The butcher stealth/chase sequence in TEW1 felt awful to me. The farm house was excellent, but it was also one of only two or three chapters like that (open, nonlinear spaces) in the entire game.
For the record, the gameplay style in TEW2 shifts a good bit around chapter 8/9. If you beeline it to that point, it becomes closer to TEW1.
I think so, however the areas get "remixed" later in the game when you have the option to return to them. I'm in chapter 11 currently and I think I can still go anywhere. Backtracking is encouraged and leads to new sidequests.
Jump in on this one, no question. Go back to the first game if you like the horror elements and can handle substantially more unbalanced gameplay and sequences.
I really can't recommend jumping into TEW2 without having played the first IF you plan on enjoying characters and story. The two games just tie too heavily into one another.
I played through the first one in prep for this one, and I don't think it's a good game. It has some neat ideas, but the combat feels weak and just not fun, and the insta-death sequences are far too frustrating.
The visual design is something else, though.
With that said, there are a lot of cool throwbacks and references to the first game in this one, so I'm glad I played it on a story level.
If you have a high tolerance for "cheap" deaths, and prefer linear and highly atmospheric games, start with the first one.
If you prefer ARPGs and open areas, read a synopsis of the first game and then play TEW2.
I really can't recommend jumping into TEW2 without having played the first IF you plan on enjoying characters and story. The two games just tie too heavily into one another.
About five hours in, up to chapter 6, and I'm incredibly polarized by this game so far. I absolutely loved the first one, played it through twice, and while there are several visible and notable improvements in the sequel, it's just not clicking with me so far.
+ much more cohesive and engaging story, meaning I actually follow what's going on and am excited to see its conclusion.
+ semi-open world is well implemented. There are interesting side quests and creepy encounters you can easily miss. It gives you incentive to keep exploring and take risks while traversing.
+ world interconnectivity is neat and the definitely level design got an upgrade.
- Combat got hurt... a lot. The open world structure is partially to blame here, but even the linear story sequences don't have many interesting combat scenarios. After five hours of the first game you were in deep shit, surviving one deadly encounter after the other, many of them totally unique, tense and very cool. The scenarios in 2 feel mundane so far, consisting mostly of bland combat arenas and survival-like "hunting" in the open world. The aiming remains fittingly awkward, but enemies are much more difficult to hit and are so fast that I had Vampire Rain flashbacks, which is never a good thing. Combined with Seb's initial incompetence due to low stats, resources being scarce, stamina being the bitch it is, stiffy controls... I feel like I'm much less in control of how a fight goes than in the first one. Another problem is...
- ...the fucking crafting. I dislike this mechanic in almost every videogame, but I thought it would be bareable here, since it's very simple and similar to the crafting in The Last of Us. The game dumps all bunch of resources on you and cuts down on giving you ammo, health packs and well... actually useful stuff. Even in scripted action sequences and boss fights where pausing and crafting is needlessly slowing down the tense combat and feels like a slog.
- the design of Union so far. I'm still optimistic that shit will get serious with later chapters, but the incredible location variety of TEW1 is kinda missing here.
So yeah, something not quite right, but I'm definitely excited for more.
I really can't recommend jumping into TEW2 without having played the first IF you plan on enjoying characters and story. The two games just tie too heavily into one another.
Meh. To be honest I feel like I can summarize everything about the first game that you need to know going into EW2, in a few sentences.
Evil Corporation Mobius is experimenting with the human brain. One experiment goes awry and Sebastian is involved in the carnage, which destroys an entire city. He survives but is betrayed by Kidman, his associate, who is an undercover agent working for Mobius.
Everything else that's important for understanding EW2 is explained in EW2 adequately.
EDIT: Actually everything I summarized is explained in EW2 as well. I think it's fine going straight into the second one.
- Combat got hurt... a lot. The open world structure is partially to blame here, but even the linear story sequences don't have many interesting combat scenarios. After five hours of the first game you were in deep shit, surviving one deadly encounter after the other, many of them totally unique, tense and very cool. The scenarios in 2 feel mundane so far, consisting mostly of bland combat arenas and survival-like "hunting" in the open world. The aiming remains fittingly awkward, but enemies are much more difficult to hit and are so fast that I had Vampire Rain flashbacks, which is never a good thing. Combined with Seb's initial incompetence due to low stats, resources being scarce, stamina being the bitch it is, stiffy controls... I feel like I'm much less in control of how a fight goes than in the first one. Another problem is...
This is the biggest issue that I have with the game so far and unfortunately it hasn't improved too much yet. Most of the combat scenarios in EW1 were high-concept and memorable (invisible enemies in Chapter 5(?) for instance). Here, the combat scenarios themselves just feel more...formulaic across the board.
There are sequences that are clearly well-designed, but they aren't as memorable conceptually.
I hate to say "It's because Mikami isn't directing," but it's true that one of Mikami's best strengths as a director is crafting memorable and interesting individual sequences. I'm just not seeing as much of that here, at least not yet.
I think one of the data files in EW2 says that once the STEM research is complete, they'll do it on a massive scale and groupthink the entire human race into a utopian era of harmony.
Gave up on the game in chapter 8. Not worth suffering through that horrendous boss encounter for the bullshit that I know happens with the story at the end. So much struggle for negative payoff.
Biggest letdown of the entire console generation. Wholeheartedly fuck everyone who said this game was an improvement or even good at all.
Gave up on the game in chapter 8. Not worth suffering through that horrendous boss encounter for the bullshit that I know happens with the story at the end. So much struggle for negative payoff.
Biggest letdown of the entire console generation. Wholeheartedly fuck everyone who said this game was an improvement or even good at all.
Gave up on the game in chapter 8. Not worth suffering through that horrendous boss encounter for the bullshit that I know happens with the story at the end. So much struggle for negative payoff.
Biggest letdown of the entire console generation. Wholeheartedly fuck everyone who said this game was an improvement or even good at all.
Gave up on the game in chapter 8. Not worth suffering through that horrendous boss encounter for the bullshit that I know happens with the story at the end. So much struggle for negative payoff.
Biggest letdown of the entire console generation. Wholeheartedly fuck everyone who said this game was an improvement or even good at all.
Gave up on the game in chapter 8. Not worth suffering through that horrendous boss encounter for the bullshit that I know happens with the story at the end. So much struggle for negative payoff.
Biggest letdown of the entire console generation. Wholeheartedly fuck everyone who said this game was an improvement or even good at all.
I demanded I buy it. I shilled for this game for three long goddamn years. I felt like the only voice on the internet who said that the game was coming. I believed and I bought people copies of TEW1 and did everything I could to support the brand name.
When the sequel hit, I heard only good things. I was ecstatic.
The sequel is abject garbage. It's awful. I feel like I wasted three years of my life.
Gave up on the game in chapter 8. Not worth suffering through that horrendous boss encounter for the bullshit that I know happens with the story at the end. So much struggle for negative payoff.
Biggest letdown of the entire console generation. Wholeheartedly fuck everyone who said this game was an improvement or even good at all.
I'll actually recommend you push on a little more, as Chapters 9. 11, 12, & 14 are the chapters I fully suspect people who liked the first game will like a lot more, without saying too much.
I'll actually recommend you push on a little more, as Chapters 9. 11, 12, & 14 are the chapters I fully suspect people who liked the first game will like a lot more, without saying too much.
Gave up on the game in chapter 8. Not worth suffering through that horrendous boss encounter for the bullshit that I know happens with the story at the end. So much struggle for negative payoff.
Biggest letdown of the entire console generation. Wholeheartedly fuck everyone who said this game was an improvement or even good at all.
I've had this problem with all of the bosses so far, though. Like Obscura? I hated that fight. If the boss encounters remain terrible, there's no reason for suffering through the terrible story.
