Hello all!
This week, Mitch (Dale Cooper) and I discuss THE EVIL WITHIN 2. This is fresh off our discussion of THE EVIL WITHIN which is a messy, flawed game but one I love regardless. THE EVIL WITHIN 2 is a game I like but I do feel like it lost sight of what made the debut so great.
Mitch and I start the show discussing TWIN PEAKS because I have been rewatching it with my girlfriend lately and Mitch decided to watch for the first time. We do not spoil anything!
Mitch also laments the end of DESTINY 2 and we discuss drama surrounding that. RIP to all Bungie employees laid off (like 400 of them jfc).
But back to the topic at hand…
THE EVIL WITHIN 2 finds returning main character Sebastian 3 years after the events of the first game as a drunken, depressed mess. After losing his daughter in a house fire and no longer being on the force, he is aimless. That is until Kidman shows up again and offers him a chance to JACK BACK INTO THE BIG BRAIN and maybe rescue his daughter?? The story follows a couple of twists and turns with antagonists in the form of a serial killer photographer, a religious fanatic and the corporation running STEM. But…it doesn’t quite have the narrative pull that the first game has. While messy and unpolished, there was something to the story of an abused child projecting this horror world. Now? It’s just like a military operation.
I don’t want to be all down on THE EVIL WITHIN 2 - I think the added polish to the gameplay allows the player to enjoy the moment to moment gameplay more. I was running it off an Xbox Series X and there is a boost to framerate and it was more enjoyable to play than when I first tackled it on the PS4 around release.
Speaking of release! The 2nd game was not directed by legend Shinji Mikami. He decided to take on a producer role which might be the reason why the game feels a little more…straightforward? But THE EVIL WITHIN 2 is far from a bad sequel or a bad game, it’s enjoyable but it just loses a little personality.
Let me know what you think of these two games and we will be back soon.
