TEST. The Evil Within (PS4)
Everyone knows, the saga Resident Evil has lost its beauty after its fourth opus and, especially, since the departure of the father of the saga, Shinji Mikami, from Capcom (2005). So when he announced his return to Survial Horror with The Evil Within, in 2012, all fans of the genre keep an eye on his project. And you did well because one could honestly wonder if this title is not the worthy heir of Resident Evil 4. Just that!
It seems that the Japanese video game is at worst? To be clear, we got a PS4 version of The Evil Within. Well, about twenty hours later, close to having completed the adventure , I can tell you, it would be ridiculous to bury Japan. Indeed, rarely a title will have taken my guts so much. That the traditional Survival Horror lovers are so happy, the father of Resident Evil has just put everyone in agreement with this unavoidable title that will put your nerves to the test. Autopsy...
The gore suits him so well
If you could already know that the game would be dirty, gore and unhealthy, by learning about the trailers of The Evil Within , learn that you are light years away from what awaits you in this adventure. Indeed, the title of Tango Gameworks , the developer, offers a disturbing atmosphere as possible, a particularly morbid universe and decors absolutely superb. Yes, beautiful, I insist! If we do not see it in the first minutes of the game it's because the artists of Tango reveal their talent on the length with more and more beautiful scenes as and as the adventure.
Moreover, The Evil Within will take you through many different settings, from the subway to the hospital through the countryside and even a devastated city. An enormous variety of places which allowed the artists to give their heart to a true artistic demonstration more and more hallucinating throughout the twenty hours (I finished it in 19h) of play necessary for finish the adventure.
Special mentions also to the effects of lights and shadows as well as fumes, some of which are downright photorealistic. It slaps! Also welcome the animations of monsters and bosses, particularly credible and ... creepy. A true work of artists that goes hand in hand with an artistic direction always very crassese and gore but which offers a really unique stamp to The Evil Within.
Silent Hill style
Of course, we can not help thinking of Silent Hill when we cross certain places as the inspirations are numerous. From the apocalyptic sets of the Konami series to the almost mythical scenes of the Resident Evil episodes (before the 5th) on which he worked, Shinji Mikami invites us here to a veritable festival of hallucinating images, all the most beautiful others.
This even if two black bands, cinemascope way, amputate the image of almost his half horizontally. A strange choice, which we ended up getting used to, and which probably facilitated the calculations and allowed to propose a rendering so impressive sometimes, even if in detail the textures are not the most sumptuous that I could see so far. Note that despite the quality of this work, the framerate of the game suffers on some occasions but nothing fundamentally disabling.
Resident Evil, the return?
A few minutes of play are enough to understand, the playability (but not only) of the title is extremely close to that of Resident Evil 4. Camera, very close to the shoulder or in a corner of a room, movements during the sighting , items to pick up left by decaying enemies, dozens of scales, edges to climb, rigid hair animations, bosses smartly shown to raise the pressure before confronting them, rationing of ammunition and useful objects, recurring appearance of furious madmen who chase you with a chainsaw (or worse), villainous villagers, etc.
It is clear that Mikami was keen to compete with the Capcom series . And after all, he can afford it, as it was he who created and initiated the redesign of the saga with RE 4. Moreover as a snub to Sheva in Resident Evil 5 , The Evil Within You sometimes glues game partners run by the AI during his adventure ... except that they often prove particularly smart and effective in combat. And that's good because the challenge is here particularly high.
A sadistic game
Tango Gameworks has done everything to put pressure on you from the beginning to the end of the adventure. In addition to particularly intense scenes of combat, settings often picked up and oppressive, sadistic traps in large numbers and narrow corridors by dozens, The Evil Within permanently provides a claustrophobic feeling accentuated by a camera always closer to the action. Between the roaches on the walls, the bloody dead with the bodies pierced by barbed wire fired on you by tens, the gigantic-sized mutants acting as unforgettable bosses, and the tortured cries of a woman spiders pursuing you repeatedly in an alley endless, all accompanied by sounds that literally twist the eardrums, you will never have time to catch your breath.
Worse yet, after you have pressed a monster pressure, and it is the case to say it, the developers continue to play with your nerves by adding an enemy or an unexpected event in order to close a scene in beauty. It never stops! The creators clearly wanted to torment us and put our morale to the test at all times.
The difficulty of the game is also such, even in normal, that you will sometimes have the impression that the proposed challenge is insurmountable. To get out of it all you need to do is be patient, observant, and not be afraid to start again, but we'll come back to it later because it's time to focus on The Evil Within script now.
Ruvik Cube
Sebastian Castellano is a police inspector with a heavy past and when he goes to the Beacon psychiatric hospital for multiple homicides, they fall in the face of a supernatural being with almost divine powers, Ruvik. The latter assassin in arms and seems to have the power to take whoever he wants in the darkest nightmares. Thus, we navigate from one place to another to solve various puzzles, confront hordes of bitter undead killers and finally understand what is behind this story to sleep.
