Alright, just wrapped this up at 21 hrs 30 minutes with 70 deaths on Survival. If we could see a death-by-death breakdown, I think at least half of them would be from instakill moves and the other half would be from failed bomb disarm attempts. Of course there's a legit strategy to all this, and if I were to replay some of these encounters right now I'd be able to speed through them, but there's still some part of me that dislikes the overuse of this "trial by death" style of mini-boss and boss encounter. I think something as small as a risky contextual dodge during some of those moves in some of those encounters would've improved the experience a lot. From the mechanics, to the animations, to the visual presentation; none of it feels in sync with the kind of fast reaction based maneuvers you're asked to do in this game. In many ways it feels like 2 different styles butting heads- slow stealth survival horror, and high octane action horror- but neither are done consistently well so the game moves along steadily in this awkward middle ground shifting slightly one way or the other moment to moment.
So why does it work when it works? 2 reasons:
1. Pacing, on the whole, is very well done. There are a few missteps such as the first chapter and some later game events, but the middle section of the game (Chapters 3-10, with the exception of the 1st half of Chapter 9) is so well crafted in its environmental and scenario design, you're tempted to guarantee The Evil Within a top 5 GOTY consideration while you're in the midst of it. They get so much out of what aren't exactly big levels, and jump into and out of memorable moments with perfect timing. Environments, enemies, and challenges are presented, used, and discarded in a way that you can almost feel Tango's excitement to show you what's around the next corner. Lots of great art direction and use of lighting as well. You really get the sense that you're seeing a lot of different environments by the time you're through.
2. Combat, when it goes in your favor, is satisfying, crunchy, tactical, and tense. I don't know how they balanced it as well as they did, but it's one of the few recent survival hybrid games where I routinely finished major encounters with VERY little to no resources. Icing on the cake are those wonderful headshots that are even more exaggerated than MIkami's own Resident Evil 4, a good decision given that you feel woefully underpowered in most situations even after going through most of the upgrades. Headshots in this game are the ultimate stress relief.
Swinging this back around to the negatives, I wish the game was more polished, more crisp, more fluid, more well presented. Frequently I found myself fighting the FoV due to what's a very questionable (last minute?) decision to zoom the aiming camera to extreme levels in combination with what's an already cramped use of screen space with a 2.5:1 aspect ratio and super tight "on the shoulder" views. It simply doesn't work well considering half of your time spent in combat is looking to the ground for bodies to burn and items to pick up, or looking up for traps and enemies. It would be one thing if this was a slow game, but it's much faster than it lets on initially, and it becomes disorienting balancing these quirks with enemies you need to run away from because of the aforementioned instakill moves. Beyond that, movement and item pick-up prompts are slippery and inconsistent, respectively, leading to situations where you have to play with the camera and double/triple press inputs to make sure Sebatian is doing what you want. Bottom line is that combat feels like it wants to be The Last of Us x RE4, but it's not as fluid as TLOU, and nowhere near as precise as RE4. Again, sitting in this awkward middle ground.
On the narrative side of things.... well, it's flat. Characters are dry and stilted, motivations are who even knows, things happen, blood bleeds, weird stuff attempts to weird you out, science, brains, experiments, nurses, mental asylum, mutants, church. splicing???....man, I don't know. You go to lots of places, see lots of things, kill lots of freaks, then it ends. The mood isn't moody enough, the cheese isn't cheesy enough.
How do I sum this up?.....It's a meaty, well paced, sometimes excellent, sometimes head scratching survival-action-horror experience well worth playing because it packs more great design in its great moments than most games have good moments. It's flawed and struggles to live up to the legacy of its spiritual predecessors in atmosphere and action, but it's still a good time.
Chapter rankings:
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 10
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 14
Chapter 7
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 9
Chapter 2
Chapter 8
Chapter 15
Chapter 1
