They gave it an 8/10.

This isn't a very comprehensive review by any measure of the word, but it may be one of the only pre-release write ups we get due to the review embargo. It's not clear from the review how much time was put into the game, and to me it seems as though this article was rushed out as quickly as possible. There are few concrete details to be gleaned from Steven Burns's thoughts on the game, and nothing about how long the game took to complete, or if it was even completed at all. Sadly, there is no information about the PC version as VideoGamer.com reviewed the PS4 release. No technical information about even the PS4 version is discussed other than the "cinematic" 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

I don't necessarily like this site too much, but the opening for the Evil Within review is one of the best things I've read in awhile.

"Note: the embargo for media that received The Evil Within from Bethesda is on October 14th, the day of release. As Bethesda declined to send us a review copy of the game (presumably due to the score we gave Wolfenstein: The New Order) we bought our own copy. As such said embargo does not apply, hence why the review is live now."

:D Can't wait to see the rest of the reviews flood in.

It seems that the letterboxing can be disabled. Also, check the screenshots on Steam, most of them have no letterboxing.

Damn Videogamer.com!! You so sassy!

@viciousbearmauling: they are, but it didn't seem to influence review, 8/10 seems like a respectful score from an outlet feeling slighted by bethesda

I've read a bunch of opinions from people that have the game early. Impressions seem pretty positive. I have seen repeated comments about clunky controls and framerate issues though.

I stopped reading at "Shinji Mikimi".

Also, that logo looks oddly familiar.

Cool. I am looking forward to it releasing tomorrow.

I have never heard anyone call RE4 "Resi 4". Maybe I have been living under a rock?

Either way hope to hear positive impressions about this continuously....well my mind does, but I think my wallet is hoping for the opposite.

at least it's a great score like 8/10 and not a terrible one like 7/10.

@ripelivejam: If the comments on Jeff's review of one of the Zelda games (from Gamespot) are any indication then an 8.8 is even worse than a 7.

I have some hope that this game will be at least better than Shadows of the Damned. It looks pretty good from what I've seen of the trailers.

Further confirms this is a Shinji Mikami/Japanese survival horror game which means I'm even more hype. If what that review said about it being like a cross between Silent Hill and Resident Evil with RE4 combat is in anyway true then there is absolutely no way I could hate this game.

"If it's not bad controls it's not survival horror!"

Are...are you saying that QWOP is a survival horror game? :P

@beachthunder: the most survivalist of them all

@beachthunder: It's pretty horrifying (I mean, imagine if that's how you had to move around) and you're trying to survive despite your terrible handicap, so I guess so!

OT, hope that it continues getting positive press. Definitely waiting to hear what the crew thinks of it and watch a QL or something so I know if it's the kind of clunky horror I can get behind or the kind of clunky horror that scares me away.

It certainly is survival horror-ABLY BAD!!! AHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Yeah, pretty much.

Seems like a good score, interested in what others have to say. But either ways, even if the game gets bashed by the reviews, i'm still picking it up.

I will say that apart from that review being a little wishy-washy, I literally cringed each time the author consciously shortened Resident Evil to Resi - which happens multiple times in the review! Just write RE, or literally anything but Resi.

@humanity said:

We happy few from the most United of Kingdoms refer to Resident Evil as "Resi." Also Mario is "Marry-oh" and Diablo is "Die-abb-low."

Also favourite, colour and cheque. Just sayin'

@impartialgecko: Wow, you monsters are butchering this language!

im a bit bummed that the game doesn't perform that great, I have seen a pretty consistent stream of people saying the game tends to drop las low as 20 which isn't great. However it looks good enough graphically along with the seemingly great art for me to turn a blind eye to the technical stuff. Everything else seems pretty sound though, the shooting does look a bit clunky when enemies are extremely close to you but that is kinda most horror games.

I think switching between this and alien will be a nice rotation as they target different types of horror. Man, never thought In 2014 that we would be seeing 2 huge horror games released right in a row!

Also little tip, the game is 53.99 for psn pre load, without tax that means you're getting the game about 12 bucks cheaper and by my math it also unlocks at 9 p.m for PST. between all that it was enough for me to pull the trigger

@humanity: Correct. There has never been a good survival horror game with good controls. Not a single one. Zero. Nada.

Well I would say Dead Space but I know a lot of people argue that it is not really survival horror. So no, not a single one!

I hope this will play well though. Controls are one thing but a good flow to gameplay is something completely different. I know there are puzzles from the preview videos, but are they of the same lackluster variety as previous Resident Evil games? Am I going to have to look for the eagle shaped medallion to put into the eagle shaped hole so a computer boots up? That is horror in of itself.

Yeah, clunckyness and bad gameplay are to very different things. I always saw the wacky controls as a means to inhibit the player from further defending himself from regular enemies(The haunted), which, if you ask me only emphasizes the the scare factor.

