Action games generally operate on the concept of player empowerment, granting the tools to overcome any challenge without a scratch, as long as players have the skill to realize that potential. Meanwhile, horror games operate on the concept of player disempowerment, giving the bare minimum in order to foster a tense atmosphere, so balancing the priorities of each genre seems like mixing oil and water. Resident Evil games are famous for trying to do so, but they usually break into a horror-centric first half and an action-centric back half, without a true blending of the concepts. The Evil Within meanwhile actually managed it, but had to alienate players in some key ways in order to do so. Firstly, the logic behind the story is nearly impossible to follow at first, leaving players unable to find their footing, confused at why the progression is so jumpy and unfocused. Then, the mechanical restrictions feel like they’re equally arbitrary: Sebastian can only initially carry about twelve bullets, and not even a full healthbar’s worth of recovery. He can barely run at all, and in order to alleviate any of this, you may have to bank up green gel over the course of multiple chapters. It can seem like the game is simply trying to make action feel scary by stressing out players with cheap deaths, but once you commit to learning the game, a brilliant method behind the madness reveals itself. While the story is mostly nonsense, the abstract nature of it allows for level design suited to a wide variety of challenges. With new mechanics being introduced at a steady pace, players are constantly kept on the backfoot, and thus disempowered, even as their growing mechanical knowledge empowers them. The shallow capacity for supplies is an obvious form of disempowerment which prompts players to spend resources cleverly, but their abundance between each fight empowers players to use their entire toolkit freely. The upgrade system empowers; the below-par baselines make unupgraded stats more of a problem in the face of scaling challenge. For every give, there’s a take, and thus, a harmony between action and horror is reached. As stated before though, the “take” for that brilliance is a frontloaded sense of disempowerment, with players having to get through most of the game before they’ve experienced enough character growth and skill development to redress the balance. So, I really can’t blame anyone for bouncing off of this game, but I also truly believe that as of today (less than a week away from RE4 remake), it’s the best merging of action and horror in gaming. Resident Evil 4 is pure satisfying action, Dead Space commits to bloody horror, but The Evil Within is purely… both.

i remain convinced this game will have its overdue reevaluation. the evil within (aka PSYCHO BREAK) is peak video game horror with just the right balance of jank and big budget bombast. silent hill with the grimy, glistening, bloodsoaked aesthetic of a SAW movie. resident evil 4, the last of us, and killer7 are other points of reference. it begins strangely enough, and it only continues to get stranger—very much a descent into things darker and more apocalyptic, always threatening to break the fourth wall with its apparent absurdity but always stopping just short of explicitly doing so. indeed, rather than ultimately push outward from its glass prison, the narrative draws inward, refracting upon itself, convincing us that what we see is really happening while its unreality compounds and entraps us. our uncertainty—sebastian's beleaguered mental state—is reflected in the instability of the environment, the suddenly and constantly wrenching contortion of the world around us: ruvik's world. ruvik, the mind exerting the most control over this layered simulacrum reality. not insignificantly, sebastian can only overcome the chaos by retreating further into the nightmare by way of a safe room entered via mirrors...

replaying this to prepare myself for finally giving the evil within 2 a try. seems most would say otherwise, but i consider it to be one of the peak game experiences of the 2010s.

imo this is an almost perfect game. it is just absolutely fascinating and one of the best sequels i've ever played. this game has one of the coolest settings to a game imaginable: 14 people forced into a battle royale in a post ww2 silent hill inspired town, with a 3 day time limit similar to majora's mask.

despite being a pretty short game, most of the characters are very well developed and likable. the city of prehevil where the game takes place is also very fun to explore. there is just so much to do, so many scenes and character interactions littered across the city which combined with the somewhat roguelike aspects of the game mechanics makes it very replayable.

termina, like the first game, is extremely graphic and disturbing, but handled in a much better way. there is significantly less of the icky scenes that fear and hunger 1 had, but the game is still genuinely disturbing. so even if you dont like fear and hunger 1 i would still recommend giving this game a shot.

the only reason this game isnt perfect is because of the sheer amount of bugs. some glitches are understandable because it was made by 1 guy in rpgmaker which is a huge accomplishment, but this game definitely needs some bug fixing and polishing. theres a lot of typos and weird bugs littered throughout the game (such as being able to saw off infinite heads from certain enemies). some items and skills also literally dont do anything, like the yellow vial and levi's executioner skill. i also personally had crashing issues that i could never figure out how to fix but that seems like a rare thing as i could never find anything about it.

all in all, as someone who has played rpgmaker games their whole life, this is the single best rpgmaker game and one of the best indie games i've ever played. despite that it is not for everyone because it is extremely difficult, graphic, and buggy. if you are interested in playing it though, go in as blind as possible, one of the most fun things about this game is progression you feel with the trial and error of figuring out the mechanics and areas, and becoming a better player because of it.

I cant describe in words how beautiful this game is.
It was such an amazing journey.
So emotional.
So fucked up.
While I thought replicants characters I could connect with more, this games story was just, breath taking.
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In the End, look out for me
Xaria [Feel like running away? While it may be so, everything will be fine!] Australia
If you see me, come say Hi!

A really fun Mario game
I'm not a huge fan of Mario games. But this was fun.
A lot of personality (and i got to play as daisy)
the abilities added a lot of options, and the 5 star levels were really great.

things I didnt like how ever:
- Multiplayer didnt have player collision and picking up, that was a big fun aspect of the NewSoup games.
- the final boss was a big flop imo, and the fact there were only 4 levels in the "final" world. Me and my friends really thought there were was gonna be more.
- a lot levels felt very, mario maker, I understand that has been a thing in 2D mario for a while. but like, come on.
- yoshi's + nabbit are easy mode, instead of easy mode being a toggle option.
- Prince Florian interrupts the flow of gameplay WAY too much.
- (this one is a very very small gripe) wish there was a bigger reward for 100%ing like multi-badges.