This might be the best evil within video I’ve seen, I struggle arguing with any of the points made. People really do hate on evil within over very silly things while completely ignoring them in other games and calling them GOTY etc. Evil Within is nowhere near perfect but it really is a fantastic game.
@@HeroicLeo8125 for real the switches are fucking flawless falling straight down a hallway into another place and wonder wtf is going on is a feeling I’ve never had in another horror game
I was part of the "hate train" during my first playthrough of EW. Most of my experience with it was frustration and confusion but somehow it still gripped me. I came back to it multiple times, new game plus, DLC, a harder playthrough. There's just something about its tense gameplay and unique atmosphere that I've grown to love. The sequel validated my appreciation of the 1st game even more. While it polished up the rough edges, it also lost most of its personality.
I have finished this game 6 times and even tho it isn't a masterpiece it's still really fun and for some reason has just sticked with me, it just has a certain personality and aesthetic to it
I hated the game when it first came out because I wasn't used to horror games highly encouraging stealth but when the sequel was coming out, it was a few weeks before it was released and I decided to give the first game a second chance and to this day its one of my personal favorite survival horror games, I'll admit I was wrong for how I felt
It's scary when you play it for the very first time, I played it (DLCs included) for the first time in 2019 on my PC and DUDE I LOVE IT!! this year I'm buying The Evil Within 2 on Steam Sale, I'm surely gonna love it too!
god i loved the evil within so much. the atmosphere is the best part. i just loved the rusty, derelict, peeling paint feel of the first game and the small-town-gone-to-hell feel of the second. i really hope they make a 3rd game.
I just recently beat EW1 and I have to say while it started off rough it got better as it went along. As a survival horror game I found it better then RE4. I also love the creature design. I didn't have a problem with the characters themselves.
It is a better survival horror then RE4, but that's because RE4 barely is one. I do prefer TEW1 over RE4 as a whole but as an action game RE4 is probably a bit superior.
I mean, considering that Sebastian imagines that his leg is fucked from the Butcher, he takes a nasty landing with the blood slide at first and appears to have been roughed up before we begn the game(again, the butcher tieing him up) it's probable that Mikami was going for the same feel as Dead Rising, where Frank twisted his ankle upon landing shodily on the roof of the Mall and the level ups presented him getting back in physical shape and healing his injured foot(since time passed, even within the game's logic). Except here, instead of healing naturally, Sebastian finds the brain juice and with him "injecting it" in his brain, he's able to resist Ruvik and the laws of this world so he imagines himself back in shape before he became a drunken mess and imagined himself spraining his legs. It's why he magically can increase the bullet count on his guns without tinkering with them, something that flew way over the hed of Johanas and the rest of the TEW2 team. As for character personalities...apart from Kidman, who's intentionaly devoid of any sort of character and facial expressions, everyone else is pretty ok. They aren't deep, Tolkien-esque characters but from his face capture alone and some of his progressing sobering up during the story, you can see that he has enough of a character to not just support his role as the player character but also as the main character in that story. Even his body language changes slowly throughout the story to inform the player of what Seb thinks and what hapens when he decides to stop being generic drunkard detective like in the start. Another thing about him being drunk and having a drinking problem : it's not explained just for the game to say "oh, he's a passive character" but because it excuses why Seb is more resistant to Ruvik's bullshit compared to Joseph. Joseph is young, clear headed and free of toxins, while Seb seems to have smoked at one point and quit but now has a heavy drinking problem, even being drunk during work and years of doing that have damaged his brain and motor abilities as well. A lot of the things initially pass him by and by collecting more and more gel and "opening" his mind again for the first time in years he becomes stronger but also Ruvik is able to influence him again. It's like injecting caffeine to a drunk person. Not only that, since the gel also acts as a mind strengthener, Seb is resistant to Ruvik even a bit, despite having a healthy enough mind, by that point of the story, for Ruvik to explode. It's why the last scene is so out of place, with him getting impalled straight up but keep shooting the rocket launcher with seemingly superhuman strength : it's Seb, fully gelled against Ruvik, in a state of panic, causing his brain to produce adrenaline and that results in his mind being able to overcome Ruvki's who by comparisson, has constantly been in a stable and safe state of mind, possibly without any secretion of adrenaline throughout the adventure up until Seb ripped the brain out of the jar and smashed it. Keep in mind, all this is without the post-launch DLC fucking things up, misinterpreting the story and adding new twists for the TEW2. The whole criticism towards the story, at least from my perspective, just shows how players have become unable to put effort into anything and that they have stopped venturing into other media for entertainment. It's like most who complained about the story had never read a single mystery novela nor a detective story and then tried to translate the words and sequences of those books into something with motion, in their heads. It's like they expected the game to be a failed adaptation of a detective story with monologues and camera angles that betray the entire mystery because the directors didn't have faith in their audiences, a trait that is sadly present nowadays. If people are able to autistically sit down and compile the entre fucking lore of Dark Souls through flimsy item descriptions THAT MIGHT BE BULLSHIT in the first place, they can make sense out of the Evil Within as well, far better than I did. They just choose not to and bitch about it because TEW is not popular and it wasn't the "in thing" back then. Souls, Outlast and other games were, so it was ok to put a bit more effort into understanding them. It's the same shit all over again with Killer is Dead and whether or not Paola is the first demon hunter in Shadows of the Damned or if they escaped the Demon World. PS : On the subject of Ruvik : Ruvik is not the main character, not even by the definition explained in this video. The reason we see so much of him, in a gameplay sense, is different and it ties back to Mikami's "THE FEAR". Think about how Mikami sees Resident Evil : it is a game that was meant to be a remake of Sweet Home, a japanese movie about a haunted house. Now, put Evil Dead in the remake of Sweet Home and instead of metaphysical, have the monsters be born out of biohazardous material(that's why it's BIO HAZARD in Japan instead of "Resident Evil", the house was never the focus, the biohazrdous mutations were. It's also why they didn't name it like that in Japan, to distance themselves from Sweet Home, context that was left out for the western people). Now think back to Evil Dead. What's the main inspiration behind Evil Dead? It's Lovecraft. And what is the main ethos of Lovecraft? "There is no greater fear than the fear of the unknown". Now that you have that in your mind, approach The Evil Within thinking this : You have a game called "Psycho Break", a title that in chopped english refers to a psychic breakdown or something similar. Suddenly, your player character is ripped out of the world and put into fantastical and grim locations that don't seem to adhere to the laws of time, space or causality, with supernatural phenomena happening at random, in a mishmash of areas that make no sense. Then, you are transported to an insane asylum, with a dream like filter, where you feel somewhat safe. After that, you see that the monsters are actually humans that have been broken psychotically and that is manifested by the wires that appear on them, mangling their previous human visage into something horrific(another lovecraft trope, tieing it thematically to the Biohazard altering the tissues and forms of the various animals and people Umbrella experimented on) and you start getting more and more infor about this Ruvik guy. Then, you enter the same asylum through a mirror. A mirror that cracks while Debussy's playing in the background. Mirrors are reflective surfaces and this one cracks, transferring you to the Asylum. Then Joseph drops the biggest hint of them all "It's like we're in a place of jumbled memories" and then it clicks. You didn't get transported to another world like in Silent Hill, all Hell didn't break loose and monsters appeared. No, you are in Ruvik's simulated reality, in his stream of conciousnes. All the monsters, represent his fears and insecurities. And he wants to use them to break the players and Sebastian's psyche(and Joseph and Kidman's etc). Hence "PSYCHO BREAK". And here's where "The Fear" kicks in : if the monsters were your / Sebastian's creations, if they were meant to be allegories to his insecurities and fears, like the monsters in Silent Hill 2 and 3, it would have been obvious and the player wouldn't be scared. That is because the player learns about the main character and is thus able to decipher those fears and overcome the monsters borne out of them, just like every James and Heather. But this isn't the case; these are the monsters of a mysterious psychopath who acts like the omnipotent god of this hyper reality and you are his prey. YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT HE'LL THINK OF NEXT! YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT'S THE NEXT THING THAT WILL BE HUNTING YOU! Laura appearing out of nowhere was scary because of that context. It's not the same as Harry entering Sillent Hill with the bells and the world changing, Laura appears because Ruvik thought about her at that moment. But neither the player nor Seb can now that because they are not Ruvik. And this fea of the unknown is what Mikami seeks to instill to the players. Just like he did all those years ago with Resident Evil 1 and the dogs. Laura appearing screaming out of a corpse is scary because you think you have figured the game out and you go to torch the motherfucker for playing dead and yet out of that corpse comes out the most disturbing enemy, screaming at your face, making you lose your nerves because it communicates to you "Everything goes in this world". Looking around for traps and enemies isn't enough anymore. Now you have to be psychotic enough to go into another room and expect the unexpected. And the game still manages to fuck with you, like with the disappearing doors in the sewers. That's what Psycho Break / The Evil Within 1 was about. That's why Ruvik was so front and center : because it was the game giving the player hints about Ruvik -> thus analyzing Ruvik -> thus making the player realise how he thinks -> thus have the player figure out Ruvik's train of thoughts -> translate that into gameplay -> the player knows what to expect going into the next stage / room / boss fight. But that went waaaaaaaaaay over the ehad of almost everyone and the DLC and the second game are proof of that. We never got Psycho Break 2. What we got was what a lot of people think The Evil Within 1 was about. And that is a very different game, a very different experience and a very different kind of idea. The Evil Within 1 and The Evil Within 2 are as far apart as Silent Hill for the PSX and the Silent Hill movie.
also remember how there always seems to be a bottle almost anywhere you go? what if the only reason there is a bottle is because of sebastion's memories?
