The first piece of DLC (of three) for The Evil Within is upon us! Not that many on here care I imagine, but I at least very much enjoyed my time with The Evil Within. It certainly had its flaws--undercooked stealth mechanics, terrible story/dialogue, enemies with guns, and a couple of the bosses really sucked--but it by and large delivered a more than satisfactory 'reimagining' of Mikami's work with Resident Evil 4. The shooting was satisfying, the atmosphere was suffocating, and it featured a surprising amount of environmental variety and constantly left me wondering where it would take me next from chapter to chapter.
While it was hardly a ''pure'' survival horror game, despite Mikami's repeated claims, it did at least implement certain aspects of the sub-genre staples, most importantly being ammo conservation and an unforgiving level of difficulty. It helped establish a specific identity of being what was still basically a third-person shooter, but one that followed en route from The Last of Us by generally limiting your supplies to make you cherish every bullet, and to take any opportunity to thwart the enemies that impede your progress by other means beyond simply shooting them in the head.
I was more than ready for more 'survival horror shootery' anywhoo, yet to my surprise The Assignment is very different from The Evil Within proper. The Assignment practically sheds away much of the action--besides one short instance that is--and instead doubles down on the horror, the exploration, and most importantly the atmosphere. As Juli Kidman, you rarely ever have much in the way of any means to defend yourself, and must thusly rely on stealth to get through encounters. Fortunately while the stealth felt like something of an afterthought in the main game, Kidman is able to take cover and can peek behind corners to get a better look see of her surroundings, making it now much more viable and easier to manage. While hiding in lockers and under beds in the main game often seemed useless, for The Assignment it may just be what'll save your life.
Again, Juli Kidman has no weapons of any kind for most of the DLC. She does have a melee attack, but that too purely exists for defence and certainly can't be relied upon to take down any enemies. What she does have is a torch, which while she won't be blinding and making monsters sizzle ala thatother horror shooter featuring a torch, it's instead often used simply to help you find your way. The environments throughout much of the DLC are exceptionally dark, and the torch is sometimes a necessity to find your way. It also helps accentuate the fantastic lighting effects on display, which goes to great lengths to actually make the environments in The Assignment surprisingly unnerving to traverse through. That, and it's used to great effect to help you dispatch the invisible enemies from the main game.
It's amazing what removing your weapons can do to a game's atmosphere; you'll encounter a few enemies you will have already massacred many times over in the main game, yet they still manage to portray a significant degree of intimidation all the same in the DLC. Though there are still a couple of new enemies on hand. One of which seems taken from the same page of the likes of Pyramid Head, complete with its own eerie 'object where your head should be' motif. Walking on two long, feminine legs--complete with high heels to make sure you know when it's coming your way--that lead up to a vicious maw of teeth crudely hidden beneath a cloak, with a glaring searchlight reigning on top of it all. It's a legitimately freaky character design, and its distorted cries for 'Leslie' (and sometimes Kidman herself) would always send the odd shiver down my spine. Its appearances may be scripted, but it's nonetheless a superb new entry in the 'stalker monster' lineup of horror video games.
The other enemy type is similarly as depraved-looking. Made up of what looks to be a mix of bulbous sores and jagged teeth, with something resembling a person in the midst of it all, these creatures look to be what are essentially the 'offspring' of the Searchlight monster. Despite their grave appearance, they are at least completely blind, and will inconveniently find themselves patrolling areas to which you need to pass. Their patrol routes typically follow a rigorous pattern, often requiring you to meticulously memorise their routes to try and brave past the creatures, if not sometimes intentionally start making some noise to lead them astray.
While the stealth mechanics have been given some new notches by way of Kidman's ability to take cover, it's still ultimately rather rudimentary. The stealth gameplay exists more so to enhance the atmosphere, to force upon you a keen feeling of vulnerability as you crawl through vents and try to circumvent the enemies by any means possible. That's not to say this DLC is completely passive or anything, but that it's not overly complicated and is pretty linear for the most part. Puzzles are much more prominent now as well, and while they're not especially difficult, they help to add to the pace and give some more purpose to your sleuthing in the dark.
