DLCThe Evil Within: The AssignmentLoading store offers
The Evil Within
The Evil Within combines survival horror with scarce supplies, traps, and a dark investigation. Its solo focus and full controller support may suit you at $4.19 from 
CDKeys; consider whether its language options and lone fight for survival match what you want. At $4.99 from CDKeys, you can compare the offer directly with Steam’s current price.
All-time low ~ $2.55across Steam & third-party stores
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $0.002023-10Current Low Across Stores~ $4.19CDKeys
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
01About The Evil Within
As detective Sebastian Castellanos, you awaken after an attack in a disturbing world filled with monstrous creatures. Explore warped environments, manage scarce resources, and fight to survive while uncovering the source of the horror. Steam players rate it 84%% positive from 21,631 reviews. Released October 13, 2014. The Steam PC version supports full controller use.
Credits
DIRECTOR
Shinji Mikami
Japanese video game designer
M
Producer
Shigenori Nishikawa
Composer
Masafumi Takada
Developer
Tango Gameworks
Publisher
Bethesda Softworks
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$0.002023-10-19 · Epic Game StoreBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| French | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Italian | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Show 4 more languages
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| German | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Spanish | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Polish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Russian | Yes | Yes | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-22
02Before you buy
Controller
The Steam PC version has full controller support.
Languages
English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese are supported; audio and subtitles vary by language.
03Frequently asked questions
What is the story about?
Detective Sebastian Castellanos investigates a gruesome crime scene and wakes in a warped world populated by creatures.
What defines the gameplay?
It is survival horror built around scarce resources, traps, and fights against dangerous creatures.
Can I play solo?
Yes. The Steam PC version is listed as single-player.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
Casual fun for the whole family.Show moreShow less
19.5 hours at review1,060 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Well, i expected a lot from this Game, after all the Hype that came up before release. And now, after about 7 Hours Playtime im disappointed. IMPORTANT NEWS: The Game just got a 1,5GB patch that makes it finally possible to remove the "Black Bars" and to set the FPS limit from 30 to 60 without Console Commands. Also all the Achievements that you were supposed to get will now unlock all at once. But sadly, for me, now the Game keeps crashing randomly. Just going to uninstall, im sick of it. What is the Evil within? Well its supposed to be horror Game, in my opinion it plays like a Mix of Alan Wake, Resident Evil and Saw. And it also feels so randomly cobbled together. Sure if you havent played too many Horror Games yet, it will entertain you for a while. For experienced Players, The Evil Within doesnt have anything new to offer. Youve seen most things before, somewhere else, the gaming Areas are rather small, the Chapters very short. You have some Riddles to solve, but they are not really demanding. The Traps in the Game feel like out of place... You find yourself wondering "Why would anyone put em there?" And lets be honest, its not really scary. For that it lacks in too many points. Youve got too many places to hide, the Enemies are too dumb, and yeah, the Areas are too small, you always know "Whatever comes along, run a few meters and the Chapter will be over fast". That takes the thrill away for me, and is rather tiring. Pro and Contra, for the lazy Readers: + The Game doesnt need the surreal System Requirements shown on the Steam Storepage. Whoever put em there was probably drunk or working for Intel. (meaning: you dont actually need an i7, you also play fine with an i5 or equivalent.) + Controls are easy to use and understand + Water and Lighteffects, Shadows look good, the Fire and Cutscenes as well. + Good Voiceacting. ● You can fix the FPS and Aspect Ration problem, but you have to enter the required Console Commands everytime after starting the Game. ◄ Problem has been fixed via Patch ● Singleplayer ● Controller Support ● 31 GB download - The Graphics look like The Evil Within was primarily developed for weak chested Gaming Consoles, even if they tell you otherwise. - Ai is just plain dumb. - There are a few Glitches and hideous progamming failures. (Enemies attacking walls, missing Textures, disappearing Items.) - Its linear, almost boring after a short Time, fails to scare the Player. - RPG features in a horror Game? Makes things too easy, in my opinion. - The Game crashes randomly after the new Patch. When i think about the Game in general, its something you can buy on sale for about $15 / 15€ and then youll be rewarded with an appropriate amount of fun, similar to the SAW game here on steam. I still can not recommend anyone to buy it. If you dare to get it out of curiousity, please wait for a Sale!Show moreShow less