18:29 I can why Mikami gave the director role to Nakamura for Ghostwire first. She had a interesting take on horror and design. I hope she will direct a full horror game sometime.
I really enjoy the bits of interviews you put in between segments, really helps contextualize everything. Also, the shade you threw at the Sweet Home mention was everything. It's like every RE related video has a list of checkmarks people have to include in their videos: Barry saying Jill Sandwich, Mention Sweet Home, Mikami Directed a Disney Game (THAT'S NOT HORROR!). Refreshing to see something that isn't that. Also, The Evil Within dulogy is fucking great. It's like you said, honest horror. Something that I feel has been lost. The only thing holding these games back (imo) is their technical shortcomings. TEW2 runs a bit better, but not enough to make it a huge improvement. I'd do anything for a remaster of these games.
@@jigzyonline2 A joke. The title is Dead Rising 4 Frank's Big Package, a game made during the holidays that wasn't worth a dime. Check out the guy's video on it.
I’m still a big fan of the original Evil Within to the point I’ve made it a tradition to play through the game every October since it came out, so I know the game well. The sequel is a different story though. Everything I liked about the original was removed or downgraded in 2. Because of this, Evil Within 2 is one of the most disappointing sequels I’ve ever played.
Ever since The Evil Within 2 came out in 2017, I've always wanted to see Ghenry cover the duology. Now after 3 years it's finally here. Keep up your quality, Papa Ghenry.
I actually liked that his run time was so shitty. It's just like any dream I've had, where it feels like I would run as hard as I could, but barely move.
I was personally a fan of The Evil Within. I thought it was fun and had a lot more modernised gameplay making it accessible. Afte replaying The Evil Within I was more confident to start playing games like the Resident Evil franchise and amnesia.
Evil Within deserves everyone’s respect, this game got me into the Resident Evil series since its mainly a spiritual successor to Resident Evil 4. Screw the fanboy haters.
I'm replaying through the 1st right now....I honestly wish I could see this game more like how you do. I will agree that TEW1 is a decent game, the plot and presentation are ambitious as hell, and I love Sebastian's design. There's probably some folks out there who are wired in just the right way for TEW1 to hit all the right notes--sadly I'm not one of those folks. Early on in chapter 3 the gameplay seriously shines---you can tackle the enemies in quite a few ways, be it slow and stealthy, loud and guns blazing, or deceitfully by leading enemies into traps. It's genius when it wants to be! Everything pretty much collapses after that---the "house defense" kind of combat is frustrating, the trial and error nature to certain areas is even more frustrating, and bosses artificially made "difficult" with one hit kills is just sad. Back when the game was new I was beyond excited to play because of all the hype it was getting---it was an awful disappointment and it really hasn't improved with age. TEW2 likely sold poorly because of the many bad design choices Mikami implemented in the original. I know I had no interest in purchasing 2 and likely would have never played it had I not recieved it as a Christmas gift. To my delight, pretty much every criticism I had of the original was fixed with the second. I've replayed it quite a few times since then and its aged like wine for me. I can see the argument that 2 lost a lot of the tensity and scares of the original---but that's just simply not an issue for me when the villains are so cool, the stealth mechanics (though a bit OP in late game) make the slow and quiet approach immensely satisfying and the environment is just a treat to explore. 2 is honestly a comfort game for me at this point, same as how Resident Evil Code Veronica was as a child.
Horror will always be there in video games no matter the change. Maybe we as fans of survival horror shouldn't expect people like Shinji Mikami to continue to create survival horror for the rest of his life. If he wants to try more versions of horror, let him do his own thing. He's only human, not a computer. If anything, Mikami-san is trying new ideas. Nothing he does is going to be perfect. Does it mean you can't criticize said art that Mikami-san does? You still can, it's your life. We all have our limits, but at least we are able to take risks and chances. Good work on your take on The Evil Within. And thank you for opening up my mind.
the evil within, the best (action)horror game of this ending generation of console; astounding level design, majestic enemy design, sounds are spot on, weapons are cool, powering up is satisfying, full of collectibles and all the extra stuff are just beautiful, like the shooting gallery or the various easter eggs... shinji mikami is the king of VG horror! the DLCs are actually awesome and worth their initial price, i loved them... on a side note, the sequel is awesome too, even if strangely without DLCs. sadly, this franchise didn't became big as other bethesda games, even if it's the best they published... oh well, i still hope for TEW 3 and finally having the joseph oda arc he deserve.
Actually TEW1 was a massive success and 2 was the dissapointment in sales, for as much as reviews and casuals raved about TEW2 being so good and better than 1 it clearly was not what fans of 1 thought due to it selling waaaaay less.
@@kannyboy1847 It always felt to me that commercial failure of TEW2 was mostly due to lack of marketing combined with stained first impression - TEW1 was hyped from every corner, and with TEW2, many people didn't even knew it's getting released, myself included. Besides, TEW1 entered the survival horror niche practically unopossed, tapping in for easy success, while TEW2 had to compete with Resident Evil 7 of all things, so that also didn't bode well for poor sequel.
Nice video, I disagree with what you said regarding people claiming it is generic horror. I played it a while ago but what i remember strongly was the feeling of it being a mix-mash of different horror movies/settings. Perhaps generic is the incorrect word but the constant change in setting combined with the many homages/references resulted in it feeling like a mix-tape that kind of lacked a identity for itself. Compare that to the second game or Resident Evil 7 which has a more focused experience and more of an identity.
Something I’ve only seen a few people mention but I think is important in terms of if a game is a survival horror. The OG RE games have you options for either killing enemies or avoiding them, and enemies did not drop supplies, meaning you were never incentivized for kill enemies, they were obstacles you needed to use limited resources to remove or find another way to deal with their threat. I think RE4 isn’t a survival horror for that reason, you rarely can avoid killing every enemy in a room before the doors unlock and they almost always drop ammo or money, I think this same logic applies to TEW in saying it’s not a survival horror at least based on its original definition. I also disagree with the argument for sprinting, suspension of disbelief is all salesmanship and I think no matter how much you reason it away, they didn’t sell that mechanic to people well. Alan Wake was similar and got made fun of similarly but even he could outrun Sebastian any day, and it’s nearly a decade after dead space which proves you can not only not restrict the player but empower them and still achieve great tension so long as the enemies are balanced accordingly. My point being, the sprint thing didn’t ruin the game for me or anything and I get what they were going for, but it just wasn’t handled well, they should have found a different way to approach it.
I have played this game like my life depended on it. I absolutely loved this game. I played it on the 360 which sucked but was fun. Got it on the xbox one and wanted to do it justice and got all the achievements, even DLC. Watched some reviews and saw what most people think. Its looked at better now. I decided to go out of my way to learn the story and games mechanics and much as I could and went to twitch. For the past 2 years I've dedicated some time to help others with this game and express it's good parts. I wanted to help others with game and show why it is good. I even made a document of sorts to explain the majority of the story. This game is a huge part of me. I have never dedicated so much of myself to others over a game.
Man I would do ANYTHING to have a final 3rd game in this series. I am happy with how the 2nd game ended for Sebastian’s storyline but Joseph’s storyline is far from over and the Leslie/Ruben ending of the first game seemed to be explained in the 3rd game but we just NEVER got that. In terms of horror the part in the victoriano manor where Ruvik will spawn in randomly scares me every time. It’s so perfectly done I wish we got to know more about ruvik following the events of the first game.
While I didn't like actually playing The Evil Within, I really like the presentation and surrealism. The cryptic nature made the story more enjoyable than if it were just spoonfed to me. Plus I kept the letterbox. I stopped noticing it after getting used to it, especially when playing this game in the dark. Seeing the black edges bleed into real life darkness adds to the in-game atmosphere for me.
I remember watching the cutscenes for these games. They were nuts. I also watched people play them because I knew I would be too scared to try them out. It's sad that it didn't get much praise because this series is way scarier than any RE game ever made, even the new ones don't match the horror of the TEW games.
I honestly loved the Evil Within when it came out. I liked the combat and what you mentioned about the game ensuring you were never fully ready for what was ahead. Always felt like managing each fight and thinking on your feet. I particularly liked the burning corpses mechanic. There was definitely a lot of weird imagery in the game and downright disturbing at times. Maybe I was being a dummy but I also thought the main character was Ruvik the whole time. Because I couldn't tell the difference between the voice actors. Thus I was more confused by the end of it.
