Survival horror over the past couple of years, has been dominated by more helpless ideas, where you can't really do much if you're actually caught by the antagonists of the game: Amnesia: Dark Descent, Penumbra and Outlast to name but a few. This has been somewhat of a change of pace over the Resident Evil or FEAR style games of old, which at least gave you something to hack away with at the many limbed, dark haired, teen girl , or chainsaw wielding maniac.
The Evil Within is looking to combine these two idea, by making you completely helpless most of the time, but occasionally letting you pop down a nail bomb to take out a zombie horde.
In this latest trailer we get a feel for how the game might begin - or at least how one of the acts starts. If you don't want to know what happens and would rather see it yourself, watch the video below before reading any further.
While the beginning of the video is dominated by some creepy cut scene action, what follows is a really interesting chase around an abandoned medical facility, very reminiscent of the one at the end of Manhunt, though with less piggy masks.
The player character isn't inately helpless, being a full bodied man with a waistcoat and everything, but taking a chainsaw slash to the left will slow down even the toughest detective. And that's what looks a bit more playable than Descent or its comparables. The player isn't totally helpless. Pretty damn helpless sure, but not totally. So the terror won't be quite as paralyzing.
There's also something much bigger going on with the story, as the collapsed cityscape suggests. This is a horror story where the world's gone crazy, not just one isolated building or town.
Oh and you can burn zombie bodies too. Neat right?
So, what did you guys think of the trailer? I'd still like to see a COOP element in a decent survival horror, as I feel I could play them without having a heart attack then, but that's just me. I know a lot of people love that lonely isolation in horror games.
Evil Within is coming next year to all current and next-gen consoles (except the Wii U) and PC.