Not about the ending, those chapters I mean. Now I did like The Evil Within 2, but I can see why some people playing who loved the original aren't big on the sequel. But at the same time, I have my full suspicions people who loved the original and aren't big on the sequel may actually like the second half of the game a lot more. After
Stefano's death in Chapter 8
, the game shifts tones and level design tactics quite a bit, and the story begins to connect a lot more with the first game. Not just in the big story spoilers, but the files and environmental story telling begins to play a lot more into the 'overall series lore', which I think you'll enjoy.
Chapters 9, 11, 12, & 14 are also the chapters that, to me, feel a LOT more like the first game. They feel they could've come out of the first game.
Also one thing you should know I will mention to you specifically, collectible/story spoiler,
if you get the previous 10 slides, the 11th and final slide is about Joseph.
Not about the ending, those chapters I mean. Now I did like The Evil Within 2, but I can see why some people playing who loved the original aren't big on the sequel. But at the same time, I have my full suspicions people who loved the original and aren't big on the sequel may actually like the second half of the game a lot more. After
Stefano's death in Chapter 8
, the game shifts tones and level design tactics quite a bit, and the story begins to connect a lot more with the first game. Not just in the big story spoilers, but the files and environmental story telling begins to play a lot more into the 'overall series lore', which I think you'll enjoy.
Chapters 9, 11, 12, & 14 are also the chapters that, to me, feel a LOT more like the first game. They feel they could've come out of the first game.
Also one thing you should know I will mention to you specifically,
if you get the previous 10 slides, the 11th and final slide is about Joseph.
I know it is. I know all of this. I know all of the spoilers for the game. The only reason why I'm not just selling the game back to Gamestop as we speak is because I feel like that conversation between Seb and Kidman re:
that slide was setting up for Joseph DLC, and I'd like to play it.
I've had this problem with all of the bosses so far, though. Like Obscura? I hated that fight. If the boss encounters remain terrible, there's no reason for suffering through the terrible story.
LOL me too, and it felt like cheating compared to how terrible the game aims with a controller. Now if only I could get the aiming precision of the mouse, with everything else the controller offers...
Gave up on the game in chapter 8. Not worth suffering through that horrendous boss encounter for the bullshit that I know happens with the story at the end. So much struggle for negative payoff.
Biggest letdown of the entire console generation. Wholeheartedly fuck everyone who said this game was an improvement or even good at all.
This is kind of difficult to answer because a real shotgun will obliterate pretty much anything in its path and can very easily be lethal at fairly large distances. The concept of "damage" isn't really all that applicable, at least against organic matter and not shit like concrete walls.
So I guess the answer is...no, they should do about the same amount of damage. Because the amount of damage is "obliterated."
The butcher stealth/chase sequence in TEW1 felt awful to me. The farm house was excellent, but it was also one of only two or three chapters like that (open, nonlinear spaces) in the entire game.
It was open, but there was good design in that segment. Individually, there was focused design in almost every chapter. The farmhouse wasn't good to me just because it was "open."
I've had enough with this game sending me between waypoint markers in Union to chip away bits of the boring story in between terrible level design and bad zombies/humanoid enemies.
I just traded it in. I don't have time to wade through hours of bad design to see what happens after Chapter 9 right now and my backlog is too big. I was hoping the game would hook me like the first. Maybe I'll buy it on a steam sale far into the future and try again.
Jump in on this one, no question. Go back to the first game if you like the horror elements and can handle substantially more unbalanced gameplay and sequences.
This is kind of difficult to answer because a real shotgun will obliterate pretty much anything in its path and can very easily be lethal at fairly large distances. The concept of "damage" isn't really all that applicable, at least against organic matter and not shit like concrete walls.
So I guess the answer is...no, they should do about the same amount of damage. Because the amount of damage is "obliterated."
As far as most other video games I've played at least, the full barrel or pump always holds more ammo, shoots at farther distances and has a narrower spread (which makes it a powerful midrange option), while a sawed off simply chunks anything up close.
