The Evil Within and Battlecry highlight what Bethesda was showing at E3 this year.
I don’t usually go for the scary/survival horror games but when I was able to snag an appointment with Bethesda, I couldn’t pass it up and was looking forward to getting freaked out by The Evil Within. I was also able to try Battlecry, which is another game being developed at Bethesda, but was early in the development stage.
Everyone had the same idea to try The Evil Within first in the appointment but the room was full and every demo station was full. The alternative was Battlecry, the 32-person mega battle game where you fight for power and glory in the post World War of the 20th century. In the game, the Black Powder Treaty bans all gunpowder but without gunpowder, the old problems stir their ugly heads again. The question becomes “what is the plan to stop the fighting?” The obvious answer was more fighting during the Pansophic Revolution( time period created after the Black Powder Treaty)which was more high tech however the disputes were handled with the best of the best fighting it out in Warzones.
The Royal Marines and the Cossacks were the teams available in the demo but there will be more when the full version of the game is released. There are different classes of character and different versions of characters on each team. The Marine Archer and the Cossack Archer are going to look different. You could also be an Enforcer who fights with a sword or a Duelist who is quick and stealthy. Whoever you fight with, there is an adrenaline system that makes you super-human and able to handle pretty much anything at that time. It only lasts for a short time so make sure you do what you need to do fast!
The controls are a little tough to get used to at the start but after that little period of unknown, you’ll be able to attack and kill with the best of them. The grappling-hook like item wasn’t responsive at times so it was a challenge to hook on to the grapple launch point and swing to the other area. The controls could be a little tighter. The jumps could be a little easier to line up as well but it’s early in development so you have to expect these things. The graphics look fantastic and the animations do too, especially when you finally get that kill and that torso goes flying into the air. The Beta for Battlecry will be available at some point in 2015 so keep your eyes open for that.
Like I mentioned before, I was totally expecting to get freaked out by The Evil Within and I was right. Perception of something can freak you out just as much as actually being scared. Even so, I was looking forward to The Evil Within and it didn’t disappoint!
The game is based around survival horror and you find that out right away when your character, Detective Sebastian Castellanos, witnesses the slaying of his fellow police officers and then is knocked out and brought to the messed up world that The Evil Within takes place. Right off the bat you start to hear voices from people who aren’t there, while you make your way to the creepy house at the end of the walkway.
The environment and lightning create an even scarier atmosphere when you make your way inside and doors are locked and things come out of the poorly lit hallway. Running might be your only option sometimes or you can hide from the monsters/ghosts/whatever in closets or under beds. If horror movies have taught us anything, the monsters won’t look under the bed or in a closet. You will be able to fight for your safety at times by shooting these monsters but sometimes a headshot won’t be the answer. There are traps and bombs to worry about as well that can go off if you don’t disarm them so there’s another thing you have to worry about.
One thing’s for sure, The Evil Within looks fantastic and if a horror game has me getting this way, then it has done its job. Like I mentioned before, the lighting and the environment creates the mood of scary. It doesn’t hurt when you have monsters and ghosts roaming around and really not too many ways to defeat them. When I saw that white ghoul in the upstairs hallway in the demo, I took off downstairs, even though I knew the front door was locked. Fear does things like that to people and I was really nervous when you have to drill into the head of the patient that’s already on the table in the middle of the room. I was totally expecting that monster to jump up and attack me. For survival horror, if the game has you nervous before you even start to play it, it has won! The Evil Within will jump start the survival horror genre and get people back into the realm of scaring the daylights out of you!
