The Evil Within 2
The Evil Within 2 puts you back in the shoes of Sebastian Castellanos, a traumatized Sebastian who is soon to discover that he was lied to, when his former partner Juli Kidman, informs him that his daughter’s death was faked, and now she is being used to power the simulation of a town called Union. Though not all is well withing the simulation, not well at all.
The game starts off with a fairly linear introduction level vefore spitting you out in the open world hub – the nightmarish town of Union –
this is where you need to explore and search for materials, hidden weapon caches and information.
Stealth becomes your friend when foraging, one wrong move and you could have a ton of enemies on your arse.
By the end of the intro level you have picked up a gun and some ammo. Some ammo. Some.
You’ll have to scavenge hard to find enough ammo to keep you alive, but no matter how much you have you always seem to be perilously close to running out giving many encounters a survived by the skin of my teeth feel.
You may play the role of Sebastian Castellanos, but what he is actually like is up to you, you get to choose how to upgrade him and his weapons to suit your play style. There are heaps of skill and weapon upgrades available, with skills broken down into five main sections – Combat, Stealth, Health, Recovery and Athleticism.
Of course you can;t spend the entire game in the open world of the town center and once you decide to continue on with the story missions, the game once again becomes predictably linear. Hell, how else do you produce a horror game without linear?
This is also where The Evil Within 2 is it’s most scariest, with heart-racing set pieces, and the old trap where a wrong turn means a quick death.
There are plenty of visual effects to keep you on edge and disorientated, and the pace keeps you on your toes.
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These contrasting aspects of the open world and linear sections lead to a truly fantastic horror game, one that understands how and when to best build up the level of tension and when to give the player some time to compose themselves. The chance to explore the open world areas does begin to drop off towards the end, but the tension continues to ramp up until the conclusion, which could take between 12 and 16 hours in total to reach depending on play-style. Despite some occasional backtracking, the pacing is spot on, never feeling rushed or dragged out.
The Evil Within 2 delivers a solid horror experience that will keep you engaged throughout and is presented in a shiny package of beautiful graphics.
Rating: R16 Horror, graphic violence & offensive language.
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