I absolutely love Joseph in this game as he shows the most personality and character. Fun fact, the guy who plays Joseph also plays sasuke and you can literally hear the sasuke in him especially during the suicidal scene. It’s almost as he wants to play a sasuke who rejected the curse marks and thought about the cons of having it lmfaoooooo
I just played these 2 games a few months ago for the first time and I really like them. But basically, both games are quite different... The 1st one was just creepy as hell in every single way and I mean that in an absolutely positive way. Especially because of that story that was like "What the hell is going on here?" and the fact that you didn't knew anything, like Sebastian didn't knew anything as well. So making the story so confusing was basically what makes the game so good in my opinion, even though it sounds like it makes no sense at all. But also, the atmosphere and the "dirty" graphics fit to that creepy theme of the game perfectly. What I personally appreciated about the 1st one was, that it was extremely diversified. All the different places and all the different gameplay elements. So sometimes, you had to be careful and slow, then, in the very next part, you had to escape and run as fast as possible and so on. The boss fights were all in all amazing as well. The 2nd one was also very good and I enjoyed this game as well, at least as long as I had my first playthrough. But after I finished the game, I read some critics and was like "They are actually right about that...". I think the beginning with this first "open world" was extremely good. When they introduced all the new things like the shelter, the coffee machine or the workbench + the stealth gameplay elements for instance. Also, the idea behind the "Mark" was pretty good. But they could have made more of it. The story was now a bit more clear which was good and bad at the same time, cause it was not as creepy as the first game anymore... Also I think, that the story was kinda cringe when Sebastian called for LIIIIIIIIIIILY all the time and thought in several parts she's "real" although she was obviously not... The gameplay wasn't as diversified anymore and also the bossfights were pretty lame in my opinion and too rare as well... All in all, still a good game with some cool gameplay elements (and cool mini games, expecially the one with these different coloured blocks ^^). But all in all, it wasn't as creepy as the 1st one + all the aspects that made the 1st one so damn good were no longer in the 2nd one...
Personally I think the game would've been better understood (and to an extent more enjoyable) if the DLC would've been included with the games narrative, like a resident evil revelations 2 kind of deal. I mean lets be honest David Lynch isn't for everybody so basing your game on his style of narrative is a big gamble which most people fail to emulate (and yes I think evil within doesn't live up to it) also I really enjoyed the cast of this game and was disappointed that Jenifer Carpenter wasn't in the sequel but I get why she wasn't back.
while I like both games, I think the first one had more personality and style, the second game is more polished but kinda loses some of it's identity in my opinion
I freaking love this Game. It has so Many issues and problems but i don't care! One of My favorite Games of all times. PS: I really love the way You correctly Say Sebastian's and the Doctor's names. I live in Chile so i speak spanish and i can Say that You are the first youtuber i hear that is good at this.
I wonder if Evil Within would've been better received if people compared it less to RE4. I get why the marketing pushed it in that direction. It was Mikami's horror project and his last successful one was RE4, which went on to sell millions of copies. So, it's only natural they'd want to compare it. But maybe if gamers were primed for an experience similar to The Last of Us, they might've gone in with different expectations.
I also think that the reason behind the larger approval of the second game is due to the fact that it could run in a much smoother and cleaner way on console hardware
When The Evil Within came out Amnesia and Outlast had convinced most people that its only possible for a horror game to be scary if you cant fight back and that made people hate this game at first but the old Resident Evil games, the Silent Hill games the Siren games and the Fatal Frame games for example are all really scary and you can fight back in those. I love The Evil Within games and they are among my favorite horror games and favorite video games ever in general.
A game where you can't fight back means you don't have to, which is actually less scary, because you don't need any combat skills or resource management. Still like those games like Outlast (which I bet Kidman's DLC was inspired by), but I think to be survival horror a game requires resource management.
The games whole concept of “diving into the mind of a psychopath” through a neural machine is interesting to me. It might’ve not been executed the best way but I still thought the game was interesting and cool. It feels like a combination of silent hill and obviously resident evil. I appreciate that the game had a new game plus mode and there were multiple things you can unlock to give it replay value. I still play this game to this day. Whenever people say that the game was too gory and edgy I kind of felt as if that was the point considering the story behind the game. what else would you expect to find in the mind of a psychopath besides violence? I give it a 7/10 for its core and an 8/10 for personal reasons.
I loved both evil withins it reminded me if resident evil and silent hill made a baby. I loved silent hill and resident evil to this day the fear and immersion makes me feel alive and gets the blood pumping thats why I will always love survival horror because the games actually can be hard especially on harder difficulties and i feel a sense of accomplishment when beaten
Im in my first playthrough, bought it cheap for my 12 year old PS3, Im only on chapter 5, and I really like it, the atmosphere is on point, the music selection (claire d lune has always been a favourite, and now associate that song to a "safe" zone its even better) and ilumination are great. I cant say much about the combat as im currently struggling with ammo and more in a survival state, taking advantage of traps. I think that this is a great evolution of what RE4 revolutionized, it is on the direction of scares with its own mechanics and settings. Parallel to this im replaying the first Silent Hill and I have to say that some lf that wonderful SH atmosphere and tension is somewhat present in TEW, maybe its the misterious tone, the unpredictability of what you are going through. Ill come back to this video once I complete the game, and gladly play the sequel.
Tbf, most of the bosses in EW1 were meant to just be avoided for the most part, kinda like Nemmy in OG RE3, sure you had the option to fight and get some cool shit from it, but it was pretty much always advised to run away from it. IIRC the only bosses you had to fight and kill were the one in the car park and spider-girl.
Loved the game it's like Hellraiser 2 the video game... The first one with dlcs was such a gem... The second one was meh..just bc of unnecessary open-worldish structure
Evil Within 1 is amazing and it pisses me off that people didn't like it. What's wrong with people lol. I actually thought the sequel ruined everything that made part 1 great
Totally, it IS the return to survival horror that it was marketed as, only shows how little people wanted real survival horror as the whining came mostly from it's difficulty and complex story. People got used to easy games and most horror games being walking simulators proven by the constant comparison between TEW1 and Alien Isolation when it first came out even though Isolation is not survival horror in anyway or shape. It had fantastic level design, every chapter delivered such a unique and detailed enviroment to explore, great monsters even with some being clearly inspired by popular tropes like Laura, the sadist etc, super satisfying gameplay where it really felt like "every bullet matters" and just a stellar presentation. It's one of the best survival horror games out there, especially for it's gameplay. I do wanna call out the general art for the game too, so damn good. The second took away mostly everything I just mentioned and became a way more generic and safe horror action game, how piss easy it is makes it not even feel like survival horror either. Even the easiest difficulty in TEW1 is harder then the hardest in TEW2.
@@kannyboy1847 All true. I do want to say that some of the classic survival horror games are a little too easy once you're used to them, and there may have been some pushback from that crowd as well. TEW1 demanded more skill in combat than Resident Evil or Silent Hill for example. Those games were more about determining when you could and should run away from fights. TEW1 is more about how you use your supplies within your fights. Most fights are intended to be fought in TEW1, but resource management is fully present as you have to fight those fights intelligently. Alien Isolation did a lot of things right, but I don't remember it dealing with resource management, which makes it just horror, not survival horror, in my opinion. But it did make the Alien into more of a nuisance than a threat at times. I stopped being scared of the alien early on, which is really sad, because I think with a little more playtesting they could have perfected what they were going for (I played on hard as recommended, it was probably better on normal). TEW2 'fixed' all the things people complained about in TEW1. Sadly, those were the things basically every TEW1 fan actually loved about TEW1. I think what's really happening here is that back in the old days, before games were this bloated, lucrative industry, developers had more freedom to experiment because less money was involved, so games were highly varied. Notably, all those extra modes and extra content in general that are now often DLC used to be part of the games, and what most developers from that time tell interviewers was they had time left over before release and wanted to do more to make their game better, so they reused assets or used cut assets, and made great extras. Games were passion projects for a lot of developers, teams were smaller with more communication between different jobs (animators working with programmers and level designers for specific effects and so on), and development was not rushed as often. Additionally, to a significant degree, though not as much as it was, that old model remains intact for Japanese developers, BUT Western games make up far more of the market than before, especially for big-budget games, and those games are quite frankly often soulless. When I talk to people nowadays, and I tell them most of my favourite games are Japanese, there is a decent chance they'll tell me they don't like Japanese games. That used to be an impossible statement to make if you liked video games. Disclaimer, I do like some Western games, just not that many, and rarely for their interesting mechanics, with some exceptions for indie games. So, my point is that games, like most entertainment industries, are becoming saturated with corporate greed, as has happened with music, television, film, and now games. And that's really at the heart of this matter. The old days saw middle-shelf games get given slightly more money with each success and they were paid to continue doing what made them successful. Now executives that don't play games plan out live services by committee and throw tens of millions of dollars at them to get hundreds of millions back. TEW1 is in many ways a throwback, whilst TEW2 is a corporate product and people are being trained to expect those whilst being put off by anything that deviates.
