I've talked about horror games on here before, and the most recent one I've discussed was "Resident Evil: Biohazard," which also won one of the spots on my "Best Games of 2017" list. Interestingly enough, survival-horror is not a new genre in video games by any means and since the very first "Resident Evil" game back in 1996, it's safe to say that the genre has evolved to a point where it's easy to tell a poor game from a good one, or even an excellent one.

"The Evil Within 2" is quite good, actually.

This game is a sequel to the first "The Evil Within" that released in 2014, published by Tango Softworks and produced by Bethesda, the same team that brought us great games like "Fallout 3," "Fallout: New Vegas," "Doom," and "Fallout 4." The original game follows investigator Sebastian Castellanos, who along with his two partners are investigating murders at a hospital when they are suddenly transported to an insane world where nothing makes sense and everything is trying to kill them. The original game was well received but faced criticism for its lukewarm writing and insane difficulty. Despite the first game, Bethesda has created quite an excellent "second dip," if you will.

When you start this game, you take the role of now ex-cop Sebastian, as he is drinking away his sorrows at a bar. After having a horrible nightmare reliving the death of his daughter in a house fire, he is found and apprehended by Juli Kidman, his former partner at the police station. He is then tasked with finding his daughter, who he believed was dead, inside this virtual world meant to replicate a nostalgic American town called Union, which his daughter's mind was the power source for. Sebastian descends into Union, only to find that the sunny town has descended into complete chaos, rife with citizens turned zombies, demonic creatures that walk around in broad daylight, and three other people trying to also claim Lily for themselves. Sebastian must team up with the surviving members of the special ops squad that went in previously if he hopes to survive.

A cute little town, huh?

The game's main mode of function is controlling Sebastian in a variety of roles, including operating weapons, going through traps, solving puzzles, and defeating enemies and boss characters. You navigate through many maze-like areas that are rife with monsters that you can either defeat or avoid, and since ammo is scarce, it's sometimes best to avoid a fight. Each of these areas has shortcuts you can take, but many doors can only be operated by expending ammo, so you as a player are forced to make a choice: do I take the "long way" around, or do I sacrifice resources to get a shortcut? That's one thing I love about this game.

Combat is simple: shoot and kill. Or use your knife as well, that's fine. Enemies drop special fluid upon defeat, which can be used to upgrade your physical abilities, like toughness, your ability to speak, and your health. You also collect weapon parts to upgrade the myriad of weapons you receive. Another great thing about this game is its optional weapons that you can pick up, like stronger pistols, and my personal favorite: the sniper rifle. If you are willing to risk life and limb to get the parts needed to fix the broken sniper rifle you find, it is a huge asset, allowing you to (sometimes comically) pick off enemies from a distance. Beyond weapon crafting and upgrades, the combat is very simple, exploiting stealth to deliver fatal blows without making a sound. Just make sure to not expend too much ammo!

My next point is how realistic the gun mechanics are, in that Sebastian has a very shaky hand at first; you must upgrade to get the refined, no-recoil experience you get in other first-person shooter games, and you will waste a lot of ammo narrowly missing enemies.

Next, the boss battles in this game are interesting, and while some are interesting and fun, some are boring or just downright obnoxious. Your first major boss is the Giggling Guardian, a massive, nightmarish creature with many faces and a huge, hulking chainsaw that she tries to destroy you with, all the while laughing innocently. She is a creation of Stefano, a psychopathic photographer that is one of the main antagonists in the game. She is simple to defeat, in that you have to outrun her the first time you meet her, but the second time, you can avoid her attacks and shoot her. The next is Obscura, another one of Stefano's creations, which uses its camera face to attack you. Shoot at the lens for best results. See where I'm going here? The bosses in this game are just point-and-shoot; not very interesting, honestly. If you like to shoot things, then this is your cup of tea. The final boss was also frustrating and annoying because it takes so long to destroy its individual body parts, you run out of ammo, and you have to wait for it to take enough damage to start spawning bullets. It's quite awful, actually.

Man, somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed...

While the gameplay is overall good, the story is also decent, with the characters doing an okay enough job to make the game engaging. As Sebastian, you find out the motivations behind Stefano and Theodore, two antagonists that want your daughter's power for themselves, but then you see that your own wife is behind a lot of this madness as well. As you progress through the game, you find snapshots and clues that allow you to communicate with Kidman, revealing many details about both you and her. You don't need to play the first game to understand anything that happens here, and the extra lore from both of them expands the universe. Between these extra bits and the sheer attention to detail in the overworld, Bethesda has really done a good job in making something scary, but for the most part realistic.

In conclusion, "The Evil Within: 2" is a survival-horror game that accomplishes what it set out to do: scaring the crap out of me and many others. While there were no jump-scares in the game, for the most part, a falling body in the sewers made me scream quite loudly! This game isn't recommended for the squeamish or easily frightened!

Rating:

Pros:

+ Great graphics that suck you in

+ Easy to learn, but hard to master combat

+ Cool weapons to defeat foes with

+ Variety of playstyles; you can go crazy or avoid fights altogether

Cons:

- Boss battles are kind of boring and contrived

- The final boss is an absolute slog to get through

- Ammo scarcity can be frustrating at first

Overall: 7/10