The Evil Within

Fun game – 5/5 stars, and it's not because I’m biased and nostalgic…

Seriously though, when it comes to the horror aspect, the game excels at creating a tense and scary atmosphere. Although it was a relatively easy playthrough and wasn’t always as scary as I imagined it to be, it would still be quite scary for someone who doesn’t regularly enjoy or play horror games.
I thoroughly enjoyed the character designs, from our main protagonists—Sebastian, Joseph (JOSEPH!!), Leslie, Kidman, and Ruvik—to the various grotesque monsters like The Keeper, Laura, and Ruvik again. While I understand why some people might want more character development for our main guy, you have to appreciate Sebastian as one of the few “traumatized dad” protagonists dealing with gorey Shituations like this. (Leave him alone.)

That said, characters like Joseph, Kidman (Ik she has a dlc), and my boy Leslie could definitely have used more development.

The game mechanics were enjoyable overall, although they were sometimes annoying to maneuver. I will admit that certain enemy encounters and mechanics became repetitive over time. For example, it’s easy to kill most enemies and bosses by simply circling them/walking away. They don’t really attack you when you’re too close making the enemy AI combat a bit exploitable at times, which breaks immersion a bit—but I’m not complaining, lol. I still found them entertaining. The alternating between action-heavy moments and slow, suspenseful sections kept the pacing engaging.

I already knew the lore before playing, but for someone going in blind, parts of the story and lore might be difficult to follow. Even after reading all the journals, tapes, newspapers, and missing persons' reports, the storytelling still felt incomplete and somewhat messy by the end. Overall, I really liked the game’s art direction, especially the use of safe rooms—which also serve as a clever way to upgrade. It was interesting to see how they seem to tie it to Leslie’s consciousness, which was helping us throughout the game. It was also interesting to see the rooms crumble as Ruvik slowly gained more consciousness/control over it, creating a sense of fear and mystery around the safe rooms.

and also last but not least, LESLIE COME BACKKKK

Ugh. So much potential that was just not met.

I remember being super excited to play this game when it came out: Shinji Mikami making another game? And it's horror themed? Dude, this is gonna be the real Resident Evil 5 - the one Mikami would have directed if he hadn't left Capcom.

Well, it ain't that.

It's okay. Very much just an okay game. There's quite a few things here that I thought Mikami of all people would have known better than to do: starting the game off on what is essentially one long walking section (or I guess limping section), adding a stamina meter that is insultingly small by default (almost as if it is a joke), putting a bunch of bear traps everywhere as a sort of gimmick trap, enemies not taking hit stun when shot, etc.

There's a lot of just baffling decisions that disappoint me.

When it comes to the shooting, it works. It's functional. The combat isn't bad, but that's it. It doesn't really do anything note-worthy. If anything, each combat segments just feels like an elongated way to funnel you into the next mind-fuck segment.

Which brings me to the story - while it is cool to have that sort of Silent Hill esque psychological horror where each enemy is a manifestation of something in Ruvik's mind, it just goes a bit too much with mind fucked scenery. Like the game is just trying to gross you out with how much blood and guts it throws you in.

By and large, the best chapter is Chapter 9. Why? Well, surprise surprise, it's a Resident Evil esque level where you explore a mansion and unlock doors and solve puzzles. It doesn't last long enough, but it's fun. It's no surprise to me at all as to why when this game was being promoted, they used footage from that chapter as the vertical slice. It almost feels like Mikami wanted to make more of that Chapter, but for whatever reason, he just didn't.

Then there's Akumu mode: A one-hit death challenge. While it can be irritating, there's only a handful of segments that can truly be a test of your patience. Chapter 6 and 11 in particular.

I mean, if I was to judge this game as an attempt at making a solid new horror IP... eh... it's just serviceable. But knowing that Mikami is behind this... ugh. I expected a lot better.

I don't mean to make the game sound so bad. Like I said, it functions and it can certainly offer some segments of decent third-person-shooting fun. But as a whole, I'm just left disappointed.

