The Evil Within 2 Review

Evil-er Dead:

The original Evil Within was a lovely – horrible, but lovely – little surprise; a brilliant throwback to a genre I sorely missed. It felt like the safe, predictable direction I’d always imagined survival horror moving towards before it bucked decades of tradition and became something different altogether with games like Amnesia and then, later, Five Nights at Freddy’s. It became Twitch-bait, churning out perfect little games to stream for easy scares and funny reactions.

Evil Within was a sort of revival for classic horror gameplay, and The Evil Within 2 builds on those great foundations through smart evolution, a strong sense of dread and – best of all – a core gameplay loop that focuses on addictive fun.

Story:

Having thought his daughter Lily died in a fire years ago, our grizzled hero Sebastian Castellanos is all sorts of confused when he finds out her death was staged and she’s being used as a host for a hellish virtual mindscape. Diving into it is a given, and inside her twisted little brain he finds a whole new nightmare to survive through, a batshit town called Union that’s full of bloodthirsty nutjobs to perforate.

The original Evil Within quickly got tangled in its own narrative web, and by the time I completed that game I felt quite lost. Evil Within 2 doesn’t do anything to redact the nonsense that came before, instead diving straight into the world of STEM and Mobius that made its predecessor so bananas. Luckily, Evil Within 2 anchors its story with a solid, simple driving force of an objective, allowing the convoluted inner workings of mind-worlds and shady agencies to be set dressing to Sebastian’s hunt for his daughter.

Gameplay:

Fun isn’t a word that’s thrown about a lot when talking about the horror genre, so I’m as surprised as you are to find myself using it but here we are: Evil Within 2 is a lot of fun. Some of my favourite horror games aren’t fun in a traditional sense, instead building a dreadful sense of urgency and desperation that gives you a different sort of rush than a traditional video game. It’s that adrenaline fuelled pulse that hooks you rather than enjoyable mechanics, necessarily, and the feeling of pride at reaching the credits.

Don’t get me wrong: Evil Within 2 is still tense and, at times, genuinely scary enough for me to have to pause the game and pull myself together or take a break entirely. Its dwindling resources find that magic sweet spot between plentiful and miserly, and though you’ll often struggle to get two shells to rub together it will never feel unfair. Its horror credentials are strong, with an abundance of references amidst its original spooks, and there were loads of moments – scripted and organic – that are still stuck in my craw long after having put them in my rear view. Despite all these classic staples, however, the thing that dragged me back to the title time after time – sometimes only twenty minutes after having powered off the system and calling it a night – is the game’s addictive, enjoyable and fun gameplay loop.

Heading out from the calm of a safe room and onto the unpredictable streets of Union is a strangely empowering thing. Clearing pockets of the neighbour of enemies, grabbing their loot and rummaging through houses for gear and supplies is satisfying, despite the fact a lot of the claimed resources will go straight back into the rotting skulls of those protecting them. Getting back to a safe house and spending your various currencies on upgrading Sebastian and his weaponry gives an immediate sense of tangible progression: heading back out for more green gel and gun parts or mission objectives feels noticeably better with some more upgrades under your belt. Evil Within 2 plays with the balance of hunter vs. hunted constantly and to great effect. Even when you’re running low on supplies and surrounded by groaning goons, you can still feel powerful hiding in a bush with nothing but a knife to defend yourself. This is thanks to pleasingly dumb AI, a generous stealth mechanic and the ever-present option to turn tail and run.

All of this wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the new open world Tango have built for Evil Within 2. Union is a divided city – quite literally, you’ll quickly come to understand – but its large open areas allow for exploration at your own pace. If you need a bit more direction, however, you can use your walkie-talkie as a dowsing rod towards points of interest. It’s used primarily to point you towards your main goals or side quests, but can also pick up loads of signals from downed Mobius officers and tells you explicitly what sweet loot awaits you if you check it out. This is one of Evil Within 2’s best tricks and smartest additions: the promise of a much-needed box of bullets or a new ammo pouch is enough to tempt even the smartest players into obvious traps and ambushes. It keeps you going just one more block when you know you should really head back to base and restock. It’s just one of Evil Within 2’s many addictive little systems that kept me playing far longer, and far more thoroughly, than I ever intended.

I cleared the first neighbourhood entirely, having picked its bones clean of bad guys, goodies and side quests, before even starting on my main objective. Even though enemies respawn after certain story beats, I still felt accomplished doing such a thorough job, and the brief free reign you can achieve feels like you’re dominating this twisted world rather than being dominated by it. The optional missions to pursue are excellent distractions too, proving to be as enjoyable as they are rewarding; Evil Within 2 often hides its coolest weapons behind these doors. They also provided me with some of the game’s scariest moments, so I’d advise you check as many of them out as you can.