Isn't that EXACTLY like Mikami though to make a non-reactive character outside of cutscenes? Is that not how RE1, REmake, RE4 was? Even Silent Hill 1, 2, 3, 4 had fairly non-reactive characters outside of cutscenes. Damn, everyone is so obsessed with the "cinematic experience".
As for empowerment, I'm fairly confident they just put in all the guns to display it to the press. Even then, I carried 4 of them at a time in RE4. I don't know why people are complaining.
As for empowerment, I'm fairly confident they just put in all the guns to display it to the press. Even then, I carried 4 of them at a time in RE4. I don't know why people are complaining.
SargerusBR
I love Pokken!
To be fair RE4 had some cool creppy moments. The ganado village at night is absolutely terrifying.
jeremy1456
Junior Member
Every bit of media I've seen suggests that The Evil Within isn't as much of a return to horror than we we've been told.
It's not hard to believe IGN on this.
It's not hard to believe IGN on this.
I see two very different arguments sort of poorly merged into one in the OP.
1. Sebastian does not react to the environment, which robs the game of tension
2. Sebastian is too powerful for the enemies to be scary
I can't say that 1 really bugs me. I mean, it's not like Jill had to flinch when the dogs jumped through the window for me to know I was supposed to be scared. It almost seems like they're asking for our reactions to be more directly elicited by having the player character emote for the player. It doesn't really seem to apply to any other game I've ever played.
2 is obviously an issue.
1. Sebastian does not react to the environment, which robs the game of tension
2. Sebastian is too powerful for the enemies to be scary
I can't say that 1 really bugs me. I mean, it's not like Jill had to flinch when the dogs jumped through the window for me to know I was supposed to be scared. It almost seems like they're asking for our reactions to be more directly elicited by having the player character emote for the player. It doesn't really seem to apply to any other game I've ever played.
2 is obviously an issue.
Considering that Vanquish is one of the best action games of last generation and TEW is shaping up to be disappointing, you're probably right.
Pretty much. It makes one wonder if these people even actually play the RE series or just have this vision of what they think it should be in their head.
Yeah, and admittedly wasn't it really that scary anymore at that point. It became more about "panic" when having to deal with tons of enemies.
It's a bit of a weird argument. I think a character constantly talking about how scared he is would rather harm the atmosphere.
NotTheGuyYouKill
Member
It would be nice to see Sebastian react to weird shit happening all the time. Just walking around silently with no reaction sounds dumb (Hi Dead Space 1!)
Spieler Eins
Member
Looking at previous footage and reading what actually constitutes their first issue (which itself might sound redundant), this game already is a cinematic ,,experience'' anyway.
It's crap. This isn't a movie. The player character is a player avatar.
brandonh83
Banned
This game to me looks a lot more horror driven than RE4. I simply think it will play like RE4 but with more horror driven touches, such as the psychological nature, blood spilling down the hallway, etc.
This is a super on-point post to me. I completely agree.
InaudibleWhispa
Member
I didn't find RE4 particularly scary. It made up for it though by being one of the best games ever made. The latest trend in horror of making vulnerable people run away rather than fight a la Amnesia is fine -- it works as horror, and it's scary -- but shooting horrifying creatures in the head needs its place too. It might not be scary, or emotional, but neither is Nightmare on Elm Street. Horrifying doesn't have to mean scary. Horror can just be fun, and disgusting, and shooting big demons with big guns with a couple of jump scares thrown in. Let's not try and push the genre down a narrow path. Though, of course, whatever it turns out to be, it still has to be bloody good.
NotTheGuyYouKill
Member
Actually, I don't need Sebastian to be all quippy or quivering at everything. Isaac Clarke wasn't doing that in Dead Space 2.
But it'd be nice to see more lifelike reactions (in body language!) to crazy shit happening to you. Animation is just so important.
But it'd be nice to see more lifelike reactions (in body language!) to crazy shit happening to you. Animation is just so important.
I'm not sure if I agree with his idea that the character must display emotion for the player to feel the threat in a horror video game. A character's reaction has never, ever played into the creepy or scary effect of a video game scene for me personally. The things that usually make me feel uneasy have to do with environment design, and how the enemies approach you, as well as the music and sound effects. Having an annoying protagonist can easily get in the way. These are games, not movies. When you play a game your direct senses often replace those of what the character feels.
