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ETTP: The Evil Within
- Thread starter Dusk Golem
- Start date
Miles Quaritch
Member
Fancy Clown
Member
Excellent write up! I'm so damn excited for this.
SlasherJPC
Banned
I'm not even sure those are either. My guess is that maybe during key encounters? Though I bet that akumo mode has one hit deaths for sure. I def will be playing this on hard my first go.
Miles Quaritch
Member
Cool. I'm not a fan of insta-kill enemies. I'm not completely against them either though. Comes down to how they are implemented and how 'fair' it feels when you die.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
Off to PAX, write more tonight/tomorrow and will fix up the post tomorrow. Got back to my hotel and passed out as I was out late.
Will play the show floor demo again today, and will be attending this if at all possible, will head there early:
Demo may be the same, if anything interesting happens I'll tell you guys here.
Will play the show floor demo again today, and will be attending this if at all possible, will head there early:
Demo may be the same, if anything interesting happens I'll tell you guys here.
Fancy Clown
Member
I'm especially excited about things like the randomization elements. The bane of the horror genre is player familiarity wherein things aren't scary anymore the 2nd time through, but this could be definitely be a way of making things feel fresh over multiple playthroughs or even multiple deaths in a single playthrough, especially if things beyond simply item and enemy spawns are being changed. It sounds like you'll have to be on your toes at all times.
SlasherJPC
Banned
Dusk, I shot you a pm about something. Just lemme know 
Fancy Clown
Member
Seriously, though. While I'm sure there were plenty of legitimate criticisms of earlier demos, but most news outlets had the exact same cursory impressions that you can tell they didn't actually think about the design philosophy behind the game. This is definitely gonna be a game that doesn't review phenomenally but will most likely end up being amazing because most reviewers don't actually try and think critically about what they're playing and instead focus on surface level details like really polished AAA presentation.
SlasherJPC
Banned
I bet on people sayings the games controls suck when it's intentionally seems to be aimed at being just that way.
Fancy Clown
Member
I already get mad when people say that tank controls are 'outdated' or 'unplayable', so I'm sure I will have to suffer through a whole slew of silly opinions like that with the Evil Within.
Cave Johnson
Member
In short: Vanquish part 2. I'm sick and tired of seeing reviews raving up scores because of the visuals and production values - those features are meant to wow the intended audience but the critics are supposed to overlook through the fluff and break down the gameplay mechanics. Aside from a few reviews I've read, everything else reads like a summary you see at the back of the gaming case. In other words: Fucking. Useless.
See that write up by the OP? That's how previews should be done and reviews are essentially the finishing touch. If reviews were even half as detailed as this, it would be much more beneficial to me as a consumer.
I guarantee it.
People don't like the learning curve and adapting to the game for whatever reason.
thesaucetastic
Unconfirmed Member
These impressions are great. Thanks for the write up, Dusk!
I'll be looking forward to you describing what the event has in store.
I'll be looking forward to you describing what the event has in store.
Lucent
Member
Man I'm so anxious to hear more about your experiences with the game. Sucks that we didn't get it this month like originally intended, but I much rather have it being as good as possible. And it sounds like it needed it based on the loading times. Really hope they can get it down a lot. 10-15 seconds might be the most I can deal with after a death.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
Played the demo again a bit ago on the show floor, second go impressions.
---Second Try Impressions---
Got a lot further this time while playing, and this time played the Xbox One version.
Two things about the Xbox One version: It must be much more optimized right now. Load times were cut in half compared to the PS4 (15-25 seconds), and the frame rate didn't suffer at all, it looked a solid 30 FPS the whole time. But I noticed that the the game didn't look as sharp as the PS4 version and the audio was slightly different (if this makes any sense you can't hear things as far away as you can on PS4). I could hear the Save Room theme from across the hall for example on the PS4, but only in front of the door on the Xbox One. And there were other changes too, there was, in fact, music on the Xbox version. It didn't ruin anything as it was undertoned and creepy, but it leads me to believe the Xbox One version is better along than the PS4 version. Didn't even see any texture pop-in.
I also got a lot further this time, I got up the last puzzle before the door in the main entrance locked off when I ran out of time, but I did notice and observe some stuff this time.
The controls on Xbox One felt more regular. Not controller preference, I mean the tank control element was lightened some with walking around. Aiming felt the same, but moving around felt a lot more like you'd expect a TPS to move. I'm curious about why that is.
I managed to get a goddess key and open one of the morgue lockers. For a grenade (the ond-styled one I mentioned yesterday).
On the options screen I have found that you can in fact increase or decrease screen noise, so if you like it or dislike it you can change the percentage in the game to a lot or none.
