It really saddens me that people are not getting game because of reviewers that have proven time and again that they're terrible at videogames and don't know how to deal with the most basic of challenges, and because of tech "issues" that only anal-retentive nerds would ever notice or be affected by.
Although the game wasn't perfect, I had a damn fine time with it. If Resident Evil 4 was 10, The Evil Within is easily a 9.5.
The main issues I had with it was the following:
- Chase/Run sequences. I absolutely had no fun with these sections. I simply don't understand what compelled them to add these to the game. It's very easy to make a mistake and die in them, and combined with the 10 second loading times, they can get very annoying. There's like 3 or 4 of them in the game. Only brightside about it is that they're pretty short, so you won't get stuck for too long. Get this Uncharted shit from my Mikami games please.
- One hit kills. I had 80 deaths by the end of my first playthrough (was on Survivor), and I'm certain that around 55 of them was due to one hit kills; whether due to bosses, or due to the aforementioned shitty chase sequences. Admittedly, a decent amount of them are telegraphed, but so many of them just come out of nowhere. Horror or not, no game should have this many one hit kills.
- Crossbow aiming. Other than the revolver sway (which I don't mind), I had no problems aiming my weapons whatsoever. However, i cri evrytyme when I try to do any precise aiming with the crossbow. It's well documented that the aiming camera changed very late in development, and it's obvious that they either didn't test it properly with the crossbow, or they didn't have time to fix it. The crossbow literally obscures it's own aiming line when trying to aim at eye level. With that said, this is only really an issue when trying to use harpoon bolts (which is why I barely used them). The rest of the bolt types don't really require much accuracy.
And that's about it with the game's faults honestly. I feel like I'm playing a completely different fucking game with all the complaints I'm hearing.
One thing I want to highlight is the phenomenal pacing of the game. You simply never do the same thing twice. And to do that over a 15-20 hour game simply blows my mind. You could be in a terrifying part shitting your pants at one point, and a few hours later your the biggest badass action hero that Krimson City has ever known. It takes a real master like Mikami to make these drastic tonal shits feel natural, and never out of place.
The moment to moment gameplay mechanics are very good as well. Unlike the new age Uncharted type crap, you have so many tools at your disposal at any given moment. The shooting is meaty, and has great hit reactions. The sneaking gameplay could be improved upon a bit, but what's here is fun and very intense and can be applied in most scenarios (even some bosses). Using matches is also its own weird meta-game. When you pass a body or creature you have to take a gamble on deciding whether or not to burn them as they are either truly dead or they might be faking it or they might even be reanimated/possessed by another enemy later on. Also, knowing how to group different enemies together in order to light them all up with a single match is crucial to mastering the game's combat system, and is very satisfying to boot.
The agony crossbow is one of my new favorite weapons in videogames. Any trap parts that you find lying around or any traps that you disassemble can be used to make bolts for it. It has five different types of bolts that are all useful in certain situations. It's absolutely your best friend against hordes of enemies, but especially against bosses. Trying to disassemble traps in order to get parts to make bolts is a great risk vs reward system. It also reminds me of the Resident Evil 3 ammo creation system which I'm very fond of. The utility of the crossbow itself is very reminiscent of the grenade launcher in the old RE games.
On the PS4 I never noticed any framerate issues or slowdown of any sort. The superwidescreen presentation was great; definitely gives the game a unique look that I really liked. And if getting rid of the Tech 5 60 fps lock and the shitty adaptive resolution led to the amazing lighting, and the very dense and extremely detailed levels then I'm glad that Tango made that I choice.
I really hope this gets a sequel. I feel this is the start of gaming's newest great franchise.