Just No. This game is not for me at all. The camera angle is terrible and the black boxes on the top and bottom of the screen are really annoying. The stealth is beyond terrible and I cannot actually see myself enjoying this game.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. Been wanting to play it since it came out but never had the opportunity until a little while ago. I like the resident evil and silent hill aspects of the game. The story is good albeit confusing to some. I was able to follow along pretty good, and the dlc cleared up some of the holes in the plot. Sebastian could have had more personality, but you can figure him out by reading the collectibles. Rest of the cast is good as well. I like the complexity of Ruvik and what he offers to the intricacies of the game's story/design. Enemy design was awesome looks wise. Some of the enemies could be annoying to deal with, but you just had to adapt your style of playing, and you would be fine (some people can't adapt and would get mad as a result which i found funny). I enjoy the slower pace of the combat. It feels as though there is an actual consequence for running and gunning (usually dying). It makes you have to think about your approach (which some players really don't like to think and thats ok lol). I do have the screen flickering issue as well, and I was upset about it until I figured out a way around it. When it seemingly stops loading, hit ctrl+alt+delete, and after that screen pops up, hit esc and click on the game icon on the taskbar. It's annoying I know, but it works 9/10 times. On the off chance it doesn't work, just restart the game and try again. It's over a decade old lol. People still be raging about how the game looks in the current year. It came out in 2014, and it looked damn good for its time. Still by today's standards, I think it holds up pretty well. I have a nvidia 1650 super. My computer is not much younger than this game. Still looks pretty good. All in all if you haven't given this game a chance, I would recommend at least one playthrough. It goes on sale pretty frequently. Solid 8/10

This game SHOULD'VE be the BEST horror game since RE4, but it wasn't. If you played RE4 recently or even remember it, your own mind will hopelessly compare Evil Within to RE4.

There are times where you want put your fist through the screen. Folks that is the Horror in Evil Within: No ammo, pitiful health bar, the memorable enemies/bosses one shot you, and Story that barely makes sense.

When I was in the mid part of the Game, I thought Evil Within was fucking awesome. Being able to overcome enemies is satisfying and no other survival horror game captures that feeling. But it just got so FRUSTRATING in the final area of the game (the City).

I still recommend this game because I did enjoy the game, and there were moments that are memorable.

so damn buggy. Brand new gaming PC runs every other game perfectly. thought I'd buy this game give it a try. First i had screen flickering issues which i followed all the trouble shooting for that and still had issues unless i exited the game using the control panel and started it back up. Then I couldn't even get the character to move after the first cutscene. No matter what i tried the game wouldn't work and it was a buggy mess. Unfortunately I waited too long to try after buying and steam wont give me a refund on it. I was dumb enough to buy both games so that's cool because I don't really want to play the second if I can't play the first

What I liked:
First of all,visually game looks amazing even right now
Lightning,shadows,small details of enviroment creates amazing atmosphere.
Cutscenes are good too
Gameplay is little clunky,but nothing critical

What I hate:
Game looks like Resident evil 4 too much
There are Critical bugs in game,even now,after eleven years
Some game design choices really sucks
And of course,story doesn't make any sense

But overall,I liked it
6.5/10 probably

Evil Within doesn't sit too well with everyone, either its the convoluted story or people playing trying to make sense of the whole thing. I think most fans would agree that you do eventually get it to a degree. I don't really find this game as much of a horror game and more of a fun stress test. A horror game is like Alien Isolation with its AI Director, here its more of how well do you do in cramped situations. Tho, the balance of that is actually very action pact.

Weaponry/Upgrades are a major part of this skeleton as you do have choices of where to put your green slime. There are many different methods of how you approach situations and get creative with how you deal with enemies. Fairly memorable and simple characters help the story progress with its bizarre approach but if someone has consumed medias like The Matrix and has played games like Psychonauts its not as difficult to understand a lot of the choices where the developers are coming from to the world they are giving you.

Overall this is a very fun, silly, mind bending, stressful experience. Evil Within is for sure playing in its own league.

When I first bought the game it wouldn't fit on my pc's screen so I had to plug it into my monitor and that fixed the issue

I must admit: I really like the game. (And not only because Ruvik is hot.. nononononono.)

It reminds me a lot of RE (what a shocker), so if one likes those games, they probably will like this game too.

I understand the critics of this game though: if you don't own the DLC, you won't understand the story. But alas the DLC is really good, and actually scarier than the base game. Therefore I would recommend buying this game only with the DLCs (The Assignment and The Consequence).

