So, I finished Akumu Mode. For those who don't know, it is an unlockable difficulty where Sebastian, the main character, dies from just one hit. It doesn't matter the source, whether an enemy, an enviromental hazard or just a small fragment of debris that touches Sebastian, he's just done for good. Not only that, but this difficulty also revokes the whole game, adding more traps, enemies that you should encounter later in the game show up much more earlier, scarceness of ammo and more on.
First time around, my final time of the game (not counting cutscenes and loading times, if I am not mistaken) was 11:38:04. My death count, 26.
However, finishing Akumu Mode, my stats are:
· 14:17:06
· 197 total deaths.
Finishing this mode, despite some huge frustrations along the ride (I'm looking directly at you, Chapter 6), made me realize how much I loved this game; in a way that had not happened to me ever since Dragon's Dogma, and that was 2012. Not only I felt compelled to get into this ride, but also starting the game back from scratch, even though I had just beaten it a while ago on the standard difficulty.
It's not a perfect game by any means; the plot is way too ambicious for its own good (although I liked it a lot, and it is open for interesting discussions), the characters are your usual stereotype, and there's some gameplay mechanics that, while not evident on your first walkthrough, are completely visible on things such as Akumu Mode.
However, the game is never shy of showing these problems, and instead it offers the player an awesome trip through a world full of personality. It's weird, it's bizarre, it's spikes in difficulty are daunting but never unfair (unless, again, you play on Akumu Mode), and it's satisfying. I thought I'd never get to this point, but The Evil Within became my favourite game of 2014, to be honest. And while I know some people came disappointed with this title, I can only praise Mikami for just not...making a Resident Evil 4 clone. It does take some inspirations from it (as well as Silent Hill), but there's nothing wrong with it as Resident Evil 4 is a timeless masterpiece.
Also, checking the VGC sales data for this game, we find out that:
| 1 | The Evil Within | PS4 | 2014 | Action | Bethesda Softworks | 0.34 | 0.45 | 0.07 | 0.26 | 1.14 |
| 2 | The Evil Within | PS3 | 2014 | Action | Bethesda Softworks | 0.14 | 0.20 | 0.10 | 0.12 | 0.55 |
| 3 | The Evil Within | XOne | 2014 | Action | Bethesda Softworks | 0.22 | 0.15 | 0.00 | 0.04 | 0.42 |
| 4 | The Evil Within | X360 | 2014 | Action | Bethesda Softworks | 0.15 | 0.10 | 0.00 | 0.02 | 0.28 |
| 5 | The Evil Within | PC | 2014 | Action | Bethesda Softworks | 0.05 | 0.07 | 0.00 | 0.02 | 0.14 |
| Total | 0.91 | 0.98 | 0.18 | 0.46 | 2.52 |
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Add onto it Steam Sales, which are not tracked, and console players that bought it digitally, and we can aproximately measure that this game has crossed the three million units sold. Well deserved, honestly.
So, did you guys play The Evil Within? Did you like it?
