The Evil Within Game preview

The title The Evil Within presents itself in white letters on a black backdrop, and the presentation starts.

Before long we witness main character Sebastian hanging upside down from a butcher's hook in a dark and blood filled butchery. Nearby a beast of man, who bears a surprising resemblance to Bane from the most recent Batman flick, goes to work on another victim with a chainsaw. The desperate screams from the helpless man are only interrupted by the sound of metal carving through meat, bone, and tendons. And then there's silence.

It's enough to make you feel uneasy. The grotesque scene underlines that this is indeed a survival horror game.

The Evil Within: Plot

The Evil Within starts off innocuous enough as a detective investigating a disturbance at a mental institution - it's called 'Psychobreak' in Japan - and as you enter its suspiciously Resi-like brown wooden door, you wonder whether you're in for something of a retread.

But some spooky security camera footage later and you find yourself hanging upside from your feet surrounded by corpses, desperately flicking the analogue stick to swing yourself down.Less specifically, combat appears far more contextual, the settings of the action changing drastically and your responses having to do so in turn. Your character will get injured and you will have to deal with the consequences.

It is very much a survival horror in that you must use what you can find, and weapons are scant, though guns do feature, while discarded medical syringes are used to stock up health.

What's really startling is the pace, or lack of it, a sinister slow-burn even for Mikami's standards that lets the soundtrack build the tension before the inevitable set-pieces that escalate dramatically. Stealth is key, too, and this married with the game's constant decision to turn away from the visual horrors in preference for desperate survival makes it all the more realistic.

The Evil Within: Conclusion

While it isn't as weird as some would have you believe and is almost purposefully derivative in places, we hope this is part of a grander, meta statement that Mikami wants to make over the full duration. Surely no one can wilfully replicate so many iconic images from horror's history and not have something to say with them?Until the time comes, we're waiting patiently to find out - with the light on, obviously.Is The Evil Within an attempt to bring back the emotions of those childhood stories? Either way, we're excited about the prospect of a master of survival horror returning to his old haunting grounds...