The Evil Within

Make sure you get a program called flawless widescreen or something, it has an fov slider for TEW.
So when you aim it is closer to RE4. Takes some fiddling, but worth it.

Microsoft Store has a different version which is currentely on sale and available even on Game Pass.

From a TEW Discord:

"This port has significant changes, we can now sprint 2-3s longer with the default stamina bar. Match-prompt seems fixed, the game is way less wonky. It also comes with 1st person and infinite ammo mode and fighting chance pack is included and can't be removed as it seems."

Do you have some experience with this version? I don't know if these are good changes because I never played the game.

I only played that version for the first couple chapters before I stopped. You can sprint for longer(which I don’t know if I get behind that idea) but other than that I didn’t notice anything. Not sure what “match prompt seems fixed” is supposed to mean.

Interesting that they added the First Person Mode, they did the same thing with TEW2, I assumed in an attempt to test the mechanic in their engine for Ghostwire.

Chapter 12 is done. I think it serves as a shift. Your movement is restricted in a very small area, your spacing and aiming skills are put to test and the section is very short. And after that, you have a bit of classic gameplay and an explosive ending that is cathartic in its simplicity.

I think the existence of this part is justified by chapters 10 and 11, which have extremely complex and difficult combat scenarios so I can't complain too much about it unlike the slow chapter 1.
I'm very curious about the last three chapters, it's almost impossible to mantain this level of quality.

I’ve grown to like chapter 12. Heresy is a simple but effective boss, the shootout in the bus is a nice test of quick decision making and accuracy, and the bit of proper gameplay to the ambulance is great. Don’t mind the end section like everybody else.

>impossible to maintain this level of quality
Chapter 13 is incredible, and chapter 14 is super consistent throughout. 15 stumbles a bit but the second half is an explosive gauntlet, and the final boss is excellent imo.

The first run is done. I wanted to finish it sooner but I was busy and then I played a bit of OG Doom (2 episodes on Hurt me Plenty, just to understand the basics).

I think TEW deserves much better recognition because it's a masterpiece, without doubts. At the beginning I was wondering if this game was on par with REmake, RE4 and GH or just very good but now I'm sure of it. It does everything almost flawlessly, even the cinematic gameplay sections which should be more refined in other "mainstream" games with tons of budget.

In another dimension, where reviewers are not RPG or Horror "fans" who despise action mechanics while shilling the same elemental magic with higher damage or the inability of your character that only runs away, this game would be loved by everyone. Mechanics are the best you can find in the genre and even other aspects (story, main theme, aestethics, sound design, exploration, etc.) are well implemented and create a great product.

I finished the first DLC too and I should be at half of the second one. Gameplay-wise they are awful: scripted or simplistic stealth sections, annoying puzzles and too dark areas. Story-wise some details are interesting to know but... it's a game and it fails at being that in a satisfactory manner.

I do think The Evil Within is one of the games that got better over time. The biggest things that held it back at launch were:
1) people assumed it was Resident Evil 4-2, it was basically marketted as such as well
2) the game was incredibly laggy and performed very bad. The last-gen releases were even worse, with a lot of crashes
3) the infamous 'black bars' really removed a huge chunk of the game's visuals for 'artistic reasons'.

These flaws have all been fixed, as everyone knows now and is told to not expect this game to play as Resident Evil 4, but at the time it really made every scenario and part of the game feel 'off' since people went in it with very different expectations. This peaked with the 'mansion' part, which was also different due to the OHKO monster hunting you (which isn't really a threat honestly, but it is to newbies), flipping the script.
This can be compared to how Nioh didn't get the love it deserved into months or even years later when people started to not play/treat it like a Souls game.

The glitches and performance are mostly fixed due to better hardware and patches.

The blackbars were made optional as well.

So yeah I fully understand why the game wasn't a hit upon release. Hell I was very disappointed by it as well, only getting more into it years and years later.

> I think TEW deserves much better recognition because it's a masterpiece, without doubts.
And how.

> At the beginning I was wondering if this game was on par with REmake, RE4 and GH or just very good but now I'm sure of it.
I felt like I was insane when I came to the conclusion that it’s up there with Mikami’s other games since nobody seems to share that sentiment.

> Mechanics are the best you can find in the genre and even other aspects (story, main theme, aestethics, sound design, exploration, etc.) are well implemented and create a great product.
I find it very weird how everyone says the story is shit when it does some things much better than other story-heavy games, like tying traps and fire to both narrative to gameplay so seamlessly.

>DLC
Hated these. Should be noted they were done by a different guy(the director of TEW2).

>performance and black bars
Playing the PC version is such a vast upgrade from the PS3/360 versions that I’m upset I played the game in such a sorry state for so long.

Survival horror fans are generally not too interested in gameplay value. RE4 was a revolutionary game from a well established series and it came out in the perfect period. It checked all boxes but it was easy to get into for the general audience (adaptive difficulty, nice cutscenes and pretty graphics). MGS3 is a similar case, one of the greatest titles ever that was also appreciated by the mainstream. To speak the truth these games were loved by everyone for the wrong or secondary reasons and only a small community was aware of their mechanics. This seems a bit elitist but I don't think it's too far off the reality.

Game design is not considered when people talk about their favourite games and often also in "professional" articles. "It feels good to play", "it has a good story", "every attack has weight behind it", these are only some of the recurrent phrases you can read in every forum.
When you see people demanding a remake of MGS or RE4 then you can be sure that they didn't get their meaning gameplay-wise. All of their requests of changes are absurd, can break the balance or follow modern trends which would only create a detriment to the original masterpiece.

Back to TEW, it is considered a survival horror. Willing or unwilling, it is compared to works like Amnesia, Outlast or other popular horror games and part of its buyers doesn't want action. So when you have to shoot a lot of enemies then they are frustrated and they even say that the gameplay is mindless. You can see the same attitude among certain groups of JRPG fans who think that genre is deeper than something like GoW or Ninja Gaiden.

TEW is a great game all around, like I said, but people now is more attracted by the "realism" of RDR2 or TLOU2. They want cinematic games with the highest grade of visual fidelity and easy to discern mechanics. At launch TEW didn't have the same technological effect as RE4, it didn't have a popular series that could push it, and Mikami's name wasn't enough for the mass.

God Hand was more unlucky than The Evil Within. Low budget 3D beat 'em up with nothing else than combat. Ok, I love the wacky humor and its simple theme and music, but everyone plays GH for the combat. In online discussions GH is treated a bit better because 1)it has vocal fans, 2)it's an action game so it's harder to find people who despise the action component, 3)people like to trash talk IGN even if they didn't play GH (like the IGN reviewer).

The only thing a competent player can do is spread common sense if he wants to. Speed runners can be helpful, @Infinity_Divide has done great videos full of knowledge and passion in a challenge run context, sites like Stinger can analyze and overcome misinformation and inaccuracies. Dedicated communities are too small to change sales numbers but they can sometimes contribute to increase a game's recognition.

>The only thing a competent player can do is spread common sense if he wants to.

Waste of time. Very few trash games because they don't know the mechanics. They hate the concept of mechanics.

>Speed runners can be helpful

I find they're just as hated by the same degenerates.

>can analyze and overcome misinformation and inaccuracies

Which changes nothing outside.

>but they can sometimes contribute to increase a game's recognition.

While I did find every 14 years you might get someone on board, it just isn't worth it in the end.

I've withdrawn from all of this sort of discussion. To be honest I can hardly be bothered posting here now.

> barely posting
You exposed yourself to lethal dossages of Gamefaqs for quite a while, it might be healthy to just take a break and just enjoy some games in isolation instead of seeing everything you enjoy debased for not having a launcher or not being narratively driven enough. Don't let it make you overly bitter/negative I'd say. It is still a hobby we do for entertainment.

> Dedicated communities are too small to change sales numbers but they can sometimes contribute to increase a game's recognition.
Absolutely true. Though it can be hard to find the truth, there's just so much information being 'sent' by people and these days it is more the confidence of your voice and the quality of your editing than the actual content that does the talking, which is a shame.

