Since Evil Within was announced, I'd been looking forward to the game. I'm a huge Resident Evil fan and a Shinji Mikami fan. Up until this point, his work represtended only the highest quality. He'd previously worked at Capcom and then Platinum Games and every game he produced or directed often pushed the limits of what hardware could do! There was no question in my mind that The Evil Within would continue this tradition.
The day Evil Within came out, I picked it up at my lunch break having pre-ordered it. I just couldn't wait for the day to end so I could go home and play it. When I had the opportunity, I read a few reviews and in general, they were glowing. No mention of preformance issues.
DAY ONE
Finally the moment came, I put the game in my PS4 and waited for the install. The day one patch was downloading but the install finished before the patch was done downloading. I turned off the lights and started the game believing I was in for a super special experience. What the heck is going on? Is this a joke? There's very slow texture streaming and the game seems to be running at 15 - 20 fps. Is this intentional; some kind of stylization? What's with the extreme letterbox? Hopefully all this will clear up once the game starts. The driving through the city sequence ends and I can now control the character. I move the camera to the left and then to the right, it's super choppy and the extreme letterbox is still there. Why? I finish chapter 1 and save.
I head to my computer. Google: The Evil Within performance PS4. Hmmm... Not much. Oh! The day one Patch! I forgot! Lets try Chapter 2. Still Super Choppy! Up until this point, I had purchased Alien Isolation a week earlier. I'd wanted to play Evil Within first. I don't know what's up with The Evil Within but I guess I'll start Alien Isolation instead.
DAY TWO
Google: The Evil Within performance PS4 frame rate
Oh! Looks like everyone is having issues.
Black Bar.... Poor Frame rate.... Black Bar.... Poor Frame Rate.... etc...
MONTH LATER
Finished Alien Isolation... Incredible experience! What do I play now? Evil Within? Chapter 2... OMG, I don't know if I can take this frame rate. Still no new patch! **To myself** Everyone says chapter 2 and 3 are the worst... Just make it to chapter 4!
Black Friday
Here brothers (my brothers own an Xbox One), I bought you each a copy of Evil Within. It's a great game, just pretend it's a last generation game. You'll enjoy it but it performs horribly.
**Phone Rings**
My Brother: Hey! How do you turn off the black bars?
Me: You can't.
My Brother: That stinks, I feel like I can't see properly. The guy is in the way. He's taking up too much of the screen.
Almost 2 months later
I'm on Chapter 14. Is the game glitching out? This squid boss isn't re-appearing. There's leaches coming out of the air. Must be a glitch. Let me look on youtube and see how you're supposed to defeat this boss.
OMG!!! No letterbox!!! It's running at 60fps!!! This must be the PC version. This is how I wanted to experience this game. And... I guess this boss wasn't glitching... invisable?
NEXT DAY!!!
Holy cow!!! A one gig patch!!! I wonder what was fixed!!! Will there be an option to turn off the letterbox? Let me look in the options menu... Nope!
One hour later
Finally finished Evil Within. It was good... I wish I could have enjoyed it at 60fps with no letterbox. Lets start the game all over with my rocket launcher and machine gun. I can finally see the game properly optimized.
Chapter 1: Hmmm.... Looks better. I can still see texture streaming.
Chapter 2: Ummm... This is still super choppy.
Chapter 3: UGH!!! This looks as bad as I remember it. I don't think a darn thing was fixed.
TODAY
IGN: DLC for The Evil Within Begins Rolling Out Early Next Year!
Ummm... No thank you. You still haven't finished optimizing the retail game. You didn't bother to listen to customers and patch the letterbox (Everyone hated the black bars). Why isn't the frame rate fixed? Should have ran at 60 fps on Next Gen System.