First of all i must say i have not finished the game yet. I reached Chapter 12 on Survival mode ( hardest difficulty available from the start) somehow and i'm dreading returning to the game.To get the full effect of any horror you must be in a dark room and have the volume loud with no distractions!
I'm a hardcore horror fan so it's not easy to scare me but The Evil Within geniunely freaked me out. The game does a wonderful job of completely disorientating the player through out the game which creates a nauseating uneasy feeling. You're never sure if you're in reality or a dream and the landscape can change in an instant with no warning or explanation how you got there. Even the supposed ' safe zone' where you do your character upgrades can suddenly turn into a psychological nightmare and i was never sure if going there from the main game would be a good or bad thing. when the end of chapter screen finally arrives it's a momentary release of tension andi found myself often staring at it just composing myself before daring to carry on.
The sound design is amazing through out the game ranging from spooky strings swelling in and out of the game to pulse pounding unnerving walls of horror noise when one of the games grotesque abominations burst into the action, even the growling noises from the lesser enemies ( the Haunted) are unsettling particularly during stealth sections creeping around trying not to attract their attention.
Graphics wise the game looks amazing in my opinion ( xbox 360 ) with great use of lighting and character models. Some of the enemies look genuinely disgusting and the environments range from beautiful colourful scenes to hellish nightmare dungeons of gore and death. Having said that there are some graphical issues here and there ( some of the trees looked blocky) but these small problems did not ruin my experience or the atmosphere and were quickly forgotten. I also enjoyed the cinematic view with the black borders but i can understand if others would find this annoying. It was strange to begin with but i quickly got used to it and didn't even think about it later in the game.
Gameplay is tense and exciting. I found ammo hard to come by and often wasted what i had in a blind panic trying to fend of the monsters leaving me dreading the next encounter nervously checking every corner for anything to help me.Even finding a single handgun bullet feels like a relief.. at least i now have something.. anything! It truly feels like a return to survival horror where the monsters have the advantage and you can't just mow everything down and keep on moving. The stealth sections were incredibly tense.. listening to the disgusting watery growls stalking around you as you creep through the dark with no health and 2 bullets can be genuinely frightening and the fear of being spotted keeps you on the edge of your seat. There is no handholding in this game, no mini map to refer to, no arrows pointing where to go. You have to work out what to do yourself and the game has many fiendish puzzles and traps to keep the tension up. One of few downsides for me was the movement animations for Sebastian which take some getting used to. He seems to bounce up and down too much while walking and the camera can get a bit jerky when sneaking around in thin corridors and tight corners leading to some frustration.
Overall i think this is a truly great game despite minor flaws here and there and i would definately recommend any horror fan to buy this game immediately.