Well done, the story of The Evil Within rises throughout the adventure ... before unfortunately stall a little on the end. The set ends with a delirious fight that is reminiscent of some final battles of the Resident Evil cults. This being the case, the result is correct and the story is sufficiently well distilled to always make the player want to see the outcome. Thus, we constantly want to progress, despite a difficulty sometimes sadistic, to know the end of the story. And that's good because the game is sometimes so severe that you will need a carrot.
Indeed, between suffocating atmospheres, thinking atmospheres, excessive scenes and frequent "die and retry", you will need motivation. Because it is imperative to report it, The Evil Within is difficult, trying, sometimes vicious, and especially particularly stressful. You are warned.
Survival Horror infiltration?
It's quite obvious to point out, some scenes are irretrievably think of those of The Last of Us , especially when Joel goes into infiltration mode. Like the title of Naughty Dog , you can squat and play discretion to kill some of your enemies from behind.
We can also make several passages without even being noticed. An option that we can choose or not at leisure depending on the situation. Suffice to say that it will then be very observant to know when to get out the weapons and when to play it discreetly. Let's add that many levels can be gunshots, without necessarily spending time crawling or hiding in closets and under beds.
Action but also reflection
Hope you have good eyes because your sense of observation will prove essential in The Evil Within . There are many traps left by Ruvik in the scenes he invites you to. It's up to you to spot them to avoid them, defuse them, or even better, use them against the enemies that dot the levels. Movement detection bombs, mines, flame walls, acid jets, mobile saws, wolf traps, etc. are all contextual weapons to exploit and avoid in the sets. By the way, if you choose to dismantle them, you get tools to create your own arrows for the Agony crossbow, your most powerful weapon.
With five types of tiles (explosive, electric, immobilizing / icing, blinding, or harpooning), this weapon is to be used judiciously since you can, for example, ice opponents, or even traps, with a tile immobilizer / ice before to throw a grenade, or an explosive arrow, to do the housework. As you can see, the subtleties in combat are not lacking: shoot in the legs to slow down an opponent, set fire to puddles of oil to burn your pursuers, shoot in some parts of the sets to activate mechanisms / traps, use the weapons of some opponents, etc. are all elements to exploit to survive.
The green gel
Throughout his adventure Sebastian will collect a strange green gel, allowing him to boost his abilities, weapons and equipment in the psychiatric hospital in which he will return regularly as if by magic. Between dream and reality, our hero can thus boost a battery of skills ranging from his endurance racing, the size of his health, through the increase in the number of ammunition and the rate of its weapons (sniper, gun, Magnum, shotgun) or by improving the number of objects he is able to carry.
It's up to you to make the right choices, depending on your style of play, but also the enemies you encounter if you hope to come out alive, and not too traumatized, from this adventure now essential to the Survival Horror.
Is The Evil Within the worthy heir of Resident Evil 4? Yes, without a shadow of a doubt. Is it a must-have game for all Survival Horror fans? Rather than twice! Is it the best title of its kind? No doubt, as it can be frustrating and cruel at times, especially because of a gameplay that lacks precision and lack of a voluntarily exacerbated difficulty. However, we constantly want to come back as the breathless adventure, the neat staging, the unhealthy atmosphere, the many combat subtleties, or the twisted puzzles, are attractive. Little black point on the end nevertheless, with some clashes really, but then really, arduous. Lastly, we had a slight bug when a boss completely stopped fighting, proof that The Evil Withinalso lacks a finishing zest. But aside from that, it was a long time ago that a game did not put me such a slap in the genre, that it is clear!
Shinji Mikami, the father of the Resident Evil series , just put the points on the i in the genre Survival Horror. A masterful demonstration (perhaps a little too gore), both from the point of view of the realization that the narration, the atmosphere or the playability, even if it is not always more precise. So if you like to be scared, Resident Evil has stopped at 4 for you or you are looking for a title to put your nerves on edge, The Evil Within will make your happiness, and your horror, so much it is, to my meaning, indispensable today in its Next Gen.
| WE LIKE | WE DO NOT LIKE | |
|---|---|---|
| * It should not have been that RE5, right? | * A gameplay a little too old school and imprecise. | |
| * Atmospheres and incredible atmospheres. | * A camera poorly managed in cramped places. | |
| * Some extremely beautiful passages. | * Some weird collision bugs. | |
| * Interesting fighting mechanics. | * Frequent charging times and a hair too long. | |
| * Several boss fights of anthology! | * "Die and retry" frustrating. | |
| * | * VF sawtooth, no English voice. |
1-6 IMAGECREDIT
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