Pretty cool story in the campaign and fun, innovative gameplay. Overall, I'd say it's definitely better than your usual shooter, but still a little bit routine at some points. The voice acting was good. Something about this game though made me keep getting kind of tired of it and putting it away. I guess that's why it took my five years to beat. The idea of the fold weapon is kind of cool. The story and world feels kind of Iain M. Banks-esque. It's too bad that they didn't get to make a follow up, and never will, probably.

2019

Still great. Undoubted canon. Much gibbitude.

This game is such a gem! I played the crud out of this game back in my college resident days, switching off with people as we cleared levels. It's a tight game. Kind of lightning in a bottle sort of thing. It just feels good. It just is fun. It has not right being as good as it is, and I wish they still made shooters like this one.

The Evil Within is one of my favourite games. I originally played it in 2015, taking turns with my roommate trying to get through areas. These sessions stretched late into the night. We could never really beat it. Many years later I picked it up for ps4 and set out to finish it on the Survival difficulty. It was so much fun. I had never played many true survival horror games up to that point and this one was my learning curve game.
The story is excellent and the acting is well done. The aesthetics give off this sort painful, sharp psychological dread, where one finds the lines of reality are blurred more and more. Ruvik is an interesting vilain and Umbrella, I mean Moebius, are good as the ice cold, perverse corporation. You can tell that a lot of love and effort went into this game. It's hard not to buy in on that passion alone.
The combat and gameplay is pretty tight. There is a bit of jank here and there, and it doesn't do anything all that revolutionary, but it's fun and solid. The crossbow has some cool utility. Setting up traps to take on a horde rush and watching as it works to fruition is immensely satisfying. Ultimately, I preferred this game to the second because it was more willing to be it's own thing.
If you like Resident Evil, or horror in general, I'd say this one is an unappreciated classic.

I had to pay full $60 for this pos. I tried to bring it back to the store and get a refund but I had no luck. It is so very very unfun. Such a bad shooter. And after the year 2007 it seemed even worse in comparison. It's also super buggy. I hate this game even after all this time. I wish I could still get my $60 backs.

This review contains spoilers

I was very disappointed when I rented this from Blockbuster. It's not a good shooter at all and the story is so sleazy and terrible. "When you get to guantanamo, don't forget to write your mama. Tell her Graves and Lang kicked your ass."

This game was somehow even greater than it's predecessor. The detail, the acting, the set pieces, it's an incredible game. The story was also sublime, and Ellie and Abby are somehow both great characters. The character arc for both are quite satisfyinyet bitter at the same time. There are no heroes, and if anything the story is a tragedy. I heard it was based on the Trojan Women.

I really liked the detective aspect of the game. It's a shame more games don't do that sort of thing. It was also such a nostalgia trip driving around in as many different cars as they had in 1947 Los Angeles. It's such a cool and detailed world. Great music too. The characters are all three dimensional and interesting, and the acting is all really great.