• The Evil Within Review!
• The Assignment Blog!

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I'm a wee bit late for this one, a whole month even, but chalk my tardiness up to this little indie thing that recently took the gaming world by storm. Bloodbourne, I think? Yet another crack at trying to gamify Jason Bourne with his long lost amnesiac nephew, Bloodifer (Blood for short) Bourne. Also yes, that's right, it's somehow both a licensed release and an indie title.

...In any case, despite the number of qualms I may have with it, Bloodborne has been awfully clingy over the past few weeks and hasn't let me play many other games. That is besides a few flings with its distant nephew, Dark Souls II: Scholar of The First Sin. Even now as I theoretically attempt to talk about the most recent The Evil Within DLC do I then inadvertently lead into a paragraph about Bloodborne! Such is the hold this game has over me, the harlot.

Insight

That people for the longest time were feveriously trying to -- NO STOP IT, STOP IT. NO MEANS NO, BLOODIFER.

THE ASSIGNMENT WAS VERY GOOD

For as long as it took me to actually get around to The Consequence, I was left feeling rather optimistic and enthusiastic once the original DLC The Assignment wrapped up from its modest runtime. That it actually decided to turn the whole thing on its head and deviously shed you of all your precious firearms in favour of a torch and (occasionally) an empty glass bottle was quite the twist. It emphasised the horror of what is supposedly a survival horror game all the more so, forcing you to instead stay clear of enemy encounters and to try and maneuver about via vents and such. Though the one downside to this wholly new design philosophy was that the actual gameplay mechanics were rather barebones. You could take cover and peek around corners with the best of 'em, but the environments were highly contained and didn't allow for much in the way of experimentation. There was usually only the one method for getting through each encounter.

I found that The Assignment still left an impression all the same thanks to its utterly suffocating atmosphere and how it even managed to elicit the odd fright here and there. Which is in complete contrast to the main game. In any case, I've already talked enough about The Assignment, which makes for another stepping stone to finally getting to the point of all this...

AND SO IS THE CONSEQUENCE

Continuing with the misadventures of newly appointed Secret Society Agent With a Heart O' Gold Juli Kidman, The Consequences sticks to much of the blueprint established in the prior DLC... to a point. Much like the initial teaser suggested, The Consequence isn't quite as honed in on the mostly-pacifist approach that The Assignment touted. Don't take that as a derogative or anything, as while it falls in a little short in a few key areas, I think The Consequence overall made for a more memorable experience.

Part of that is down to variety. Yes, the game's combat resurfaces its head, but only briefly before said metaphorical head pops like a melon into a gory puddle of face chunks and recedes its remains. The Consequence still features Kidman dearly relying on her torch throughout a fair bit of the DLC, and puzzles and story intrigue function as the focal point for much of the roughly three hour long runtime it took me. The story in particular feels like the core of the whole thing, which is surprising considering how poorly put together the plot of the base game was. That's not to say the story is the most well told or acted, far from it, but in relation to the main game I was significantly more engaged in uncovering the many secrets and having specks of the nonsense in the main game cleared up. Kidman also once again makes for a much better protagonist; Jennifer Carpenter's performance varies from OK to passable, with some forays into ''How in the Hell have you had an acting career for this long?'', but what's important to note is that she at least puts in some modicum of effort, which is more than could be said for Anson Mount. There's also an unintentionally funny audio log involving an interview between Kidman and a Mobius agent, where Carpenter gets the chance to harness her time playing Debra Morgan from Dexter, with every sentence featuring a ''fuck'' in there somewhere.

The Consequence goes to great lengths to try and give Kidman's motivations some consistency. In the main game her role and whether or not she's a villain or not was foggy at best, intentionally so most likely, but her perspective during the DLC helps give her a little depth. She's trying to stop Ruvik from escaping the STEM thing via Leslie, while also eluding her creepy G-Man knockoff superior, but amidst all of the confusion she invariably comes into conflict with Sebastian as everybody is left perplexed as who is what and why and then wait a minute what? That they shown her actually saving Sebastian from the Haunted transformation--when in the main game it looked as if she shot him--was a welcome twist, as was the scene when she plans to shoot Leslie. Knowing that Ruvik's hold on him is growing stronger, she feels it necessary to kill him to stop Ruvik from evolving from his status as an evil Futurama brain into an I Am Sam reject. That much was obvious to begin with in the main game mind, though her many attempts in thwarting Ruvik's control and her safeguarding of Leslie before hand gave her decision a little more weight.