16.4 hours at review2,728 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Before the actual review. The devs finally added framerate cap and letterboxing options. Enabling console doesn't prevent you from getting achievements anymore. While these options should've been there from the beginning it's nice to see that these issues have been addressed. Actual review. I'll keep it semi-short, I don't want it to be bloated. Story spoiler-free. Short introductions. The Evil Within (TEW) is an oldschool survivor horror game with semi-tanky controls. If you'd ask me which games does TEW remind me of then I'd say Silent Hill, Resident Evil 4, Outlast and Alone in the Dark. If you ever played any Silent Hill title then you'll notice the familiar dirty, rust and blood covered dilapidated locations, scary mental hospital with beds and wheelchairs all over the place. The game is medium paced, which is good and bad at the same time. It's good because it doesn't get boring. it's bad because it decreases the horror factor. Puzzles are there, but really scarce and simple. The visuals. The game has some really nice lighting, reflections, shaders, particles, post processing effects and dynamic shadows. Depth of field and film grain make a really good combo here and add a lot to the experience. The locations are well made, a lot of attention to the detail, even though there are some cheap visual solutions (like 2D rock textures on water). The polygon count on most of the objects is medium, texture quality is mediocre at best. The worst textures I've noticed were the beginning (the city) and mostly rubble, no notable HD textures. City destruction is nicely looking, but is entirely scripted. Most of the animations are smooth, jerky ones have been fixed in the first patch. The enemy types. This contains some partial spoilers. Throughout the game you'll be greeted with different types of zombies (Haunted) and their sub-mutations. Just like in Resident Evil 4 you stumble upon angry villagers. Some of them will attack you with bare hands, some of them use torches, knives, hammers, sickles, molotovs and even crossbow, guns and sniper rifles. Notable mutations: invisible zombies (barely visible, fully visible on hit), two headed monsters with a surprise (AlterEgo). There are also mini-bosses and actual bosses. The combat, mechanics and AI. Many people mentioned that it's like RE4 on steroids. Semi-tanky controls, you can't dodge or counter. If you get hit you're usually given time to recover and fall back. Unless it's an instakill attack. Oh yes, there are plenty of enemies in this game that can instantly kill you. But unlike in RE4 you can actually move while you aim and now you have the option to use stealth. You can sprint (uses stamina), run and duckwalk. You can't shoot while you're duckwalking as it's meant for stealth kills (you sneak up behind enemies) and trap disarms. There are two types of traps: hidden ones that can be simply disarmed by holding the button (bear traps, string triggered dynamite, etc) and more obvious, but dangerous sticky bombs. You disarm them by pressing the button at the right time, otherwise it explodes. Each trap gives you crafting material. Check weapons sections for more about that. If you accidentally activate a trap then you can expect: small to high health loss or instant death. The game has RPG elements. Throughout the game you'll find green gel (that is used to upgrade various physical abilities and even weapon effects), ammo, materials, collectibles and matches. There's health regeneration. If your health drops below ~20HP then you'll be unable to sprint, but you're able to recover it back just by standing. Your melee consists of slapping and kicking enemies. Useful for finishing off or pushing away zombie type enemies, but generally not recommended for more serious enemies. Stamina bar enables you to sprint. The default sprint time is around 3 seconds and when stamina is below 30% you slow down to usual speed. If it reaches 0 then you stop completely and catch your breath (completely vulnerable). You can upgrade your ammo capacity and weapon efficiency (damage, fire rate, reload times, accuracy, clip size, etc). Stealth is a nice addition (works only on Haunted). You sneak behind the enemies and instantly kill them. This works in following scenarios: a) the enemy is standing in one place; b) the enemy is patrolling back and forth. You have a lantern which is your own source of light. It really helps to see where are you going, makes you clearly see the traps but also gives away your position to the enemies. Making loud noises (slam open a door) also can catch enemy attention. Knowing that you can use glass bottles to either distract them or stun them by throwing the bottle against their head (after that you're given time to stealth kill them). Stealth killing is a nice way to conserve ammo and if you have the chance to do so - go for it. If you get spotted then you can deal with them the usual way. Enemy attack patterns are worth a mention. Most simple ones are punches (or swings with the weapons), kicks and dash attacks. Dash attacks of melee zombies are quite dangerous as they go into berserk mode and try to hit at least 3 times. Crossbow/gun enemies usually take time to aim at you and then shoot. Sniper rifle enemies hide behind cover and then take their time to shoot at you. Shooting a zombie in the knee usually makes them fall. All of the enemies are weak against fire. if you have matches then you can burn corpses (REmake style), hay or even downed still alive enemies (hence shooting in the knee). Igniting something will set on fire all nearby enemies. You'll stumble upon plenty of corpses throughout the game, some of them can be used to ignite other enemies. Some of them can become alive depending on your actions (so it may be wise to burn some before you pick up an item or activate a