https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7JbFBq4NAo
Executive Producer | Shinji Mikami
Director | John Johanas
Platforms | Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/601430/The_Evil_Within_2/), Xbox One, PlayStation 4
Release | Friday, October 13th, 2017
Bethesda info: https://bethesda.net/en/article/3Z4Dkndho46qy0gMMi0Gy4/the-evil-within-2-revealed
Steam page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/601430/The_Evil_Within_2/
Short clips of gameplay (at 3:46):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwVPlGVt5AE&t=3m46s
Screens:
spoiler (click to show/hide)
(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/601430/ss_4aa76cf13261564f0984208b109ddcb2071c6cf0.1920x1080.jpg?t=1497243002)
(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/601430/ss_3b6130b11f77fdf97e21ed0a3c577cdbb3b202ec.1920x1080.jpg?t=1497243002)
(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/601430/ss_5b70696260cfd0341d394ca8136352ec526dcb96.1920x1080.jpg?t=1497243002)
(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/601430/ss_f20b2a50bea0bd6916f1458ec506933d7925935e.1920x1080.jpg?t=1497243002)
(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/601430/ss_59ae47ef9543f643ff1b7262bbb1300268aa7ce4.1920x1080.jpg?t=1497243002)
(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/601430/ss_919e40a0129f30cf25efccad391a7dd7b07e7339.1920x1080.jpg?t=1497243002)
From Tango Gameworks and horror mastermind Shinji Mikami comes The Evil Within 2, the sequel to the widely-praised 2014 survival horror game. In order to save Lily – the daughter he believed he lost years ago – Sebastian will have to step into the madness once again. Announced during the Bethesda E3 2017 Showcase, The Evil Within 2 will launch worldwide on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on Friday the 13th in October 2017.
Set in Union, a crumbling city built using Lily’s mind as the Core, The Evil Within 2 presents a mix of closed off, claustrophobic environments that are reminiscent of the first game, and new, less linear areas that will give you the opportunity to explore at your own pace. You’ll be able to wander freely and poke through all the dark corners of the world at your leisure, but this is still a survival horror game, and ammo and resources will be scarce. You’ll need to prepare carefully and move cautiously as you discover the secrets of Union and unravel Mobius’ plans from within STEM.
Using Sebastian’s new communicator device, you will have intermittent access to the real world, with Sebastian’s former protégé Juli Kidman feeding you information from the other end. The communicator device also acts as your guide to Union, offering up unique resonance points in the world that will lead you to resources, side quests, information about the state of the city, and even Lily as you use the communicator to follow in your daughter’s footsteps through STEM. You’ll have to dust off your detective skills and put them to work as you journey through the warped wreckage of Union and face off against untold evils in your attempt to rescue Lily before it’s too late.
Head First into Hell
Years ago, before the events of The Evil Within, Sebastian’s daughter Lily died in a tragic house fire. His wife left him shortly after and his life continued to deteriorate when he was pulled into the web of a sinister corporation called Mobius. It has now been three years since his investigation into a series of grisly murders brought him to Beacon Mental Hospital, where Sebastian Castellanos found himself trapped in a deranged nightmare world created inside the mind of a killer.
After barely surviving the events of the first game, Sebastian was alone. He lost his job, his will, everything. No one believed his story about Beacon, and he has spent the last three years searching for the people responsible for what happened to him at Beacon Mental Hospital, turning up no leads. But now, for the first time in years, Sebastian has a glimmer of hope. Kidman reenters his life and offers him a chance at redemption: Lily is still alive and is being used by Mobius to create a new STEM world, and if Sebastian is willing to submit himself to hell, there’s a chance he can find her and free her. Sebastian will have to journey into STEM once more and face off against untold evil in order to save his daughter.
“The story we’ve crafted for you is very compelling,” Executive Producer Shinji Mikami says. “Each stage you’ll delve into is very unique. I hope people enjoy the game, and I encourage everyone to thoroughly explore the world.”
spoiler (click to show/hide)
Yes, Mikami's spoken word must be red, for it is inspired by God.
...but considering it is now an open world game that sorta makes sense.
....an open world game
....
....yeah I had no idea going in the game was now a sandbox game with linear sections where you go around and do missions, while exploring places and little side stories and collecting lots of loot. Kind of an interesting idea combining survival horror and sandbox gameplay. I'm looking forward to exploring this town and the spooky areas while fighting zombies. My only worry is that being a sandbox game with loot all over if you play like I play sandbox games and scrounge and explore everything kinda worried I'll end up with a ridiculous amount of ammo and health and upgrades and it won't be particularly survival and more just an action game, which is ok too.
Even if the graphics feel a little worse to me (city feels kinda PS3/X360 gen-ish; I think the effects took a hit too like when there's a mirror sparkling light I remember the effects looking really cool in the first game but looks meh here), the art direction is fucking stellar and still makes it look ace. The opening linear section (which I assume there will be linear sections for set pieces) is really great looking art-wise. Was pretty creepy too! Hoping there will be a lot of those kind of areas. While I like action, I much prefer creepy survival horror sections. Also RE7 kinda spoiled me this year by looking visually amazing and being creepy and good survival horror, so the bar is high.