I have not played the game, so there might be some other elements that take away from The Evil Within's horror element, but looking simply at the reasoning on a personal level, I cannot agree with him.
I have not played the game, so there might be some other elements that take away from The Evil Within's horror element, but looking simply at the reasoning on a personal level, I cannot agree with him.
That is basically what everyone claimed they wanted when you think back to it.
RE4's gameplay is clearly superior. Add to that an environment and story with much heavier horror imagery, and a few puzzles and I don't know why this wouldn't please everyone.
They're not going to remake RE1 with the fixed camera.
brandonh83
Banned
The village at night had a phenomenal atmosphere about it and the music was really cool and eerie, but yeah that was about it. If the entire game were like that night time village section I would probably actually consider RE4 to be the greatest game of all time. But it's not, so...
The rest of the game lost track of that and just turned into this bizarre Indiana Jones/James Bond romp with a pirate midget squawking at me.
Right, I mean, I wouldn't necessarily want it either. I think RE4 had the right idea with its control method and POV but it also lost a great many things that I loved about the franchise.
Ha ha, this is pretty much what I said as well.
This, but it's more likely that -- by the time the events of the demo transpire in the game -- we simply aren't going to be interested in a character who feigns horror at his environment every. single. moment.
I mean, characters evolve. The gameplay evolves. Eventually, we aren't going to want the game to be snail-paced horror; we'll want the stakes heightened, harder bosses, harder enemies, and more chances to die. And we sure as hell won't want the character reacting like he's seeing everything fresh each time he has to deal with an enemy. There's plenty of time up front to get players -- and the main character -- to understand and appreciate the horror around him. But for him to take arms against the evil, he'll have to toughen up, and learn to deal. So will the player -- and without guns and ammo, we won't have much of a chance.
So, yeah, I don't see this as worrying. It's a slice of out-of-context play; horror, good horror, has no time to build into being truly scary when you don't get to see the parts that surround it -- especially the beginning.
Eppy Thatcher
God's had his chance.
But actually reacting to his environment a little wouldn't hurt. He doesn't need to cry about it or literally say "I am so fucking scared right now" ... but they could easily use animation or some ambient/subtle cues from the character to draw you in. Stoically just staring at the demon world unfolding in front of you like some checked out teenager doesn't exactly scream immersion to me.
Gore looks nice tho.
Sure it did. The first regenerator, the chainsaw guy screaming at you, boarding up the houses with furniture as you get massively overwhelmed. It absolutely had fantastic horror moments.
Just because you can move around well doesn't mean it had zero horror.
Nope
If you want strange responses go check the dozen or so threads about TLOU Remaztered.
Honestly, it feels like Mikami is just re using things from RE4.
Chainsaw guys who one hit kill? Check
Sections in which you are forced into a small room and have to protect your self from enmies trying to break in? Check
Hell, the one of the villians from Evil Within looks like Saddler.
Also, the "horror" atmosphere is pretty lame. Random blood splatters everywhere, and the sound design is delayed to the point where the thing trying to scare you makes sounds only when you see it.
Although the psychological stuff looks interesting, but the demo had no context so I was confused at what I was looking at.
Not to mention the game looks really janky. Really bad frame rate from what I saw in previews.
Then again games using ID tech 5 look really janky in previews, but they polish up close to ship date.
Maybe it was just a bad demo, and the final game will be a lot better.
Chainsaw guys who one hit kill? Check
Sections in which you are forced into a small room and have to protect your self from enmies trying to break in? Check
Hell, the one of the villians from Evil Within looks like Saddler.
Also, the "horror" atmosphere is pretty lame. Random blood splatters everywhere, and the sound design is delayed to the point where the thing trying to scare you makes sounds only when you see it.
Although the psychological stuff looks interesting, but the demo had no context so I was confused at what I was looking at.
Not to mention the game looks really janky. Really bad frame rate from what I saw in previews.
Then again games using ID tech 5 look really janky in previews, but they polish up close to ship date.
