The Evil Within 2

A Smart Sequel

Released in 2017 for the xbox one ps4 and steam, The Evil Within 2 is the second game to be released by the sadly now defunct Tango Gameworks. Shinji Mikami has delivered yet another hit with this one. Taking place 3 years after the original game, it is revealed that Sebastian Castellanos’ daughter Lilly is actually still alive and being used as the core for a new STEM system. Sebastian once again enters STEM to bring his little girl home. If the graphics in the original Evil Within were beautiful, the graphics in this game are BEYOND beautiful. The character models, blood and effects all pop out on screen. The main enemy horde you face are called “The Lost,” and they have solid variety. You don’t feel like you are fighting the same enemy over and over. All the enemies in the game have a distinctly grotesque look to them. Combat in this game is similar to that of the previous one; a traditional over the shoulder third person shooter survival horror. The stealth element also returns and is expanded on in this game. The original was very linear. This one is an interesting experiment. It has linear sections as well as quasi open world sections. Some people don’t think this was pulled off well, but I do. The open world sections aren’t super massive but are big enough that you want to explore everything and everywhere. Sure, it will take some extra time but it’s time well spent. In the original game you could craft different bolts for your crossbow and upgrade yourself and weapons. That returns here but now you can craft all kinds of ammo provided you have the right materials. Ruvik was a phenomenal antagonist in the original. And we have a new antagonist in this one that I adore. His name is Stefano Valentini, and he is a flamboyant, homicidal artist. The controls are much tighter and more responsive. And the difficulty has been tweaked so that it is only ridiculous on the highest modes. Nightmare difficulty in TEW1 was ruthless. Nightmare difficulty here is much more manageable yet still challenging. The original did have some background lore for Sebastian, but all things considered, the story mainly told was Ruvik’s. The DLC mainly focused on Kidman. Here, Sebastian gets his redemption arc and some closure in his tumultuous life. The story is solid and has a beautiful ending. Now for all the praise I have showered this game with, you’d think I prefer it to the original right? Well, you would be wrong. I said in the subtitle that this was a smart sequel, not an excellent one. This game is great, but the original was excellent. The strengths of the sequel are very noticeable, but its weaknesses are subtle and more nuanced. The brass knuckles make a return here. In the original they always caused a haunted’s head to explode. It was BOOM!!! HEADSHOT!!! but with your fists. In the sequel you don’t always land a headshot and sometimes you punch an enemy’s arm off. That’s just stupid. Yes, the brass knuckles make both games easier and help with speedruns. But only in the original were they a blast to use. And am I the only one who thinks The Haunted is a much cooler name than The Lost? The agony crossbow in the original was an upgraded version of the warden crossbow in this game. Fewer bolts here and they don’t work as well. No poison bolt but they have a chipping damage smoke bolt. Hell, the fully upgraded harpoon bolt had fire capabilities, pinned enemies to a wall and torched them. In the sequel, It doesn’t pin them to the wall and isn’t a one hit instant kill. It knocks them down, sets them on fire and the fire does chipping damage until they die. Speaking of fire, they removed matches from this game! Setting enemies on fire in the original was intensely satisfying and they squealed like pigs. There is a flamethrower in the sequel but there is only enough ammo to kill maybe 10 enemies before you have to craft more. And filling up the tank completely seriously drains your resources. And the final weakness of this game is what I like to call Spiderman 3 Syndrome. Stefano Valentini is not the only villain and not every villain is fully given time to be developed. I enjoyed this sequel very much, but the original, even with its jank, was superior. The original I give an 8/10. This one? 7/10. Tango Gameworks went on to produce two more games before shutting down. Will we ever see The Evil Within 3? We can only hope.