‘The Evil Within 2’ will delight fans of survival horror

Halloween season is the perfect time to get scared out of your wits and have all your worst nightmares brought to life and right on cue, Tango Gameworks and Bethesda Softworks decides to release a sequel to one of the most ambitious survival horror games ever made: "The Evil Within." 

Directed by "Resident Evil" series creator Shinji Mikami, the game became a critical success, and was originally released for the Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC during its run.

The original game, released in 2014, had players assuming the role of a police detective named Sebastian Castellanos, who is thrust into a world of nightmarish creatures and terror that one can barely imagine as real. 

Thanks to Playstation Asia, I got a chance to play “The Evil Within 2” and was fairly impressed with the plot. Sebastian returns as the main protagonist, but the story is a little more personal this time around.

Shinji Mikami has stepped down as director for the game, but he still serves as executive producer and all the elements that made his past horror games like the "Resident Evil" series a success is still intact.

Taking place three years after the events of the first game, the ex-detective of the Krimson City Police Department finds out that his child is still alive. The mysterious organization known as Mobius faked her death and used her in the same experiments that made Sebastian experience all the terrors in the first game.

Convinced by his ex-partner and Mobius agent Juli Kidman to enter the STEM system and save his daughter trapped inside it, Sebastian reluctantly ventures into the great unknown once more to fight monstrous creatures and find out the truth behind his family’s disappearance.

Much like the first game, "The Evil Within 2" is primarily played in a third person “over the shoulder” perspective as players guide Sebastian through different locations located inside the STEM system. Those connected to it can interact and experience things within a dream world, much like in Satoshi Kon's "Paprika" or Christopher Nolan's "Inception."

Unfortunately, those who are able and channel mysterious powers within that dream can turn it into a living nightmare — bringing to life creatures such as zombies, twisted monstrous abominations, and serial killers with supernatural powers.

Sebastian fights all of these monsters with the weapons he gathers through the game, which includes handguns, shotguns, a cache of melee weapons, and even a crossbow. All of these can be upgraded and tweaked with the weapon crafting system, which allows a degree of customization for players looking for some serious firepower to deal with enemies.

To keep things interesting and add a depth of replayability to the sequel, "The Evil Within 2" has an open-world element of sorts in that Sebastian can choose to follow up leads and go through side missions that can help him secure more items and ammo that would be beneficial in his quest.

This adds to the “survival horror” nature of the game where the player can either fight or flee, using stealth or firepower to deal with enemies they encounter.

Health is also something that can’t be taken for granted; recovery items such as medical syringes are in short supply and herbs to craft them spread out in different areas throughout the game.

Green gel collected by exploration and defeating enemies acts as currency to purchase skill upgrades that make Sebastian tougher and stronger to deal with the living nightmares he faces. It’s a chore to do and requires players to visit their safe houses, but it’s better to be safe than sorry when dealing with things that can literally kill you at every turn when you least expect it.

While it’s certainly not a major step above its predecessor, "The Evil Within 2" provides a pretty conventional horror game experience that should be played by those who enjoy the survival horror genre and feel the need to experience true terror at its finest. 

There are accessible difficulty options that should give players a convenient and easier experience if they choose, but harder and more difficult levels of play for veterans are where it’s at if you want to feel true terror and bring your survival horror A game to the test. — AT, GMA News

"The Evil Within 2" is now available for the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC.