Game analysis is a lot more complicated than explaining why you liked or disliked each part of a game. It’s important to be cognizant of biases and expectations, while still recognizing the importance of the reference points that influenced the game’s development. The Evil Within is a great example of how difficult this can be, with the marketing campaign leaning heavily on the fact that Shinji Mikami was the director. If everyone is told that there’s a new horror third-person shooter from the creator of Resident Evil 4, the implicit understanding is it's going to be a spiritual successor. This was an especially powerful strategy in 2014, only a couple years after Resident Evil 6 made fans lose hope they would ever get a worthy followup. With that context in mind, it’s easy to see how a good game that didn’t meet people’s expectations could still be seen as disappointing. This game isn’t the copy of Resident Evil 4 people may have wanted, but is instead a much more horror-focused game about breakneck action. The over-the-top style is no longer a slow boil that takes place over the entire game, it’s an explosive love letter to the horror genre from the word go, starting in a mental hospital, evolving into a nightmarish butcher shop, which dumps you into a spooky town in the woods, all within the course of an hour. The gun battling is less methodical, instead asking you to quickly swap between all your tools with efficiency. This includes a larger suite of weapons, traps, stealth, and ammo types you need to juggle and master if you don’t want to be overwhelmed. If you play this game in the survival-horror way the marketing suggested, it will seem like a mess, but when played with the action sensibilities the mechanics actually promote, it’s a great experience. I wouldn’t blame people for wanting something more typical of the genre or something with a better story, but if you’re in the market for some frantic action, this is hard to beat.