I mentioned this on the EW forums but not NeoGAF, but there's a 'Show Partner Health' option I the HUD options, making me think there will be sections with you and another character.
Someone asked about volume on consoles. You can adjust everything's volumes; music, voices, sounds, cutscenes, are the four options.
A random note, The game has a lot of load screens. I have not seen the exact same load screen twice, though some variation (Ruvik is in the elevator, no Laura is the next time this screen pops up!) Also the game must have some big mannequin section or something. Two different load screens with mannequins. I saw this one today with baby mannequins. No idea what they have to so with the game as of yet, but they were sitting creepingly on the floor in a light in the dark room, the light would go off, and turn back and they'd be someplace else.
Ruvik scares me. He literally can appear at any time. I was fighting a few enemies in a room web suddenly in the middle of this Ruvik bursts through the door and suddenly his music and screen effect happened, and I was in a mighty inconvenient location to maneuver past him and the two enemies.
Getting headshots in the game is more challenging as the enemies bob their heads around and you need to shoot in a very specific spot, and I've found out Sebastian's accuracy when on low level with a weapon is horrendous. I've had shots with the pistol shoot over a foot in another direction of where I shot, so on low accuracy level the reticle box is actually more, 'the area your shot will actually land at' rather than the reticle middle or circle. A cool feature is you can shoot off part of an enemy's head without getting a headshot.
This may come as no surprise, but there are, in fact, some scripted enemy scenarios, so not all enemies are random.
The demo made me curious about some things. I was running through a hall and then heard this REALLY creepy clown laugh echoing through the halls, then suddenly all the enemies in the manor were all wearing clown masks. I have no idea what was up with that.
The puzzles here weren't hard but were interesting I will say. Some nice gothic inspiration behind them. Liked the painting puzzle.
I figured out how to set items to the d-pad, so that was nice. And to confirm something, your inventory slows down the game but doesn't stop it so you can still be hurt while using it.
There are two aiming modes, the proper aiming mode, and a 'free shoot' mode. The first aiming mode make the camera zoom in behind the shoulder, you move slower but shoot more precisely. How close behind the shoulder depends on the area you're in. Tight corridors will put it almost in a FPS mode, default is a bit closer than RE4, but not by much, sometimes more pulled back.
There seems to be a chance when you run out of stamina Sebastian will stop in his tracks and take 3-5 seconds to catch his breath. Again, mashing the X button makes this go faster, as does recharging stamina.
There are four areas to upgrade with green gel, yourself (health, stamina, etc), weapons, capacity, and the Agony Bolt. I had fun with the agony bolt today, the explosive bolts were fun.
On that, I hit an enemy with a explosive bolt, but it takes a few seconds to explode, enemy grabbed me and I exploded. Game confirmed to have dissection deaths, Sebastian literally exploded into pieces, but you could tell what all the pieces were. Happy to have Mikami deaths back after they left RE with RE5. Another one involves an enemy slitting your throat and blood purring out.
Speaking of blood. A fun blood splatter effect in this game. Killing enemies near a wall or furniture will splatter blood on these that stick for a small bit. Killing an enemy close to you in a gory fashion will have blood coat Sebastian for a few moments as well.
There was a hallway that wouldn't look out of place in Silent Hill that involved paintings with sections in them (that worked with the composition of the painting) that were turned into holes showing squirming, organic tissue inside.
Ran out of ammo for a while, and can say these enemies have it! By 'it', I mean that they're deadly, and have tricks, but you can run past them and avoid them, though they'll give more chase than zombies in the old RE game, you can outrun them and lure them to run past them I hallways.
That's about all I noticed in my play session, now for the event tonight! I suspect it'll be the same demo, but still excited.
---Second Try Impressions---
Got a lot further this time while playing, and this time played the Xbox One version.
Two things about the Xbox One version: It must be much more optimized right now. Load times were cut in half compared to the PS4 (15-25 seconds), and the frame rate didn't suffer at all, it looked a solid 30 FPS the whole time. But I noticed that the the game didn't look as sharp as the PS4 version and the audio was slightly different (if this makes any sense you can't hear things as far away as you can on PS4). I could hear the Save Room theme from across the hall for example on the PS4, but only in front of the door on the Xbox One. And there were other changes too, there was, in fact, music on the Xbox version. It didn't ruin anything as it was undertoned and creepy, but it leads me to believe the Xbox One version is better along than the PS4 version. Didn't even see any texture pop-in.
I also got a lot further this time, I got up the last puzzle before the door in the main entrance locked off when I ran out of time, but I did notice and observe some stuff this time.
