Rob Dolen

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE 

The horror genre in the gaming industry nowadays seems like a dying breed. Recent horror games have aimed more towards the action and gore of the gameplay rather than the supposed goal of the game, which is to, you know, scare people.

Unfortunately the gaming industry has fallen victim to these typical tropes that blood and guts sells better than building a game that legitimately freaks out the player, like a horror game should. “The Evil Within” is striving to be the return-to-roots survival horror game of the new generation. Unfortunately, after the first couple chapters, “The Evil Within” relies more on jump scares and gory action than strong storytelling and lasting, impactful scares.

The player is Detective Sebastian Castellanos, a grizzled, old detective with a dark past. Sound cliche? Yes. Why? Because it is. Castellanos is a boring and uninteresting protagonist whose monotonous one-liners and arbitrary journal entries are better left forgotten. Castellanos is responding to a last-minute call for a multiple homicide at the nearby Beacon Mental Hospital.

From there, a supernatural being by the name of Ruvik is wreaking havoc on reality. Then things go insane, as Castellanos has to fight his way through Ruvik’s world of Zombie-like/Demonic creatures to return to reality. The game creates an interestingly insane backdrop for the crazy world you’re put in, but the lore doesn’t feel fleshed out properly.

A bunch of extra optional journal entries you can read doesn’t cut it; you need to experience the story and gameplay as one in the same.

“The Evil Within” features third-person, intense combat with daunting enemies, ramping up the difficulty more and more as you progress through each chapter. Castellanos is given multiple tools for mincing enemies, from a shotgun to a crossbow with several types of bolts to melee weapons of all sorts.