It really sucks to hear about the framerate issues. My copy's already bought and on its way anyway, but still I was under the impression that this being a cross-gen game that would then at the very least allow the current gen version to stay at a locked 30 =/ It can't exactly be taxing the hardware that much. Oh well, with the less than ideal PC version the development of this game has clearly proven to be tricky. New team and all that I suppose, even if it does have some veterans on board.

Part of me suspects that this team was handed id Tech 5 and told to make a game with it, rather than it being chosen because it was the best engine for the job.

@impartialgecko: Oh wow this game runs on Id Tech 5? That is really disappointing to hear. I don't think I've ever played a game on that engine that ran that well.

Wolfenstein was fine for me on PC. Not perfect, but it wasn't as if it was technically so bad it took away from the experience.

Wolfenstein was a great game that was a nightmare for me to run. Once I installed some user-made patches it worked fine but it still suffered from that awful Id Tech 5 pop-in and muddy/melted textures up close. It's a wonderful engine for when you're standing still and looking at things from a distance but the moment you start moving and the textures start unloading and re-loading in the background it all goes to hell. Also those 'props' like clipboards and giant pens baked into the textures for Wolfenstein looked horrendous - although they were pretty funny.

@humanity: that's too bad, I was able to run it at 1080p/60, all details, and even some extra AA/AF with no major problems, only a little bit of texture pop-in occasionally and I am typically very sensitive to that sort of thing. Admittedly I run a very high end system, but the game did work for me.

@mb: Well I have a Radeon which is usually the root of all problems since most games are optimized for Nvidia cards and by now I am willing to buy into the conspiracy theory that games intentionally run a lot worse on Radeons.

I HIGHLY doubt they intentionally handicap how it runs on AMD and more that they just don't put the work in to properly optimize it.

There's no point in assuming malicious intent when laziness is much more plausible.

@corevi: I don't seriously think there is a conspiracy going on and yes I agree it is laziness.

I already know the game is bad in a plethora of ways so I'll save my money. Perhaps pick it up on a sale this Holiday if its cheap enough.

@humanity: Bethesda also recommends that you have 4gb of vram. I've gotten to the point where I'm playing all my AAA games on PS4 despite owning a perfectly fine PC. The ports aren't nearly as bad as they were when the last generation started but the issues are annoying enough for me stick with the more consistent and predictable experience.

@pause422: How would you know this? Did you play it? Do you have magic future seeing powers? Are you sure "bad" isn't just "I don't like it"?

I'll believe that 4gb VRAM requirement when I see the game in the hands of actual people with a variety of system configurations. We all know publishers have a tendency to pad PC system requirements, they should be taken with a grain of salt until independently confirmed.

Yep. I liken it to that phenomenon (the name of which escapes me) where if an item is priced for more than is reasonable, a number of people will just assume that it is higher quality. For example, the crappy bakery where I work is in a trendy part of town, so people rave about their $3/each cupcakes, when there's nothing special about them at all and they're actually dryer and less flavorful than what you can make at home out of a box. Folks just think, "3 bucks?! That's kind of ridiculous... They must be good!".

I think similarly, in this post Crysis world, some publishers think that by releasing crazy high recommended specs for a PC game that people will automatically think that the graphics are amazing. Of course, in practice it seems to just piss a lot of gamers off, but that's never stopped pubs/devs before!

So it's good outside of how it plays? That sounds fantastic.

That's promising, maybe! Already pre-ordered the game for PC though since I'm an idiot. This style of survival horror always runs perfectly on the PC, really, like.. well, maybe this time. Right? I'm sure Shinji Mikami really cares about personal computers.

Also poor optimization has led many people astray on journeys to update their hardware when the problem is on the software side of things.

From watching a person with an early copy playing the game, that doesn't seem like a bad impression of it. It seems kind of clunky and unpolished in an old survival horror game sort of way. It has a decent bit of personality, and I have a feeling its oddity and creepiness will make up for flaws in its core gameplay.

They said they are able to release the review ahead of the October 14th release because they didn't receive a copy from Bethesda and thus aren't bound by an embargo, so they bought their own copy of the game before it was released? How does that work?

@vampir: By having a friend working at a retailer who can get them an early copy most likely. People get early copies of stuff. Hell, I downloaded Destiny early because Bungie released the game on September 10th worldwide, which meant aussies got it about 8 hours before everyone else.

@vampir: Street dates get broken all the time, so it's probably as simple as that.

Well sure, but considering whoever sold them the game is presumably under some sort of contract that is at least as binding as a review embargo to not sell the game until release, it just seems strange to bring it up at all. It's like saying, "Don't worry. We didn't break any legal agreements; some anonymous person did for us."

Disturbingly accurate.