¯\_(ツ_/¯ I think it basically plays exactly as the first game, with a visual update and some gameplay elements replacing the matches from 1. I just have a hard time picturing how someone can go from a such identical games (art direction aside, it's not nearly as gothic horror as the first, which makes sense in the plot imo) and instantly having such a hateboner for it.
Err, I actually am enjoying quite a few things about the game despite the awful pistol aiming and some hurtbox problems, but it doesn't "basically play exactly as the first" really at all. They're similar, but player agency has taken a dive outside of stealth. If you spend most of your time stealth killing, it's easier, but the gunplay just feels awful in general. I also don't really see any signs of a visual update unless you're specifically talking about the console versions. On PC, the first game looked better and it had way more visually interesting areas on top of that. It also had more enemy variety too.
I'm sure it will "get great" in chapter 10 - 15 though...
Should I go for Survival difficulty or Nightmare on my first playthrough? I've just read that survival is easier than it was in the first game and nightmare is more around what survival was on the first game. I didn't find the first game super difficult so I'm edging more towards starting on nightmare.
Holy fuck I've run out of ammo 3 times on this level. I'm playing on survival difficulty but these stupid piles of bodies that turn into the mini-boss Saw lady have crushed my ammo twice. The side mission with the guy getting mobbed on top of the car didn't help.
Overall still loving this game. It's very different from the first game but I've enjoyed the semi-open world levels thus far.
Should I go for Survival difficulty or Nightmare on my first playthrough? I've just read that survival is easier than it was in the first game and nightmare is more around what survival was on the first game. I didn't find the first game super difficult so I'm edging more towards starting on nightmare.
Go Nightmare and crank it down if it gets too tough. You don't have the option to do vice versa if you start on Survival. I'm having this issue right now because I chose Survival.
Since you didn't end up liking the game, that makes sense
I think it's more likely that someone wouldn't like the first one than the second one though. The second has its issues but is rarely flat-out terrible. The first one is super unbalanced in a lot of places though and is a lot more frustrating at times.
That being said, I'm approaching the end of the game and there are definitely things that the first one did better. I felt like it had a more unique atmosphere and its highs were higher, even if its lows were also a lot lower.
I agree that these two games strike very different chords. As nitpicky as this sounds, I think that EW2 is a better game in general, but not necessarily a better "The Evil Within" game. If that makes sense.
I'm going to write a big ole' review later, but some thoughts off-hand while various things are still running through my head.
01.) The Evil Within 1 & 2 are both kind of 'blenders' in some ways, which I don't say as a negative thing. They wear their inspirations on their sleeves and there's a lot of moments in both games you can look at and be like, "Okay, so this is inspired by X in this game." However, both also forge their own identity by blending things in a very interesting way and layering it with unique design decisions that makes it not quite anything else while all at once the individual elements being easy enough to tell where they were inspired from. Some of these sources are the same, IE Last of Us, Resident Evil 4, Silent Hill. Some are vastly different sources. The games also focus on entirely different elements and conjure up very different styles of pacing, tone, atmosphere, and gameplay focus.
There's something a bit funny to this. In the end, The Evil Within 1 & The Evil Within 2 are quite different to each other, but when playing both I felt it heavily that these are both big love it/hate it games, and the more interesting thing is they won't even strike within the same audiences. I think some who loved the original game will hate the sequel, and some who hated the original will love the sequel. It's not even that the sequel dumbs down anything like I hear some saying here, they just are tapping into very different things and while the game resembles the original more than zero, especially in some of the later chapters, this game is probably going to become a favorite of some and loathed by others, just like the original game but with different people.
If Tango Gameworks is good at something, it's making these games that seem to strike really strongly with certain audiences and push some people to get to the point of loathing the games. With their first two games, they've shown all at once they aren't a one-trick pony, but also what they make is incredibly divisive, and all at once pulling from things obviously but in such a way it ends up being like something you've never quite played before.