Many of the game's audio logs also help expand on other such character motivations and backgrounds, particularly Ruvik. So much so that frankly it's almost a little insulting that such relevant information is left to DLC. This isn't quite ''selling the ending'' bad, but it gets pretty close. Together the DLC helps to explain the whole STEM thing, a rather vital bit of information I'd say, and even notes just how the Hell Sebastian and Co. are somehow forced into the STEM in the first place. Turns out it's basically thanks to Wi-Fi. The STEM has its very own 'signal' that once rung will then pull in everybody who hears it, which in Sebastian's case was on the radio in the beginning while they're on the way to the hospital. Though how they all manage to end up in their own personal bathtub full of jizz is still left unexplained... Ruvik's overall goal in trying to bring his sister back--who may be remembered as the bloodied Spider-Woman cosplaying insta-kill enthusiast Laura--also feels real haphazard, like some sort of last ditch attempt at giving the character something beyond 'Jackie Haley stock character'.

One of the DLC's best highlights goes to The Administrator, who manages to claw his way up past the low, low standards of The Evil Within's cast and come about as a genuinely memorable antagonist. As mentioned before he tends to come across as a very archetypal Faceless Government Man--the faceless part is literal at that as his face is obscured until the very end--but the voice performance helps elevate him into a surprisingly effective villain. He exudes arrogance and authority, as he continually belittles Kidman akin to some sort of abusive father figure. He preys on her past as a delinquent (which still feels a little hard to believe), posing the question of what sort of life she has to go back to should she abandon Mobius. Considering all of the visceral villains in the base game, it's welcome to have someone actually trying to mentally beat the character down rather than literally so.

I Shot You down, Bang (reload) Bang

He also makes for one Helluva final boss fight! The Evil Within proper's cavalcade of bosses ran the gamut of quality; some were great (Keeper), others anti-climatic (Ruvik), and one in particular was utterly infuriating (Laura bout 2). As such if I was to say that The Administrator is one of the game's best it might not carry very far, but simply as a means to end a story it was both satisfying and just kinda cool. The aesthetic sort of reminded me of the VR missions from Metal Gear Solid, and the boss design itself made sound use of the DLC's emphasis on darkness. It first starts off with you trying to defend yourself against two evil, corrupted Juli Kidmans... Juli Kidmen? They twitch about like they've been plucked straight out of Jacob's Ladder, and seeing one of those creepy little doppelgangers rapidly twitching their way towards you from the darkness is prime time for the odd fright. Afterwards you eventually start battling against the big cheese himself, who like in The Assignment makes use of shadow manipulation to govern his attacks. The battle itself isn't particularly difficult, but it gets by with sheer spectacle, and unlike the ending boss in the base game doesn't bog itself down with one-hit kills.

The playing of the DLC is home to a lot more variety in general. It includes more of the same slow-paced stealth as you're lead by the limited shine of your torch, but it also includes a couple of neat chase sequences (one of which of course involving The Administrator. He's like a good luck charm; whenever he shows up you know things 'bout to get guuud), some more of those Safe Head puzzles, and again some actual full-on gun-toting combat. There's a couple of notable stealth sequences that actually allow you to figure out the best path for yourself, as you try to maneuver through an environment in order to set fire to these sentient Ruvik paintings. It's not quite Arkham Asylum levels of flexibility, but it's nice to actually have a little leeway in figuring things out as opposed to being primarily shoehorned into a single vent to sneak past an encounter.

The short period where Kidman's torch breaks and she must then resort to using glow sticks or whatever to light the way instead unfortunately felt rather undeveloped. For starters you have an infinite supply of the things, which seems a little preposterous as you continually keep hurling them across the area. You can only have three illuminated at one time, but it's nonetheless a little silly. The idea behind them is that since you're having to throw them in front of you to light the way to see where you're going, you may potentially hit an enemy alerting them to your presence. It's a neat idea in theory, but frankly never lead to anything beyond me transfixing on the idea that Kidman has an infinite supply of rave rods. I actually never knew that you could only have three sticks active at once or that they could hit an enemy, and only discovered such information from the tooltips. I otherwise wouldn't have realised as I didn't encounter any downside to the sticks beyond being mildly annoying with how I had to keep throwing them to find my way. The lighting does look rather stunning at least!