Saw a pretty fun Ted Talk (at least, I think it was) yearsssss back. Guy gave a whole speech about how Sugar caused cancer, had all the information to back it up, everyone was mesmerized, blown away. And then he revealed it was all bullshit. He had made up all the arguments, but just talked in a self-assured way and with certain sentence structures, and there you go. Pretty cool, can't find it anymore but it's out there somewhere.

In the end, and that's just me, it's best to find people that have similar tastes as you do but with some differences to keep you on your toes and try something new once in a while. Even in here there's still a vast array of players with some games being liked by some and not by others, which should be the goal imo, it should never be unnanimous if you get me. That way you can always get a good direction i.e. "damn, everyone's talking ZoE2, I might give it a look too". But it also opens up talk for "wait why the fuck is Roy playing Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball for 40+ hours" which is all fun and good.

> people don't know what makes things good
We tend to be able to pick out a single element i.e. "I love the hitreactions", whereas for them it's more 'the combination of a dozen elements which led me to enjoy game-x". They then make some wild assumptions and suggestions based on what they also liked, and say stuff like "RE4 needs walking and shooting at the same time!" never thinking a step further. Once they do they probably know they just said something stupid. But this is the internet and people will defend "1+1=3" to the death if they have to I feel haha.

> To speak the truth these games were loved by everyone for the wrong or secondary reasons and only a small community was aware of their mechanics.
I would agree with this. There’s not much mechanical talk when it comes to MGS3, and I thought I was crazy for years thinking RE4 was the best TPS ever, until I saw SBK and the like make in-depth posts about the mechanics.

> It feels good to play", "it has a good story", "every attack has weight behind it"
As Birdman has said, it’s always the most basic, surface-level details. It’s nearly impossible to find actual mechanical info on most games before release, since they’ll just hype up mundane shit like “there’s an open world and upgrades, it’s difficult, etc”.

> When you see people demanding a remake of MGS or RE4 then you can be sure that they didn't get their meaning gameplay-wise.
I have yet to see a good reason to include walking while shooting included in RE4 for any reason other than “it’s what other games do”. If we’re going to remake a game just to make it like other things, we might as well take out all of the unique things about RE4 while we’re at it.

> its buyers doesn't want action.
There seems to be a consensus that any game with a combat focus isn’t survival horror. To then I ask: what IS survival horror? Amnesia? The game where the “survival” part is barely there? Or is only old RE with heavy inventory management, in which case, almost no game in the world is survival horror. I hate these arbitrary definitions and labels. Same with “character action” or whatever. An action game is an action game imo.

> They want cinematic games with the highest grade of visual fidelity and easy to discern mechanics.
And now we’re stuck waiting 5-7 years for homogenized shallow games that take up the effort of massive teams, making the already stagnant and dry industry even worse(it’s okay though, we’re fed overpriced remasters every month for the publishers’ shareholders).

> God Hand was more unlucky than The Evil Within
At least GH is well respected in almost all circles it’s talked about. TEW is ignorantly shit on constantly(though it’s got better in the last couple years I feel). Also, GH was a somewhat liberating project for Mikami since he knew it didn’t have a chance.

> Dedicated communities are too small to change sales numbers but they can sometimes contribute to increase a game's recognition.
Indeed. I like to think I have helped at least a few people get into a few games that I consider highly underrated and essential. Not sure if I’ll ever be able to do much more than that, so I’ll have to accept it.

>survival horror

It is just like character action. Stupid term.

Fatal Frame is considered one of the top 'survival horrors'. Yet it has no aspect of survival AT ALL and has more combat than anything else. I love Fatal Frame 1 and only play it for the combat.

It has all kinds of mechanics. Timed counter shots, many types of shots, and special abilities like knockback and paralyze. Grab escapes. Upgrades. Ammo refill at save points. No shortage of other film types. Later entries have combos ffs and other magic powers.

I'd rather just call them horror if they have scary stuff.