One other primary component of The Assignment is the story. The story for The Evil Within felt needlessly convoluted, however for better or worse The Assignment does its job well in serving some vital bits of information to help tie things together. I especially liked how it explains the effects of the mysterious 'STEM', and how it also explains why it features such a wide variety of environments. That the castle portion was in fact where Juli Kidman used to live when she was a kid was a welcoming revelation. Juli Kidman herself makes for a much more engaging protagonist than Sebastian could ever hope to. Jennifer Carpenter's performance isn't fantastic, but it's a huge step-up from Anson Mount and his performance's perpetual boredness. Kidman also simply makes for a more interesting character, as we learn of her backstory as someone who was something of a troubled child you could say, with a rap sheet that you wouldn't expect to pin to her attractive appearance. It's funny that Kidman manages to pack in more characterisation and backstory in this roughly 3-hour DLC that Sebastian could in the 12-15 hour main game, but there you go.
Mobius, an ultra-secret society that Kidman is a newly joined member of, helps give the game something of an enjoyable foreshadowing for things to come. The exceptionally tall and seemingly faceless man in suit makes for an effective antagonist as well, which eventually results in a pretty great chase sequence at the very end. The way the suited man literally transforms into the shadows themselves, and how his long-reaching claws attempt to grasp Kidman, do a great job in establishing Mobius's power and influence. That, and it was a legitimately cool effect at witnessing these claws sprout from the walls like that.
While The Assignment does double back to a few environments from the main game, there's a surprising amount of new areas. The first chapter's creepy office building in particular I found was the most frightening to traverse throughout the DLC. Even when the game does return to its familiar locals, they're interesting to explore due to the different perspective and nature of the DLC. The segment where you have to stealthily fight back against Joseph Oda as a 'Haunted' was another highlight of the DLC. Also, kind of a funny coincidence that we have two horror games featuring the player having to kill a monstified Yuri Lowenthal in one week.
Even with all this said, I think what's most important to note is that The Assignment at times feels legitimately scary -- a welcome surprise considering the main game's complete devoid of frights. I would always personally choose to walk everywhere and felt anxious should I ever decide to travel via Kidman's default jog, let alone the sprint. The atmosphere in The Evil Within proper was nicely evocative to begin with, but it's been wonderfully amplified in The Assignment. The air feels like it only gets heavier and thicker the more you play, and the creepy drone of music that fills throughout the first chapter in particular does an outstanding job of keeping the undercurrent of unease going strong. It felt like my heart was lodged in my throat throughout the whole thing. The second chapter wasn't quite as frightening as the first, but I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with this DLC from beginning to end, and I'm really looking forward to the following DLC of Kidman's story.
Finishing this DLC has left me rather curious to see where the series as a whole will go from here. I can't imagine they would actually follow in the Juli Kidman DLC's footsteps wholesale, but it'd be nice if they incorporate much of what they've learned from here into the shooty-shooty of what this series will likely continue with.
Considering how heavily The Evil Within set itself up as a very horror-orientated style of game, it's weird then to have the DLC deliver on those promises when the main game itself is very much more inline with the likes of Resident Evil 4. Do people who played The Evil Within even want this sort of DLC? Perhaps this is precisely what they wanted all along. As such, when the second DLC is released I think it would be extremely beneficial if it could exist as its own standalone thing. From a story perspective it may be a tad confusing, but then the same can still be said for the main game anyway so! Still, that The Assignment feels so far removed from much of the main game, I imagine there's a wholly different audience out there that would love to experience the DLC without having to purchase the full game itself.
As such, for anyone who felt disappointed in The Evil Within's lack of proper horror, The Assignment at the very least is most certainly worth a look see. Hopefully the second piece of DLC--The Consequence--will lead on from what The Assignment started, but then as someone who really enjoyed The Evil Within, I guess I wouldn't be too disappointed if it potentially regresses back to the original way of things.
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