For many, the original The Evil Within was a project that fell short of expectation. At a time when franchises like Dead Space, Silent Hill, and Resident Evil were releasing their most underwhelming titles, the game seemed to offer promise as a successor from horror legend Shinji Mikami and his newly formed studio, Tango Gameworks, but was instead marred by an incoherent plot, poorly fleshed out characters, and few too many action tropes.

However, the game still found praise in its enticing premise, solid mechanics, darkly horrific environmental design, and creatively disturbing villains. It is upon these strengths that the foundation for The Evil Within 2 is paved, which aims to resolve the issues of its predecessor and deliver upon its original promise as the true successor of survival horror.

But it’s now 2017, and games like the exquisite Resident Evil 7 are breathing new life into the genre. The Evil Within 2 is no longer only competing to prove itself as a successor as a sequel, but now to prove itself as a competent contender against the surmounting opposition in the survival horror space.

Yet, somehow, it does exactly that.

The Good

Despite inadvertent comparisons to Resident Evil, The Evil Within 2 actually bares more similarities with Silent Hill, which is an enormous compliment. So much so, in fact, that it mirrors the plot of a desperate father wandering a small town that’s disconnected from reality, facing countless horrors and abominations manifested by the hatred and cruelty of others, looking for his adolescent daughter who happens to be at the source of this reality and shaping its inhabiting nightmares. Yeah. Pretty coincidental.

Three years have passed since series protagonist Sebastian Castellanos escaped from the hellish STEM program, subsequently leading him to spend his days trying to uncover the elusive Mobius organization and drowning his dark memories in alcohol.

However, Sebastian is tracked down by his old partner, Julie Kidman, who offers him a chance to rescue his thought-to-be-dead daughter, Lily, who’s mind is being used as the core of a brand new STEM unit. Once again, Sebastian finds himself injected into STEM, this time into a fabricated rural town called Union, which is where the game draws its most compelling inspiration from Silent Hill – a grounded setting with wider, more expansive locales.

With a humbly recognizable, unthreatening backdrop, Union establishes the false notion of a secure and normal venue, which just makes all the juxtaposing atrocities infesting this quiet little town all the more disturbing.

In this way, The Evil Within 2 makes effective use of the reality-warping instability within STEM to shape a compelling narrative, rather than merely abuse it as justification to shift between arbitrary locations.

The town is – quite literally – broken up into sizable districts, but contrary to the crumbling scenery, the structure of The Evil Within 2’s design is impeccably solid. Each of Union’s fragmented chunks are connected through an underlying subsystem called The Marrow, which in itself is an expansive Mobius facility that’s also overrun by the grizzly corruption.

Every one of these open areas densely packed with as many resources as there are looming dangers. In turn, exploring is both rewarding and tense, inciting dread for every corner turned and each dark alley braved.

Sebastian’s communicator picks up stray signals all across the map, potentially leading him to supplies leftover from fallen Mobius operatives, or just as easily into a trap from otherworldly forces. Additional side-missions are also attained in this manner, making it easy to loose sight of the main objective and get lost in the mysteries enveloping Union.

With enemies unexpectedly clawing out from under vehicles or leading players into unforeseen ambushes, the intelligent placement of each encounter creates a mounding suspense that leaves players waiting for something to go wrong, especially during prolonged moments of sanctity. Even areas thought to be cleared and safe can suddenly be pervaded by new threats.

Enemies exude an intimidating hostility, attacking in feverous motions with weighted swings and struggling with frenzied resilience during takedowns. Direct confrontations often lead to numerous poorly placed shots and avoidable damage taken that will rapidly drain resources, leaving stealth as the optimal and most efficient approach.

There are a variety of boss creatures to face throughout the campaign, ranging from intense, blood-pumping engagements with a maniacal buzz saw wielding lady made of corpses, to piercingly chilling and paralyzing confrontations with an wraithlike banshee that beckons for Sebastian even through the speaker of the DualShock 4.

Safe houses offer a reprieve from the tenacious onslaught, allowing Sebastian to restore his health at coffee machines or use a work bench to restock on supplies through a completely revamped crafting system.

Medication, ammunition, and even weapons can be fashioned out of scattered components, while weapon parts are able to upgrade firearms with more firepower, increased magazine capacity, or even apply additional special effects.

Sebastian can also transport through shattered mirrors again, this time to a manifested cognition of his old KCPD office where he can watch old slide projections and analyze briefing documents, as well as phase into nurse Tatiana’s room to open item lockers and upgrade attributes using green gel amassed from fallen enemies, in addition to special red gel to unlock certain skill-tree paths. These upgrades become integral as the game progresses, from basic enhancements such as increased health or sprinting stamina, to powerful new moves like in-cover stealth takedowns and slowing down time.

Visually, the game is a gruesomely gorgeous spectacle, draped in an atmosphere of permeating darkness and refined with plenty of attention to detail, such as flies buzzing out of a shattering car window that hosts a decomposing body. Nearly every building has a story to tell, showing evidence of struggling and violence as the pandemic broke out across Union.

With New Game+, extra difficulty modes, and numerous unlockable costumes and weapons, the game gives plenty of reason to jump back in for a second run upon completion.

Overall, The Evil Within 2 has completely reworked its design from the bottom up to deliver a refreshing struggle for survival, all the while upholding a great degree of respect and legacy for the series’ inception.

The Bad

For as impressive as the game is visually, it unfortunately bares a number of performance issues that distract from the central presentation. Playing on a standard model PlayStation 4, the game struggled regularly to hold a solid frame rate, particularly when loading a save or when lots of effects occur in an open space. There were also multiple instances of crashing, and bugs that restricted control over Sebastian or even sent him flying around the map.

However, the most glaring and distracting presentation issue is the rough animation work that’s synonymous with Bethesda titles, giving characters exaggerated expressions and erratic motions that repeat and recycle multiple times within a single conversation.

This wouldn’t be such an issue, except that character interactions have been given a greater focus for this entry, giving Sebastian the opportunity to talk with numerous others he encounters throughout his journey, making it all the more noteworthy.

However, even with improved animations, the cast of The Evil Within 2 is simply not that interesting to actually converse with, giving players very little to care about outside of the struggles of the main protagonist. It’s very clear that Sebastian was they key focus for the team to flesh out as a character, who is certainly far more interesting than during the first game, but nearly every other character is shafted when it comes to any form of development of investment. The worst culprits of this are some of the game’s key villains and, especially, Sebastian’s daughter Lily, who is less of an actual character and more of an objectified trophy that other characters seek, as she show’s no sign of personality or any real humanity at.

Also severely underplayed are many of the game’s creative boss creatures, a number of which only lasting for a handful of encounters until they meet an anticlimactic defeat, or just simply cease to to show up any further. Instead, the game insists on recycling its more boring designs, particularly in the latter half with foes that are not frightening, but rather tediously challenging and resource exhausting.

That is unless players exploit the clueless AI, which can easily be manipulated with their identifiable patterns and short cone of vision to land in multiple stealth takedowns that don’t even seem balanced or fair to the opposition, even on nightmare difficulty.

In general, it just feels as though the game had too many ideas and ambitions that it tried to shove into one package, leaving many without the attention they deserve.

The Takeaway

Regardless of its faults, The Evil Within 2 is still an immensely engrossing and impressive package, and a definitive improvement over the original. Its open structure was surprisingly effective, still delivering numerous isolated incidents of intensity across its broad landscapes. From the violent splatter of a harpoon bolt headshot, to the relaxing sip from a new safe house’s coffee mug, the game is simply gratifying to play. With a respect for its contemporaries and the genre as a whole, The Evil Within 2 is the textbook embodiment of survival horror for a modern age.

Love It

The disturbing atmosphere, horrific and frenetic encounters, and rewarding sense of discovery and progression makes The Evil Within 2 a terrifying treat for survival horror enthusiasts.