Ive been waiting for someone to talk about this game in depth. I could defend it for ages. Its actually my favorite horror game despite all its flaws. EW2 was a good game but really just a watered down version of the first and im shocked at how many ppl bash the first and praise the second.
I always had read Sebastian's meager stamina and inventory as Ruvik's influence and his dominance over the mental world; even if you look at the some weapon wheel animations, they show Sebastian's brain. As Sebastian levelups he takes back more control over his body in mental world, but he can only push a little each time and not much overall.
The best thing about this video is that you said, it is what "you" think about the game. I still feel that loads of people have a really strange imagination of survival crossed with horror... Or just the word survival itself. I think you tried your best keeping part 1 in a "game-is-okay-shape" because as you said you like it still or even more than 2014. The second video will talk about all of that sequels mistakes, and the cause of the reason it sold less copies than the first one. These TEW games received more negative criticism from more people than the amount that actuality played or just tried playing it. It started with the expectations that mikami would bring my generation back what every RE since 3 ruined. Some didn't like what they expected, some liked it kind of and some just hated mikami. The second part came out it offered passages to discover, being scared of something attacking you in every street or house corner, it changed the upgrading system to some more logic, if logic ever existed in videogames 😄 And now here comes the scapegoat, the second game includes WELL performed, emotional videos, plus dialogs of the same kind between the actors. What a mess to the old school RE and the new school TEW fans... Don't worry, there will be no more games of that series, and even if some of the so called fanboys of the first game wish it could be another one as a clone of the first game because you fuck up the second one. Nope that will not happen. It's over, cause videogame companies care about games they earn money with. So no need for a second video that stab a dagger in the back of a cool sequel. Have a nice day, Dude.
RE5 is my most played game of all time and I am more than proud to say so. It owes a lot to RE4, but it synthesised and improved on many of the mechanics in a way that culminates in the best local co-op experience I've ever had, with Mercenaries continuing to provide new challenges for us to tackle even to this day (literally -- we've been playing it all week).
@Erṣetu It's not shit at all. It's a great game. We just finished getting a 150 kill chain on the Mines for the first time with Barry and Josh. Very few things have been as exhilarating, despite the fact that we've done it before with different characters. The game is still providing us with quality experiences over a decade later and will continue to do so. It is the best local co-op game that exists, if you ask me.
I just subbed to ur page. Love this video. I just rebeat the evil within 1 and 2 again this month i loved them both the first one is rather long tho. But either way i loved them both. Although part 2 was by far better experience and awesome story.
I forgot to say if you go thru the evil within 2 you will def understand the story alot better in the first as well at le as to me. But its open to enterptetation
Really interesting video. I love classic survival horror, but I never got around to playing EW 1 or 2, for some reason or another. I think I was turned of by the focus on action and EW2 being an open world (a type of game I've gotten quite sick of, but now I really want to check out the first game at least. Great work as always. Keep it up!
You should man. I honestly think they nail the pace of action horror and dreary atmosphere. This and deadspace are my favorite action/survival/horror games ever. And its very replayable on higher difficulties.
My gripe with the game honestly is the same as RE4 I think it goes on for a little too long I couldn't finish the game because the last third felt like it was dragging so much
The only comments I disagree with are the ones you make about the id Tech 5 engine. I don't think that id Tech 5 itself is the cause for all of the performance issues in the game. Instead, I believe that it is a combination of the devs at Tango being unfamiliar with the engine and id Tech being designed primarily with 1st person games in mind. The id Tech line has powered some great games since its inception in the early 1990s. Almost all of them were made by western devs and almost all were 1st person shooters, although some older versions of the engine (mainly id Tech 3) were better at running 3rd person games. You say, "Bethesda games are known for being inconsistent." This is true, and it is true that The Evil Within can be inconsistent, but id Tech is not a Bethesda engine. Bethesda may own it, but it does not develop it, that is still id Software's job. I don't think that any of the other games that run on id Tech 5 have or had severe performance issues. Rage, Wolfenstein: The New Order & The Old Blood, Dishonored 2 & Death of the Outsider all ran very well both then and now. Even The Evil Within 2 runs better than the first game despite being on the same engine. It seems to me that the devs at Tango learned how to better utilise the engine between the two games to make the second perform better. They even added a 1st person mode to the second game post-launch.
I love these two games so much. It sucks that people didn’t like them. I bet it’s because it feels “old.” Like it feels pretty classic compared to games released at the time. I don’t know how to transition to this, but I bet that if Resident Evil 4 was released today, people would dislike it as much as they dislike TEW1.
Can’t wait for your thoughts on the Switch ports of No More Heroes 1 & 2 hopefully we get Killer 7 soon on Switch so we can play with a GameCube controller again
Why I don’t agree with your opinion on re5 just about everything you’ve said about this game hit the nail on the head, if anything this game felt like re4’s big scary brother, as one of the first games I ever had for my PS4 I look at this game as an underrated classic.
First played it last year. Sorry, but I will compare to RE4, but in the nicest way possible. This game made me feel I was playing RE4 "2" way more than RE5 did. I even liked the crazy and convoluted story... Had a great time through and through
The hate was caused by TEW being sold as "the big return of survival horror", but when it came out, it just seemed like a lot of old tropes and callbacks strung together. Not a bad game, but after Dead Space, Amnesia and Outlast, it just wasn't enough to live up to the absurd hype. The comparisons to RE4 are well deserved, too, since there are so many references in TEW, and they're easily the weakest part. I remember giving up on the game after chapter 6, which just felt like discount RE4. And this was before uncovering the entire STEM plotline, which is the most interesting part of the story, but it's buried under hours of enemy encounters with no context. That said, your review and my love of the sequel convinced me to give this game another chance.
My parents may have never loved me but at least I love Ghenry's content
That's what truly matters in the end
Yes.
here sweetie ...❤... Take this little love from me to you.
Ghenry: Yeah sure, now give me money paypig.
Nakamora's monster designs are some of the best I've seen
Played both 1 and 2 and the first one was so much better.
This might be the best evil within video I’ve seen, I struggle arguing with any of the points made.
People really do hate on evil within over very silly things while completely ignoring them in other games and calling them GOTY etc.
Evil Within is nowhere near perfect but it really is a fantastic game.
The changing environments always get me
@@HeroicLeo8125 for real the switches are fucking flawless falling straight down a hallway into another place and wonder wtf is going on is a feeling I’ve never had in another horror game
@@Mygrandpaspodcast you know something bigger is going on but you have no power over it. So you just run with it.
@@Mygrandpaspodcast you probably didn't play silent hill 2 then
I mean, as I myself am a heavy smoker, I can see why the dash is like that considering his lifestyle
I was part of the "hate train" during my first playthrough of EW. Most of my experience with it was frustration and confusion but somehow it still gripped me. I came back to it multiple times, new game plus, DLC, a harder playthrough. There's just something about its tense gameplay and unique atmosphere that I've grown to love. The sequel validated my appreciation of the 1st game even more. While it polished up the rough edges, it also lost most of its personality.
Yup, all true for me, too.
You might be masochistic.
I have finished this game 6 times and even tho it isn't a masterpiece it's still really fun and for some reason has just sticked with me, it just has a certain personality and aesthetic to it
I hated the game when it first came out because I wasn't used to horror games highly encouraging stealth but when the sequel was coming out, it was a few weeks before it was released and I decided to give the first game a second chance and to this day its one of my personal favorite survival horror games, I'll admit I was wrong for how I felt
I honestly love this game. Sure, it has its flaws, but I find the game very fun to play.
It's scary when you play it for the very first time, I played it (DLCs included) for the first time in 2019 on my PC and DUDE I LOVE IT!! this year I'm buying The Evil Within 2 on Steam Sale, I'm surely gonna love it too!
Love both these games! Second one adds an open area where if you're not careful you'll miss whole aspects of the game.
@@codyd13 Hey bro wym by this? I just started the second game and don’t want to miss anything
@@joeyt5427 Just make sure you check out the side missions on the map. There are optional quests you can do that add different levels later on.
Thanks g, im stuck in the hospital recovering after a car accident and this cheered me up to see.
Get well soon
Damn, hope you recover.
god i loved the evil within so much. the atmosphere is the best part. i just loved the rusty, derelict, peeling paint feel of the first game and the small-town-gone-to-hell feel of the second. i really hope they make a 3rd game.
The first game was way better than 2.
I just recently beat EW1 and I have to say while it started off rough it got better as it went along. As a survival horror game I found it better then RE4. I also love the creature design. I didn't have a problem with the characters themselves.
