The Evil Within: The Executioner Review
The Evil Within: The Executioner
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Tango Gameworks
Genre:
PEGI: M
Comments:
The Evil Within: The Executioner Review
Entering the dark, twisted, and powerful mind of a deranged young genius named Ruben Victoriano aka Ruvik- The Evil Within was a treat for horror fans. Released in October of 2014, the game stems from the genius mind of Resident Evil father Shinji Mikami. A survival-horror franchise that has spanned countless re-vamps and even a movie series, Resident Evil comprised perfect mixture of suspense, scares, and aesthetic. Dissapointed by recent ‘horror’ game releases, Mikami decided to create a new game that would feature styles seen in the RE franchise while following a new set of characters in a new universe. Desiring to show horror fans a game where one “truly overcomes fear”, The Evil Within was released to mostly very positive reviews.
DLC is Born
Due to the success of The Evil Within, the first round of downloadable content was set in the works. This content was broken into two chapters. The first, The Assignment, and the second, The Consequence, revolve around the female counterpart to The Evil Within’s lead detective Sebastian Castellanos – a feisty rookie detective named Juli Kidman. This DLC offered a full new story with a large amount of gameplay, and took a step in a different direction that TEW, by focusing more on stealth and puzzle solving. Shortly after Kidman’s story was finally resolved-adding a large amount of story and explanation that was severely lacking in the original game-another DLC was announced. This new title, a single release add-on story called The Executioner offers the character a chance to play the game in yet again, a whole new way.
Controlling The Keeper
While The Evil Within offered well-rounded third person linear gameplay and The Assignment/The Consequence offer a stealthy survival-horror feel, The Executioner aimed to deliver a whole new way to explore the world of Ruvik’s mind. Set again in the same world as the prior releases, seeing the same set of events from another viewpoint feeds into the fan theory that Sebastian’s view of the world offered up in the original game is only one of many different experiences had while victims were hooked up to the STEM research machine. While Juli’s experience differed dramatically from Sebastian’s, the newly controllable character in The Executioner sees things in a completely different way.
The player controls (now in first-person, for the first time in the series so far) an unnamed man who appears to be (at least in physical appearance) one of the main antagonists from The Evil Within – The Keeper. Nicknamed ‘safe head’ by fans and developers, the lumbering butcher’s face is entirely hidden by a safe-like helmet filled to the brim with pulsing flesh and blood. Carrying a huge meat tenderizer hammer covered in spikes and a bag filled with the brains of his victims, The Keeper is a force to be reckoned with. In this third DLC installment, the player now smashes through the levels killing everything in sight and fearing no one.
Your character is a simple man in search of his daughter who is also hooked up to the STEM machine and lost somewhere in the warped mind of Ruvik. As he travels through the familiar stages of the Victoriano Mansion, Beacon Mental Hospital, and the sewers, the Keeper earns his name as Executioner as he tears through enemies in search of lost notes from his daughter and instructions from the shady organization MOBIUS on how to find her. Each level offers a new foe to take on – all returning players from the previous installment, as well as a shop to upgrade your items and a ‘battle room’ to earn money and practice your hammer-wielding skills. Through the course of the short, but fast-paced game, the player gets insight into the characters of the first game who were also hooked up to STEM. Enemies appear to actually be real people who have taken on monstrous forms in Ruvik’s reality.
Undoubtedly the most freeing playing experience offered in the franchise so far, it certainly doesn’t seem to fall under the ‘survival-horror’ category. However, that being said it is most definitely still fitting with the eerie and twisted aesthetic offered in previous gameplay, though a little less suspenseful since you now literally kick the door in and barge into any area, enemies or not. For any fan of The Evil Within, this is a great DLC. Offered at a more than reasonable price of $5, getting to experience the world through the eyes of The Executioner is a truly exciting experience.