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Shinji Mikami's THE EVIL WITHIN |OT| Where's everyone going? Tango?

D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
Sanctuary said:
It's "good" with lots and lots of jank and a very unmemorable narrative and level design (the levels are neat if not entirely derivative by themselves, but far too short and they don't connect to each other in a way that would make them easy to remember).
Click to expand...

I actually think one of my favourite qualities about the game *is* the level design, actually. Nearly every room or scenario has a very distinct vibe that makes it very easy to remember. I'm finding that to be true as I replay on NG+.

Like, I agree, it's not anywhere near as cohesive as I'd like, but it's full of RE4 style "remember that crazy shit?!" or "yeah, that moment with the X was tense" or "remember the room with the X, Y or Z?". And even when it repeats ideas, outside of one or two encounters at the *very* end of the game, it always felt new and interesting.
 
Sanctuary

Sanctuary

Member
Rez said:
I actually think one of my favourite qualities about the game *is* the level design, actually. Nearly every room or scenario has a very distinct vibe that makes it very easy to remember. I'm finding that to be true as I replay on NG+.

Like, I agree, it's not anywhere near as cohesive as I'd like, but it's full of RE4 style "remember that crazy shit?!" or "yeah, that moment with the X was tense" or "remember the room with the X, Y or Z?". And even when it repeats ideas, outside of one or two encounters at the *very* end of the game, it always felt new and interesting.
Click to expand...

I really don't like the chapter layout. It just makes everything feel so disconnected and many of the "memorable" areas just make me think of all of the games that I've played before that looked almost the same.

My favorite chapter was 3.
 
N

Net_Wrecker

Member
Sanctuary said:
Yeah well Vanquish was also 1/3rd to 1/4th the length depending on how long it takes you to finish this.
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Ehh, not a good enough excuse. There have been lots of games smaller than Vanquish not anywhere near as polished, and lots of games bigger than The Evil Within that are way more polished. Bottom line is that it's not as polished as I'd like and it holds the experience back a bit. If it was just the performance I could let it slide, but the core gameplay is simply not crisp. The fact that the game succeeds despite that is a testament to how well some of the scenarios are designed.
 
T

trw

Member
Yeah I would say level design is the games best point. It's always new stuff and no encounter feels the same. It also changes up different sizes of environment, from small sandboxes to corridor chase scenes. Every chapter have had a different feel to it and while not everything is great there's a lot of encounter variety. I can only think of one game that has better encounter design in this genre and that's RE4.
 
Sanctuary

Sanctuary

Member
Net_Wrecker said:
Ehh, not a good enough excuse. There have been lots of games smaller than Vanquish not anywhere near as polished, and lots of games bigger than The Evil Within that are way more polished. Bottom line is that it's not as polished as I'd like and it holds the experience back a bit. If it was just the performance I could let it slide, but the core gameplay is simply not crisp. The fact that the games succeeds despite that is a testament to how well some of the scenarios are designed.
Click to expand...

Why are you comparing games from other developers or directors? If you're looking at a Mikami/Capcom game you have to factor budget and time, which is going to affect polish. The game would have been a lot more polished if he had another six months and a few million more to work with.

trw said:
Yeah I would say level design is the games best point. It's always new stuff and no encounter feels the same. It also changes up different sizes of environment, from small sandboxes to corridor chase scenes. Every chapter have had a different feel to it and while not everything is great there's a lot of encounter variety. I can only think of one game that has better encounter design in this genre and that's RE4.
Click to expand...

I don't like the whole "Hey, look at THIS concept for a level!". Nothing feels like it really belongs to the same game and it's just a who's who of various levels from other games. Almost like each chapter is a very short, self-contained story unrelated to the next. That's also one of the things that made Dark Souls 2 a lot less memorable than the previous two games. Even though Demon's Souls was setup with hub worlds, they were still long enough by themselves and with more than a single area to explore. Variety just for the sake of variety isn't really a good thing.
 
T

Tirod

Member
Just beat Chapter 3 and enjoyed it immensely. So many good memories of playing RE4 for the first time came rushing back to me.

All in all I made it through the chapter unscathed.
I killed the chainsaw village with 3 LV 2 Harpoon shots (2 headshots) and led him under the ceiling spike trap. That's all it took to kill him which was kind of an underwhelming end to the chapter.

Going to continue with Chapter 4 after some dinner and when it gets darker. Going into it full on Handgun and Shotgun Ammo, plenty of trap parts, 3 syringes, and a med kit.

Need some harder encounters or I need to use guns more and sneak kill less. /: I left behind so much ammo in Chapter 3.
 
T

trw

Member
Sanctuary said:
I don't like the whole "Hey, look at THIS concept for a level!". Nothing feels like it really belongs to the same game and it's just a who's who of various levels from other games. Almost like each chapter is a very short, self-contained story unrelated to the next. That's also one of the things that made Dark Souls 2 a lot less memorable than the previous two games.
Click to expand...

Yeah I can understand that. It doesn't feel like a cohesive journey like RE4 does. They might have gone too far with the wish to be cinematic. But that doesn't change the design of the levels themselves though or the encounter design which I think is fantastic.
 
