The Evil Within First Look

The Evil Within has been showed on an unknown device. They aren’t saying, at least for now, if this is the PC version, current gen consoles, or one of the new consoles due out later this year. Because it runs on id Tech 5, the game can be easily modified to run optimized for all platforms. Looking at the visuals, they are very nice and polished. It makes one wonder why more Developers aren’t utilizing id Tech 5 for their titles in a world full of Unreal Engine clones. 

During the demo shown, Shinji Makami shows off a scene with Detective Sebastian and two others coming to investigate a murder. As one might guess, they arrive to a gruesome scene full of blood smears, dead bodies, and pools of blood. Sebastian and his crew check out a surveillance film and something appears behind them. Ruh roh! This isn’t good and our fine detective is knocked out.  

Detective Sebastian wakes up in some strange place with sounds of bodies being chopped to pieces. You see one of your fellow police officers being carried off and have to escape. A large ominous figure sees you escaping and begins to run after you with a chainsaw. Ah yes, the old enemy with the chainsaw to incite fear scene…  Though it is tense, the fear may be a bit questionable but consider that I am a veteran of the Survival Horror genre.

Makami isn’t just content with creating yet another standard Survival Horror game. No, this title will add elements of a city in complete ruins. You will need to investigate the city as well as get to the bottom of this mysterious murder. Are these related to one another? Makami won’t tell us exactly where the game is located. Instead he says that it is part of the mystery for the player to uncover but will say that The Evil Within will take place in a variety of locations.

Some of the interesting elements have you running down a hallway and the player will see their surroundings change. For example, running down a hallway led to a strong wind blowing the player back. When you run the opposite direction, the entire environment changes to another area. Are you warping to other areas in the game or is this some type of insanity that the Detective is going through facing all of the fears and creatures within the world?

The Evil Within could really be the next version of Resident Evil with the way things are looking. However, I applaud Mikami for branching out and trying to create a new IP, with new ideas, and a new cast and backstory. Expect lots of scares and things that scurry within shadows to come at you as the player attempts to uncover the mystery. The Evil WIthin is set to appear on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One sometime in 2014.