So some people seem to be having issues with running this game on steam. The solution that worked for me was once you load into the game you'll then see the beginning section/the start up of the game shortly after the screen will go black. Once that happens hit alt + enter. At that point it will take you to a windowed mode but you will see the game which after you get to the the game's main menu where you see the asylum in the background hit alt + enter again which will take the game out of windowed mode and that worked for me. I also tested another method by alt + f4. Once I was out I loaded Evil Within 2 then I immediately exited that game since it auto defaults to full screen and then I quickly loaded into Evil Within 1 which also allowed the game to be in full screen ever since.

I would try the first method by hitting alt + enter first (once the screen goes black). You could also hit ctrl + alt + del if it doesn't go to windowed mode (out of the black screen) and retry again. It may take a couple tries. I hope this helps!

As far as the game goes this is definitely a classic and has a lot of replay value since you can upgrade all your weapons and abilities which is a lot of fun on new game +

This game BURNS your pc, enemies ONE SHOT you, the graphics are HORRIBLE, and its LAGGING even if your pc is good, i waisted my money and i cant refund the game. In conclusion, play the 2 instead (apparently the 1 works fine on other platforms like Epic games but the devs hate steam users ig)

this is my childhood dream's game so excited. The background and vibes very horror but there's so man bugs i found there like blinking screen, black screen sometimes and the control is very hard to adapt but still good tho

Simple premise, sticks to well known horror motives, but executes very well. Fun stuff

Tragically underrated game. If you like resident evil you'll like this. Play's more like RE4.

This game is GREAT i played it back in the ps4 days easy recommendation, it's just that this port of it is lacking and needs some work and mods to make it good, if you plan on buying it first go to the guides section and mods and configuration tap you'll find a good guide there with pics on how to use console commands, after that i suggest using a reshade to make it look awesome, and now this is the most important part HAVE FUN XD.

once you get used to the controls its great - awesome atmosphere

i really want to like this game because it's a pretty decent rival to resident evil 4-like games. but something about its camera makes me really nauseous and i can't play more than 15 minutes at a time! maybe i'll acquire a gaming laptop and play it via smaller window. the pros: the (mini-)bosses are quite creative, the atmosphere is unsettling and well-designed, and the gun play has good weight to it.

The Evil Within is an absolutely brilliant survival horror game, held down by some terrible ideas, tech issues & general strange choices. first off, this game was a nightmare to get running on a modern pc. I highly recommend using PCGAMINGWIKI's guide on setting up the game if you're interested in playing it. Most of the side characters in this game are quite interesting (such as joeseph) but have far too little actual screen time and very minimal development. The main character Seb is purposefully written as a sort of blank slate, which appears to go over the heads of many people who critisize The Evil Within 1's storytelling. Although The Evil Within is far from my favorite story in a horror game, it does a serviceable job at storytelling.

The gameplay in The Evil Within is generally quite solid as someone who is well versed in horror games with ammo management, and it isnt afraid to barely give you enough ammo to even kill half the enemies in a stage, and I heavily respect that move, although some may find it rather unprofessional. What I think most people will agree on is that some of the enemies do an absolutely insane amount of damage, and have far too many instakill moves. The spider boss that stalks you throughout the game has like, 2 different attacks and one of them is an instakill. that attack is by far the most common. Another lategame enemy, the Ruvik clone has only 1 attack - a ranged homing instakill attack. Much of the deaths in this game felt like bullsh*t, and that was a major detractor for me.

Although, its not all bad. When the game isn't spamming instakill attacks, its actually quite fun. The weapons are all able to be upgraded and all of them are viably strong by the lategame. You can even use stealth to your advantage in some portions of the game to conserve ammo and switch up your playstyle.

I found a good couple hours of enjoyment in the evil within in my two runs with it, although its major flaws makes it hard to recommend to people outside the hardcore survival horror circles. I would give the evil within a 6.8/10.

Good game, don't play the dlc, watch it on youtube or something. Game feels like a weird clash between RE and Silent Hill, and speaking of RE same director of RE1 and 4 so that makes a lot of sense, also i love the pyramid head ripoff, they really tried to be original

The game is a boring and repetitive piece of shit, too long, not scary at all, not even exciting and I couldn't care less about the characters. And even the stamina bar is just ridiculous.

