An unpolished pile of garbage
The Evil Within is not a good game. There are plenty of decent game mechanics here, since it uses the cookie-cutter survival horror mechanics of exploring/shooting/looting, but it is so poorly put together that it is a complete waste of time. Here is a list of things that ruined the game for me:
- One or two save points per chapter mean you are relying on the game's autosaves most of the time. And the autosave locations are garbage. You will have to redo entire sections if you die just before reaching the next save, and there are tons of instant-deaths in the game.
- The combat is messy. Some rooms they just throw 6 enemies at you as if you have crowd control techniques (you have a flash grenade and that's it), others they put 1 enemy and expect it to be a challenge. There is no consistency.
- A ton of the game mechanics are never explained and make no sense. You can "charge-up" the crossbow, but who would ever think to do that? It isn't a bow, crossbows don't work like that. You can use resources to light hay on fire, but they never once explain why you would ever want to.
- The movement is slow and clunky. Doors take a second to open and always close afterwards, your character has a hard time looking at objects to pick them up, and he will lock his melee attacks on to dead bodies instead of enemies.
- The story is just dull. I won't spoil anything, but it doesn't go anywhere interesting and there are whole chapters where the story doesn't progress at all.
- There are "events" where you have to run, hide, or take down enemies using special traps. They are never explained (you have to die a few times to figure out the rules, and the checkpoints always suck), and they are never fun.
- The levels are dull. Expect to see a ton of hospital/asylum corridors and RE4 villages. Also, there are no RE style puzzles, just switches you have to click to progress.
- The weapons are generic. Nothing you haven't seen before a dozen times.
- The game tries to scare you. It never succeeds, and those events really slow down the game. Nothing remotely as scary as Amnesia or Slenderman.
- The enemies are basically zombies. About as unoriginal as you can get.
I know one star is harsh, since the combat itself is actually okay and the upgrade system is decent, but the hassle you have to go through to get to those decent combat sections is just not worth it.