mechanism). The enemy AI is also mediocre and could've been better. As soon as they spot you they'll start moving or running towards you. Detection sometimes fails and they spot you when you're behind them, crouching. Sometimes they might get stuck, run in circles or simply charge at you and end up running against the wall. I've also seen some weird patrol patterns. Like I mentioned before loud noises alert them (be it doors or you stepping in a trap). To avoid direct confrontation you can either hide in closets or below beds and tables or use the traps against them. Most notable con is the big amount of enemy invulnerability frames (you shoot, but they don't react / take no damage). In some chapters you'll stumble upon your partner. Shouldn't be too problematic as you can heal your partner by just standing next to 'im and holding a button. No need to share your ammo either. Weapons. Semi-traditional Resident Evil layout. Handgun (revolver), shotgun, crossbow (with different bolts), sniper rifle, magnum, rocket launcher. Most are upgradable, crossbow is worth a special mention. You find different bolt types for it, after that you can craft them from materials gathered from the levels and traps. Bolt types: harpoon, proximity explosives, flashbang, electric shock, freeze and DLC ones. Useful in combination with other weapons. Due to character limit I'll have to wrap it up aka tl;dr version. TEW offers a nice oldschool survivor horror experience, the locations and atmosphere are nice, but it's far from perfect either. Some chapters are more action centered and the game becomes zombie slaying action game (like Resident Evil 4 Chapter 5 island parts). I don't think that arena style battles (especially against enemies with weapons) was a good idea either. There are cheap deaths, especially in escape sequences, but in the end even with all its flaws I would recommend the game as it's entertaining and fun to play. I couldn't fit in the full review, so ask me questions in the comments.Show moreShow less
76 hours at review482 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I was looking forward to this game, but as soon as I hit play I was disappointed. The aspect ratio is way off and to put matters worse my FPS still dips even with the 30FPS lock. What I find really funny is even if I try to unlock the FPS its still staying around 30 FPS AND still dips below that! That should not be possible with a Radeon R9 290X, I can run Crysis 3 on average of 80FPS and that puts The Evil Within graphics to shame. Added Note: This is strictly a performance review, I figured we would all be smart enough to realise that but I guess only some caught on. That out of the way after more testing it would appear my FPS was struggling only when I'm outside but as soon as I went indoors everything was where it should be, about 80-100FPS and I'm ok with that. I notice though my game would randomly lock up for a few seconds and everything would be fine after until it locked up again but it is a new game and that can be expected to happen on release. Now just to make those who wanted more than just a performance review happy, I did play through chapter 1 with the recommended aspect ratio and it did seem like I was watching and playing a more interactive movie approach, which was interesting. However atleast through chapter 1, I didn't feel like I was getting immersed into the story of the game, maybe because I didn't feel like I had any full control on my movement. The story doesn't really make since, atleast not right now in the early game but so far it feels like I'm watching a cheesy horror flick where one minute I'm injured but the next scene I'm fine? After reading through some comments and gave more thought to it, I recommend to tread carefully with purchasing this game. If steam had a third recommendation option I would have chose that one but alas they don't so I'm still sticking with not recommending. Since I've only played through the first chapter I have regained some hope for this game and hoping the story starts to make more sense and maybe even become immersive. We shall see.Show moreShow less
1.5 hours at review672 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Now! That's What I Call Shinji Mikami! Featuring the #1 Hits: "Creepy Villagers Brandishing Knives" "Tentacled Boss Monsters" "Gun Turret Segments" and the unforgettable "Press Space To Crank Lever"! But in all fairness yeah 7/10 not a bad distraction until someone does actually make a true return to survival horror.Show moreShow less
14.5 hours at review308 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
DO NOT BUY ON PC!!!!!!!!!!! It is so poorly optimized on PC that it hurts. I just spent $50 on a game with its season pass that I have to run at 1074x768 with almost everything disabled and at low to get a stable 30fps. I understand I am playing on a laptop but come on. These specs are not low by any means. Intel Core i7 4710HQ (2.50GHz) 16GB Memory 1TB HDD 128GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M 3GB GDDR5 2880 x 1620 16:9 3K Display Windows 8.1 64-Bit Save your money and get this when an update or mod comes out to support it. Or buy the PS4/XBONE version like I should haveShow moreShow less
2.5 hours at review650 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
