The Evil Within, almost most gamers seem to have heard the name of this game, regardless they have the courage or not to try it. For those of you who are not too familiar, it is a series of "new" survival horror games formulated by Japan Survival Horror game industry - Shinji Mikami under the banner of the new developer studio - Tango Gameworks. Playing a story as a detective trapped in a gripping super nightmare in his first series, he did load a potential survival horror game formula. Various criticisms that appear promised Tango, will be fixed in the sequel series that currently can be enjoyed - The Evil Within 2.
Following the "unique" Bethesda format that decided to announce their newest game premierly a few months before its release, The Evil Within 2 is finally available on the market. Tango himself had promised some significant changes with him, of course to make it a better series. One thing is for sure, they are working hard to ensure the criticism that had appeared in the first series, from the level of difficulty until the appearance of cinematic black bars that interfere no longer occur in this second series. They also seek to innovate by designing a more open world system in The Evil Within 2.
So, what is actually offered by The Evil Within 2 this? Why do we call it a superior version? This review will discuss it more deeply for you!
Following the numbers behind his name, The Evil Within 2 is positioned as a direct sequel series from The Evil Within first. After dealing with the fact that the mysterious organization of the Mobius class is indeed evident with their mind control technology called the super-dangerous STEM Engine, Sebastian Castellanos continues to fight to open the veil to the public. But unfortunately, three years passed, he did not produce anything. Mobius is locked behind a high wall that Sebastian can not surpass, which ends up with a bad lifestyle because of a buried frustration. But suddenly, his past returned.
Kidman who had "betrayed" Sebastian in The Evil Within suddenly appeared to meet him under the banner of Mobius. Kidman comes up with super surprising news that Sebastian never predicted before. That the daughter she so loved, whom she had thought had been killed by the failure to save her from the burning house, was still alive. Her son, Lily, apparently was the victim of Mobius's abduction several years ago. Lily is a potential "CORE" candidate for STEM Engine and has been the driving force behind it for some time. But for a mysterious and incomprehensible reason Mobius, the world created from Lily turns into a big nightmare.
Sebastian was asked to work together, helping Mobius to find Lily inside the STEM Engine itself. For him, it was an opportunity to meet again with the child he loved at once, to explore the mystery of the Mobius as an organization. Sebastian agrees and goes into a nightmare called Union City. In it not only left the members of Mobius troops who had been sent to search for Lily only, but also a variety of monsters that either came from where. The final exploration gave Sebastian little answer about what happened. Two evil mysterious powers surfaced, and both look interested in Lily's figure as a STEM Engine core. There is no option other than to take up arms.
So what happened to Lily? Who are the two antagonists who hunted down this one girl? Can Sebastian save him? Who is the mysterious figure who is always watching him? All the answers to these questions you can get by playing The Evil Within 2 is.
More Gripping
It seems difficult not to talk about a sequel series without comparing how significant an increase in presentation he offers compared to the previous series. Although not much different from the details and textures, you can still feel the increase offered by The Evil Within 2. One of the improvements we welcome with very open hands is the fact that you are no longer forced to enjoy this game with the taste of "cinematic" through the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. The Evil Within 2 offers full gameplay resolutions just like most modern games today. You are more pleased with the cinematic flavor can still enjoy this mode through an extra mode that can be accessed when you at least, have completed one game once.
Adding a grain effect (which, fortunately you can also organize) makes visualization of The Evil Within 2 a bit unique. As if strengthening the atmosphere that you are indeed entering into the realm of unreal dreams, this effect also makes some scenes super creepy, especially in the dark, become more intense than ever before. Like watching a horror movie that is no longer just you enjoy passively, but interactive. Improving the quality of lighting also makes some moments become more powerful impact, especially to make you feel anxious with what might happen and not happen. Just like putting a red light that lights dimmed on a door for example. There's a high sense of suspicion that beyond that, you'll meet something you do not want to see at all. Consistency to keep the gore element via blood and body pieces here and there also strengthens the sensation of the horror.