So far I feel like the game doesn't have the style and panache that Mikami's first game had. Feels a little more traditional action horror game in setting.
Anyhow, enjoyed what I played a good deal and looking forward to playing more!
Some shots I took of the stellar art direction in the opening:
spoiler (click to show/hide)
(https://i.imgur.com/O3othSah.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/vuoIg3Ph.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/c2DOzafh.jpg)
Game was ok, I feel like for everything it does right it does something wrong. If the original game was a bunch of 9/10 sections with a few too many 1/10 sections, TEW2 is a bunch of 7/10 sections with a few 8/10 sections and a few 5/10 sections.
The stealth is good, but it's overpowered as hell along with the bolt gun thunderbolts/smoke. Meanwhile the guns and gunplay is pretty bad. Enemies are bullet sponges especially in the 2nd and 3rd section of the game. Since ammo is scarce, aiming sucks and I have to use a ton of it for one grunt zombie in the 3rd act whereas I can just 1 hit kill them with stealth...yeah there's no point in doing anything other than stealth. You can even run away if spotted and they'll lose track of you and you can try again.
So the stealth works and is fun, but it's also slow and for a RE4-ish action-y game like TEW2 you want to be able to fight but it's just really against you when you do. Then you have all the sections/bosses/mini-bosses where you are forced into combat and because the gunplay isn't great and the aiming is bad (playing on PC with a controller, every time I had to shoot I'd switch over to kb+m because aiming was awful on controller [still bad on PC too]), the combat sections aren't particularly good/satisfying. They're ok at best.
The thing is that replay it on NG+, the 2nd episode of the game (which is still intro before combat) is the only "scary/horror" section of the game. Like that part feels like the original and has tension and oddly art direction (with the hanging bodies and stuff) that once you leave it you never really see again for the rest of the game. The atmosphere of the rest of the game is closer to Dead Space 3/RE5/6 or something where it's just kinda action zombie/monster game. But where everything kinda sucks outside stealth. On NG+ you get letterbox view like the first game and turning it on for my NG+ run I think it helps the art direction/atmosphere somewhat although I still feel that is a big step down from the first game. Music too, there's hardly any music after the intro outside one nice stage before the final boss. The original's soundtrack by Grasshopper's Masafumi Takada was good. This time it's someone else and is very minimal.
Talking about the original, TEW2 surprisingly has a bunch of gameplay/subplot sections devoted to "remember TEW1?" which eventually go nowhere and feel kind of out place and more like easter eggs for TEW1 players. Didn't really feel that fit with the game and would rather they didn't exist and TEW2 focused more on standing on its own. TEW2 feels like a game that kinda knows what its trying to do but lacks the confidence and is done weakly if that make sense.
Finally the story, the story handling in this game is weird. It tries to be a SUPER SUPER SERIOUS DRAMA STORY, but all of the real story is saved for Act 2 & 3 which are about 3-5 hours each and Act 1 is ~8-10 hours and half the game. So there's like no story for half the game and then nothing but non-stop SERIOUS DRAMA PLOT in the 2nd half. The story might have been ok, but the voice acting (holy shit), facial animation and cutscene direction are really bad videogame cutscene quality. Like some of the RE stuff, which just doesn't work at all with the serious family drama story they are trying to tell. I really wish I could have taken it seriously and appreciated the story but everytime the main guy talks in his Solid Snake impression I kinda rolled my eyes. And the problem is that if the story isn't working for you there is so many cutscenes and walk&talk sections that slows down the pacing. Game is pretty long at 15-20 hours.
It's not bad and I enjoyed it at times stealthing around and occasional boss fights, but to me it really comes across as trying to appease mainstream mass audience and getting rid of most of what made the original unique in the process (like why the hell is letterbox view a NG+ unlockable? Probably because mainstream reviews complained about the original being letterboxed -_-). That said pretty sure we're not getting a 3rd game and I'm fine with that. Hopefully next Tango game is Mikami directed.
Also story-wise:
spoiler (click to show/hide)
For all the throwback stuff to the original in this, I'm really surprised they never did anything with Ruvik in TEW2. I mean they kinda left him off wandering in the real world at the end of TEW1 and I thought they'd work him into a sequel, especially with the whole taking down Mobius angle.
Also the final Kidman gunplay stuff just showed how bad the aiming was. It took me forever to shoot the damn agents with the revolver even on kb+m. The crosshair kept swaying and everytime the agents pop out to shoot it would force you back into cover. Really weak gunplay in this game imo. Shotgun was the only decent feeling weapon imo.
spoiler (click to show/hide)
Auto repair shop basement in the first act, they find a grid for codes nearby the first door with a number panel and it seemed fairly obvious that the big sign painted in massive capitals on said door was the references to use with the cipher.
...since the solution seemed obvious but Patrick went "DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS SHIT, FUCK IT I'LL BACKTRACK TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MAP".
They broke sequence (softly) early on and as a result exposed some wonky checkpointing. Maybe a freak accident but it seems infuriating for a game with open maps.