Maybe it was just a bad demo, and the final game will be a lot better.
Spieler Eins
Member
Some visual notes don't make survival horror gameplay though. I don't give a flying fuck about some blood spilling cutscenes if I can blast through enemy hordes like Rambo.
EmCeeGramr
Member
It certainly did. The Regenerators, the Verdugo fight, the first section of the battle with U3, the atmosphere in the village, the first Garrador in the dungeon, the Novistador sewer, the garden maze filled with wolves, etc.
People like to forget that RE4, despite being more action focused and having some bombastic action movie setpieces, still used a lot of suspense, tension, and atmosphere to create horror scenes and moments.
Honestly, there's a lot of memorable moments like that in the supposedly "horrorless" Island and Castle.
Mr Fahrenheit
Member
I don't understand this either. The Silent Hill protagonists didn't need to start flipping out to tell me something scary was going on. Maybe a bad comparison, but needing the character in a game to freak out to tell me it's time to freak out is the equivalent of a laugh track in a show telling me it's time to laugh.
Like this? http://youtu.be/MMKhoHl9BnE?t=7m9s
Course he reacts. In this demo anyway.
I think the demos were thrown together just for PAX.
TheBanditKing
Member
I was hoping this game would fill the void left by Resident Evils untimely death as a horror game, truthfully this game seemed like it might fill both Silent Hill and RE's shoes but IGN isnt the only one saying this. I remain hopeful, but am definitely not day one for this anymore.
This. What he wants Tango to be is already what Platinum Games is and has been for years now.
If you've read his recent interviews, it seems like Mikami is turning dumb or something. I'm not even joking. A lot of things he says and believes don't make sense.
That's kind of how I feel. When you play a game that relies on atmosphere, the player character sort of 'becomes' you. Personally I find that added emotion detracts from the atmosphere. There are plenty of examples for older games in which the character does not react, but what happens is that the player him/herself reacts as the avatar on screen. This is the best way, in my opinion.
GhostTrick
Banned
Isn't this preview based on a live demo ? Aka something they don't even played ?
So, the two main complaints are the character being emotionless during gameplay ? What's wrong with that ?
Other complaint is the game being easy... how can they figure that out if they haven't played it, and only witnessed a livestage demo... which, for obvious purposes, are made to avoid deaths ?
So, the two main complaints are the character being emotionless during gameplay ? What's wrong with that ?
Other complaint is the game being easy... how can they figure that out if they haven't played it, and only witnessed a livestage demo... which, for obvious purposes, are made to avoid deaths ?
It absolutely did.
brandonh83
Banned
I didn't really say otherwise. I was simply comparing it to RE4, saying that everything I've seen from this game suggests more horror aesthetics to it. It's clearly an action game, not a slow paced horror title. That being said it can still have more touches to it, which is why I referenced the bloody hallway. There wasn't anything like that in RE4. Something like that is more akin to Silent Hill.
Then again, I've never been of the opinion that the amount of action or shooting or how well equipped you are makes something less scary. Enemies in horror games never scare me. They never have. I either avoid them or shoot them. I like the enemies in Silent Hill because they look cool, have neat animations, and usually symbolize something within the story. But that's a completely different franchise. If this game had super scurry enemies and a lack of ammunition, but wasn't into the environments or tone or atmosphere, I would probably be more annoyed than engaged.
I feel like the bigger "?" here is: why the fuck does Beth/Tango seem to not give a shit about their game? I mean, they just stuffed a demo into PAX and decided to not have anyone there to actually, you know, give it context, or comment on current issues or whatever. It's either extremely ballsy, or extremely dumb. I think the latter.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
That sounds just like Re4
Flame Lord
Member
I haven't played many horror games, but I don't really understand why the MC not running his mouth every two seconds ruins the horror in anyway. Makes more sense to leave the reactions to the player. Also, as someone pointed out earlier I'd imagine that whatever demo they were watching was probably on a difficulty even lower than easy so they wouldn't fuck up and die.
I think I'll wait to play the game myself before buying into all these de-hype articles.
I think I'll wait to play the game myself before buying into all these de-hype articles.
I remain cautiously optimistic.