I've never written a review before but I felt compelled to because of a release week flood of ridiculous hate reviews. They are written like children whining about two things, fps and aspect ratio. Both of which are very subjective details. I am honestly having a great time with the game. My graphics card only has 2 GB of Vram and it is running this game like a beast. If you like Survival Horror games with bit of stealth, this is right up your alley. Resource management is key and the game has mechanics from the RE remake (burning enemies) and the general gameplay of RE 4 plus a bit of stealth. The frame rate is locked to 30 fps but it is rock solid with no hitches for me. The aspect ratio is kind of weird at first but by the time the intro played out I didn't even notice it. Maybe it's because I'm playing on my TV, I dont know. The negative user reviews for this game were appallingly immature for a time and threw a lot of undeserved hate at the game due to it being a straight port. The developers announced their plans for the fps and aspect ratio weeks ago so any complaints about those is void in my opinion. With that said, if you get simulation sickness, you may want to look at some videos of the game to make sure if it will bug you or not. The people who made many of those negative reviews were either uninformed or were planning on complaining anyway. It is the same game that is on next-gen consoles (PC may look a little sharper I haven't seen the console versions). The game is very playable and it is not a broken port, at least, not for me. If you were a huge RE fan I think you will have a very fun time with The Evil Within. So far I am having a blast. There hasn't been a game quite like this in years. You might need a controller. I cannot speak for the controls on mouse and keyboard. From my experience playing any 3rd person game works better with a controller just like first person shooters are far better with mouse and keyboard. I have been hearing that playing on a TV negates the shock of the aspect ratio a bit so do your research if you are playing on a monitor. And for the love of god DO NOT come to this looking for a brilliant story! While Silent Hill games have had some pretty good stories the RE games have always had a sort of cheesy B movie plot. This game comes from the creator of Resident Evil so The Evil Within seems to naturally be going for the cheesy plot, though they seem to have dialed it down a bit. Voice acting is comparable to RE 4... serviceable but not award winning though I will say there seems to be less annoying characters like Ashley. The real draw of this game is going to be the gameplay. Guns feel extremely satisfying to blast enemies with and they all have well done sound effects. The controls are designed in a way to make you feel unsafe at all times. You can move while aiming though I wouldn't advise taking a shot while moving because you will most likely miss unless you are at very close range. While your aim is initially inaccurate you can become more accurate as the game progresses by spending points in the games upgrade system. The upgrade system also includes things such as weapon capacity, damage, reserve capacity, reload speed, melee damage etc. The upgrades seem to allow for multiple play styles which is pretty cool. Artificial intelligence isn't very smart but most enemies are bringing knives or claws to a gunfight so they are kinda dumba#$es to begin with. In other words, enemies with close range attacks are only going to have so many patterns because they eventually have to rush and kill you. I have not experienced any outstanding AI glitches but I have seen minor things like enemies hugging to close to corners and getting hung up for a second. Enemies are more dangerous in numbers than individually but they can be surprisingly fast. Headshots work best but if you knock one over you can light him up with a match or, even better, wait for other enemies to walk over him before burning them all. There are also multiple environmental dangers that you can use against your would-be killers. Tactics and precise shooting combine to make a very fun combat system. I am finding that I am dying less from regular combat and more from instakill bosses which can be frustrating to some. Nothing excessive though. Overall, the game balance is very good and I am making steady forward progress. The Evil Within takes a lot of inspiration from Silent Hill in its environments. So far I have found a range of asylums, hospitals, labs, hellish otherworlds and so on. Character models and environments look very good and the lighting is done particularly well. But this is not the game to benchmark your new rig on if thats what your are looking for. Some players report it as somewhat of a resource hog (maybe CPU?) but I am still finding no dips in the frame rate but I will make a note in the review if that changes. The game is very dark, gory and intense if not necessarily scary. However, to be honest, I have never been utterly freaked out by any video game before. I am still finding it to be an awesome game. Unless I run into some absolute disasters on the way to the end (musical numbers), I believe genre fans will absolutely love this as long as they don't expect a full return to pure survival horror. The game does get a little action heavy toward the end featuring some gun-wielding enemies. Overall, though, I found it much closer to the tone of the original 3 RE games than 4 was. And there is no coop to be found, except for some AI partners (no, you don't have to share ammo) for brief instances. I am very glad for that last part. If you are new to Survival Horror games know that the game is a little harder than your typical action game and you are expected to take your time and make your shots count. You also have less health than in most games but you can upgrade that as you progress. Your health only regenerates to a low amount if wounded and medkits and ammo are harder to come by than most games. You will be down to your last bullet in some fights. However, enemies will drop a couple of bullets (like 2 or 4 at most) every now and again and if you explore you should find enough rounds and matches to keep yourself alive. The game won't make things impossible for you. But you will rarely be flush with supplies. Edit: Whether you found it helpful or not, I want to say thanks to everyone who read the review. Like I said, I've never written one and I wasn't really expecting more than ten people to read it. It's a pretty cool unexpected surprise. I also wanted to throw some specs out there in case they help someone out. I will make any necessary changes to the review when I have completed the game. Windows 8.1 Core i7 3770 3.40 12 GB Ram Radeon Hd 7800 2GB VramShow moreShow less
