Game review: The Evil Within

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22 Oct, 2014 05:00 PM3 mins to read

The Evil Within</i> doesn't just want to scare you - it wants to shake you to your core.

Within the first 10 minutes, I'd slid down a disgustingly bloody butcher's chute into a swimming pool filled with bodies, and survived the vicious blades of a giant combine harvester. It was then that I had a chainsaw thrust through my chest and my head removed with a meat cleaver. Actually, that happened twice.

Welcome to the world of The Evil Within, the new psychological-horror game from Resident Evil's scare guru Shinji Mikami that doesn't hold back on the gore factor.

Right from the game's opening scenes, in which you wake hanging in a chiller while a butcher carves up a body on the table beside you, it's apparent that The Evil Within doesn't just want to scare you - it wants to shake you to your core.

It does this by delivering one of the genre's most bloody-thirsty games yet. When a character utters the line, "It smells like blood," during that edge-of-your-seat introduction, he's not kidding.

Bodies litter hallways like trash, blood oozes down walls and streams of blood spew violently across the screen when you die. If you're squeamish, this isn't the game for you. If you're up for it, then welcome to hell.

Gamers take on the role of Detective Sebastian Castellanos, a cop investigating a series of murders when he is knocked out by some kind of ghostly assassin. After that grotesque opening, you're tasked with tracking down the source of whatever it is that's caused the world to implode.

With 15 chapters, gameplay will feel familiar for anyone who's played any of the Resident Evil or Silent Hill games: exploring and problem- solving are key, but so is using stealth to avoid those gruesome baddies. Also, it pays to burn corpses as you go, otherwise they might just come alive again.

There's so much for horror fans to love about The Evil Within: the oppressive tone, the hideous creatures, the frequent scares, the flickering lights and the nightmarish scenarios. It definitely delivers shocks, but there are frustrations. The lack of save-game options and checkpoints means plenty of repetition - especially as it's so easy to die. End of level boss baddies can be ridiculously hard to kill - even on the game's supposedly easier "casual" mode. Camera angles can be frustrating during fight scenes. And Castellanos isn't exactly a charismatic main character. He has all the personality of an axe handle.

But the focus here is on the scares, and on that level, Mikami delivers more graphic gore than anyone in their right mind could ask for. If you're planning on playing The Evil Within, get ready for some sleepless nights.

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