Preview - The Evil Within
When was the last time a game had you truly scared? Not in a jumpy, didn't see it coming kind of way, but actually scared to the point where you keep your bedroom light on at night? For most people you'd probably have to go back to the glory days of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, which were so terrifying you had to play them with a change of underwear handy at all times. The Evil Within aims to bring scary back to the mainstream, and as it's being directed by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami you wouldn't bet against this being the survival horror game we've been waiting for all these years.
Our initial look at a gameplay demo leaves us with that tense and uneasy feeling that a survival horror game should give you. We're introduced to Sebastian, the protagonist of The Evil Within and a detective who's been sent to the scene of a mysterious mass murder. He turns up at the mental hospital (an ideal location for any horror) and immediately begins to sense that something isn't right, glancing at the abandoned cop cars scattered around the grounds. There are no people here, no weapons, no bullet shells on the floor and no blood. Suspicious.
He then makes his way up to the front of the asylum and slowly begins to push open the door, Resident Evil style, before coming across a lobby covered in blood and dead bodies. It's a striking image and we get the impression this game will be full of moments like this, intended to shock you into consciousness. It's not long before Sebastian makes his way to the security offices to check out the CCTV footage, and the mystery of what happened to those police officers is solved pretty quickly.
Some kind of evil spirit managed to overpower the police with ease, taking out three of them within seconds with the ability to materialise in different spots immediately. As far as detective work goes, Sebastian could probably call that a job well done and head home, but before he can gather his thoughts that same spirit has managed to creep up behind him and knock him out cold.
That's the game's scenario set, then. You'll be going up against some kind of wandering spirit entity who's somehow managed to take control of this hospital. Right? Wrong. The next scene features Sebastian waking up from his sleep hanging upside down and surrounded by bloody corpses. A large, frightening figure lurks around the room and heads towards one of the dead bodies, before taking a meat cleaver to it and cutting it in half. Whatever this thing is, it's definitely no ghost.
Thus ensues the first bit of real gameplay. Sebastian has to swing towards one of the hanging corpses to retrieve a knife before cutting himself free. After he falls to the ground he has to take in his surroundings and think about how to get away from this beastly ogre who has a penchant for chopping up body parts. This is where the survival horror aspect really kicks in, as you hide behind walls and wait for the right opportunity to grab a set of keys that could be your ticket out of this hellhole.
He gets the keys, unlocks a door and seems to be on his way to safety, but he accidently sets an alarm off and the butcher comes running. A dramatic chase scene follows and, just in case you weren't aware of the severity of the situation, the butcher is wielding a chainsaw. Before long Sebastian is jumping over wheelchairs, hiding in lockers and limping through corridors before he finally makes it to the elevator and back up to the main lobby. And breathe.
This is when - if it wasn't clear already - we start to discover that things are starting to get really strange. Sebastian makes it out of the front door and back outside to where it all began in the car park of the mental hospital. But somehow he's stepped out into some bizarre world where the hospital grounds are cut off from the rest of the world, and he has no choice but to head back inside. Bummer.
It brings to an end a thrilling opening, and it really lays the foundations for what we expect to be a real mindbender. Everything in the hospital has the sudden ability to change on the spot, so we're not sure what's real and what's not. Enemies are as horrifying as they should be and you always get the sense that Sebastian is in grave danger, even when he's in a relatively safe situation.
We're then shown a part of the game which occurs much later, and at least this time poor Sebastian has managed to find a gun from somewhere. Bullets appear to be scarce though, so you need to be careful when taking down some plodding zombie-like creatures. The way you aim, fire and slowly back away from your target looks to be heavily influenced by early Resident Evil titles, but of course that's no bad thing. We also get to see Sebastian set a few traps to blow some zombies up, and adding this layer of strategy should change things up a bit and not make it too action-orientated.
Overall we've come away impressed by what we've seen. It's not an easy task to genuinely scare players but that's what The Evil Within intends to do, and it looks like it just might succeed. A gripping storyline to go with the eerie and disturbing atmosphere that Mikami has created could make this a real game to watch in 2014. It's a prospect that has us excited and terrified at the same time.