20.3 hours at review274 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I got this game expecting a decent horror or survival-horror experience, and was sorely disappointed. It's basically Resident Evil 4, but with an even more nonsensical plot, an unsatisfying weapon/character upgrade system, and lackluster gunplay. There's very little horror in this game - if you want a horror-themed shooter, go play F.E.A.R., because all you'll get here is some dirty, grimy settings that try to squick you out with blood and gore. There's one, and only one, decent horror scene, and that's fairly early in the game...everything else takes the Saw route of "horror" with 90% of the game being basically just torture porn. Most of what little scares they try to provide are nothing more than jump scares. Then again, I am particularly difficult to unnerve, so this is a very subjective complaint. The plot is horribly explained, at least for what little they actually bother to tell you. You're never told what the antagonist's plans or goals are; hell, you go through the entire game learning next to nothing about even your two partners. The main character is boring at best and completely unlikeable at worst. They try to give him some character development via bits of journals you can pick up during the game, but it's not enough to redeem what's just a very boring character. He has only one conversation of note during the entire game that gives any sort of look into his psyche, and that conversation ends after two lines about his alcoholism. Due to the setting of the game, you're whisked around from location to location on a whim - the game plays very loose with its deus ex machina. By the way, the phrase "deus ex machina," is particularly relevant to this storyline, so I don't use it lightly; it is LITERALLY a deus ex machina. I'd say the story is full of plot holes but, to be frank, so little is explained that I'm not sure; it's hard to find a plot hole in a big pile of absolutely nothing. You get more plot explanation from the model viewer's info dumps than what you're told or shown in the entire course of the game. The upgrade system seems shoehorned in. What's this green liquid? Why does it increase your ability to put more shotgun shells into a shotgun? Why do you need to shock your brain to know how to carry more matches? Narrative nonsense aside, many of the upgrades are useless: you barely need to upgrade your stock since the game does not give you enough ammunition to take full advantage of the extra space, you don't need to hold more healing syringes because most of the attacks that can kill you are one-hit kill grabs, there are very few situations where extra sprint is useful (and during all of those the game actually gives you an unlimited sprint bar anyway), and upgrading the explosive range of your explosive crossbow bolts can actually be detrimental since it hurts you as well. The only useful upgrades I found were the damage upgrades for the main three weapons (revolver, shotgun, and sniper rifle). Here's a tip, by the way: there's a missable magnum in chapter 11. I didn't get it, ended the game with an inventory full of magnum rounds, and was pissed to find out from the wiki that you only get two chances at the gun in that one chapter. I compared this game to Resident Evil 4 initially, but, really, that's a disservice to RE4. That game's shooting mechanics were far tighter, it didn't have a wonky stealth system that sometimes just doesn't work, and the bosses in that game were far more entertaining to fight than in this game. Nearly all of the bosses in The Evil Within have at least one instant kill grab attack, which wouldn't be so bad if the game allowed you to skip the cutscenes (I can't recall a single cutscene before a boss that can be skipped, despite the game allowing you to skip cutscenes during other parts of the game) that happen before AND DURING some boss fights. There's a fight against one particular boss, the Keeper (the enemy with a combination safe for a head), where if you die you'll have to sit through 2 cutscenes DURING THE FIGHT. EVERY TIME YOU DIE. That's not good game design, Bethesda! As for technical issues, it crashed on me twice during gameplay (of which I put in ~15 hours, I think). Not sure what that was about. Other than that it runs fine enough. I didn't notice any obvious framerate problems, graphical glitches, etc. Not stellar, but passable on that front. tl;dr If the game had either good gameplay or a good plot I might recommend it. However, it has neither. This is simply, in my opinion, not a good game. It's not worth your time and it's certainly not worth your money, even during this current sale. My recommendation instead, if you want a horror shooter? Go and get F.E.A.R., and if you like that, get the sequel (stay away from F.3.A.R, though). If you want a third-person shooter with "zombies?" Go and play Resident Evil 4. Either way, you'll have a lot more fun than you would with this game. Addendum 04/09/15: I guess I need to clarify something, since multiple people over the last few months have brought it up. I didn't say F.E.A.R. was scary. I said it was a better horror-themed shooter. I said this for two reasons. 