Review Written By Arielle Danan
View My Playthrough Here! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFgWlynmlfmfX9Z081KCWL2GewRjoMyQk
Through the maze of our mind, the answer might not be as clear, or as wanted. Sometimes the search is really all it takes to find yourself again. in the game The Evil Within Two we continue off with our beloved main character Sebastián Castellanos in his search for his daughter Lilly. The game supposedly takes off right from the second in which we see a cut scene of “ruvick” leaving in Leslie's body, and Sebastian wondering if he is in his own reality. Let's cut to the chase, shall we? This game was nothing like I expected it to be for good and bad reasons. Let's talk about the good reasons I didn’t expect first because the tea is hot today and I want to leave the controversial bits for last. So when looking at the game from a developmental perspective as well as a writer's perspective I was shocked and confused the whole way through because the dev and writing team did some very unique things that added to the story, yet it also took away from it as well. When we first enter the game we are met with Kidman, who tries to convince Sebastian to come back to STEM to work on helping find his daughter whom she says is not dead, but in fact alive and trying to escape STEM. The moment he enters back into the unruly world of monsters, decaying morals, and feared glimpses of hope he comes into contact with this sassy, (for lack of a better term) character Stephano Valentini. This part of the game was my first favorite considering the fact that Stephano has a very Emily Dickens way about him. He captures the exact moment of death, and in that finds the art that he creates. When I first played this game I thought that Stephano might be Leslie, but disguised in the world of STEM. But no, Stefano is much more interesting than that. He takes a sick sort of excitement out of capturing death's embrace, creating the woman who was part camera, part woman. You saw his “art” throughout the mansion that you would explore, in search of more clues on your daughter's whereabouts. Throughout this ENTIRE process, the body of Sebastian is in this collective consciousness where it can be manipulated in any way seen fit by the administrator who is the leader of Mobius. this game took a lot of weird and interesting directions, one of them being new ways to energize after an attack, or what have you. Tired of shooting up with meds? Now a good old’ cup of coffee will do the trick! For real, you can regain FULL HEALTH by drinking a cup of coffee. I love it. The game mechanisms are still the old-fashioned, evil within that we know and love, except the devs, added first person. Save the migraine and don’t use first person, it's an abhorrent waste of time and energy with all the bugs and glitches that occur when picking up an item, or simply climbing up a ladder. The save rooms are the same from the previous game, and there is WAY WAY MORE DIALOGUE! Mama like! The fact that you could go into one of these safe rooms and NOTHING beyond God's holy gates of hell can get you is just beautiful. So, let's dive into religion…No, not Christianity I am talking about the religion that was made up for this game! The religion is not specified, weirdly enough, and has been brought up in the first Evil Within Game, but only by certain signs and symbols in the hospital that Sebastian would wake up in. The cult leader goes by the name Theodore and like a lot of cult leaders uses Neurolinguistic programming to seem more kin, and kindhearted, wanting only the best for you like all cult leaders pretend to do. Theodore is the puppet master in a sense to the minions he created which I am still calling the haunted for all intents and purposes since that was the name of the minions in the first game. So let's dive into what I think is by far the most crucial part of this review. In playing this game I didn’t feel it to be synced and following the previous game. The Evil Within Left us with SO. MANY. QUESTIONS. Is Lesli now Ruvick? Is Kidman involved with this whole fiasco (which is answered in the DLC’s) this game, this continuation only shows the search for Sebastian’s daughter THAT’S IT, not the continuation of ruvicks story, not the continuation of STEM. Even though the administrator has been killed, there was a cut scene at the end of the game to suggest otherwise. The game felt choppy, from Stefano to Theodore showing Sebastian old memories, to the final boss battle with his wife, and finding out she had to work with STEM to find their daughter, it all made for a very confusing and unnecessarily long experience. There was one main dev for this game John Johannes with Shinji Mikami supervising. When playing this game I felt as if there were several writers and devs creating this. It felt like five games in one instead of a cohesive unit. Which the first evil within the game was said cohesive unit. It keeps with a steady pace that slowly would consume you. I feel like this game threw everything at me all at once and expected me to be ok with it. The plotline, as I said did not directly take off from the first game. It took of from a subplot in the game, that was not brought up all that frequently. If Sebastian’s daughter were a focal point in The Evil Within, then I could at least justify why an entire game was created around finding her, but I cant. Even when going back into Sebastian's memories we don’t even encounter Ruvick, we encounter Laura and boxed, but not ruvick who is the main heartbeat of The Evil Within. I should mention another point of the game that is HANDS DOWN the best, and is worth it if you take your time and not do a speed run. This characters name is Anima, even though she is an optional character I would HIGHLY recommend you play the game with this character, even though she only shows up in chapters 3,7, and 11 it is well worth the heart-pounding excitement, or for some fear. You need to view some journal entries in the town in one of the houses to active her. Then she will follow you around, and even take you to some flashbacks which show the past experiences you had in Beacon Mental Hospital. She will also bring you to a hospital room where there is a mirror showing you your past self, that’s right folks old costume and all!!! She makes you revisit certain memories with ruvick and this by far is one of the main reasons I think there will be the third game. Here is the tea, if this part were included as an actual part, not just an optional part, it would have added SO MUCH MORE SUBSTANCE TO THIS GAME! This “optional part” made the game feel in unity with the first game. But maybe that’s just me and I am a sucker for a cohesive storyline. So, do I think you should buy this game? Yes, even though it is not what I would have thought for a second game it has its moments of intense beauty, fear and complete chaos! Lets just hope in the next game we get more of a conclusion and fewer questions.
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