The Evil Within 2 can be described as many things, it is- a stealth game, a shooter (now after the new update surprisingly, first person as well), a quasi open world, survival, crafting, RPG-type progression...among other things. But most importantly, it is a horror game, it is a psychological horror game with survival horror elements, or is it the other way round? That was the problem with The Evil Within's first installment, but no, the successor does not suffer from the same identity crisis, it is sure of itself, and very much so, although how and to what extent, let us discuss.


Cannot sugarcoat it in any way, the story won't pull at your heart strings, it is not absolutely bland but is pretty basic, although not Starbucks dependent, music fest-loving basic, but at the very least "I am dating my dog" basic. Although it is a father who finds out that his daughter is alive and well and he decides to go through a literal man made hell to get her back, and I can get behind that for a plot to follow it for the sheer emotion and sentiment behind it. Sub quests, side missions and collectibles further add to the flavour, and it is just enough topping on a salad to make it taste slightly better (now let us not forget that there is nothing wrong with salad).


Personally speaking, I liked the voice acting for the central characters enough to overlook the sounds made by the secondary characters. There is genuine anguish, confusion and bewilderment in Sebastian's voice, in a very mature way. Kidman's voice is also done pretty well.


The open world feature was something of a gamble, and I am sure the dev team was aware of this as well, that's why it is a really tight, compact sort of open world, with sub divided areas which one needs to access through various terminals and generally works well for all intents and purposes that come along with an open world setting, such as loot, placement of enemies, tracing missions, loot, upgrades found on locations and corpses, chance encounters with tough enemies, etc. It is neat and avoids the mess of a VAST idea's visualisation gone wrong. It has been kept to its bare essentials without being excessively dumbed down.


The game requires crafting of bullets, bolts, shells, etc, basically ammunition and that requires scrounging around the map for the materials, which in turn encourages exploration, which keeps the tension high and is enjoyable. The materials are not ample on higher difficulty and the expenditure of bullets must be handled with prudence.

The leveling up system is more or less the same from the first game, although the UI has been improved and made to look pretty damn edgy. Tatiana, of course, returns with us on this venture behind the mirrors although she seems to have mellowed down a little yet still retains her wry, sarcastic humour.

The enemy design also, has not shown much variation, and the character designs, although done well, lack any prodigal creativity, the closest thing to something really well thought out is the monster Obscura which fits well with Valentini's personality and modus operandi.


The boss battles are fairly simple, but require a little bit of thinking in terms of situational awareness and inflicting environmental damage, on our part and are for the most part fun, and challenging to a tolerable degree.


- Yes, the horror in Evil Within has always been somewhat too much in the face and lacks any sort of subtlety, so much so that it barely makes into the 'psychological' horror category, only because of the implications of the overall STEM operations and the Ghost Anima, which is an actual manifestation of Sebastian's unresolved conflicts with the important ladies in his life.

Yet, there is a certain sense of horror which cannot be shirked as one sees and also fights a monster which is an amalgamation of corpses animated by the sheer morbidity in a psychopath's mindset.

The thing about fear is that, it is fun only when you come out of the horror alive and well, and certainly The Evil Within 2 does that well, with taking the player out of his sense of security into a somewhat open world filled with the uncanny, which aggravates the looming scare simply by coaxing our own curiosity as we dangle into the twisted abyss.


The Evil Within 2 propounds that Evil, horror and manifestations of fear may just be all inside our heads, haphazard versions of memories and dreams, but that does not make them any less harmful, or any less real, for that matter.

Honestly, get it on a sale, it usually goes on a 50% sale and the sale is bound to plunge deeper as time passes, if you enjoy stealth and the horror aesthetic it is definitely worth a go.