The biggest differentiator from The Assignment is the combat, which I feel as if I've been holding off in writing about... Which is weird because funnily enough the one thing The Consequence's combat brought to mind was how much I really enjoy The Evil Within's combat. It reintroduced me to the pleasure of witnessing (and listening) to the sloshy, oozing gore that erupts with every shot, to having to keep a close eye on the extremely limited cache of bullets I have available. Even when the game allows you the opportunity to go guns-a-blazin' (which only counts for, say, a third of the DLC), it still manages to evoke the distinct feeling of vulnerability so key to survival horror even more so than The Evil Within. There are two sections that are combat-focussed. The first has you equipped with Kidman's own pistol, however she can only carry ten spare bullets alongside the seven she can fit in the magazine; she herself can die from two hits at most; she has the stamina of an overweight smoker in her 90s; and the Haunted still retain their love of bumrushing right towards your face.

The second segment introduces a whole new weapon even, being one of those sawn-off shotguns you see the Haunted liberally make use of. However even though you're packing more firepower, the shotgun can only store one bullet before it needs to be reloaded, and like the pistol you can only carry so many bullets -- in this case six in total. The shotgun will basically always kill one of the fuckers with a single shot, but oh by the way they'll also infinitely respawn... Ordinarily this is often a pain in the ass, but for The Consequence it wonderfully amplified the nature of forcing you to be on the defensive even when it's time for you to theoretically be taking the offensive. You're shooting your way through the small horde of crazies not to improve your score, but to simply survive as you try to make your way to your destination. The combat as such is incredibly thrilling and is peppered throughout the DLC just at the right amount so as not to overwhelm the whole package. There's also of course the brilliant all-combat boss I briefed before, though the other that has you put an end to the latest in horror game's string of ''replace head with X'' monsters is also not too shabby, either. It functions very much like the hide-and-seek design of your first major encounter with it back in The Assignment, only the game has changed to hide-and-seek-shoot-then-hide-again. It can still kill you in one hit, and when you're caught within its literal searchlight your movement is drastically slowed down and you can't shoot; as such, the boss manages to keep ahold of its intimidating presence while still ultimately having to die by your hand.

Weirdly enough by the end of it all I was then left disappointed by the fact that The Evil Within isn't to receive any sort of pure combat-focussed DLC ala something akin to Mercenaries from Resident Evil. Would love the opportunity to make heads go pop some more with Kidman in particular. I really like the way she holds her pistol...

The one primary downside to The Consequence is it isn't nearly as frightening as The Assignment before it. That's not even necessarily due to the inclusion of the combat, but simply because the environments you'll be exploring lack the foreboding of such places as the office from the first DLC. When it takes you to the crumbling city streets then practically all semblance of horror is evaporated, just like in the main game. The general vibe of the atmosphere carries the same thickness to it at least. The air still manages to look as if you could physically grab a hold of it, and while it caused such controversy upon release, I still find that the letterboxing helps establish an effectively claustrophobic element to the game.

Oh! Conclusion!

Feels good to be finishing a blog with my tried & true header. I opted for something a little different for my Bloodborne one because I couldn't resist a little Bloodborne-related wordplay.

In any case, I came away from The Consequence rather satisfied. It soundly wrapped up Kidman's involvement in the main game while also offering a look see into where the series may hopefully lead to. DLC such as this seems like the perfect opportunity to experiment a little, poke and prod at the systems to see what works. It in fact brings to mind Resident Evil 5's Lost in Nightmares, but on a much grander scale. For as much as I do still really enjoy the game's combat, however, it would be great if they could try to implement and improve upon the stealth elements from Kidman's story. It seemed as if this is what they intended during development, but couldn't quite hit the finish and instead doubled down on combat? The stealth was always there after all in some form, but frankly felt unfinished and barely worth utilising.

I just really appreciate that Tango were willing to basically toss their own table over and go in such divergent directions with the DLC. Even the combat-focussed Executioner DLC looks to be its own beast with its melee-centric, first-person view serial killer simulation. The Kidman DLC is also so different from the base game that, like I said at the end of The Assignment blog, I think it would be beneficial if it were to actually be released as its own standalone release. I'm sure there's an audience out there that would find the escapades of Kidman more appealing than the gun-happy adventures of Sebastian Castellanos.