It is a better survival horror then RE4, but that's because RE4 barely is one. I do prefer TEW1 over RE4 as a whole but as an action game RE4 is probably a bit superior.
I mean, considering that Sebastian imagines that his leg is fucked from the Butcher, he takes a nasty landing with the blood slide at first and appears to have been roughed up before we begn the game(again, the butcher tieing him up) it's probable that Mikami was going for the same feel as Dead Rising, where Frank twisted his ankle upon landing shodily on the roof of the Mall and the level ups presented him getting back in physical shape and healing his injured foot(since time passed, even within the game's logic). Except here, instead of healing naturally, Sebastian finds the brain juice and with him "injecting it" in his brain, he's able to resist Ruvik and the laws of this world so he imagines himself back in shape before he became a drunken mess and imagined himself spraining his legs. It's why he magically can increase the bullet count on his guns without tinkering with them, something that flew way over the hed of Johanas and the rest of the TEW2 team.
As for character personalities...apart from Kidman, who's intentionaly devoid of any sort of character and facial expressions, everyone else is pretty ok. They aren't deep, Tolkien-esque characters but from his face capture alone and some of his progressing sobering up during the story, you can see that he has enough of a character to not just support his role as the player character but also as the main character in that story. Even his body language changes slowly throughout the story to inform the player of what Seb thinks and what hapens when he decides to stop being generic drunkard detective like in the start.
Another thing about him being drunk and having a drinking problem : it's not explained just for the game to say "oh, he's a passive character" but because it excuses why Seb is more resistant to Ruvik's bullshit compared to Joseph. Joseph is young, clear headed and free of toxins, while Seb seems to have smoked at one point and quit but now has a heavy drinking problem, even being drunk during work and years of doing that have damaged his brain and motor abilities as well. A lot of the things initially pass him by and by collecting more and more gel and "opening" his mind again for the first time in years he becomes stronger but also Ruvik is able to influence him again. It's like injecting caffeine to a drunk person. Not only that, since the gel also acts as a mind strengthener, Seb is resistant to Ruvik even a bit, despite having a healthy enough mind, by that point of the story, for Ruvik to explode. It's why the last scene is so out of place, with him getting impalled straight up but keep shooting the rocket launcher with seemingly superhuman strength : it's Seb, fully gelled against Ruvik, in a state of panic, causing his brain to produce adrenaline and that results in his mind being able to overcome Ruvki's who by comparisson, has constantly been in a stable and safe state of mind, possibly without any secretion of adrenaline throughout the adventure up until Seb ripped the brain out of the jar and smashed it.
Keep in mind, all this is without the post-launch DLC fucking things up, misinterpreting the story and adding new twists for the TEW2.
The whole criticism towards the story, at least from my perspective, just shows how players have become unable to put effort into anything and that they have stopped venturing into other media for entertainment. It's like most who complained about the story had never read a single mystery novela nor a detective story and then tried to translate the words and sequences of those books into something with motion, in their heads. It's like they expected the game to be a failed adaptation of a detective story with monologues and camera angles that betray the entire mystery because the directors didn't have faith in their audiences, a trait that is sadly present nowadays. If people are able to autistically sit down and compile the entre fucking lore of Dark Souls through flimsy item descriptions THAT MIGHT BE BULLSHIT in the first place, they can make sense out of the Evil Within as well, far better than I did. They just choose not to and bitch about it because TEW is not popular and it wasn't the "in thing" back then. Souls, Outlast and other games were, so it was ok to put a bit more effort into understanding them. It's the same shit all over again with Killer is Dead and whether or not Paola is the first demon hunter in Shadows of the Damned or if they escaped the Demon World.
PS : On the subject of Ruvik : Ruvik is not the main character, not even by the definition explained in this video. The reason we see so much of him, in a gameplay sense, is different and it ties back to Mikami's "THE FEAR". Think about how Mikami sees Resident Evil : it is a game that was meant to be a remake of Sweet Home, a japanese movie about a haunted house. Now, put Evil Dead in the remake of Sweet Home and instead of metaphysical, have the monsters be born out of biohazardous material(that's why it's BIO HAZARD in Japan instead of "Resident Evil", the house was never the focus, the biohazrdous mutations were. It's also why they didn't name it like that in Japan, to distance themselves from Sweet Home, context that was left out for the western people). Now think back to Evil Dead. What's the main inspiration behind Evil Dead? It's Lovecraft. And what is the main ethos of Lovecraft? "There is no greater fear than the fear of the unknown".
Now that you have that in your mind, approach The Evil Within thinking this : You have a game called "Psycho Break", a title that in chopped english refers to a psychic breakdown or something similar. Suddenly, your player character is ripped out of the world and put into fantastical and grim locations that don't seem to adhere to the laws of time, space or causality, with supernatural phenomena happening at random, in a mishmash of areas that make no sense. Then, you are transported to an insane asylum, with a dream like filter, where you feel somewhat safe. After that, you see that the monsters are actually humans that have been broken psychotically and that is manifested by the wires that appear on them, mangling their previous human visage into something horrific(another lovecraft trope, tieing it thematically to the Biohazard altering the tissues and forms of the various animals and people Umbrella experimented on) and you start getting more and more infor about this Ruvik guy. Then, you enter the same asylum through a mirror. A mirror that cracks while Debussy's playing in the background. Mirrors are reflective surfaces and this one cracks, transferring you to the Asylum. Then Joseph drops the biggest hint of them all "It's like we're in a place of jumbled memories" and then it clicks. You didn't get transported to another world like in Silent Hill, all Hell didn't break loose and monsters appeared. No, you are in Ruvik's simulated reality, in his stream of conciousnes. All the monsters, represent his fears and insecurities. And he wants to use them to break the players and Sebastian's psyche(and Joseph and Kidman's etc). Hence "PSYCHO BREAK".
And here's where "The Fear" kicks in : if the monsters were your / Sebastian's creations, if they were meant to be allegories to his insecurities and fears, like the monsters in Silent Hill 2 and 3, it would have been obvious and the player wouldn't be scared. That is because the player learns about the main character and is thus able to decipher those fears and overcome the monsters borne out of them, just like every James and Heather. But this isn't the case; these are the monsters of a mysterious psychopath who acts like the omnipotent god of this hyper reality and you are his prey. YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT HE'LL THINK OF NEXT! YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT'S THE NEXT THING THAT WILL BE HUNTING YOU! Laura appearing out of nowhere was scary because of that context. It's not the same as Harry entering Sillent Hill with the bells and the world changing, Laura appears because Ruvik thought about her at that moment. But neither the player nor Seb can now that because they are not Ruvik. And this fea of the unknown is what Mikami seeks to instill to the players. Just like he did all those years ago with Resident Evil 1 and the dogs. Laura appearing screaming out of a corpse is scary because you think you have figured the game out and you go to torch the motherfucker for playing dead and yet out of that corpse comes out the most disturbing enemy, screaming at your face, making you lose your nerves because it communicates to you "Everything goes in this world". Looking around for traps and enemies isn't enough anymore. Now you have to be psychotic enough to go into another room and expect the unexpected. And the game still manages to fuck with you, like with the disappearing doors in the sewers.
That's what Psycho Break / The Evil Within 1 was about. That's why Ruvik was so front and center : because it was the game giving the player hints about Ruvik -> thus analyzing Ruvik -> thus making the player realise how he thinks -> thus have the player figure out Ruvik's train of thoughts -> translate that into gameplay -> the player knows what to expect going into the next stage / room / boss fight. But that went waaaaaaaaaay over the ehad of almost everyone and the DLC and the second game are proof of that. We never got Psycho Break 2. What we got was what a lot of people think The Evil Within 1 was about. And that is a very different game, a very different experience and a very different kind of idea. The Evil Within 1 and The Evil Within 2 are as far apart as Silent Hill for the PSX and the Silent Hill movie.
You deserve more likes.
also remember how there always seems to be a bottle almost anywhere you go? what if the only reason there is a bottle is because of sebastion's memories?
@@amirking5452 oof
@@amirking5452 Holy fuck, I didn't catch that. Nice one dude!
Holy shit this just made appreciate the game soo much more. Good job you guys.
18:29 I can why Mikami gave the director role to Nakamura for Ghostwire first. She had a interesting take on horror and design. I hope she will direct a full horror game sometime.
I really enjoy the bits of interviews you put in between segments, really helps contextualize everything. Also, the shade you threw at the Sweet Home mention was everything. It's like every RE related video has a list of checkmarks people have to include in their videos: Barry saying Jill Sandwich, Mention Sweet Home, Mikami Directed a Disney Game (THAT'S NOT HORROR!). Refreshing to see something that isn't that.
Also, The Evil Within dulogy is fucking great. It's like you said, honest horror. Something that I feel has been lost. The only thing holding these games back (imo) is their technical shortcomings. TEW2 runs a bit better, but not enough to make it a huge improvement. I'd do anything for a remaster of these games.