But from all the presentation things he offers, we seem to have to put the highest praise on the audio quality that exists. Enjoying this game using a headset is not just to create a more gripping atmosphere, but also to help you gain a certain strategic advantage. Considering you always have room to kill most of the enemies in stealth, knowing when you should hide, move, while staking the target location into something quite essential. The bad news? Sebastian does not have the "radar" ability like Joel of The Last of Us to know the position of this threat. The good news? Accurate sound design through the sounds of the enemies you face, will ease your gameplay sessions.
Thumbs up is also worth to be directed to the design of the world compared to the first series, it is more diverse. Union City is offered in an open format injecting unique urban sensations, it matches what is offered by The Evil Within. While you are more happy with the atmosphere of the first series that is so dark and dark will also get what you want in some final chapter. The design of the monster you meet is also enough to make you feel threatened, as well as make your hair goose bumps. The Evil Within 2 is like fusing the concept of a supernatural being from Asia and then fusing the concept of a monster with a disgusting design on it. We are talking about a female monster with so many heads with hacksaw hands that live from the pile of corpses gathered.
From the presentation side, especially from audio, The Evil Within 2 is worth to get thumbs up its own. Although on the visual side, the changes offered are not as significant as imagined, but the variety of new areas and monsters you meet will still be able to make you end up, fall in love.
"Humane"
The difficulty level is one of the main complaints in the first series The Evil Within. Calm down, he's more human now.
What makes The Evil Within first difficult to enjoy? Regardless of Shinji Mikami's ambition to mix a survival horror game that keeps you in a vulnerable and dangerous position, it's hard not to mention that it comes with an irrational level of difficulty. The ambition ended up injured by the pleasure of playing that drastically reduced along with the journey. Game ends up being a source of challenge that keeps frustrating rather than afraid or anxious. Though following many survival horror games released earlier, such as Resident Evil 4 for example, Mikami actually have room to maintain the sensation while still mixing the game "action" that can be enjoyed. The good news? They fix that in The Evil Within 2.
Coming with a more rational choice of difficulty level, The Evil Within 2 puts the normal difficulty level as "Survival". This description of the difficulty level calls that it will end up being the ultimate survival horror game experience that can still be enjoyed. While you miss the difficulty level a la The Evil Within first can directly select "Nightmare", which in this second series, positioned equivalent to hard difficulty level. If you decide to enter with this level of difficulty, then you are faced with an enemy that is not only more resilient and responsive, but also an increasingly limited resource to fight back. The point is to make sure every bullet you are producing is significant.
If you include gamers who had given up on The Evil Within first because of their level of awareness, we can conclude that tasting in the normal difficulty level aka SURVIVAL leads to a more human experience, which of course ends to make it more enjoyable. It does not necessarily remove the root of survival horror that should be, where you still have to manage the resource as effectively as possible, from just a healing item to the number of bullets from each weapon. Offered by this difficulty level Survival is a more spacious space to accommodate your mistakes. That not all steps and actions should be planned perfectly to save the existing resources. There is room to fail stealth, get the damage you should not get, throw away the bullets you should keep, and the like. What he managed to do was deprive the potential for frustration and stress, so you could breathe more freely.
Which deserves a thumbs up, is the design of this normal difficulty level that will always make you dealing with a really limited resources. Although you have room for error, you will end up motivated to try to neutralize all threats by using stealth. You can kill a standard zombie called "Lost" instantly with this action, while ensuring your bullet is only used when in a state of urgency.
However, although we do not know if this is tied to the choice of difficulty levels or not, the AIs that are prepared for each zombie you meet are indeed worth questioning even in Survival difficulty mode (Normal) though. Unlike The Last of Us for example, where they are quite sensitive to sound and light, The Lost will only pursue you if you are in the scope of their detection or when they see you with their own eyes. Firing a super loud firearms for example, will not make a zombie who "ate" with a distance of two houses for example, will be alert and trying to find you. Turning off and turning on a flashlight that is in a dark place for example, will also not provoke their curiosity. We ourselves do not understand whether this design is done because it follows the existing lore, or simply because it is designed to make sure you do not end up frustrated with it. You can also "play around" with a zombie AI that is on alert by just circling it until their search status is complete. In essence, the AI they offer indeed, not smart enough. Although in some circumstances, especially when fighting a "special" monster, the level of difficulty will soar. Something we'll discuss later.
