Inner Demons
Resident Evil creator returns to survival horror
In recent years mainstream survival horror games – with their focus on making the player feel helpless – have all but died out, replaced with an emphasis on crowd- pleasing gunplay and player empowerment. All that changes in The Evil Within as the father of survival horror, Shinji Mikami, is returning to the genre he pioneered.
“I was conscious of making TEW a survival horror game and not an action- shooter game,” Mikami says. “I wanted to revisit the roots of the genre.”
The Evil Within stars Sebastian Castellanos, a detective who descends into a world of madness after attending a bloody crime scene at a mental hospital. As Sebastian searches for answers he’s dragged from morbid serial killer basements to nightmarish mansions loaded with deadly traps, all while trying to survive an onslaught of undead enemies.
Mikami is keeping much of the game behind closed doors and with good reason – he knows to truly terrify you have to give people what they don’t expect.
“The unknown is what makes us scared,” Mikami says. “Therefore you will be thrown into situations you least expect. You will be experiencing this with Sebastian as he learns little by little, solving the mystery of why he’s there.” The Evil Within is available on PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC from Friday 24 October.