Always look forward to your content drops! Been a fan of your work since your complete annihilation of Dead Rising 4, keep up the great work 🙌
Yes, DR4 was a joke. He really ripped into it further than I got into playing that waste of a game.
@@jbzhummerh2gamer what is DR4?
@@jigzyonline2 A joke. The title is Dead Rising 4 Frank's Big Package, a game made during the holidays that wasn't worth a dime. Check out the guy's video on it.
@@jbzhummerh2gamer did you dare to say the full title?
@@jigzyonline2 ?
Wow, didn’t knew people hate this game. Back when it came out, this and dark souls were the only games I liked.
I’m still a big fan of the original Evil Within to the point I’ve made it a tradition to play through the game every October since it came out, so I know the game well. The sequel is a different story though. Everything I liked about the original was removed or downgraded in 2. Because of this, Evil Within 2 is one of the most disappointing sequels I’ve ever played.
Makes me happy it came put on my birthday, remember first playing it.
Ever since The Evil Within 2 came out in 2017, I've always wanted to see Ghenry cover the duology. Now after 3 years it's finally here. Keep up your quality, Papa Ghenry.
I actually liked that his run time was so shitty. It's just like any dream I've had, where it feels like I would run as hard as I could, but barely move.
“Thanks Joseph Big help there”
All I hear when I hear Ruvik, is Rorschach
I personally liked the combat. Every area felt like a puzzle to kill the enemies with as little as possible. Immersed myself pretty well.
I was personally a fan of The Evil Within. I thought it was fun and had a lot more modernised gameplay making it accessible. Afte replaying The Evil Within I was more confident to start playing games like the Resident Evil franchise and amnesia.
Ok that Onion skit is hilarious. Lol, love the premise.
This game will always amaze me by its visuals and how intense its gameolay is.
After watching the video I can confirm this is one of the better Evil Within vids I’ve seen. Props G, looking forward to part 2.
Evil Within deserves everyone’s respect, this game got me into the Resident Evil series since its mainly a spiritual successor to Resident Evil 4. Screw the fanboy haters.
I'm replaying through the 1st right now....I honestly wish I could see this game more like how you do.
I will agree that TEW1 is a decent game, the plot and presentation are ambitious as hell, and I love Sebastian's design. There's probably some folks out there who are wired in just the right way for TEW1 to hit all the right notes--sadly I'm not one of those folks.
Early on in chapter 3 the gameplay seriously shines---you can tackle the enemies in quite a few ways, be it slow and stealthy, loud and guns blazing, or deceitfully by leading enemies into traps. It's genius when it wants to be!
Everything pretty much collapses after that---the "house defense" kind of combat is frustrating, the trial and error nature to certain areas is even more frustrating, and bosses artificially made "difficult" with one hit kills is just sad.
Back when the game was new I was beyond excited to play because of all the hype it was getting---it was an awful disappointment and it really hasn't improved with age.
TEW2 likely sold poorly because of the many bad design choices Mikami implemented in the original. I know I had no interest in purchasing 2 and likely would have never played it had I not recieved it as a Christmas gift. To my delight, pretty much every criticism I had of the original was fixed with the second. I've replayed it quite a few times since then and its aged like wine for me.
I can see the argument that 2 lost a lot of the tensity and scares of the original---but that's just simply not an issue for me when the villains are so cool, the stealth mechanics (though a bit OP in late game) make the slow and quiet approach immensely satisfying and the environment is just a treat to explore.
2 is honestly a comfort game for me at this point, same as how Resident Evil Code Veronica was as a child.
Horror will always be there in video games no matter the change. Maybe we as fans of survival horror shouldn't expect people like Shinji Mikami to continue to create survival horror for the rest of his life. If he wants to try more versions of horror, let him do his own thing. He's only human, not a computer. If anything, Mikami-san is trying new ideas. Nothing he does is going to be perfect. Does it mean you can't criticize said art that Mikami-san does? You still can, it's your life. We all have our limits, but at least we are able to take risks and chances.
Good work on your take on The Evil Within. And thank you for opening up my mind.
the evil within, the best (action)horror game of this ending generation of console;
astounding level design, majestic enemy design, sounds are spot on, weapons are cool, powering up is satisfying, full of collectibles and all the extra stuff are just beautiful, like the shooting gallery or the various easter eggs... shinji mikami is the king of VG horror!
the DLCs are actually awesome and worth their initial price, i loved them... on a side note, the sequel is awesome too, even if strangely without DLCs.
sadly, this franchise didn't became big as other bethesda games, even if it's the best they published... oh well, i still hope for TEW 3 and finally having the joseph oda arc he deserve.
Actually TEW1 was a massive success and 2 was the dissapointment in sales, for as much as reviews and casuals raved about TEW2 being so good and better than 1 it clearly was not what fans of 1 thought due to it selling waaaaay less.
@@kannyboy1847 It always felt to me that commercial failure of TEW2 was mostly due to lack of marketing combined with stained first impression - TEW1 was hyped from every corner, and with TEW2, many people didn't even knew it's getting released, myself included. Besides, TEW1 entered the survival horror niche practically unopossed, tapping in for easy success, while TEW2 had to compete with Resident Evil 7 of all things, so that also didn't bode well for poor sequel.
Nice video,
I disagree with what you said regarding people claiming it is generic horror. I played it a while ago but what i remember strongly was the feeling of it being a mix-mash of different horror movies/settings. Perhaps generic is the incorrect word but the constant change in setting combined with the many homages/references resulted in it feeling like a mix-tape that kind of lacked a identity for itself.
Compare that to the second game or Resident Evil 7 which has a more focused experience and more of an identity.
Evil Within 2 is sooo god damn underated
I 100% agree
@GamebroTV no it is simplified and dumb downed version of the first game, but it's not bad... Just bland...
How so? It was praised more than the original when it came out even though it didn’t deserve it.
@@emulation2369 Nah, that's just your opinion.
@@emulation2369 agreed
This game was a god damn delight for myself, The Keeper is by far my favorite monster
Something I’ve only seen a few people mention but I think is important in terms of if a game is a survival horror. The OG RE games have you options for either killing enemies or avoiding them, and enemies did not drop supplies, meaning you were never incentivized for kill enemies, they were obstacles you needed to use limited resources to remove or find another way to deal with their threat. I think RE4 isn’t a survival horror for that reason, you rarely can avoid killing every enemy in a room before the doors unlock and they almost always drop ammo or money, I think this same logic applies to TEW in saying it’s not a survival horror at least based on its original definition.
I also disagree with the argument for sprinting, suspension of disbelief is all salesmanship and I think no matter how much you reason it away, they didn’t sell that mechanic to people well. Alan Wake was similar and got made fun of similarly but even he could outrun Sebastian any day, and it’s nearly a decade after dead space which proves you can not only not restrict the player but empower them and still achieve great tension so long as the enemies are balanced accordingly. My point being, the sprint thing didn’t ruin the game for me or anything and I get what they were going for, but it just wasn’t handled well, they should have found a different way to approach it.
And just to clarify this was just my minor disagreements, I thought the video was great and TEW is one of my favorite games.
Yeah I find it strange he defends the sprint mechanic. That’s definitely a miss in my book but I agree that the video is pretty good
Oh now this is exciting! Keen for the second video.
I have played this game like my life depended on it. I absolutely loved this game. I played it on the 360 which sucked but was fun. Got it on the xbox one and wanted to do it justice and got all the achievements, even DLC. Watched some reviews and saw what most people think. Its looked at better now. I decided to go out of my way to learn the story and games mechanics and much as I could and went to twitch. For the past 2 years I've dedicated some time to help others with this game and express it's good parts. I wanted to help others with game and show why it is good. I even made a document of sorts to explain the majority of the story. This game is a huge part of me. I have never dedicated so much of myself to others over a game.
Man I would do ANYTHING to have a final 3rd game in this series. I am happy with how the 2nd game ended for Sebastian’s storyline but Joseph’s storyline is far from over and the Leslie/Ruben ending of the first game seemed to be explained in the 3rd game but we just NEVER got that.
In terms of horror the part in the victoriano manor where Ruvik will spawn in randomly scares me every time. It’s so perfectly done I wish we got to know more about ruvik following the events of the first game.
I loved both games
8:43 - WOW!... Just WOW...!!!
At long last someone else have said it!!
Thanks A LOT!
While I didn't like actually playing The Evil Within, I really like the presentation and surrealism. The cryptic nature made the story more enjoyable than if it were just spoonfed to me. Plus I kept the letterbox. I stopped noticing it after getting used to it, especially when playing this game in the dark. Seeing the black edges bleed into real life darkness adds to the in-game atmosphere for me.