02.) Like the first game, The Evil Within 2 does shift tones a few times, but not nearly as drastically and there's a much stronger grounding to it. There is a consistant world in this game for one thing, the world shifts and changes but up to Chapter 13 you can still go back to some previous areas of the game for example. If you had to ask me personally, I think the best chapters of TEW2 ended up being Chapters 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, & 14.
03.) I think the story has some great moments actually, especially some of the stuff with Theodore and some of the stories told in the side-quests and files. This said, I do have some issues with it, and in some ways I liked the vague more abstract and splintered narrative of the first game. I know many complained about it, but I think the sequel goes in the opposite extreme where it sometimes explains too much and homes in a little too strongly on character arcs, as weird as that seems. One bright side to this is in the end I actually did end up liking a number of the new characters in TEW2 a decent amount by the end. They're all given more time to be developed than the original game gave to any of its characters.
04.) I'm very curious about the development background of this game. For the record, this game was made in two years, they started development after the last Kidman DLC (so around May of 2015), so for how fucking huge this game is it wasn't actually made in that long span of a time. In some ways it feels it should've had some more time in the oven, I didn't run into much in the form of game breaking glitches but there's definitely a layer of jank with the title. It's all at once in some ways less janky and more janky than the original TEW. The team must of worked really hard to make this, but at the same time there's definitely some polish missing in parts, and you can tell sometimes when playing which parts of the game had more time to be polished and which parts had less time to be so.
I also need to check the credits, but I am convinced Tango split its resources during this development. I'm saying that because some members of Tango who were big parts of TEW1 are mostly missing from TEW2, but they're still working at Tango. Mikami also said in a recent interview when asked about game budget costs and scene, they asked Mikami if he'd like to work on a smaller game, to which he said yes, definitely, and then said he doesn't know if he should've answered that. I didn't really think much of it at the time, but I think he thought maybe he had that strange response since maybe a part of Tango are working on a smaller project right now and during TEW2's development?
05.) The Evil Within 2 made me realize more fully some certain types of horror that not enough horror games tap into. There's a few faucets of this, but the biggest and most obvious one some will talk about is open world but not freeworld horror with intentional design. I kind of realized I liked this concept in Silent Hill Downpour, where the best element of that game was exploring the town segments. However, with The Evil Within 2, it's cemented I really like this type of design, and I think others do to. And there's not really much out there outside of these two titles that really delve into this 'open world but not random or too big and full of interesting details, mysteries, and oddities' element these two games have with their bigger levels.
06.) I think some of the side-quests maybe should've been part of the main game. I think some of the best moments in this game are in side-quests, both in gameplay, story, design, weapon pick-ups, etc. It's really cool to just stumble on these, but I think people who've completed these side-quests and people who haven't may have some different opinions on the title as some of the game's best moments are in its side-quests, and some items that can completely change your gameplay experience, like certain weapons, are completely tied to side-quests it seemed to me. Can you even easily miss the Crossbow for example, it seemed like you definitely could.
07.) With that, there's some amazing weapons in this game. As others have noted, the handguns are a bit finnicky. And some of the best weapons you don't get until very late into the game for some reason. However, this game's shotguns are all around amazing. The late game shotgun you can get (the
Double Barrel
) in particular was so satisfying to use. Sniper also felt good to me, as did the Crossbow. I actually never repaired the
Flamethrower
come to think of it.
08.) On Nightmare difficulty, Chapters 13-15 in particular are quite challenging. I wish you luck those going through the game on that difficulty for the first time!
09.) This game actually didn't have that many boss battles. I think in total there's like
7
boss fights in the whole game. Though in some ways it makes up for this by
allowing some bosses you've previously fought to just become regular enemies on the playing field later.
---
There's a lot more I want to say, but some misc thoughts.
_/¯ I think it basically plays exactly as the first game, with a visual update and some gameplay elements replacing the matches from 1. I just have a hard time picturing how someone can go from a such identical games (art direction aside, it's not nearly as gothic horror as the first, which makes sense in the plot imo) and instantly having such a hateboner for it.