S

SlasherJPC

Banned
Sanctuary said:
I don't like the whole "Hey, look at THIS concept for a level!". Nothing feels like it really belongs to the same game and it's just a who's who of various levels from other games. Almost like each chapter is a very short, self-contained story unrelated to the next. .
Click to expand...

Considering the fact that your
within the mind of a deranged scientist killer and experiencing his nightmares
I think the locations make absolute perfect sense. They might hop around a bit, but like
memories
, things can be placed all over or out of order.
 
T

TargetDummy81

Neo Member
I made it up to the beginning of chapter 5 so far.

I'm not sure where the story will end up going but I am interested in seeing how it plays out.

It definitely has a older school feel blended with a mix of Resident Evil 4 and Last of Us. Graphics look nice on the PS4 along with the lighting and voice actors have been decent also to me. Game is not perfect and rough in some places but for a smaller studio not too shabby.

The black bars on the top and bottom do bug me but I have adjusted to them. I wouldn't mind if they only appeared for the cut-scenes / cinematics.

I do like that Shinji Mikami decided to evolve the gameplay a tad and incorporate sneaking / stealth kills. Logically if you were in a survival game such as this where ammo / resources were scarce it would be nice to do that or distract the fodder enemies instead of burning all your ammo on them. Plus it makes sense to kill silently and prevent the rest of the horde from being alerted with gun shots. I think the Walking Dead TV show and game both showed how dangerous that could be.
 
Sanctuary

Sanctuary

Member
SlasherJPC said:
Considering the fact that your
within the mind of a deranged scientist killer and experiencing his nightmares
I think the locatons make absolute perfect sense. They might hope around a bit, but like
memories
, things can be placed all over or out of order.
Click to expand...

I already said in an earlier post that the chapters move like you're just someone having a restless night full of nightmares that transition from one to the next. Sure, it "makes sense" from a narrative standpoint, but just like real life dreams or nightmares, you'll only end up remembering one or two of them at most after you wake up.

TargetDummy81 said:
I do like that Shinji Mikami decided to evolve the gameplay a tad and incorporate sneaking / stealth kills. Logically if you were in a survival game such as this where ammo / resources were scarce it would be nice to do that or distract the fodder enemies instead of burning all your ammo on them. Plus it makes sense to kill silently and prevent the rest of the horde from being alerted with gun shots. I think the Walking Dead TV show and game both showed how dangerous that could be.
Click to expand...

"Logically" you would also be able to knife someone in the face even if they are aware of you. :(
 
C

Carbonox

Member
I'm about to start my New Game Plus run.

Question:

There's no point in doing Survivor+ is there? I know if I pick Casual+ I can't ever return to Survivor but there's no benefit or reason for me to stick with Survivor if I'm doing things like trophy hunting. Would just be easier to stick with Casual+ from now on, right? Make my life easier in farming achievements.

Would need an extra two runs at least anyway - one for the speed run + not spending a single Green Gel and one for Akumu but for every other trophy I missed it would be simpler and quicker to do it in Casual+.
 
T

The Xtortionist

Member
antitrop said:
I just started Chapter 6. My body wasn't ready for this, I'm kiddy like a school girl right now.
Click to expand...

i0P0rVPDDp7t4.gif
 
Duxxy3

Duxxy3

Member
Back it goes. The clunk was too much for me. Just don't have the patience to work through it.

edit: Before anybody flips out, it was just a rental. I return games all the time.
 
T

TargetDummy81

Neo Member
Sanctuary said:
"Logically" you would also be able to knife someone in the face even if they are aware of you. :(
Click to expand...

Yea, don't get me wrong. The melee being so weak is why I am avoiding it and not going to bother upgrading it at all. If anything I might upgrade the flash bang arrows some just to see if I can string knife kills together while they are stunned.

I am missing my patented Leon S. Kennedy style super kick / suplex. Hobbling enemies in the leg and pulling one of those off was always fun in RE4. lol
 
N

NoirVisage

Banned
Duxxy3 said:
Back it goes. The clunk was too much for me. Just don't have the patience to work through it.

edit: Before anybody flips out, it was just a rental. I return games all the time.
Click to expand...

that clunk is your inability to adapt to something that you're not used to..you'll live, go get some first person game and experience next gen the right way.
 
D

Death Metalist

Member
Sanctuary said:
It's actually not too bad until
he morphs into one-shot, the devourer.
Click to expand...

Actually that's when it gets easy because it's pattern becomes predictable.
He walks towards you, pauses for a second or two then jumps in for the bite, that is all he'll be doing till you kill it. No more running and barraging into you. I managed to collect all the ammo dropped around as well as fill my health all the while he was in that form where as in his first form, he doesn't give you room to breath as long as he's seeing you.
 
N

Net_Wrecker

Member
Sanctuary said:
Why are you comparing games from other developers or directors? If you're looking at a Mikami/Capcom game you have to factor budget and time, which is going to affect polish. The game would have been a lot more polished if he had another six months and a few million more to work with.
Click to expand...