I remember watching the cutscenes for these games. They were nuts. I also watched people play them because I knew I would be too scared to try them out. It's sad that it didn't get much praise because this series is way scarier than any RE game ever made, even the new ones don't match the horror of the TEW games.
for me, Shinji Mikami is a hero
I honestly loved the Evil Within when it came out. I liked the combat and what you mentioned about the game ensuring you were never fully ready for what was ahead. Always felt like managing each fight and thinking on your feet. I particularly liked the burning corpses mechanic. There was definitely a lot of weird imagery in the game and downright disturbing at times. Maybe I was being a dummy but I also thought the main character was Ruvik the whole time. Because I couldn't tell the difference between the voice actors. Thus I was more confused by the end of it.
Damn it Gheny, now after watching this video I’m going to buy this game again on eBay lol
Very good and interesting video
for me it's like a bridge between silent hills mindscrew and resident evil action
I absolutely love Joseph in this game as he shows the most personality and character. Fun fact, the guy who plays Joseph also plays sasuke and you can literally hear the sasuke in him especially during the suicidal scene. It’s almost as he wants to play a sasuke who rejected the curse marks and thought about the cons of having it lmfaoooooo
Best Horror game in years.. if not ever!
Great video! I can't wait to see the video on Evil Within 2.
I just played these 2 games a few months ago for the first time and I really like them. But basically, both games are quite different...
The 1st one was just creepy as hell in every single way and I mean that in an absolutely positive way. Especially because of that story that was like "What the hell is going on here?" and the fact that you didn't knew anything, like Sebastian didn't knew anything as well. So making the story so confusing was basically what makes the game so good in my opinion, even though it sounds like it makes no sense at all. But also, the atmosphere and the "dirty" graphics fit to that creepy theme of the game perfectly. What I personally appreciated about the 1st one was, that it was extremely diversified. All the different places and all the different gameplay elements. So sometimes, you had to be careful and slow, then, in the very next part, you had to escape and run as fast as possible and so on. The boss fights were all in all amazing as well.
The 2nd one was also very good and I enjoyed this game as well, at least as long as I had my first playthrough. But after I finished the game, I read some critics and was like "They are actually right about that...". I think the beginning with this first "open world" was extremely good. When they introduced all the new things like the shelter, the coffee machine or the workbench + the stealth gameplay elements for instance. Also, the idea behind the "Mark" was pretty good. But they could have made more of it. The story was now a bit more clear which was good and bad at the same time, cause it was not as creepy as the first game anymore... Also I think, that the story was kinda cringe when Sebastian called for LIIIIIIIIIIILY all the time and thought in several parts she's "real" although she was obviously not... The gameplay wasn't as diversified anymore and also the bossfights were pretty lame in my opinion and too rare as well... All in all, still a good game with some cool gameplay elements (and cool mini games, expecially the one with these different coloured blocks ^^). But all in all, it wasn't as creepy as the 1st one + all the aspects that made the 1st one so damn good were no longer in the 2nd one...
Haha I love that coloured block mini-game. Literally the only thing I truly enjoyed in TEW2.
@@Gaff. Yeah. I came so often to that room just to play it. ^^ But the 100k took me a while. So I was trying over and over again.. Haha
@@Y0mash It wasn't easy, but eventually I worked out some strategy for it. I really liked it.
One of my favourite series
Personally I think the game would've been better understood (and to an extent more enjoyable) if the DLC would've been included with the games narrative, like a resident evil revelations 2 kind of deal. I mean lets be honest David Lynch isn't for everybody so basing your game on his style of narrative is a big gamble which most people fail to emulate (and yes I think evil within doesn't live up to it)
also I really enjoyed the cast of this game and was disappointed that Jenifer Carpenter wasn't in the sequel but I get why she wasn't back.
During covid lockdown I got my brother to play the evil within and he loved it
while I like both games, I think the first one had more personality and style, the second game is more polished but kinda loses some of it's identity in my opinion
I freaking love this Game. It has so Many issues and problems but i don't care! One of My favorite Games of all times.
PS: I really love the way You correctly Say Sebastian's and the Doctor's names. I live in Chile so i speak spanish and i can Say that You are the first youtuber i hear that is good at this.
RE meets Silent Hill. Best survival horror of its generation.
I wonder if Evil Within would've been better received if people compared it less to RE4. I get why the marketing pushed it in that direction. It was Mikami's horror project and his last successful one was RE4, which went on to sell millions of copies. So, it's only natural they'd want to compare it. But maybe if gamers were primed for an experience similar to The Last of Us, they might've gone in with different expectations.
Evil within 1 and 2 are my favorite survival horror games
This is the first time i see The Evil Within run so smoothly. Maybe i could've appreciate it more if i had the chance to experience it like this...
I also think that the reason behind the larger approval of the second game is due to the fact that it could run in a much smoother and cleaner way on console hardware
39:16 i didnt expect that lol
When The Evil Within came out Amnesia and Outlast had convinced most people that its only possible for a horror game to be scary if you cant fight back and that made people hate this game at first but the old Resident Evil games, the Silent Hill games the Siren games and the Fatal Frame games for example are all really scary and you can fight back in those.
I love The Evil Within games and they are among my favorite horror games and favorite video games ever in general.
A game where you can't fight back means you don't have to, which is actually less scary, because you don't need any combat skills or resource management. Still like those games like Outlast (which I bet Kidman's DLC was inspired by), but I think to be survival horror a game requires resource management.
When you said you beat every version of R4 and even "that one" I thought you were talking about the Zeebo one
I wonder how many times they can find a synonym for inside and evil
The Wicked Inside
Keep going bro never stop i am addicted 🌹🌹
The games whole concept of “diving into the mind of a psychopath” through a neural machine is interesting to me. It might’ve not been executed the best way but I still thought the game was interesting and cool. It feels like a combination of silent hill and obviously resident evil. I appreciate that the game had a new game plus mode and there were multiple things you can unlock to give it replay value. I still play this game to this day. Whenever people say that the game was too gory and edgy I kind of felt as if that was the point considering the story behind the game. what else would you expect to find in the mind of a psychopath besides violence? I give it a 7/10 for its core and an 8/10 for personal reasons.
I loved both evil withins it reminded me if resident evil and silent hill made a baby. I loved silent hill and resident evil to this day the fear and immersion makes me feel alive and gets the blood pumping thats why I will always love survival horror because the games actually can be hard especially on harder difficulties and i feel a sense of accomplishment when beaten
Im in my first playthrough, bought it cheap for my 12 year old PS3, Im only on chapter 5, and I really like it, the atmosphere is on point, the music selection (claire d lune has always been a favourite, and now associate that song to a "safe" zone its even better) and ilumination are great. I cant say much about the combat as im currently struggling with ammo and more in a survival state, taking advantage of traps.
I think that this is a great evolution of what RE4 revolutionized, it is on the direction of scares with its own mechanics and settings.
Parallel to this im replaying the first Silent Hill and I have to say that some lf that wonderful SH atmosphere and tension is somewhat present in TEW, maybe its the misterious tone, the unpredictability of what you are going through.
Ill come back to this video once I complete the game, and gladly play the sequel.
Tbf, most of the bosses in EW1 were meant to just be avoided for the most part, kinda like Nemmy in OG RE3, sure you had the option to fight and get some cool shit from it, but it was pretty much always advised to run away from it. IIRC the only bosses you had to fight and kill were the one in the car park and spider-girl.
This game. Gave me nightmares about rubic this game. Terrifies me to the point im afraid to leave the starting area
An evil within movie or TV series would be cool as hell. Bring the original cast back for it
I really like the evil within. It had plenty of scary parts. There were parts where I was shaking
Great video! New to the channel and can't wait until the TEW 2 video drops, hope it's soon!
33:28 Ghosts by NIN, once again.
Not that I want you to stop or anything.
thx for making this video. i thought it was great.
Loved the game it's like Hellraiser 2 the video game...
The first one with dlcs was such a gem... The second one was meh..just bc of unnecessary open-worldish structure
Now that you mentioned Deadly Premonition I need a video on it!
Evil Within 1 is amazing and it pisses me off that people didn't like it. What's wrong with people lol. I actually thought the sequel ruined everything that made part 1 great
Im so glad im not the only one
Welcome home, my child.
@@Gaff. daddy? .... Is that you?
Totally, it IS the return to survival horror that it was marketed as, only shows how little people wanted real survival horror as the whining came mostly from it's difficulty and complex story. People got used to easy games and most horror games being walking simulators proven by the constant comparison between TEW1 and Alien Isolation when it first came out even though Isolation is not survival horror in anyway or shape. It had fantastic level design, every chapter delivered such a unique and detailed enviroment to explore, great monsters even with some being clearly inspired by popular tropes like Laura, the sadist etc, super satisfying gameplay where it really felt like "every bullet matters" and just a stellar presentation. It's one of the best survival horror games out there, especially for it's gameplay. I do wanna call out the general art for the game too, so damn good. The second took away mostly everything I just mentioned and became a way more generic and safe horror action game, how piss easy it is makes it not even feel like survival horror either. Even the easiest difficulty in TEW1 is harder then the hardest in TEW2.