The controls on Xbox One felt more regular. Not controller preference, I mean the tank control element was lightened some with walking around. Aiming felt the same, but moving around felt a lot more like you'd expect a TPS to move. I'm curious about why that is.
I managed to get a goddess key and open one of the morgue lockers. For a grenade (the ond-styled one I mentioned yesterday).
On the options screen I have found that you can in fact increase or decrease screen noise, so if you like it or dislike it you can change the percentage in the game to a lot or none.
I mentioned this on the EW forums but not NeoGAF, but there's a 'Show Partner Health' option I the HUD options, making me think there will be sections with you and another character.
Someone asked about volume on consoles. You can adjust everything's volumes; music, voices, sounds, cutscenes, are the four options.
A random note, The game has a lot of load screens. I have not seen the exact same load screen twice, though some variation (Ruvik is in the elevator, no Laura is the next time this screen pops up!) Also the game must have some big mannequin section or something. Two different load screens with mannequins. I saw this one today with baby mannequins. No idea what they have to so with the game as of yet, but they were sitting creepingly on the floor in a light in the dark room, the light would go off, and turn back and they'd be someplace else.
Ruvik scares me. He literally can appear at any time. I was fighting a few enemies in a room web suddenly in the middle of this Ruvik bursts through the door and suddenly his music and screen effect happened, and I was in a mighty inconvenient location to maneuver past him and the two enemies.
Getting headshots in the game is more challenging as the enemies bob their heads around and you need to shoot in a very specific spot, and I've found out Sebastian's accuracy when on low level with a weapon is horrendous. I've had shots with the pistol shoot over a foot in another direction of where I shot, so on low accuracy level the reticle box is actually more, 'the area your shot will actually land at' rather than the reticle middle or circle. A cool feature is you can shoot off part of an enemy's head without getting a headshot.
This may come as no surprise, but there are, in fact, some scripted enemy scenarios, so not all enemies are random.
The demo made me curious about some things. I was running through a hall and then heard this REALLY creepy clown laugh echoing through the halls, then suddenly all the enemies in the manor were all wearing clown masks. I have no idea what was up with that.
The puzzles here weren't hard but were interesting I will say. Some nice gothic inspiration behind them. Liked the painting puzzle.
I figured out how to set items to the d-pad, so that was nice. And to confirm something, your inventory slows down the game but doesn't stop it so you can still be hurt while using it.
There are two aiming modes, the proper aiming mode, and a 'free shoot' mode. The first aiming mode make the camera zoom in behind the shoulder, you move slower but shoot more precisely. How close behind the shoulder depends on the area you're in. Tight corridors will put it almost in a FPS mode, default is a bit closer than RE4, but not by much, sometimes more pulled back.
There seems to be a chance when you run out of stamina Sebastian will stop in his tracks and take 3-5 seconds to catch his breath. Again, mashing the X button makes this go faster, as does recharging stamina.
There are four areas to upgrade with green gel, yourself (health, stamina, etc), weapons, capacity, and the Agony Bolt. I had fun with the agony bolt today, the explosive bolts were fun.
On that, I hit an enemy with a explosive bolt, but it takes a few seconds to explode, enemy grabbed me and I exploded. Game confirmed to have dissection deaths, Sebastian literally exploded into pieces, but you could tell what all the pieces were. Happy to have Mikami deaths back after they left RE with RE5. Another one involves an enemy slitting your throat and blood purring out.
Speaking of blood. A fun blood splatter effect in this game. Killing enemies near a wall or furniture will splatter blood on these that stick for a small bit. Killing an enemy close to you in a gory fashion will have blood coat Sebastian for a few moments as well.
There was a hallway that wouldn't look out of place in Silent Hill that involved paintings with sections in them (that worked with the composition of the painting) that were turned into holes showing squirming, organic tissue inside.
Ran out of ammo for a while, and can say these enemies have it! By 'it', I mean that they're deadly, and have tricks, but you can run past them and avoid them, though they'll give more chase than zombies in the old RE game, you can outrun them and lure them to run past them I hallways.
That's about all I noticed in my play session, now for the event tonight! I suspect it'll be the same demo, but still excited.
TheSpaceBetween
Member
Pleaseeeeeeee no partner sections! Or at least keep their frequency and duration as minimal as possible.
Jawmuncher
Member
The best horror gaffer finally gives his impressions. Thanks for this .
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
My assumption based on the 4-6 trailer in the demo is there's a section of the game you work with Joseph, as he's in some of the trailer and there's this sequence Sebastian and Joseph breaking out this kid named Weiser or Leiser or something like that via ambulance. Bit those were all cutscenes, so hard to tell. It actually might be the kid you rescue as he seems important and could see him as a Sherry/Ashley thing in some sections.
