GameSided Game of the Year 2014 | Daniel’s Picks
8 – The Evil Within
Shinji Mikami directed Resident Evil 4, twice. Once in 2005 and a second time as The Evil Within. The similarities are too striking for any other theory to come close.
With that out of the way, The Evil Within is still a great game, in its own right. No story quite had me second guessing myself this year like The Evil Within, which is quite a feat for a survival horror game. Combat-wise, the weapon selection breathed new life into the traditional arsenal, with a crossbow that felt important in a game for the first time in a long time. More importantly, the character and monster designs felt truly horrific, helping to subvert protag Sebastian’s altered state as well as the storyline did.
It’s a shame, though, that it was published by current-day Bethesda, because boy was it ever a buggy mess. Crash errors on PC, combined with an unoptimized job that requires an i7 just to get 1080p visuals makes for a major upset that is only trumped by crash issues. 30 FPS natively put all other issues on the backburner, as aggressive modding was the solution at launch. The Evil Within could have done with more polishing, as a better final product could vault this game into a legitimate Top 5.
Next: #7 Stares Into The Endless Abyss Of Wackiness That Is The Mind Of Swery65