What about that new Fatal Frame coming(well I guess it’s not really new anymore)? Isn’t it not like the originals? Maybe I should just play those, I still have them somewhere.

It's a remaster of 5. I found it to be the worst FF.

No interest in the remaster. They couldn't even put the Japanese version's original costumes.

Birdman, I actually plan to start Fatal Frame for the first time soon (and 2 after it), I've got them both on the OG Xbox (expanded versions).

What's your opinion of 2? I heard the Wiimake plays worse and is less scary due to the changed camera, so I guess I should stick with the OG Xbox for that one as well?

I liked all of them except for 5.

>wiimake less scary due to camera
I didn't find any of these games scary so I can't comment on that.

But I say play the original first just because it came first and is different.

I'm tempted to buy 5 on Steam anyway despite hearing it's the worst.

I don't find myself scared by games at all, but the Wiimake is worth playing after I'm done with the original? maybe with the Japanese dub patch?

>hearing it's the worst
I'm speaking for myself. You might find it fantastic.

>worth playing remake?
It was worth playing for me as a huge fan of the series.
I'd recommend release order.

Oh yeah I will find out for myself regarding 5.

I started Fatal Frame 1 on the OG Xbox and beat the first night, and I love it so far.

While I'm not scared by games, the atmosphere is very tense and really well done, can really keep me on my toes. Sound design is excellent (I'm playing with headphones for that matter). 60FPS is also great.

The combat is very fun, and it feels like an action game in a (good) way. The ghosts move fast and can be quite aggressive with their attacks. The zero shot seems like some sort of a counter attack (seems like it's achieved by taking a shot the moment you are being attacked by a ghost)? Either way it's always rewarding pulling zero shots.

It seems like there are also close or core shots? How many types of shots are there really?

I haven't tried any special power yet, but I plan on experimenting with it as I progress. Seems like there are quite a few mechanics to it with the camera abilities and different types of shots.

In terms of replay value - I know there is a mission mode and higher difficulties. What changes the higher difficulties bring besides extra endings?

Birdman, what is your favorite entry in the series?

>zero shot
At specific points you'll see the circle turn red. It's not always an attack but most of the time it is.

>close/core
Only these aside from special abilities.

>special power
Not hugely useful outside of mission mode.

>replay value
There's the ghost list. You have to find all kinds of hidden ghosts. Some only popping up for a second then missable in that run unless you reload a save. I think you get the unlimited lens for finding them all.

>difficulty
Just huge damage on PS2 nightmare mode. Xbox has an even higher difficulty I think. But I don't recall much about it.

>favorite
FF1. It's short and brutal. Some interesting tech too.

Replaying this game. Finished a no upgrade run,akumu run and no guns run. This game rules. Chapter 10 onwards the game is so good. Wish the developers would make more levels and enemies, polish the current mechanics and release few more levels i would pay full price for it.

Interesting you should mention that. One thing I remember thinking when DLC was happening was "oh man, my favourite games are now going to get content for the rest of my life". And that never happened.

I miss the days of just expansionpacks for games.

>chapter 10 onward
Chad chapter 11 enthusiast.

>more levels and enemies
Sometimes I wish they would do an EW3 with the mechanics of EW1 but I can't help but think they'd fuck it up. Best to let it be.

>oh man, my favourite games are now going to get content for the rest of my life"

I only feel that for some games. For instance I'm content with splinter cell chaos theory. With EW i think more juice can be squeezed out of its mechanics. Wonderful 101 is another which i feel is the same.

>chapter 11 enthusiast.

This chapter is cancer on Akumu. The frame perfect shooting guy behind the shutter and the RNG Roomba nonsense led to so many deaths. On nightmare though the level is fun. My only issue with this chapter is lack of water monster boss fight. Ever since the first playthrough i can't shake the feeling that it was supposed to be a boss fight but got cut for some reason. It would have been cool to fight the monster using freeze bolts to make platforms and electrocuting the monster or something like that.

>"oh man, my favourite games are now going to get content for the rest of my life"

rolling

>guy behind the shutter
Definite death on a first playthrough. I like to use the crouching grenade lob trick.