1) It's a better horror-themed shooter not because it's scary, but because the atmosphere is more unsettling. Granted, that's a subjective assessment, but see if you can understand where I'm coming from. Most of The Evil Within depends on walls splattered with offal, grates that shoot fire, and gigantic swimming pools of blood to try and unnerve the player; F.E.A.R. depends on dark, enclosed spaces, and an unbeatable and unknowable evil behind potentially every corner. The Evil Within had a very similar character and powerset in its main villain compared to F.E.A.R.'s Alma, but Alma was used more effectively and made her presence more well-known (even if she was a rather tired example of the "black-haired evil little girl" popularized most recently by movies like The Ring and The Grudge). Many times I wondered when I would next see Alma and dreaded it; my only emotion in seeing Ruvik was exasparation that I'd have to suffer through another chase sequence. The Evil Within spent a large quantity of time (not most of the time, but a significant portion) in brightly lit, sunny, outdoor areas where enemies were plainly visible well ahead of time; F.E.A.R. is set mostly in an office building, so even when the lights are on enemies can be hidden behind office furniture, doors, etc., and your only clue to their existence is radio chatter. 2) It's a better horror-themed shooter because it's a BETTER SHOOTER. Strip out all of the supposed horror elements, regardless of whether you find them scary or not, and what you're left with is, almost objectively, a better shooter in F.E.A.R. than in The Evil Within. Better (and more entertaining) weapon variety, better enemy reaction to being damaged, better enemy A.I., better gunplay, a better melee system, a better stealth system despite not even HAVING a stealth system...granted, all of that is subjective, but how many of you are going to honestly say that sans the supposed horror The Evil Within makes a better shooter than F.E.A.R. sans its supposed horror? Everyone's free to disagree with my points. We all have different opinions and it's more than likely that I've made misguided or even outright incorrect statements somewhere. I don't mind being called out on those. But it's important to note that nowhere in the review did I call F.E.A.R. scary. While I was brought to the edge of my seat more often in F.E.A.R. than I was in The Evil Within, I didn't once say it was scary. I never even once used the word "scary" in the review. Not once. I said it was a better horror shooter.Show moreShow less
17.1 hours at review619 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
(TL;DR? This review is also available in video format for your convenience below.) It has been almost a decade since Shinji Mikami has worked with the survival horror genre that he helped pioneer. Other than a few notable games, there has been a large emphasis on mass appeal and action within the industry in recent years. Mikami and his studio Tango Gameworks took a knowing risk when they decided to step back into a genre that's largely secluded to small indie projects now to bring us The Evil Within. The game begins with the player controlling Sebastian Castellanos as he arrives at the scene of a massacre within the walls of the Beacon Mental Hospital. Upon checking the surveillance feed things immediately take a turn for the worse as he's hurled into a nightmare that has him fighting for survival throughout a wide variety of locations uncovering the truth behind this madness. After the initial first chapter, Evil Within begins to feel like it's straddling the line between two great survival horror games. The solid shooting, reactive enemies, and elegant art style of Resident Evil 4 and the psychologically rooted story, symbolic creature design, and occasional dark industrial music and level design of Silent Hill 2, with a few homages to Resident Evil thrown in for good measure. While The Evil Within doesn't offer much innovation outside of the amalgamation of these two titles, outside of a competent stealth component, it certainly borrows well from good material. On the default Survival difficulty, The Evil Within will keep you scavenging the levels for every bit of ammo and healing supplies that you can find. You'll be encouraged to dispose of enemies stealthily whenever possible to conserve precious ammunition. While the stealth doesn't offer anything innovative and sticks to basic sneaking up from behind to execute enemies. It works well enough to provide a nice change of pace and tension. The gun play is immensely satisfactory as enemies blow apart in a mess of gore, this also has a direct effect on difficulty as enemies will often take multiple shots to the head to dispose of, if you blow a hole straight through their hideous faces, you'll now have a smaller target to hit in the remaining facial tissue. With enough practice one can master the strict aiming controls and incorporate real-time dodging through use of the sprint and duck functions. Expect to die a few times before completing the 15-20 hour campaign that will unlock further challenges for masochists. The Evil Within stays true to its Survival Horror roots by offering a rewarding experience, through intelligent utilization of resources, a dark atmospheric