Hmm? Maybe I didn't explain myself well, but my point is that I'm NOT comparing it to other games because I don't factor in every individual development process to raise or lower my standards accordingly. It doesn't matter to me that Vanquish is smaller because a game is either polished to a level that I'm not taken out of the experience, or it's not. I can only worry about how much fun I'm having, not the specifics of every dev's situation. Remove "Vanquish" from the discussion if you'd like. If The Evil Within was more polished it would be amazing.


Also, the Chapter 10 boss is easy, brehs. Just
shoot the eye + dump shots, run to a room + dump shots, hide + repeat one of the previous steps. When he rushes you, run towards him diagonally and you'll never get touched.
 
Sanctuary

Sanctuary

Member
Death Metalist said:
Actually that's when it gets easy because it's pattern becomes predictable.
He walks towards you, pauses for a second or two then jumps in for the bite, that is all he'll be doing till you kill it. No more running and barraging into you. I managed to collect all the ammo dropped around as well as fill my health all the while he was in that form where as in his first form, he doesn't give you room to breath as long as he's seeing you.
Click to expand...

No idea what you mean, because he's actually a lot easier before that point. Before that point you can't die unless you're just horrible at moving at all. You can also liberally use stealth tactics as well. How on earth do you get hit by his
barges
anyway? He doesn't change directions when doing them.

-MD- said:
I just played through RE4 in 12 hours and I didn't rush at all.
Click to expand...

This game is longer than RE4 unless you're playing on Casual or simply ignoring looking for keys and map fragments. Someone earlier (with the MGS Snake avatar) said he beat it in around 10 hours. He missed a lot of items for sure.
 
S

SlasherJPC

Banned
Sanctuary said:
No idea what you mean, because he's actually a lot easier before that point. Before that point you can't die unless you're just horrible at moving at all. You can also liberally use stealth tactics as well.



This game is longer than RE4 unless you're playing on Casual or simply ignoring looking for keys and map fragments. Someone earlier (with the MGS Snake avatar) said he beat it in around 10 hours. He missed a lot of items for sure.
Click to expand...
Honestly I just ran into both rooms, lit him up, ran out to avoid grab, and by about then, second form started.
 
Sanctuary

Sanctuary

Member
SlasherJPC said:
Honestly I just ran into both rooms, lit him up, ran out to avoid grab, and by about then, second form started.
Click to expand...

No idea what weapons you were using, but even tossing
four grenades and a few shotgun blasts
isn't quite enough just from those rooms alone. You can get around four shots off when he's near the room before he's able to hit you with the second grab attempt. Sometimes he would lurk a ways before the doorway for a bit and you could use something like the rifle on his heads, but that's not the typical pattern. Anyway, I never said that part was hard, it was the second part that is the only difficult aspect. I actually spent a bit of time on the fight just to see if he actually
changed into the second form from damage, or if it was timer based, because I couldn't tell at first.

SlasherJPC said:
Freeze and explosive arrows I believe. He might not have immediately changed but it wasn't much longer after.
Click to expand...

Doing that in the room would put you into the range of the blast wouldn't it? Did you upgrade those bolts too? I left mine at default and they were not really ever useful outside of tossing them on the ground for bosses to run into. Damage wise they were subpar compared to other weapons/ammo I had at the time.
 
Duxxy3

Duxxy3

Member
Must say that the PS3 version does pretty well. I was expecting it too look far worse, and run just as poorly. Runs ok, looks ok.
 
A

antitrop

Member
Oh my fucking God, don't mess with Joseph when
he's got Mjolnir in axe form

Jesus, just moppin' em up, one right after the other. Dude needs a shower.
 
J

jg4xchamp

Member
Question does the upgrading really hinder your experience if you don't upgrade certain things?

Also what is supposed to be the tell for the invisible dudes? I can't ever seem to get a grasp what gives their position away, it can't be that vague little blur of a thing that is hard as fuck to see in this game.
 
C

Crimsonclaw111

Member
jg4xchamp said:
Question does the upgrading really hinder your experience if you don't upgrade certain things?

Also what is supposed to be the tell for the invisible dudes? I can't ever seem to get a grasp what gives their position away, it can't be that vague little blur of a thing that is hard as fuck to see in this game.
Click to expand...
Look near the ground at puddles, watch for boxes, wheelchairs, etc to see what direction they're moving toward.
 
V

VaultBoy101

Member
So many glitches and problems with this game on XB1. Just experienced this one for the second time since last night: I'll be playing normally and all of a sudden the game audio will cut out completely (system audio is fine). Nothing works to bring it back. So I completely quit out of the game and restart it, and then it won't progress past the title screen. Freezes there every time, and nothing corrects it including ejecting and re-inserting the game disc. Only fix is a full hard boot of the system. The first time it happened I was in chapter 10, and if it had screwed up my save file I think I would've been done with the game forever.

Also Joseph was a big help to me at first in the section being discussed above, until of course he got stuck in midair on the side of a stairway and didn't move for the rest of the entire encounter.
 
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