Took me more than a few years, but I've been finally getting to my backlog while I await a few games.
I thought the first Evil Within had its flaws, but it was a pretty great game from what I remember. It feels like the ideal blend of different pieces of Resident Evil and Silent Hill while having its own gameplay quirks, and playing the sequel makes me want to replay it (maybe I'll go full lunatic and finally play Akumu mode). It's been a while since I last played it so my comparisons are going off memory and are likely not completely accurate so take those bits with a grain of salt.
Gameplay-wise The Evil Within 2 improves quite a bit from its predecessor. The combat (mostly) feels more refined (disclaimer: I thought melee with the knife was absolutely worthless until you unlock the brass knuckles, then it becomes utterly broken. I'd prefer a middle ground). It has a few larger towns that can be explored in a pseudo-open world manner with a few side quests to complete. The game had some impressive creature designs (the Guardian, Obscura, and the white clay monsters are pretty awesome), but I feel its enemy variety dwindles partially due to its "open" structure.
I finished my first playthrough on Nightmare difficulty and it was pretty intense. The atmosphere coupled with the vicious enemies really had me on edge, and I made extra sure to preserve ammo as necessary. The story started off strong, the whole "father saves child" convention became a bit overdone in more recent years, but I didn't take issue here. I do believe the story becomes less interesting after the cult leader gets introduced.
I prefer the first game's level design, it had a claustrophobic and consuming atmosphere that really added to every encounter. I also prefer the voice actors as well (here Sebastian sounds like he's trying his best Snake impression and it was pretty offputting).
It might sound like I'm being harsh on this game in spite of my score, but be assured I think this is a genuinely great game. Most of the critiques I had were based on personal preferences. I'll definitely get to replaying the first EW at some point, in the meantime I'm glad I finished the platinum trophy run just in time for FFXVI's new expansion.
8/10
I thought the first Evil Within had its flaws, but it was a pretty great game from what I remember. It feels like the ideal blend of different pieces of Resident Evil and Silent Hill while having its own gameplay quirks, and playing the sequel makes me want to replay it (maybe I'll go full lunatic and finally play Akumu mode). It's been a while since I last played it so my comparisons are going off memory and are likely not completely accurate so take those bits with a grain of salt.
Gameplay-wise The Evil Within 2 improves quite a bit from its predecessor. The combat (mostly) feels more refined (disclaimer: I thought melee with the knife was absolutely worthless until you unlock the brass knuckles, then it becomes utterly broken. I'd prefer a middle ground). It has a few larger towns that can be explored in a pseudo-open world manner with a few side quests to complete. The game had some impressive creature designs (the Guardian, Obscura, and the white clay monsters are pretty awesome), but I feel its enemy variety dwindles partially due to its "open" structure.
I finished my first playthrough on Nightmare difficulty and it was pretty intense. The atmosphere coupled with the vicious enemies really had me on edge, and I made extra sure to preserve ammo as necessary. The story started off strong, the whole "father saves child" convention became a bit overdone in more recent years, but I didn't take issue here. I do believe the story becomes less interesting after the cult leader gets introduced.
I prefer the first game's level design, it had a claustrophobic and consuming atmosphere that really added to every encounter. I also prefer the voice actors as well (here Sebastian sounds like he's trying his best Snake impression and it was pretty offputting).
It might sound like I'm being harsh on this game in spite of my score, but be assured I think this is a genuinely great game. Most of the critiques I had were based on personal preferences. I'll definitely get to replaying the first EW at some point, in the meantime I'm glad I finished the platinum trophy run just in time for FFXVI's new expansion.
8/10