level design, and punishing game-play. While some areas of the Evil Within offer plenty of tension it isn't going to win any scariest game rewards. However, it manages to stay eerily engrossing enough to play for long periods of time and absorb you into it's richly detailed world. The boss encounters are all well executed, requiring unique strategies for each, with a couple of them requiring multiple encounters, raising the level of difficulty each time you're unfortunate enough to cross paths. To help alleviate the rising difficulty of the enemies you'll be able to upgrade Sebastian's abilities and weapons using green gel, found throughout the campaign, whenever he enters the game's equivalent of a save room. Additionally there will be dozens of files and other documents to find that flesh out the story as well as small keys, that are usually found in small statues that unlock a series of lockers containing random items in the save room. The Evil Within certainly knows how to reward you for thorough exploration of its excellent environments but is also all too familiar with punishment as well. Along the path, you'll frequently stumble upon traps that can seriously injure Sebastian if not disarmed. Disarming a trap rewards you with parts that can be used for crossbow ammunition, while some are easier to disarm than others, it creates another risk/reward mechanic of deciding whether you want to try and risk disarming a trap or proceed forward sans parts but with your life intact. The trap system is a much welcomed mechanic as it kept my ego in check as I was quickly made paranoid of the few times I got cocky enough to run around areas that seemed uninhabited by monsters. There was also a decision to make the game have an ultra widescreen letterbox aspect ratio, this can be fixed via the developer console but unfortunately that just ends up cutting off the left and right sides of the screen. It's also worth noting that any use of the developer console disables achievements for the game. The only way I was able to alleviate this issue was by dragging my desktop over to my TV so that I could play on a large enough screen where letterboxing wasn't an issue. The plot is good enough to keep things moving along and provide explanation to everything happening to Sebastian. That being said though many people will be left confused or underwhelmed by the ending if they failed to piece together everything presented in the files, or decided to skip reading them all together. I personally appreciate a game that reveals the story through various storytelling means rather than direct exposition. While the creature design and environments are very well done they still don't match up to the level set by titles like the Resident Evil Remake. This could partially be due to the fact that you're moved through the game quickly with very little revisiting environments so less attention was paid to each area as well as the drastic differences of the disconnected locations. One minute you might be in an old deteriorating mansion, then suddenly you're in a field just prior to being transported to a crumbling city. You won't have that feeling of attachment and familiarity that you get playing older survival horror games, but considering how the narrative plays out and what's responsible for the locations perhaps that makes sense. The audio is haunting as creatures announce their presence to you through their wet obstructed breathing or through agonizing shrills and screams. Debussy's “Clair de Lune” is effectively used to ominously telegraph the location of save rooms and menacing mechanical clanking and roaring heightens the threat of danger. The voice acting is competently done with one of the characters looking like a dead ringer for Anthony Hopkins but the soundtrack is somewhat sparse compared to other titles utilizing silence and noises to create suspense and atmosphere. Additional atmospheric music would've gone a long way for some of the areas. While playing it a bit safe, The Evil Within manages to be a fantastic survival horror game. It brings with it intelligent gameplay, an atmospheric world, a high level of difficulty, and great art direction. It falls a bit short in the horror department, it could've used a deeper story or more fleshed out characters, more puzzles would've been nice and a greater attention to detail with less of a rush through environments similar to older Resident Evil titles. Chapter 9 manages to hit a high note in regards to all this but is unfortunately short lived. While not the masterpiece it could have been, The Evil Within still manages to be an outstanding game. It's going to be polarizing as it's a step away from the mindless mass appeal that most people shell out cash for today but if you're in the market for a great survival horror game in the tradition of Resident Evil 4, you won't be disappointed. This review is also available in video format for your convenience: http://youtu.be/iUV4CiChFrg Pros: + Fantastic Gameplay + High Difficulty + Great Art Direction + Excellent Sound Design Cons: - Poorly done PC Port with letterboxing and a 30FPS limit. Use of the developer console can alleviate this but disables achievements in the process. - More music would've been nice.Show moreShow less
23.9 hours at review273 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
