Welcome back to another Halloween post! And yet another impression, which is kind of a not-so-much of a review without numbers or scores. This time we will be looking at a very recent game that came out: The Evil Within 2. Now this isn’t a complete impression since I have yet to finish this game, so this is just an early look at what I so far think of the game in both its introduction and changes. I will also give a little insight of my opinion on the original game as well. Anyways, on with the impression, just keep in mind that there will be some spoilers…

*This is an impression of just the first three hours into the game, this is not an overall impression*

The Story: So far the story has a somewhat better premise than the first game. With the first game, many were thrown off from the idea that the characters were in a dream world the entire time, making it seem as though all the nonsense was for nothing. Now this isn’t the dominant thought going into the first, but there were plenty that disliked the game for it. While I agree the reveal of this could have been done better, I do not think the premise is bad. Sure it’s a dream, but dreams have potential to scar you and mess you up, plus the mind can come up with some pretty effed up monsters and locations, similar to these “Silent Hillish” designs in both of these games. But now that the concept of a dream-like world exists, with no lead up or reveal of the idea, we can now explore this idea and make it more interesting. This is exactly what Evil Within 2 does. There is now a sense of danger when heading into the dream world, at least one that is more threatening. And the idea of having to save a loved one far surpasses the hunt of a psycho maniac, due to the threat of potential loss.

The Graphical Look: Like the first game, the series continues to look hellish in a beautiful and detailed setting. Depending on the approach of horror the different sections of the game vouches for, and there is certainly a variety, the areas succeed in complimenting those different horror appeals. Also the play with light and dark, shadows and eerie luminescence, is far better in this sequel. Do I even have to mention the look of the monsters? These designs will always be the highlight of the series, continuing to blend the positives of creature designs from the likes of both Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Sometimes the standard looking human character models will sometimes look bland, usually just the soldier characters, but it doesn’t in any way ruin the look overall.

The Play: Now while I didn’t quite have a negative towards the story of the original game, my least favorite part was certainly the gameplay itself. The controls were quite picky and sometimes incredibly difficult to understand. For example, your character has a stamina meter for his sprint which will eventually drop to the point of having your character hyperventilate, leaving him ultimately exposed for an enemy attack. It wasn’t until a few more hours into the game that I discovered you can quickly tap the run button to shorten the hyperventilation time, which was frustrating because the game either never told me of this trick or told me poorly within its own tutorial. The game also threw way too many enemies at you within certain areas, sometimes leaving you with little to no room to breath or even prepare your character with equipment. But thankfully, and very fortunately, the sequel fixes many of these problems. The game can still be difficult at times, but it is a more reasonable difficulty to handle. The running gimmick for example is much better to deal with, your character still has a stamina bar and will still get tired but is way less tedious. There are fewer enemies thrown at you at a times, with only a few moments of maybe four or five at a times, this not only makes the game easier to handle but it also makes each individual monster more terrifying once they appear. The game also has the return of the weird mirror dream world, which is basically your HUB world, where you can once again level up your character and crab a mystery item. The only big relief now is that you can now also have safe zones within the normal dream world as well, which is helpful in a game which seems to be a little more open world in design than the linear demands of the original.

Thoughts So Far: Coming from someone who didn’t hate the first game, I find this sequel to be a vast improvement over the original in terms of gameplay, while still having the same look and scares from the original. I cannot yet say if this game has a better story though, I’ll have to play more to find out. And don’t worry, I will definitely be playing more of this game get I get the chance!

Thank you for reading my early impression of the Evil Within 2, I hope it was a decent read. Remember to check back tomorrow for another Halloween related post. Might be up around 1 pm, similar to the rest…