@@kannyboy1847 All true. I do want to say that some of the classic survival horror games are a little too easy once you're used to them, and there may have been some pushback from that crowd as well. TEW1 demanded more skill in combat than Resident Evil or Silent Hill for example. Those games were more about determining when you could and should run away from fights. TEW1 is more about how you use your supplies within your fights. Most fights are intended to be fought in TEW1, but resource management is fully present as you have to fight those fights intelligently.
Alien Isolation did a lot of things right, but I don't remember it dealing with resource management, which makes it just horror, not survival horror, in my opinion. But it did make the Alien into more of a nuisance than a threat at times. I stopped being scared of the alien early on, which is really sad, because I think with a little more playtesting they could have perfected what they were going for (I played on hard as recommended, it was probably better on normal).
TEW2 'fixed' all the things people complained about in TEW1. Sadly, those were the things basically every TEW1 fan actually loved about TEW1.
I think what's really happening here is that back in the old days, before games were this bloated, lucrative industry, developers had more freedom to experiment because less money was involved, so games were highly varied. Notably, all those extra modes and extra content in general that are now often DLC used to be part of the games, and what most developers from that time tell interviewers was they had time left over before release and wanted to do more to make their game better, so they reused assets or used cut assets, and made great extras. Games were passion projects for a lot of developers, teams were smaller with more communication between different jobs (animators working with programmers and level designers for specific effects and so on), and development was not rushed as often.
Additionally, to a significant degree, though not as much as it was, that old model remains intact for Japanese developers, BUT Western games make up far more of the market than before, especially for big-budget games, and those games are quite frankly often soulless. When I talk to people nowadays, and I tell them most of my favourite games are Japanese, there is a decent chance they'll tell me they don't like Japanese games. That used to be an impossible statement to make if you liked video games. Disclaimer, I do like some Western games, just not that many, and rarely for their interesting mechanics, with some exceptions for indie games.
So, my point is that games, like most entertainment industries, are becoming saturated with corporate greed, as has happened with music, television, film, and now games. And that's really at the heart of this matter. The old days saw middle-shelf games get given slightly more money with each success and they were paid to continue doing what made them successful. Now executives that don't play games plan out live services by committee and throw tens of millions of dollars at them to get hundreds of millions back. TEW1 is in many ways a throwback, whilst TEW2 is a corporate product and people are being trained to expect those whilst being put off by anything that deviates.
I loved evil within 1 and 2, and I want more
Ive been waiting for someone to talk about this game in depth. I could defend it for ages. Its actually my favorite horror game despite all its flaws. EW2 was a good game but really just a watered down version of the first and im shocked at how many ppl bash the first and praise the second.
I love this game
I always had read Sebastian's meager stamina and inventory as Ruvik's influence and his dominance over the mental world; even if you look at the some weapon wheel animations, they show Sebastian's brain. As Sebastian levelups he takes back more control over his body in mental world, but he can only push a little each time and not much overall.
The best thing about this video is that you said, it is what "you" think about the game. I still feel that loads of people have a really strange imagination of survival crossed with horror... Or just the word survival itself. I think you tried your best keeping part 1 in a "game-is-okay-shape" because as you said you like it still or even more than 2014. The second video will talk about all of that sequels mistakes, and the cause of the reason it sold less copies than the first one. These TEW games received more negative criticism from more people than the amount that actuality played or just tried playing it. It started with the expectations that mikami would bring my generation back what every RE since 3 ruined. Some didn't like what they expected, some liked it kind of and some just hated mikami. The second part came out it offered passages to discover, being scared of something attacking you in every street or house corner, it changed the upgrading system to some more logic, if logic ever existed in videogames 😄 And now here comes the scapegoat, the second game includes WELL performed, emotional videos, plus dialogs of the same kind between the actors. What a mess to the old school RE and the new school TEW fans... Don't worry, there will be no more games of that series, and even if some of the so called fanboys of the first game wish it could be another one as a clone of the first game because you fuck up the second one. Nope that will not happen. It's over, cause videogame companies care about games they earn money with. So no need for a second video that stab a dagger in the back of a cool sequel. Have a nice day, Dude.
Great stuff! Thanks!
“Resident Evil 5 stinks”
You went too far Ghenry, TOO FAR!
This and the 2nd video will be about me letting out the truest feelings I know. Not holding anything back! Felt good to say it.
RE5 is absolute hot trash and should feel bad to like it.
RE5 is my most played game of all time and I am more than proud to say so. It owes a lot to RE4, but it synthesised and improved on many of the mechanics in a way that culminates in the best local co-op experience I've ever had, with Mercenaries continuing to provide new challenges for us to tackle even to this day (literally -- we've been playing it all week).
@Erṣetu It's not shit at all. It's a great game. We just finished getting a 150 kill chain on the Mines for the first time with Barry and Josh. Very few things have been as exhilarating, despite the fact that we've done it before with different characters. The game is still providing us with quality experiences over a decade later and will continue to do so. It is the best local co-op game that exists, if you ask me.
@Miguel Rodriguez I mean...you don't have to like it if you don't want to. You're obviously wrong but that's fine. Being wrong is perfectly fine.
I just subbed to ur page. Love this video. I just rebeat the evil within 1 and 2 again this month i loved them both the first one is rather long tho. But either way i loved them both. Although part 2 was by far better experience and awesome story.
I forgot to say if you go thru the evil within 2 you will def understand the story alot better in the first as well at le as to me. But its open to enterptetation
Really interesting video. I love classic survival horror, but I never got around to playing EW 1 or 2, for some reason or another. I think I was turned of by the focus on action and EW2 being an open world (a type of game I've gotten quite sick of, but now I really want to check out the first game at least. Great work as always. Keep it up!
You should man. I honestly think they nail the pace of action horror and dreary atmosphere. This and deadspace are my favorite action/survival/horror games ever. And its very replayable on higher difficulties.
My gripe with the game honestly is the same as RE4
I think it goes on for a little too long
I couldn't finish the game because the last third felt like it was dragging so much
The only comments I disagree with are the ones you make about the id Tech 5 engine. I don't think that id Tech 5 itself is the cause for all of the performance issues in the game. Instead, I believe that it is a combination of the devs at Tango being unfamiliar with the engine and id Tech being designed primarily with 1st person games in mind.
The id Tech line has powered some great games since its inception in the early 1990s. Almost all of them were made by western devs and almost all were 1st person shooters, although some older versions of the engine (mainly id Tech 3) were better at running 3rd person games.
You say, "Bethesda games are known for being inconsistent." This is true, and it is true that The Evil Within can be inconsistent, but id Tech is not a Bethesda engine. Bethesda may own it, but it does not develop it, that is still id Software's job.
I don't think that any of the other games that run on id Tech 5 have or had severe performance issues. Rage, Wolfenstein: The New Order & The Old Blood, Dishonored 2 & Death of the Outsider all ran very well both then and now. Even The Evil Within 2 runs better than the first game despite being on the same engine.
It seems to me that the devs at Tango learned how to better utilise the engine between the two games to make the second perform better. They even added a 1st person mode to the second game post-launch.
At comic con I did run into a chick cosplaying Laura, or as I like to call her "creepy spider lady". I was Cyrax at the event.
Besides Dead Space 1 and 2, I think this franchise is the best action horror series since RE4.
The suffering 1-2 is great
I love these two games so much. It sucks that people didn’t like them. I bet it’s because it feels “old.” Like it feels pretty classic compared to games released at the time.
I don’t know how to transition to this, but I bet that if Resident Evil 4 was released today, people would dislike it as much as they dislike TEW1.
Can’t wait for your thoughts on the Switch ports of No More Heroes 1 & 2 hopefully we get Killer 7 soon on Switch so we can play with a GameCube controller again
First time watching your content. Great work! +1 sub for you good Sr 👍
Why I don’t agree with your opinion on re5 just about everything you’ve said about this game hit the nail on the head, if anything this game felt like re4’s big scary brother, as one of the first games I ever had for my PS4 I look at this game as an underrated classic.
43:35 That logo... looks like another series' logo.
I hope Sebastian doesn't get owned by a Zombie's daughter with a golf club.
This was a great analysis on this game it deserves more views. I loved this game flaws and all.
First played it last year.
Sorry, but I will compare to RE4, but in the nicest way possible. This game made me feel I was playing RE4 "2" way more than RE5 did. I even liked the crazy and convoluted story...
Had a great time through and through
I loved this game and it's sequel
The hate was caused by TEW being sold as "the big return of survival horror", but when it came out, it just seemed like a lot of old tropes and callbacks strung together. Not a bad game, but after Dead Space, Amnesia and Outlast, it just wasn't enough to live up to the absurd hype. The comparisons to RE4 are well deserved, too, since there are so many references in TEW, and they're easily the weakest part. I remember giving up on the game after chapter 6, which just felt like discount RE4. And this was before uncovering the entire STEM plotline, which is the most interesting part of the story, but it's buried under hours of enemy encounters with no context. That said, your review and my love of the sequel convinced me to give this game another chance.