A truly fantastic video game, whose full potential is lost amongst a miasma of corporate-publisher bulls**t, extremely low quality testing and 'questionable' design decisions. For every one thing this game does right, there are 10 things it did wrong looming in the shadows, ready to jump out and ruin the experience. It's visually impressive with an amazing atmosphere, but it runs like crap. It can be set to 60FPS, but it's made immediately clear that it was never meant to do that, resulting in nasty screen tear and other visual issues. It's more than happy to crash on you and save points are few and far between for most of the game. A mild checkpoint system kicks in eventually, all too late I might add. The characters look good and have fine animations, but the dialogue between them is stiff and unnatural. Nobody asks important questions like "What's going on here?". Spoiler: There's a scene where your support character, Joseph, undergoes an RE4 style *Changing into an enemy and attacks*, but you simply shove him off and he returns to normal. For some reason they don't feel the need to talk about what just happened and continue as if it never did , one example among many I assure you. If you can get past the performance and character issues, then the Publisher issues kick in. It seems that this game was going to be much closer to Silent Hill and less like Resident Evil. This is demonstrated for most of the early game, I'd say at least the first 5 chapters. But I imagine Bethesda coming to Tango Gameworks and saying "A game that is not 90% combat is not going to sell, so put more combat in the game", because that's exactly what happened. From chapter 6 until the end of the game is a non-stop roller coaster of very, very bad combat sections. Suddenly it becomes obvious that the game wasn't built with combat in mind. Aiming a gun causes the camera to zoom in by a ridiculous amount, making aiming genuinely difficult in a game consisting mostly of tight and narrow levels. Melee is utterly useless, you've probably heard enough about that from others by now. Almost every boss in the game is a one-hit-kill to you if they get into range (I am not exaggerating, the bosses in this game are perhaps the worst bosses I've ever seen), and just like Resident Evil 6, they just keep coming back over and over again removing any sense of satisfaction from defeating them. To top this off, some of the weapons really get brokenly powerful if upgraded right. The Crossbow has bolts that can be upgraded to do 240% more damage per shot to enemies and cause them to catch fire, or stun every enemy in a room and leave them vulnerable to be stealth-killed (A single button) for up to 16 seconds. Yes, 16 seconds. This ammo can be manufactured by the player at will too. Please keep in mind, this is supposed to be a Survival Horror game, by a company well versed in this genre. But enough about the combat, carrying on with the Publisher bulls**t, some of the most powerful equipment in the game is pre-order bonus only, such as Incendiary Bolts. While most of the bolts in the game need to be upgraded to be useful, the Incendiary Bolts are instant-kills against any enemies, including groups in range and are extremely powerful against most bosses in the game too. The story is never explained well either. This is something else I'm sure you've heard many people complaining about, such as the deeply unsatisfying ending, but it is true. Character's never discuss the important parts of the game, and the story as a whole is full of loopholes. It smacks of bad writing, until you realize that the story was left this way intentionally because it's going to be explained in the future DLC. That's right, they're pulling the EA Tactic, buy the game now and then pay more later for the privilege of being allowed to experience the full story. Summary: If you really like character-action games in horror settings, like Resident Evil 4 or the Dead Space series, then stick with what you already have. This game is not the next big RE4. It will not deliver what you want. If you love Survival Horror games then The Evil Within is sure to disappoint. From its mounted-turret sections to its QTE's to its one-shot-kill recurring boss fights... It is just too crippled from it's performance and design issues and is just not satisfying to complete. Nothing happens in the end to make the struggle worth while. If you love Shinji Mikami, like I do, and want to follow his work then Resident Evil Remake has just been released in the form of a HD Remastered version. Pick that up instead. EDIT (July 1st 2015) Thank you to all who supported my review and agreed with me, and to those who found the review helpful. I've re-read my review a few times, I've recently tried to play Evil Within again, and I have watched a Let's Play of Evil Within since finishing it myself. Nothing has changed in my opinion, and I still stand by what I have said in my review. Thanks to the LP I've watched I can also confirm that not only is the game crash-happy on PC, but also on PS4 as well (I didn't even know a PS4 could blue-screen crash, but apparently it can). In other news, I've recently finished 2 of the 3 DLC packs for this game. The Assignment and The Consequence are quite a step up from the main game, they do more to explain the story and they are much shorter than the main game (Which I feel is a good thing), however they still suffer from many of the main games gameplay faults (Such as one-hit-kill bosses, single-use melee weapons, etc). I tried my best to play and finish the third DLC, The Executioner, but alas the game glitched out on me and I was unable to proceed. See what happened here, for those of you still saying the game has no technical issues - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VehFo-QMur4 I severely lack the motivation to try again.Show moreShow less
28.8 hours at review516 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.