| shikamaru317 said: Hmmm, I've heard some bad things about The Evil Within, from what I've heard the game design is just frustratingly difficult, poor checkpoint placement coupled with a random enemy who can spawn in anytime, anywhere and instakill you, including when you're stuck climbing a ladder. It's apparently very old school survival horror, much like the original Resident Evil games. Not sure that's for me. |
Honestly, and not to criticise game reviewers (because, all things considered, at the end a review is fundamentally based on that player's view), I think a lot of things in TEW got blown out of proportion. I know I'm extremely biased about it, as it became one of my favourite games, but still.
For example, the game design...if we're talking about the dungeon design, it is not made to make any sense at all, except that it is very videogame-ish. Every chapter is strikingly different from each other because it tries to follow a Mario route, where every world changes. Context about this is given, and it's all part of the plot, but it mostly serves as an excuse to keep throwing variety at the player. In one chapter you're running through a Victorian Mansion, then on the next one youre battling enemies at a highway.
Poor checkpoint placement could be a point if we were talking about the game's highest difficulty, on which Sebastian - the main character - dies from one hit. Thing is, this difficulty is only unlocked once you've beaten the game, so really, there's no poor placement of checkpoints in easier difficulties. In fact, the game is very generous with those.
That random enemy you're talking about is an special circumstance, again, in Chapter 9. There's, indeed, an enemy that spawns arbitrary and can one hit kill Sebastian, but he does not last long and he gives you some room (at first) to try and evade him. Once you beat Chapter 9, you never meet this enemy ever again, nor he spawns anymore.
