By Deven Short, Staff Writer
The Evil Within 2 is a great game for three good reasons: gameplay, design, and plot.
I love the concept of the enemies in the game. Either I’m shooting the heads off of zombies while traveling to the next frequency, or running from a monster made up of body parts and a lot of heads wielding a huge sawblade. I may be fighting a psychopathic photographer equipped with a knife and a camera, or sneaking around a phantom and monster made of some white substance.
My favorite fight is with Father Theodore Wallace, a cult leader who sends Sebastian into a huge fight with the previous boss battles in the first Evil Within. These fights include Chainsaw Sadist, Laura the Bloody Spider Woman, and The Keeper.
The upgrade options are pretty cool too. You can upgrade health, athleticism, recovery, stealth, and combat. For me personally, I put all my points into combat and athleticism. If you like being stealthy, then you’ll probably have to pump points into stealth because stealth in this game is terrible until you fully upgrade it. The enemies will jerk around and look behind themselves every second.
You can also upgrade your weapons. If you’re like me and decide to make an unstoppable death machine, then you would probably upgrade your pistol to its max. I had a lot of fun popping the heads off of unsuspecting zombies.
Lastly, when playing the game in higher difficulties, the game seems to want you to craft more. In easy mode, I would run around and find health packs next to each other and a lot of ammo, while in normal and hard mode it seems that there isn’t a lot of ammo and health, but there are a lot of pipes, fuses, and other weapon parts to craft with.
The overall design of the game is good. Everything looks like it belongs there, but there were some things that would have made walking through Union (the small town the game takes place in) a lot better… A lot of the buildings in the town aren’t accessible which makes it hard when being chased by zombies or Lady Sawblade. Also, walking through the town isn’t really scary. I give them credit for trying, but open world and horror don’t mix as well as the developer controlling where you go. Also, they incorporated a shooting gallery inside Sebastian’s room (a safe room). It reminds me of back in the day when I played Resident Evil 4. Winning the challenges gives you goo and crafting parts.
The plot is interesting. First, it is a third person survival horror game developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda Softworks.
Sebastian Castellanos (main character) is haunted by his past experiences at the Beacon Mental Hospital, the fire that killed his daughter, Lily, and the disappearance of his wife, Myra. While drowning his sorrows at a bar, he learns from his former partner and Mobius agent Juli Kidman that Lily is still alive. Sebastian is brought to a secret Mobius facility against his will, and while being rolled down a hallway strapped in a wheelchair, we meet the big boss who explains Lily’s fate.
The game and story are good, but it could’ve been better. You don’t feel as strong of a connection to characters in this game as others, perhaps. But overall, if you like third person shooters or even horror games, I’d suggest this game. Even though there are aspects lacking in the game, not all games are perfect. I would give the game an overall rating of 4 out of 5 stars.