IcyRhythms
Member
We really don't know how old that latest PS4 footage is. It could mean a number of things. I'm just hoping the PC version isn't dogshit.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
For the now it does, though sure both are being optimized. PS4 version looked crisper though. But playing them both, it felt like the Xbox One version was further along in optimization.
Thanks for the impressions, so hyped for this game right now.
This has me really intrigued though, I wonder if stuff like this is just there to mess with you, or if it has another purpose.
This has me really intrigued though, I wonder if stuff like this is just there to mess with you, or if it has another purpose.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
Forgot to type about the free shoot aiming mode. Outside of regular 'RE4-style ahooting', you can also shoot in a mode where you don't aim down your sights, just pull out your gun. You move almost as fast as you regularly so but your accuracy is way lower, and I can imagine it'd only be useful in emergency situations where you don't have the time to take proper aim, IE crowds cornering you or an enemy is waaaay too close.
Spieler Eins
Member
how good is the ,,save room" theme?
symphonask
Member
It's Clair de Lune and I love the way it's been implemented. You start hearing it when you get close to the save room.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kf-pFYqD1g&t=1m00s
-MD-
Member
Northeastmonk
Gold Member
this time a million. If a game requires you to actually learn something particularly different they automatically dislike it.
They want that super hero-halo controls.
-MD-
Member
Part of the reason stuff like Call of Duty is super popular, it's very simple to play.
Wishmaster92
Member
Thanks for the impressions man! Probably the usual 1080p vs 900p situation but the xbox one code is probably more recent.
Northeastmonk
Gold Member
It's frustrating. I can't say to someone whose 20 my senior that games aren't these killing easy multiplayer games when all they hear about is so and so bought Call of Duty. It's as if Call of Duty or Halo were the only video games on the market. And I think people got sick of losing because they weren't playing the right way. No one wants to play a challenging game while having to learn a certain way to control it. You can't run off with a certain control mechanic and expect to win, you're exactly right there. We can enjoy single player games like this.
Enough of that rant. All the impressions sound great.
Your impressions are really hyping me for this game, Dusk, the way you explain things makes this game seem like a potential GOTY. A shame it got delayed. Hope I can finish this before Bayonetta 2 releases.
The story of Wonderful 101.
The story of Wonderful 101.
Lucent
Member
lol what the hell? Would be really interesting if they had a lot of things like this to mess with you. I remember reading something about this game quite some time ago that sometimes you'll be hit with illusions and stuff and not know what's going on and that they're random. Dunno if that's still true or if this is an example of that.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
Just foud out where the Evil Within event is being held.
Well this should be fun...
Well this should be fun...
Lucent
Member
Just foud out where the Evil Within event is being held.
Well this should be fun...
lol looks awesome. So
green
-MD-
Member
Just foud out where the Evil Within event is being held.
Well this should be fun...
Yeah, I'm jealous.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
In line for the event.
Lucent
Member
Wishmaster92
Member
Just foud out where the Evil Within event is being held.
Well this should be fun...
Here we go.
Not Spaceghost
Spaceghost
Awesome impressions dude!
But I just wanna say RE4/RE5 controls aren't tank controls. RE2 controls are tank controls because forward will move you whichever way your character is facing. Which means if you're facing the screen you still have to push up to move forward.
Tank controls are like when your inputs aren't relative to your characters position, 90% of the time tank controls happen because of fixed camera angles, not the actual control scheme. RE4/5 can't run and shoot, but that doesn't make em tanky.
But I just wanna say RE4/RE5 controls aren't tank controls. RE2 controls are tank controls because forward will move you whichever way your character is facing. Which means if you're facing the screen you still have to push up to move forward.
Tank controls are like when your inputs aren't relative to your characters position, 90% of the time tank controls happen because of fixed camera angles, not the actual control scheme. RE4/5 can't run and shoot, but that doesn't make em tanky.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
RE4/5 are actually tank controls, but the behind the shoulder camera disguises them. The characters move identically to the rest of the series. But tank controls are most commonly associated with old-school fixed camera games, which I am very acquainted with.
Your impressions are doing a hell of a lot more to help me get a feel on what the game is doing compared to everything else I've seen. The amount of randomization could be really cool, and coming off the back of P.T. could be very effective as that was pretty much a proof of concept of going through the same area repeatedly and having it subtly change, which is a powerful way to unease the player.
Really hope they get the loads under control, and the version differences you noted seem really strange.
Really hope they get the loads under control, and the version differences you noted seem really strange.
Jawmuncher
Member
That was what happened to ZombiU