SlasherJPC
Banned
The Evil Within (known also as Psycho Break in Japan) is a new survival horror game being developed for all current gen consoles [Xbox One, PS4, and PC] while also being developed for the prior gen. [PS3, Xbox 360] This is Tango Works first jump into the gaming world, and the creator of all this is the one, the only Shinji Mikami. Now take a good hard look at this guy because he has been around the gaming industry for awhile and has done a lot of great games previously. If somehow you don’t have any clue who this man is, let me just name drop a few titles that I'm sure you’re familiar with and the roles he had for those titles.
Resident Evil - Director/Producer
Resident Evil 2 - Producer
Resident Evil 3 - Producer
Resident Evil CV - Producer
REmake - Director
Resident Evil 4 - Director
Devil May Cry - Executive producer
Dino Crisis - Director/Producer
Vanquish - Director
God Hand - Director
The list goes on, but these are probably the more notable releases you know of. Yet as you can see from this list alone, the titles he has directed have found a huge following and most have had positive reception with critics and gamers alike. The one extreme caveat to that being God Hand which was slammed in reviews, yet players have continue to enjoy and appreciate to this day and considered a cult hit.
This leads up to Mikami’s new studio Tango Gameworks with Bethesda taking over for their publishing duties. Back in April of 2012, the Project Zwei was revealed and that Shinji Mikami was attached as the director. Now if we look back at the list of games I already jotted down, particularly the ones he has had a director position in, you can see why this title would have my curiosity. Fast forward to cryptic videos leading up to April 15th, 2013 which officially announced the new title The Evil Within and that this was going to be a survival horror game by the master himself, now you have my attention!
The Evil Withins story is rather unknown but of course in typical horror fashion, this is probably for the best. Yet there is little information that we do know. You play as Detective Sebastian Castellanos (what a name) and you get called to the scene of a pretty violent scene in what appears to be a hospital or psych ward. You encounter a deadly looking character; you’re knocked out, and then find yourself in a nightmare world you must fight to survive. Game play primarily consists of third person shooting, stealth mechanics, and one would hope for either puzzle solving or item management. Most folks seem to think it looks very comparable to Resident Evil 4, and considering the source, that makes perfect sense. Granted this looks much darker than anything RE4 threw at us. Some of the locations and enemies that they have showcased so far look absolutely scary. Boxhead specifically looks quite intimidating. So fast forward to today, and after a recent showing at PAX, there have been some complaints and worries that The Evil Within might not be so great, that perhaps there will be little to fear. Personally I think it’s all a bit too soon to be calling the game a masterpiece or a failure. One of the main reasons I’m truly excited for this title is not only because of Shinji Mikami’s previous works, but from a quote that was in an interview Edge magazine did with him.
He stated:
“Not much has changed when it comes to instilling terror in the player,” Mikami says. “But people have got used to the tropes of horror and they know what’s coming next, so in that sense it is harder to make them afraid.”
I find this quote both interesting and fascinating because from what a lot of folks have seen, the game seems to be sticking to tropes of horror in a lot of ways and some folks are disappointed because of that. Now perhaps this is just due to the limited amount we have been shown of the game so far. I mean you want to invoke a sense of dread in people with what you’re showing before the release, and you always want to showcase exactly why people should be interested in your game. Yet at the same time you don’t want to give to many things away. You want to keep that fear, excitement, and dread inducing moments of panic fresh for people, unspoiled if you will. It reminds me of back before Resident Evil 4 was released. We had seen quite a bit of Resident Evil 4 before the game was released, or so we had thought. There was honestly so much more content, surprises, and overall amazing moments in that game that we had no idea even existed from the videos we had seen until we actually played it and now RE4 is heralded as one of the best games of all time and rightly so. Its game play is highly refined, the pacing is perfect, and it combines intense action with horror overtones that work extremely well together. Yet can lighting strike twice though? Will The Evil Within become one of the best survival horror games of all time? Only time will tell, but I will leave you with another quote from Edge, and let you decide.
“The scariest parts will be when you encounter enemies that cannot be killed with a gun,” Mikami grins. “Even if you shoot them they won’t die, so you’ll have to run or use a trap to beat them. That should be fun – and also scary.”
We only have a few more months till the release but I'm damn excited still. With Mikami's history of games and his utmost appreciation for the horror genre, I can't contain my excitment. While recently there has been a flood of indie horror games, especially games where you play the defensless victim who can only run away in terror (see Outlast, Amnesia, etc). The Evil Within looks to contain moments like this along with being able to combat the evil creatures that are attacking you. Here's to hoping it's his best work yet and a great new addition to the action horror genre that I feel is extremely lacking today.
You probably have to do that to kill them off permanently.