The Evil Within 2

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JaySevenZero
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The Evil Within 2

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your memories and opinions of The Evil Within 2 for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

Friendly reminder to all that where feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but self-editing (brevity) is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mainly reading. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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Ben77000000
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Re: 396: The Evil Within 2

Post by Ben77000000 »

For as visually striking and emotionally rousing as The Evil Within 2's final few stages were, since beating the game I struggle to remember large portions of the journey leading up to them. Where the first title's disjointed design and vaguely janky feel combined with its creatively eerie enemy roster and all-over-the-place stage selection to form a wild ride rounded out by rough edges, its follow-up felt like a far safer, mundane jaunt that did little to stick out from the myriad alternative horror experiences available.

While there was fun to be had in the game's semi-open world, and its scavenging gameplay loop enticed me to scour its abandoned houses and car parks, I can't help but shrug at the bland suburban backdrop utilised for most of the game. Although occasional setpieces offered less mundane environs, even these felt frequently derivative, with the gory art exhibition being reminiscent of the 2001 film, The Cell.
Compared to the smorgasbord of destinations that Sebastian barrelled through in his first outing (ranging from European towns to abstract hellscapes and flooded cities), it's no small wonder that the pavements and driveways of 2 feel so pedestrian. Similarly, while the original had the nightmarish screeching spider lady, Laura, the Anima ghost that appears in 2, while somewhat spooky in her sporadic appearances, felt too generic in terms of design to inspire true terror at any point (cool controller gimmick aside).

Ultimately 2 lacked the unrestrained energy and everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach that characterised the uneven original, resulting in a game that was only excellent in its closing moments. In smoothing out the kinks of 1, 2 lost not only the lows of its forebear, but the highs too, resulting in an experience so smooth that its contents slipped my mind almost immediately.
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HMSPolio
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Re: 396: The Evil Within 2

Post by HMSPolio »

Foregoing a review, I would like to point out three things that I hope don't go unremarked upon in this episode:

Firstly, the silliness of Sebastian's reactions at the end of the mini-games made me want much more of that from an otherwise fairly stock character. 'DIS-A-POINT-ED!' Really playful and fun.

Secondly, the brilliantly deadpan performance of nurse Tatiana made every new line of dialogue from her a treat.

Thirdly, the inclusion of super strength, invincibility, and infinite ammo in the options menu! From the start! This felt delightfully inclusive and—at the risk of sounding hyperbolic—brave in comparison to most modern games. They're not unlockable; they're not paid-DLC. Wonderful.
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DeadpoolNegative
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Re: 396: The Evil Within 2

Post by DeadpoolNegative »

SPOILERS for the game follow

I was lent The Evil Within 2 by a friend when my roommates and I picked up a PS4. I knew very little about the original, except for the involvement of Shinji MIkami, that it was a hit, and that it was weird, crazy, and gory. I also noticed this time the game was written by Trent Haaga, a screenwriter whose work I normally enjoy.

The Evil Within 2 isn't a bad game- in many ways it's a pretty good game. The combat is solid, even on he lower difficulty there are some tense moments, and there's plenty of fun ways to destroy enemies. But there's something about it that never quite clicks, that never quite gets out of first gear.

The game starts with that venerable video game protagonist, the alcoholic, grieving father searching for some sort of redemption and discovering that surprise- his dead family member may not be dead after all. The setup is familiar, although Haaga and the writers try hard to make us care. The problem is, the most interesting thing about the game's setup- that double surprise- Myra has been working with Mobius the entire time to save Lily and is actually the final boss- is kept from the player until the final chapters of the game. The game doesn't quite to enough to establish Sebastian's relationships with his wife and daughter to have the sort of impact that I think it should. It doesn't help that Marquis Bobeisch and Elizabeth Saydah give relatively flat performances as Sebastian and Myra, respectively. The story's strongest thread is Kidman and Sebastian's relationship, as she tries to make amends for what she and Mobius did to Sebastian, something that pays off in a surprisingly way in the final chapter.

Of course, The Evil Within 2 is a game that loves its fakeout final bosses- wait, the big bad is Stefano Valentini! Oh wait, no, it's Father Theodore! Psych, it's actually Myra Castellanos! These reveals don't quite hang together- in fact, they seem there to pad out the narrative, making a 6-8 hour game a 10-14 hour one.