Sebastián castellanos, un viejo bien rico y alcohólico pero que hace bien su trabajo además que le vale un huevo estar en la mente de un loco que parece pederasta en potencia rostizao mita mita y de seguro el culo también, simplemente 10 de 10 si no fuera que me pudiera Culiar a la juli kidman y a la hermana de rubik transformada y no transformada

Great game. Mechanics can be brutal at times. Why can't we get a third game?

Can't start game on windows 11, screen keeps flickering on start I have to force close through task manager.

truly an amazing horror game this is what games in this genre should be structured off of the elements of this game are peak and the story is fucking fantastic. horror elements are on point with the bosses being a hard challenge while feeling extremely rewarding when u finally beat them. my favorite horror game ever and I HIGHELY reccommend it to anyone looking to have horrific time.

It doesn`t work on Windows 11. I wanted to play this game so bad but all I can see is a black blinking screen. Just a waste of money...

I hate having to leave negative reviews and I really wanted to love this game but it is so broken that it actually doesn't start on my computer. At first it would just bug out and I'd have to force close the game or restart my computer but now it simply does not start. I've looked up some fixes and none of them seem to work. Was really looking forward to this and I hope it get fixed but right now it is completely unplayable :(

legitimately an absolute mindfuck which is quite immersive considering what sebastian is going through. 10/10 would shit myself running away from laura again

A bit yank at times, but overall the gameplay really works due to the great atmosphere. THE BEST PART ARE THE MATCHSTICKS, LIGHT EM UP I SAY HEEELLL YESSS. they are very satisfying to use and can be worked into some cool combos and strategies, simple but effective. Love the crazy transitions and mind boggling story, but the game is EXTREMELELELELY DARK and GRITTY, it can be disgusting, but alas I'd say, LIGHT..... IT...... UP!

The Kidman DLC:s add so much to the story! Did not expect that ending, and of course the music is really good in this game as well.

One of my favourites, very hard at points? Yes. But the gameplay? Perfect. Love it.

I genuinely adore this game. I know it has a few bugs and you don't really understand the plot, but I've always liked this game a lot more than the Resident Evil games. Sure RE is a lot more popular and a bit better written when it comes to story but in my personal opinion I think TEW is much more horror like than most the RE games and I genuinely enjoy kicking the shit out of a zombie while it's squirming on the ground on fire.

For something that came out in 2014, I can say this is one of the best hidden gem for everyone to try with, it's a survival horror that focuses on thrill, survival, and ammo management, play this if you must.

Horrible, clunky game mechanics, poorly implemented graphics. Both took me out of the experience more than once. I guess that it comes down to it being a poor port of the game. The stealthy sections earlier on were ok. Uninstalled. I just bought part two, maybe that will be better?

Such an awesome game. I love the TEW games both so much, they kept me occupied for a long time with harder enemies, story, finding stuff and more. id play them over and over if i had the time!
Absolutely get these games, id recommend them always without a doubt.

Great game, just beat it for the first time today and I really enjoyed it! I remember watching Markiplier play it years back when it came out and It's as good as I remember it!

I really love this game but have been having issues with it ever since I bought it. I could never load into the game, it would crash and glitch out my monitors. I don't know how but I got it to work and the game is still amazing. The issue was just loading the game without bugging out my PC.

Where do I start.. I started to play this game on my older sisters computer when I was little, it was the first horror game that got me into pc gaming . I love everything about this game and it is so downplayed fr..
Everyone overlooks it for bigger games like Resident Evil or Silent hill. But Sebastian went through a lot of sh*t as well, I know people will btch and moan about the gameplay or how hard it is but it's really fun and its replayablity goes wild.

I love this game always will.

The DLCs is basically Ada wong type of campaign in re4 remake
But less fun in evil withing since there's mostly scripted sequences and Stealth segments
gives you a pistol, takes it away, than gives it back but there's no ammo in the duration in the DLC
Executioner was kind of fun
The Story is confusing but kinda intresting as you collect journal entries and read logs and shit
The Gameplay in the Main game is solid resource management and variety of enemy encounters and puzzle solving

★★☆☆☆

I did not enjoy the difficulty of The Evil Within. The game runs decent, the horror and aesthetics are unique and interesting, but the main plot is confusing, and the gameplay is simply frustrating. The first few chapters offered a fair and fun challenge and stealth was viable, but later on it becomes hectic. Having to repeat long sections of levels after dying is tedious and several enemies can one-hit kill you. Disarming alarms is a high-risk, low-reward venture since if you fail them, the damage you take is insane. It's not necessary to do them, but it was pretty irritating.

