You don't get me, I'm part of the Union, ’til the day I die.
Which may very well be today.
Ex-cop Sebastian Castellanos is
back, bringing his really-rather-good-actually John Wick
impersonation to a new round of psychological freak-out survival
horror. The first was directed by Resident Evil supremo
Shinji Mikami. This one isn’t. But don’t let that put you off, as
the franchise appears to be in capable hands.
So, back to old
Seb. He’s looking through life via the blunt end of a whiskey
bottle, as we likely would too if we felt responsible for the death
of our young daughter. But the thing is, his daughter’s still alive
– well, according to Kidman (the non-BMX Bandit variety). Curiosity
naturally piqued, Seb agrees to get all Matrix with more STEM
research and enter the virtual town of Union in order to find young
Lily and, well, stuff.
It is a tad confusing. But we’re
easily confused by horror tropes, and this thing is bulging with
them. Plus it features more truly ick-hideous mutants than a
wheelchair-bound Patrick Stewart could ever imagine, even if his
cuppa was dosed with LSD while he munched upon magic mushies.
While you’ll-go-here-because-we-want-you-to bits abound, there
are also free-to-explore open world parts, with added side missiony
goodness. It soon becomes abundantly clear that Union ain’t no
normal Podunk town. Likely because it’s a simulation, but anyway.
As per the series’ previous entry, stealth is the desired
approach, while dealing blasts to hideous, malformed heads are
actually a fuckload more fun. Sneak softly and carry a big
boomstick? Nah, just blammo it baby – although at times you’ll
likely regret it. But you will have had fun pre-corpsification.
Really, our only major bugbear is that the camera
ISTOOFUCKINGCLOSETOYOUANDREALLYINHIBITING!
A larger game
this time around, and oozing with genuinely horrorific moments,
The Evil Within 2 is just as messed up as the first one. We
mean that in the best possible way.