I think maybe the big issue is, for a game set in a semi-open world, The Evil Within 2 feels incredibly small. There are some secrets to be had in the town of Union, but there's very little to do. the number of side quests is minimal- to be honest, there's only two, and the rest of the side content is basically item hunts. I often wondered if this game was a victim of budget constraints or some other issue. There's disappointing enemy variety and I often found a handgun did
the job as well as any other weapon, though the crossbow did make quite a bit of mischief.

It may be a bizarre way to describe it, but in the end I'd call The Evil Within 2 "pleasant". It didn't suck, but it wasn't great. It was fun to play for a while but I think in the end it struggles to justify its run time. At least it ties off the storyline with minimal sequel tease. And judging by the sales, that was a wise move.

--Dan
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Nyx-Blaster
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Re: Our next podcast recording (17.11.19) - 396: The Evil Within 2

Post by Nyx-Blaster »

I went into The Evil Within 2 right after playing the first game as my way of playing along with the show. I really didn't think much of the first Evil Within, i felt it had a great sense of atmosphere and that the gameplay, though frustrating, could be enjoyable at times once you got used to it. Where at first i hated the opening hours of that game because of its emphasis on stealth and how limited sebastian was in terms of his abilities (His Grandpa Stamina), i found that both of those elements amplified the atmosphere ten fold the more i played. Perhaps the main drawbacks of the original Evil Within was its poorly presented story and characters, along with the gameplay sometimes being too rigid for what the game was asking the player to deal with. Jump to the Evil Within 2, which i heard addressed all three of the issues i had with its predecessor and i found myself surprisingly curious and looking forward to seeing where the series ended up. After playing it i feel somewhat conflicted as to how i feel about it as a whole.

The story for the Evil Within 2 is somewhat more character focused than it's predecessor, with an emphasis on Sebastian and how he has to deal with both his past guilt and the revelation that his daughter is still alive. I dont think the story is exceptional by any means, in fact one might be able to call it predictable, but its perfectly functional for getting you from point A to point B. Unlike the first Evil Within you are able to follow what is going on and what is driving Sebastian and some of the other characters forward. This is both a positive and a negative in my eyes as by making the story more straightforward i feel like the game loses the tense mind jarring atmosphere that the first game did so well.

When it comes to characters, i think Sebastian leaves a better impression here than he did in the original game. He is still a bit of a wet noodle when it comes to certain situations and how he reacts to certain things, but snippets of his personality come through in his interactions with Kidman and his family. I think the game does a decent job showing the player the depth of Sebastian's grief and how he finds himself stuck in this loop of self pity and anger, with his drive for finding his daughter being the only thing holding him together. Sebastian does go through some subtle character development by the end which feels slightly lukewarm, but makes for some tender moments with his daughter and wife, and a moment of badassery when he encounters a familiar face from beacon wielding a chainsaw.
In regards to the side characters i found them to be forgettable in a horror-movie kind of way, but i do like how they expanded on Kidman's character a bit. I just wish we got to see more of her and learn more about her. I also wish that the villains, Stefano and Father Theodore, had a bit more depth to them as well other than just being evil for the sake of being evil. Of the two i found Stefano to be more interesting with his random teleportation moves and his ability to freeze time, Theodore just seemed like he was there to give Sebastian's guilt a more tangible form for him to fight and confront.

The gameplay for the Evil Within 2 is where i feel the most conflicted. I think in some ways the gameplay feels more fluid than the first game, but at the same time i couldn't help but feel like the shooting in this game wasn't nearly as responsive as it was in its predecessor. The gun-play lacked a sense of weight, that oomph factor you felt in the first game when you were shooting bits of cranium from an enemies head. Many of the weapon types from the first game returned here, but i felt there was a missed opportunity when it came to discovering some of the new weapons that were littered around Union and The Marrow. These new weapons turned out to just be variants of the weapons you already had in your inventory, and i found myself just sticking to the original variants and forgetting that the silenced pistol or the long barreled shotgun even existed. I also think the gameplay suffers from a very lackluster range of enemy types to fight compared to the first game, none of the new enemies are fun to fight nor are they intimidating or scary really. Overall i just found the gameplay to be kind of 'Meh' this time around, and when i found myself becoming both bored and frustrated i ended up changing the difficulty to casual at around chapter 8 just so that i could get through things faster. As a side note I think it was cool that the developers included a First Person mode which i ended up trying for a bit, however because of the limited visual feedback and the tunnel vision this mode induced i quickly turned the game back to third person.

