It’s tough being scared when you know what’s going to happen. Paranormal Activity made me jump so high I could’ve checked the wattage of the light bulbs, but the second time through the jump scares had lost their… jump. The same goes for video games, or anything really, but games are special because we have the power to change that.
The Evil Within has something called distortions. They’re events that randomly change something in the environment. That something can be a part of a room, an enemy, or an object, and the distortion transforms it in real-time into something nightmarish.
I haven’t seen it in action, but it sounds like a brilliant way to make this game scarier, and not to mention more replayable. I hope it’s a major feature, as opposed to something we rarely encounter over the course of the game.
This isn’t Resident Evil 4, nor should it be.
Mikami led development of RE4, and from what we’ve seen of this game so far, it looks like his past work is heavily influencing his latest title. I love Resident Evil 4, it’s my favorite game in the series despite it’s more action-packed approach to horror, but I don’t want to see too much of it in The Evil Within.
Looking at the screenshots we’ve seen so far, the camera angle, combat, enemies and even that boss guy with the box on his head all look like things we’d see in RE4. There’s even a recent confirmation that someone, or rather, something will wield a chainsaw — a Mikami staple — in this game. I’m okay with seeing a little bit of Resident Evil in this, I’d even expect it, but I want this to be its own game. There are other games that offer the fine experience that is fighting chainsaw-wielding baddies from the third person perspective — I want this to be different.
