Hello everyone,

I was a gigantic fan of Resident Evil 4. I received the game on Valentine's Day as a gift from my mother (best mom of the year award) for the Gamecube and I played through it in its entirety more than 6 times. I have since repurchased it on the Xbox 360 and gave it another go and I'm about halfway through. I say this so you know my motivation for buying and trying Evil Within and so you know I'm not just talking out of my butt here.

My hope with this thread was to give people who might be on the fence my impression of Evil Within, so that way others could make there own informed decision when considering to buy it or not. I know there are many, many reviews, but I wanted to give my perspective as someone who enjoyed RE4, but hasn't been getting the same level of enjoyment from Evil Within. I will try to compare EW to components of RE4 and show why I liked them in one and not in the other. Hopefully that will give forum members who haven't played EW, but have played RE4, a concrete basis upon which to judge whether they should commit the money. I welcome any and all feedback!

1. Story

RE4

I had not played much Resident Evil prior to coming into RE4. Playing RE4 made me go back to the Gamecube remake of the original and I believe I played RE:Zero (the one with Rebecca Chambers and Billy the ex-convict). Going from the over the shoulder perspective to the semi-isometric view svcked, but having invested in the RE4 story and being intrigued by it, I relished getting first hand background from the games that were prior to RE4 chronologically.

I'm not saying Resident Evil has a very clear story, but the components (evil corporation, biological experimentation, back stabbery) are easy to jump into and aren't really hard to follow, even if the names and details can go over your head. RE4's story in particular was really compelling. Rescuing the president's daughter and then protecting her gave a drive to the events of RE4 that you could center yourself on when the background machinations of the subplots were lost on your limited knowledge. In the end, that's what made RE4 really enjoyable for me, the very well defined and clear goal of the game, upon which the story elements could be draqed and matter little. Rescue the president's daughter from a hoard of insane parasitic monsters? Freakin' awesome. But then, after the credits roll, I want to know who Ada is, who Wesker is, what is different about this infection compared to the T-virus and all its offshoots.

EW

Everything I write about EW will be short, because I honestly haven't played much of it yet. I've gotten to the point where I know why it isn't giving me the same feeling as Resident Evil 4 though. The story is a major swaying influence. It is compelling and interesting, dark and grim, which makes sense due to Castellanos being a detective. However, there isn't anything to orient on when playing. You end up stumbling from one twisted place to the other, without much reason as to why, other than you know you need to get through it. I haven't stumbled upon any major plot points yet, but some vague notes I've gathered hint at psychological experimentation and I feel as though I know where the story is aiming itself. Predictability isn't a bad thing, but so far, it has been hard to find something to hold onto and feel intrigued by. It is either too generic or obviously very central to the plot, so it won't be made clear until the very end or near it. I just feel very lost thus far.

2. Gameplay

Both games have very similar gameplay style, however I can unreservedly say that I enjoyed playing RE4 more than EW. The reason for this is simply because RE4 had a more action-oriented playstyle. You still had to be conservative with your ammunition, use environmental explosives, grenades, and tactical positioning to succeed, but ammo was not quite as scarce as in EW. This made a feeling of tension, knowing that at any moment you could be out of ammo and having to knife opponents hoping for some 9mm ammo. This typically only became a problem if you were a really bad shot though. In EW, ammo is kept scarce and I get the feeling that the developers wanted to bring some feeling of horror or helplessness. In all honesty, I do not enjoy that gameplay style. I like tension, I like being challenged, I like having to think about how I'm going to use the limited tools at my disposal to eliminate my enemies, but I don't like feeling inadequate to take out my foe.

EW also makes heavy use of stealth components. Stealth kills are an integral part of your tool kit when it comes to eliminating enemies, and I have also never really enjoyed having to use stealth in videogames. It isn't horrible in EW, but I've run into weird situations where enemies will be aware of you when they shouldn't, but then lose track of you as well when they shouldn't. Stealth is just one of those things that's hit and miss in many situations, and it was completely absent in RE4. I think stealth in RE4 would have really ruined the momentum of the gameplay (not to mention being out of place). It makes sense in EW, but I definitely didn't anticipate that stealth would be an integral part of gameplay. For sequences where you are running for your life? Sure, and in scripted events, stealth is typically very polished. I could leave it for the gameplay though.

3. Content

Both games are rated M for mature, so both contained their share of gore and other disturbing elements. Both can be considered survival horror, but RE4 had a more action focus, where as EW leans more towards the survival roots. Even with those common roots, I feel the content and the feeling of both games is vastly separate and I much preferred the tone that RE4 set with its content. Namely, death in RE4 could be very grisly and your enemies domiciles contained any number of disturbing things, but you knew that they were human once and were infected. The idea of biologically crafted monsters could explain anything you were seeing and the content was grounded on that principle.

EW takes a psychological slant very early on and pushes that. Your enemies seem to be randomly plucked from concept art because they elicited some emotion or were otherwise just twisted enough to make the cut. I haven't had enough time to tell if their is some theme that emerges, but I know that the overall tone of EW is psychological terror, grisly, and eclectic.

My verdict

I think Evil Within is a good game, very good. It definitely isn't for me though. It doesn't hit the same highs for me as Resident Evil 4 did, for all the reasons above, but I think if you don't have a problem with any of the areas I discussed, you will definitely love it, especially if you enjoyed RE4. I hope this was informative and if anyone has any other comparisons they want to make, I'd welcome them.