The bosses are great, but dying and retrying became a pain and I felt that eventually the game lost its psychological horror element and just became a pure action survival horror, as the game's description says. The pacing, dialogues and storytelling are mid.

Overall, I have lost all interest and desire to continue playing The Evil Within. I did not enjoy its story nor the harsh gameplay.

9/10

This was a super fun game with a fascinating story. The only thing was that the story was a bit confusing at times because you kept getting tossed around to different places. Also, I didn't think it was that scary. The horror element came with a good environment, story, and gore. It didn't have a lot of jump scares, which I appreciated.

My favorite part about this game is that you can fight back, and there is a super fun upgrade system. I've played Outlast and didn't enjoy it as much because I felt like I was hiding and moving slowly the whole time. This game is faster-paced and allows you to not be so helpless.

It is worth the play-through and I enjoyed it.

very fun to play, after a bit the horror aspect of the game becomes less scary sadly but not bad for a game that came out in 2014. loved the trippy idea of the game where it makes the player seem like they're going crazy but its all a mind game in the end. i just wish there was an option to buy ammo rather than having to search for it instead. not bad at all, would play again.

It's quite a forgettable game, but that might be because it hasn't aged that well. Not the best, not the worst. Get it at a discount.

This is legitimately not just my very first horror game, but also the very first game I owned with my Xbox One days and this game holds one of the closest places in my heart!! I love practically everything (other than the beginning stamina) about the franchise with the first one being my favorite!! I love all the different atmospheres and monsters that all could fit into different genres in of themselves and there isn't one character that I don't love for one thing or another!! Not even to mention probably my favorite rendition of Clair de Lune and how the whole game feels like a movie with how everything is shot and with the camera uses a 2:35:1 aspect ratio. Simply put, this game is an artistic masterpiece that also happens to be a beautiful mangled and mutilated horror game!!!

A extremely great horror game! Just finished it and its super difficult at points but very rewarding once you complete it. Great gameplay in this similar to Resident Evil. Runs extremely well no issues. The camera angle takes some getting used to for sure. Well worth your time and money. Its a absolute steal on sale!! If you love Resident Evil go out and buy this one you won't regret it!

This game should've been much shorter.

It's a bit jank but the earlier stages are actually somewhat enjoyable but it just drags on and on.
The later parts have clunky saw esque challenges based on terrible movement controls, reuse bosses and scenarios and generally just feel like someone said "we need to make this game twice as long".

It also does this thing I hate in these games where the guns suck ass at the start and you have to put in points to make them usable instead of having them be ok weapons that you make better.

Only get on a sale if you are really into RE 4 style games, it does some interesting things but throws away all the goodwill I have by the later part just feeling like filler.

Loved it. Tense and sweaty for large portions, dabbles in action without committing to it fully, has an interesting cast of characters (who doesn't love the hard boiled cop on the edge archetype?) and compelling narrative which gradually reveals the larger mystery and it's just enjoyable to play to boot.

The two Kidman DLC's are fantastic companion pieces to the games story after completion. Highly recommended!

Game isn't playable on windows 11 PC. Came constantly crashes and when you can play the only resolution settings in full screen allows you to see half the screen.

Never played a "horror" game that was so painfully boring before. The overall experience is as generic as it can get without even having any interesting characters or plot points to keep you invested. You can really tell Mikami didn't wanna do another horror game when going through this, using nothing but phoned in and reused ideas. This game is basically "RE4 at home."

Probably the best next thing to Resident Evil. I found the story pretty confusing until the end but enjoyed it much more once it all made sense. These command lines were pretty much mandatory to play the game
" +com_allowconsole 1 +com_skipIntroVideo 1 +vt_maxaniso 4 +r_swapinterval 0 ". However this seemed to cause some issues with the game physics in specific parts that would prevent me from progressing, to progress I adjusted the in game FPS cap/vsync to move past these parts, then re-enabled the command lines. I also enjoyed the DLC's.

This game is a solid linear horror shooter with a cool story, but whatever you do, DO NOT PLAY THE DLCS. They are straight garbage and play nothing like the main game. Zero shooting. Just running from monsters and redoing segments nonstop because of clunky controls. Never been so frustrated with a game and I've played thousands of games in my life.