I feel like the setting for the Evil Within 2, the city of Union, also falls short to the hot pot of locations that the first Evil Within ended up thrusting the player into. I think having a open world or semi-open world be fun and engaging if done right, but here i felt like it was neither and served only to slow the pace of the game down. The other area of the game, The Marrow, feels even more bland and sterile as Sebastian works his way through corridors of white walls and dimly lit tunnels closed off by giant blast doors. I think overall the setting was perhaps my biggest gripe with the game, it felt quite soulless to me and it wasnt fun or exciting to traverse at all. I did end up doing a few of the side missions to see where they went, but in the end i feel the game does a poor job motivating you to go out and explore Union.

Overall i dont dislike the Evil Within 2, i think the story can be enjoyable at times even if it is pretty standard. However, i feel much that enjoyment is bogged down by having to explore Union and go through the Marrow multiple times throughout the game and the gameplay being somewhat lackluster. Im not sure if i will go back to either of the Evil Within games the next time halloween comes around, but i dont regret playing them either.

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The Baboon Baron
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Re: Our next podcast recording (17.11.19) - 396: The Evil Within 2

Post by The Baboon Baron »

As fate would have it, I’d missed contributing to the first Evil Within show, and the Last of Us remaster has recently popped up on PS plus. So once the Last Of Us was torn through, I was able to settle into The Evil Within 2.

And what a juxtaposition- two games both alike in concept- 3rd person, crafting, monsters, emotionally driven- but worlds apart. Playing them next to each other was a mistake, as the holes in the later seemed so much more glaring then when I played the first Evil Within.

Thinking of my time with Evil Within 2 now, I’m struck by how much it felt like a 90’s action film, like Con Air or Time Cop. The characters are one dimensional, and the “I’ve got to save my daughter” shtick grows old quickly. The horror elements are there, but the monotone nature of the action, and the signposting detract from it. The death of horror is when its predictable and clique, and by flagging the “spooky bits” did nothing to enamour me to the game.

Plus, and this was amplified by the play through of the Last of Us- it controls very poorly. Enemies swarm or one hit you with no warning, there’s no way of tracking paths of the enemies or seeing where they might be, the guns feel like pea shooters designed to miss and of course there’s the stamina meter… which wins an award as one of the most irritating video game tropes in recent memory. But in the Evil Within 2, it reaches positively controller chewing levels of irritation. The second fight with the obscura to destroy the painting stands out- as a 20-foot hellish nightmare pursues our hero, he can but manage a limp for 20 paces. I know it’s a game mechanic, but come on, you’d break a sweat at least.
However, there are some glimmers of quality in there. The town of Union and the open world esque approach of scavenging and exploring works realty well. I got flash backs of the early Silent Hill’s which is a fine pedigree to be compared to. The environmental story telling works well, and when the Japan style of horror is allowed to take over like the gross… white… erm…. “gentlemen’s release” monster (I’m trying to keep it family friendly here folks) then it can be really interesting. Sadly, within seconds the controls let it down, or some cringey line spoils it all.

In this day and age, of Amnesia, Outlast, Last of Us and Resident Evil 7, the Evil Within really comes up short. Its has echoes of some of the PS2 era also rans such as the Suffering and Project Zero. When it allows itself, parts of it are really interesting, but I felt that the crowbarred western influences detracted from them, rather than opened it up. I would have preferred if The Evil Within 2 had stuck to strictly eastern horror influences. Overall, Its worth a punt, but I doubt I’ll be replaying this one.

3WR- Evil Without Quality
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Our next podcast recording (17.11.19) - 396: The Evil Within 2

Post by ratsoalbion »

You’ve missed contributing to this one as well, sadly - the recording was yesterday...

Please remember to check the deadline date in the thread title, folks!
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The Baboon Baron
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Re: The Evil Within 2

Post by The Baboon Baron »

Well that’s embarrassing! I’ll try and keep an eye on the date in the future!
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Chopper
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Re: The Evil Within 2

Post by Chopper »

Just wanted to register my appreciation for this episode. I was very surprised to hear the game was well received by all four panellists; having read the listener comments in this thread I had expected the show to fall on the slightly negative side.

It's a pity these solid games that Bethesda are pumping out are not meeting with more commercial success, but I assume the talent is being recognised within the industry.

Disappointed that no Three Word Reviews read, Sticky White Stuff; an opportunity missed.
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