The Evil Within story, survival-horror elements detailed

The team at Tango Gameworks details the plot and survival-horror elements of Shinji Mikami's The Evil Within.

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Shinji Mikami's 'Zwei' has been announced as The Evil Within, a horror action game set for 2014. With the teasing and codenames out of the way, we can finally start learning more about the game itself, including the plot and gameplay details.

Bethesda Japan (via Gematsu), combined with IGN, give a clearer picture of the game. It stars Detective Sebastian, asked to investigate a homicide at an asylum. Together with a man named Joseph and a female detective simply called "Kid," he arrives to the scene later than the other officers and finds all the police cars empty. After finding a grisly scene of several police officers, doctors, and patients murdered, he loses consciousness and finds himself in a land full of monsters.

The game promises classic survival horror elements like limited resources and nerve-wracking environments, traps that can be used against enemies, and environments that transform and warp in real time. The environments are heavily detailed with bits of gore and viscera. Art director Naoki Katakai noted that most of the enemies are victims themselves. "Even when they’re evil creatures, there are greater evils still that are impacting on them or causing them to suffer.

"Obviously I like horror,” Mikami said. "But survival horror has been drifting away from what makes it survival horror. And so I want to bring it back. Bring back survival horror to where it was. There are a lot of survival horror games nowadays, but the thing that I want to focus on is having the perfect balance between horror and action."

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  • reply
    April 22, 2013 8:06 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, The Evil Within story, survival-horror elements detailed.

    The team at Tango Gameworks details the plot and survival-horror elements of Shinji Mikami's The Evil Within.

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      April 22, 2013 8:50 AM

      Zzzzzz. I'll wait for about 50 reviews on release. Unless this thing is like Evil Dead manifested in game form. Ill pass.

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        April 22, 2013 9:46 AM

        Haha, your opinions are so awful. Keep shoveling that Capcom manure into the old mouth-hole buddy.

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          April 22, 2013 10:50 AM

          I haven't played any game on any platform that even remotely qualifies as eye brow rising, let alone scary, to say nothing of terror. I've played hem ALL. From the triple A's to the downright silly low budget titles.

          This whole sub-sub-sub genre is a fluke. It was a marketing scheme to start with. The so-called survivor horror games were all action games with zombies and sci-fi elements thrown in.

          When this game drops, i'll be paying attention to every single review, every argument, every opinion. To see if true excellence/horror has been attained.

          I want to read things like: "I nearly had a heart attack.." or "I'll need 3 years of therapy after experiencing this.."

          and so forth.

          That game simply doesn't exist.

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            April 22, 2013 7:05 PM

            So you're expecting an experience that no one is actually attempting to create? And frankly, -fear- is a subjective thing. Much like if you go to a comedy club being a sourpuss you won't laugh, if you go into a -scary- thing acting like a macho turd you obviously won't get scared. It's an experience you have to allow yourself to be a part of. Of course that thing still has to be able to take you there ONCE you allow it, but if you don't leave yourself open it'll never come anyway.

            System Shock 2 and Yume Nikki are good examples of games that can put you very ill at ease. If you play either of those and don't feel a twinge of anything, you simply aren't the audience for frights.

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              April 23, 2013 6:48 AM

              I liked System Shock 2 had good atmosphere and I felt alone. But I was never afraid. I also adored the story.

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                April 23, 2013 8:59 AM

                Then I repeat, you aren't meant for frights, and that's okay. But don't then go and be a turd about them. Some of us like getting scared. Of course, I've never played a Japanese game that scared me (aside from Yume Nikki), but I think that's more of a cultural difference sort of thing and I don't hold it against those developers. Except modern Capcom, they have no idea what they are doing with Resident Evil.

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      April 22, 2013 9:10 AM

      Bethesda has some guts going with a name so similar to "Resident Evil". They must have had their legal team clear it, but it's an obvious jab at Capcom. Remember that Mikami used to be at Clover Studio, which disbanded when Capcom wanted to assimilate them to make sequels of Capcom-portfolio IPs.

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        April 22, 2013 9:28 AM

        I like the aggressive stance they are taking though. Capcom has pulled a pedestal of the entire survival horror genre into the crapper with poor decisions and mis-management. I respect the fact that they are calling them out and going in the exact opposite direction as Resident Evil has gone in recent years. What I really want is for this game to be very good and be very successful to prove the executives wrong about the West wanting dumbed down stupid ass Gears of Wars clones.

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          April 22, 2013 10:41 AM

          Considering how poorly the Siren and Fatal Frame games have sold in the States (not to mention Mikami's last excellent Shadows of the Damned) and how a superior game like RE4 was bitched about for not having a "modern" control scheme, it's no wonder Capcom went the direction they did.

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            April 22, 2013 11:07 AM

            I think a good designer takes feedback in and considers it... but he/she knows what is best for the game in the end. I get the feeling that people above the level fo the designers DECIDED what was good for the game and basically told them how to make future RE games. That is where the problems come in and where I loose respect.

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              April 22, 2013 1:33 PM

              hey i've always felt the difficult control schemes and slow movement in survival horror was integral to the experience. I'm not against the action horror style like you get in RE5 & 6, Dead Space, etc. but it flat out is not as scary, period.

              I think traditional Japanese horror (games, movies, manga, you name it) is just a bit of an acquired taste for the average American horror expectations, PLUS (and this is a biggie) some of these games are just so goddamned scary, most people can't even take them for more than an hour here or there, then they don't get played to the end, then they don't get talked up and word of mouth'ed, and so on.

              Siren: Blood Curse is still the top survival horror game of this generation, imo, in terms of innovative mechanics, style, scariness, story, etc. and who even played it???? Not too many - I think I've only seen maybe one or two other people here who have even tried it. Amnesia is like a game from 1998 compared to it, just for comparison (not that that's so bad, but you get my drift). Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was awesome too, and guess what? No one played that one either.

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                April 22, 2013 5:31 PM

                It's true. Maybe this game will even be too scary and 'too survival horror' for American audiences. I just think that Capcom had a good balance between horror and action and puzzle going with RE 1-4. People were buying the games and loving them, they just dropped the ball by second guessing their designers and underestimating their audience. I'd like to think if the game is really good it will do well. That isn't always the case.

                Shadows of the Damned was pretty rad though, by the way.

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        April 22, 2013 9:41 AM

        That seems bit of the a stretch. Just usng the word 'evil' in a horror title is pretty generic.

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          April 22, 2013 11:47 AM

          Synonyms for "resident": occupant, dweller. A resident resides "within" a location.

          Resident Evil... An evil "within"...

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        April 22, 2013 10:26 AM

        More importantly, Mikami was the creator of Resident Evil before that

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      April 22, 2013 7:28 PM

      TAKE MY MONIES

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