At least, with all these combinations, playing The Evil Within 2 on a normal difficulty level does make it a much more enjoyable survival horror game than its first series, while maintaining its appeal as a game you will not be able to solve by just blindly shooting.
Outdoor
Broadly speaking, the status of The Evil Within 2 as a survival horror game seems to have explained what kind of gameplay you get. True, this is an action game that will ask to address any threats with limited resources. Sebastian will also remain armed with a variety of capable weapons, from just handgun, crossbow, shotgun, to sniper rifle though. To save on existing resources, you can also kill most of the enemies in stealth. All you need to do is to settle and walk as close as possible to them, press the required buttons, and enjoy the brutal animation that exists. Of course, in some cases of "special" monster, Stealth will not be able to finish them off with a single punch. Sometimes there are extra bullets you have to throw, or even, there are cases where you will not be able to stealth at all.
Of course, to strengthen this horror flavor, Tango Gameworks also put some extra interesting gameplay content here. There will be situations where you are faced with a real horror sensation without the "survival" mode here. Why? Because based on the existing story, the monster you face was not a shot or explosion. Gameplay sessions like this will focus more on trying to hide, dodge, and eventually find the way out. Good news for you who are not happy with this kind of gameplay? His own sessions did not last so long. The second? In one of the gameplay sessions, the horror sensation is amplified through sessions taken from first-person glasses. Can not fight other than using a stealth attack, this short session certainly provides a new perspective for The Evil Within 2. Interesting again? For those of you who play this game on PC, this session turns out to be modified for the whole gameplay, from start to finish.
But of all the new things offered by The Evil Within 2, semi open-world concept is the most worthy to get attention. True, no longer like the first linear and limited series, The Evil Within 2 offers a more open world concept for Union City - your "playground". Like one of the gameplay sessions in The Last of Us, the city provides so many homes and locations for you to enter, explore, and then subdue with the "Losts" who haunt him, both alone and in groups. Filling it out, Tango Gameworks also provides a variety of side missions with rewards that are too tempting to pass up. It can contain new weapons, just bullets, to a variety of materials for the process of crafting.
True enough, The Evil Within 2 is now injecting a crafting system in it. With a variety of scattered materials, these components you can collect to blend things you need. Gunpowder for example, can be blended into bullets. But the bigger the weapon is, the more gunpowder it needs to make it. As an example? Handgun takes 2 gunpowder / bullet, while Shotgun takes 5 pieces. Interesting again? The Evil Within 2 injects a unique mechanism in this crafting system. You can do it in two places provided: Bench Table specific or wherever you want. Crafting in a bench table will allow you to create the items you want with fewer resources. While doing it outside the bench table, making the resource demanded more and more. Example? Shotgun bullets that used 5 gunpowder in the bench table ended up needing 8 gunpowder outside the bench table. Such a system will facilitate a variety of situations that gamers may encounter, but present with the consequences that trigger a lot of consideration. Brilliant!
The concept of crafting is also what makes the concept of the world more open than The Evil Within 2 succeeded. Because it will always be driven by the need to prepare more carefully, the exploration process becomes interesting to pursue it. Through a variety of places you can enter and a variety of side missions that you can finish, rewards through rewards that can be obtained into something too tempting to pass up. We are talking about the potential to get more bullets, new weapons, or just "cleansing" the region of future threats. More cool? There are several points on the map that also contain lay people who still survive to help you. This makes Union itself, feels a bit more alive.
But not just the Union, you will also have another "playground" called The Marrow, which is the secret access road belonging to the current Mobius team members, also destroyed by the Lost attack. Can access it through a variety of existing computers ala Matrix, The Marrow into a kind of extra space for linear motion story The Evil Within 2. Although sometimes you have to go back and forth explore it on behalf of the resource or just complete the existing side mission, it is nothing more than more space "Closed" that Sebastian must explore, inevitably, to find Lily.
The concept of more open space The Evil Within 2 is of course worth greeted with open arms, especially with a proper execution for thumbs up. They also managed to make this city filled with Losts who will offer many challenges, from just a variant. There's a stand-alone Lost and you can get rid of it easily via stealth, but sometimes they come in groups demanding different strategies. More turbulent conditions are when they cluster with more special types of monsters that are harder to subdue. You can spend your resources to make them extinct, but also always have the option to "play beautiful" to make sure your number of missiles does not just disappear. You have room to decide which is more suitable for you.
Preparing myself
"If the resource is so limited and scarce, why not run away?", You may ask. Believe it or not, the option is indeed possible. It's not impossible, beyond a scripted battle, you can just sneak around to reach a certain point needed, even in Union City though. But there is one thing you will miss if doing so. True, an opportunity to strengthen Sebastian Castellanos.
Because for every Lost you submit, you will always get rewards on top of their corpses. It can end up being just a resource for crafting or, more importantly, a resource for Sebastian's leveling process. True, re-utilizing the unique abilities that Tatiana now re-join as a supporting character, you can strengthen Sebastian through a skill tree attached to the RPG concept. Divided into different categories from Health, Stealth, Combat, Athletics, to Recovery, each of them will offer different reinforcement effects. Stealth, of course, will make it easier for you to kill the Lost secretly, while Recovery for example, will affect the ability of your HP regen from a variety of conditions, for example.
To strengthen each of these things, Green Gel becomes the most essential resource. To activate each existing tile, you will be required to sacrifice the number of specific Green Gel. More cool? Not just reinforcing the effects, some specific tiles will also offer Sebastian new abilities, such as the skill to kick Lost who is in a stun position to a permanent buff that will increase your damage to every successful bullet on a specific monster. Several sessions in each category will also be locked by another "currency" called Red Gel which will usually be a limiting wall for stronger effects. Red Gel can also be obtained from your exploration sessions.
Given the fact that every Lost has the possibility of dropping a certain amount of Green Gel, let alone a special monster, the effort to destroy every Lost you meet becomes something more worth pursuing. The result? Encouraging the exploration process in Union City is more than just looking for a resource. You can also strengthen Sebastian through the Weapon Upgrade system - which as the name suggests, does make the weapon you use will be more effective.
To strengthen your weapon, with the same concept as Green Gel, you have to collect another new resource named Weapon Parts. With it, you can amplify every aspect of the weapon, from damage, reloading speed, the number of cartridges in each magazine, to the end - producing a "special" effect worth pursuing after opening the various effects via another step resource called High Parts. If you strengthen your Harpoon / Crossbow weapon to the end for example, you can produce an effect called "EX" that makes your normal Harpoon bullet now powered with a flame effect that can burn the Lost you attack.
In the end, this kind of system not only provides a sense of progress for Sebastian which will certainly be stronger, if you spill more effort to subdue the Losts alone, but also facilitate your various styles of play itself. Unfortunately, however, we should mention that the system itself is too superficial to prepare yourself for the various scenarios. It will not facilitate you who want to play and fight openly, for example.
Why? Because you will always be limited by the limited amount of resources that make you do not want to waste the existing bullets. In fact, Tango can inject more categories can offer that opportunity by allowing you to utilize resource crafting more effectively. As an example? Categories that allow you to create 1 handgun / gunpowder bullet, or just make a 40% RNG effect that every 5 bullet crafting process, you have a chance to get two bullets or the like. Releasing the Health and Recovery category in two separate rooms is a useless action in our opinion.
You also can never play this game in full Stealth, because inevitably, some conditions ending require you to fight with weapons openly. Both from the fact that some special monster variants can not be killed with only one special attack or can not be subdued with stealth at all, until the fact that most of the boss's battles do require you to hurt them with weapons. For this last affair, it is not a rare sight that they will "drain" a significant amount.
But at least, from this system, you will be able to feel the progress for Sebastian and at the same time appear as a motivation to take advantage of the semi open-world function that he stretcher with much more optimal and effective. These elements then support each other and create a survival horror game that deserves thumbs up.
Excess of this Game
- The story is quite curious
- The atmosphere is gripping
- Crafting System
- A more open world
- an interesting side mission to try out
- A more humane level of "normal" difficulty
- Sound design
- Visual design of some monsters / boss
- New Game Plus mode
Deficiency
- Killing stealth from angle sometimes unresponsive
- AI is not sensitive to sound and light
- Skill system that does not facilitate you who want to play more open