>Roombas
Dying to these over and over again in one hit is annoying, but also hilarious.

>water monster boss fight
Yeah, would've been cool to fight it after a couple encounters just barely seeing it and trying to get away from it, then having our revenge.

I really really recommend that you have to play this game on PC(Windows Xbox app one). It has an official FPS mod and FOV offset, which pulls out game`s true potential. Although You have to know which key does what(like, it is hard to see "Interact" button on FPS mode), but I think that most of you know about that.

I was going to play the game on gamepass because I heard there was some new extras but didn’t want to start over again. Maybe I’ll do it.

Did actually play this the other day. It’s so weird playing a game where you’re such a goddamn force after all the RE4R I’ve been playing where Leon’s weapons have the stopping power of tissue paper. The fact that I can shoot and guarantee some kind of result is just so…blissful.

Crossbow is still the best weapon in a shooter ever. I won’t be accepting other opinions on this.

What little extras do the GP version have then?

>gamepass extras

I think that Infinity_Divide refers the gamepass "pc version" which I posted. And the extras are more like QOL features, look at below.

"One of those standout features is the ability to play the game in a first-person mode, along with a new FOV option. There is also the new infinite ammo mode, low/medium camera bob options, icons for lantern/sneaking in first-person, and stamina adjustments that will let the player run for five seconds at default stamina. That is two more than the original three-second sprint seen in the original release of the game."

https://www.thegamer.com/the-evil-within-on-game-pass-pc-is-essentially-a-remastered-version/

The performance was not changed, though.

https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2021-no-the-evil-within-and-nier-automata-arent-fixed-on-pc

I can`t decide that I am annoyed or I am enjoying on Akumu difficulty lol
I remebered that I played this game on PS4, 2014 and I just gave up on akumu difficulty at a village(chapter 2?). But I believe that I can end this run besides I have a diffcult time. It`s such a amazing game.

>Akumu
I go back and forth on this sometimes. When I'm just playing casually I'll do Nightmare, but Akumu for more serious play.

Despite what most detractors of the game say, I'd say overall it's pretty fair in most situations. A couple of the bosses steamroll you if you're not prepared but you can also kill them in a few seconds so it is what it is.

My biggest problem with Akumu is the stuff that's normally not an issue, like the spike roombas and normal traps. But at least your guns actually work as intended, enemies don't constantly attack from off screen, health pools aren't inflated to ridiculous levels, enemies don't move at a comical speed, and there are still autosaves unlike another horror action game released recently.

Going back to this after RE4R...man, Leon in that game makes Seb here feel like I'm playing Mario Odyssey. He doesn't move with a bunch of stupid bullshit momentum like he's swimming in tar and actually raises his gun when I command him to. Amazing.

>Akumu fairness

I would agree if only enemies can kill you with two hits(like one hit would reduce your health to 1, and the other hit kill you). I just died many times because enemies suddenly survived from the fire or suddenly get up, The fire of the dead blasts the red barell, context-sensitivty button problems. I feel like that this happened due to my luck rather than my flaw.


>Going back to this after RE4R

and this is 100% in FPS mode. To me, Seb`s nimations themselves are responsible, but don`t *look good*. But in FPS mode? We can`t see his move and just can rely on his response so smooth to move.

can someone make a list of differences between normal and hard difficulty for the evil within 1?

Damage values of enemies and their HP are upped by 150%. @Infinity_Divide will no doubt know the more specific changes i.e. enemy locations etc.

To be honest I don't know all the changes since I haven't played on Normal in so long. The two biggest things by far are enemy damage values and enemy compositions(doppelgangers appear much earlier for example).

Rambling : There are only two things annyoing me in akumu difficuty.

First, I don`t know how "burning but running" zombies work. I dropped match and it was burned, so I guessed it was dead. But I suddenly got grabbed by burning but running one. Is there any condition? Or is it pure luck?

Second, Sometimes enemies` waking animations are canceled, so I got touched by them immediately. I assume that this is due to environments where enemies placed, So the animations are skipped. But It is almost unpredictable, and when it comes to akumu difficulty it makes me paranoia.

