incredible game. somehow even better than the first, though the original has such a unique charm to it that it's hard to pick a favourite. combat is improved, moving through the overworld is improved, the plot has more depth and the map is incredibly detailed and interconnected. the "secret" ending subtly guides you toward it well enough if you're paying attention that it's entirely possible to do it on your first blind playthrough (which i did). the characters are well written and fun to interact with and the puzzles are significantly better than the first game. there's like a thousand ways to make your way through Prehevil. masterpiece of a survival horror game. Miro doesnt miss

This game is just the best designed RPG ever, isn't it? No levelling up, no intrinsic growth, even your EXP bar is repurposed into a burden to manage (hunger). Death is a natural consequence of knowledge acquisition, but saves are part of a grand web of interconnected mechanics so deeply integrated into every facet of gameplay that you're always on top if you're sharp enough, but it's never quite enough to feel safe or satisfied. Sort of takes hints from the Foddy school of thinking in that the challenge is always, to an extent, “real”, and progress is a sort of “you know it when you’ve made it” kind of thing - always under threat of going south after a couple bad turns, however. Everybody else using RPGMaker should give up honestly, there's no more up from here

This game is mixed, I certainly enjoyed it, but its not as good as the first one.
You can tell Suda51 didn't direct this, has less sauce than the first.
I know its strange, but I miss driving around a hub world to go do menial tasks, and having to re-drive there if you fail. There is one boss that starts with sylvia saying "see if you can find the place of the next rank" but,,, its just an option on a map.

The Jiggle physics are fucking weird as fuck in this game, wtf did they do to naomi dude.

LOVE the second boss and how it ends, it soooo fucking stupid.

Glad the kept the scorpions though
(Headcanon Shinobu is trans)

The game has had one massive rebalance patch which addressed most of the issues with the game so its definitely a better experience and easier to recommend. It still has a least one major patch which would address the rest of the flaws (too many upgrades not enough points, no quick turn, no controller rebinding) before it would be the best version of what its trying to be. Which is a very faithful sequel to the first game. Art direction feels like nintendo hire this man with store bought unreal assets. But overall i am glad this game exists and that i got to play it

This is probably my favourite game EVER.
Describing this game makes it seem like the strangest piece of media ever, and is so hard to recommend to people because of it. But its such an amazing magical experience that can only be described by experiencing it.
Im so upset that people only pay attention to the reviews made by people like MoistCritical, who say its such a miserable experience despite their clear display of not understanding the gameplay mechanics, complaining when they don't manage themselves.
The sheer detail in the worlds environment, lore and story telling is on such a high level, I keep learning new small details that are apart of this world.
The characters are so special, and have an amazing connection to one another, and the one you grow with BB I would never have expected to have.
The ending made me cry 3 times during just my first play through.
This is one of the Few games I've 100%.
I understand some people might not like the experience, but Its far from a bad experience. It's an amazing experience.

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.