After ch6 with THAT PART, I feel like... I`m over powered at this moment(in ch11).

The keeper? Sniper rifle one shot and one harpoon(+4, 240% dmg), He is dead.
Traumas? Oh, wait here is a shock harpoon and 4 grenades. Bye Bye.
Laura? I have full upgrade harpoons(+5, fire dmg), she will burn so no big deal.

It`s like a surreal at this moment. Tango studio really managed the economy system well. One Hit Kill changes everything with upgrade. I don`t need HP upgrade, Melee dmg upgrade may be useful, But it`s too dangerous. I also don`t need syringe stock upgrade. I upgraded some of weapons` capacity/stock but not that much. Because I am always in danger so I can not carry much. I didn`t upgrade my handgun dmg at all, because I only focused on critical upgrade. Its purpose is shooting one shot in head or making enemy kneel, not kill `em.

It took 10 years to make me realize how brilliant Akumu difficult is.

>burning zombie
Luck afaik, though it seems that burning them with a torch makes them more likely to go for a grab while burning.

>waking animations
Not sure if I remember this. I'll play it and see if I notice.

>economy handled well
Agreed, it's one of the best I've seen in a game of its type.

>crit upgrades
Great bit of decision making between crits and leg shots for matches.

>no syringe or HP upgrades
It's nice that Akumu organically narrows it down for us.

>It took 10 years to make me realize how brilliant Akumu difficult is.
I played Akumu back at release and kind of thought it was a shit difficulty even though I liked the game a lot overall. A few years ago when I got back into it I realized how much of a masterpiece it is.

And after 10years, with FPS mod + keyboard/mouse, I made it ;_;



This version (from Windows Xbox app) includes all DLCs *and* infinite ammo mode -- and unfortunately it doesn`t make any achievement change. Awkward, imo.

I run this version on survivor difficulty with DLC double barrel shotgun, but this time I want a challenge so I used normal shotgun. IIRC, I didn`t use DLC harpoons. Even I can not understand why those were included. Yes fire harpoon looks beautiful, but I would make more normal harpoons with less resoruces.

I`ve loved this game since it was released. I don`t care about what "Achievement" system says, I felt that I did achieve something this time. I am so glad that I saw the beauty of this game, and the power of great full-upgrade normal harpoons, haha.

I'm not a fan of akumu mode. It turns the game into memorization which i'm not fond of. Fortunately Nightmare mode has the same enemy placement and AI but lets you improvise and adapt on the go so i can't complain. Sebastien gets tossed around a lot in cutscenes but getting killed during gameplay in just one hit seems stupid to me.

> the game into memorization

Some parts, yes. Especially in the case of arena fights in tight space.
But I think that it is not 100%, Sometimes I found an alternative way that I didn`t take.

Traps are the biggest threat on Akumu. If you play the game after you have forgotten the level layout you are going to get killed. I have had this happen to me a lot. Also how does a bear trap can kill Sebastien but being tossed around by enemies in cut scenes doesn't?

The evil within sure feels like a 2005 game released on 2014. I don't think there's any game that feels jank as tew1

>  jank

Honestly, I really really doubt that this was from id tech 5 engine. You know, Rage engine from ID was used for this. It has its own problems with mega-texture, and I bet that tango project didn`t know how to handle this engine(*I don`t buy that they made letter box for cinematic feeling. It was band-age problem solving, I believe).

But with gigantic spec for nowday`s gaming PC, with first person mode, its jankiness is shrunken at least 70%. I wanna say 100%, but It was not designed for FPS mode so FPS mode also causes another problems. I mean, Look at below.



It is way more comprehensible when it is in First-Person View.

Any engine is better than ID tech 5 really. Tango should have used UE3 instead to make TEW1, if they were low on budget.

The only game where ID tech 5 doesn't face bugs and glitches is when I'm playing wolfenstein TNO and TOB.

Lmao sebastian face almost came out when he disarmed that bear trap. Sheesh