The Evil Within - "True survival horror"

General Discussion
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"After Tango Gameworks head and veteran game dev Shinji Mikami outed news on his current game, “Project Zwei,” to Famitsu earlier, publisher Bethesda apparently decided to do its own big debut. In an email missive early this morning, Bethesda announced Mikami’s project as “the realization of pure survival horror” (Bethesda’s asterisks, not ours), and included a collage of various environments in Zwei, “that communicate the tone and direction that the production is taking.”

Mikami said true survival horror is a situation “in which the player confronts and overcomes fear.” From that note, we can only assume that the Black Eyed Peas must play some role in Zwei. Mikami added, “I’ve found my focus and once again I’m striving for pure survival horror. I am being very hands-on in the development of this game to ensure that the quality is there. Rest assured.”

As reported earlier, the game is still in the initial stages of development (as evidenced by the collage of environments above). It’s expected to launch on “HD consoles” at some point in 2013."

This game… <3

Leaked footage :

http://distilleryimage11.s3.amazonaws.com/c7f0e502fb8e11e2b19622000a1f9d89_102.mp4

http://distilleryimage9.s3.amazonaws.com/00082e22fb9011e2a8c922000a1fc80c_102.mp4

http://distilleryimage1.s3.amazonaws.com/d2b9493afb8d11e2a1d122000ae911c2_102.mp4

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by pure survival horror i assume he means not a bunch of ammo, not a bunch of overpowered weapons you get, hard bosses, not a lot of life laying around for you to heal your scrubby ass, an environment where your only option is to proceed or die, rather then simply walking away and calling the national guard in to deal with the problem, etc…

sounds like hes putting us in a game of very little choices, lots of things wanting to kill you,and an environment thats not always bright and easy to navigate around, posing no real threat or fear.

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So the antithesis of Dead Space 3?

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I forgot to add this :

“Project Zwei, the new survival horror title from Resident Evil 4 maestro Shinji Mikami has received a few snippets of development information, chiefly, that the CGI design will be handled by the same chap who worked on the stellar Resident Evil Gamecube remake.”

Pretty sure about the ammo and overpowered weapons part.

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I look forward to it. I cant find a game these days that matches the joy I got out of playing older RE or SH games. Too many games these days take the approach of ‘better the devil you know’. By that I mean some of what Jimmy referred to. You play the games too well equipped, you know your objectives and how to complete them. What was really horror about RE6? You moved through areas so quickly and so well equipped, it limited the horror to what was on the screen at any given point. It was always gone in a flash.

Hopefully we will get the devil we don’t know with this game. That for me personally always works out better. Give the game some suspense and tension, make the game difficult. I’m only excited because Mikami is involved, but I’m glad to hear Bethesda are giving the genre a go. I hope they can make something that survival horror fans can enjoy and be proud of.

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cool, sounds promising

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Here is the official website www.projectzwei.net/
There is some more artwork there that i haven’t posted here.

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i forgot mikami worked on, shadows of the damned, which i am finally getting around to buying this friday. i was real amped for it, and was waiting for the price to come down a bit as i heard the replay value was a bit low, but it still seemed like a game i could enjoy personally for a while, then time passed and i forgot. lol. i will probably update my old thread from it with a review once i finish beating it for anyone who is interested in possibly picking it up.

so with mikami being the creative director on shadows of the damned, i wonder if we will get any of that vision in this new title. maybe less cheeky grindhouse, but a lot of horror and supernatural stuff. i think there is much more fright and creativity to be had with a more supernatural themed survival horror game, then the more scientific route resident evil has been about, but thats just me.

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It’s about time we get another game like this. I mean, not since Dead Space (the original) has a game been truly scary to me. Scary in it’s atmosphere. Scary as in…the danger of the enemies in relation to my tools effectiveness to fight them. A game that can let you try to combat the scary “thing” whatever it may be, without Gears of War-afying the experience.

I’m interested in this. /Alucard

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sorry to boost the thread without any new info, but i would like to give a review of my shadows of the damned experience recently, which mikami was the creative producer on it, and you can clearly see a heavy influence with him, and im sure he helped bring this game together better then anyone else could have.

this review is here, and not in my shadows of the damned thread because maybe it can give some insight as to what to expect in his new game, and quite frankly this thread is more interesting and likely to stay more active then the shadows of the damned thread from years ago.

i guess first is my score. bias score and in relation to its competition 8/10. unbias score 7/10, but a really good 7.

i dont normally do this, so i kind of dont know where to start. i guess the story

STORY

really straightforward, and i think the simplicity of the story is good in that it can setup prequels, sequels, etc… all we see is garcia kill a demon who taunts him about the safety of paula, garcia goes to save paula, kills some demons, paula is kidnapped by the “king of hell”, and garcia jumps into a portal to save her with his friend johnson (a demon who can transform into various weapons and talk).

i dont have much criticism of the story. it wasnt bad, it just wasnt fleshed out like previous resident evil games. there was only 1 human support character outside of paula, who was completely irrelevant, and its really just a you and johnson vs hell game. you dont run across any partners, familiar faces, etc… nothing to really grab you into the story. its basically you continuing to be a bad ass in hell vs a bunch of demons.

GAMEPLAY

gameplay was solid.

Cons of gameplay

constant environmental glitches forcing you to erratically aim up and down without control if you got too close to an object. its easily avoidable, and not game breaking, but its easy to constantly do, and can be annoying if you wanna nit pick, but if you play right there shouldnt be any issue with it at all.

random fire glitches. sometimes a mini cutscene will happen for a boss or enemy, and you will hold down the aim button, and it will just start aiming and shooting without hitting the shoot button. its not really an issue, but it happened fairly often, and was just kind of a like wtf is going on.

only had 1 enemy glitch that i repeated 3 times, but not sure how, and it was too my advantage so i hope to figure it out in the future. later on you encounter these demons that sonic the hedgehog spin at you, then hit something and get knocked out. well if there are two of them, ive been able to shoot one with the light gun, and it glitches and stays permanetely stunned while i handle the other one. now it does come back after taking a certain amount of shots and or damage, but you can just stick it with bombs and 1 shot it pretty easy.

not being able to destroy boxes and barrells with the torch was silly. you have to spend ammo, which would suck, but there is a shit ton of ammo ALL THE TIME, and later when you get the sticky bomb handgun upgrade, maybe a little known fact, but you can destroy barrels and boxes with it and not have to worry about detonation because only actual fire from a gun can do that.

PROS

i loved having a 180 spin button for quick turns
shooting, reloading, aiming, and just general fluidity was good. regardless of the glitches, i never felt like ugggggh turn around and aim you dumb fuck. i really felt in control most of the time

TIMEOUT. sorry im too tired to continue. will tomorrow. although i have some criticisms so far, the game is still really good and entertaining. id have to play resident evil 6, but id easily rather play this game then resident evil 5, and its just great overall. really creative and good stuff in this game. more positive stuff tomorrow

i cannot wait to discuss the atmosphere of the game and just how creative it is. for a game that seemed to be rushed and not that fleshed out in story or replay options, it still shits on anything of its genre post i guess re4, even though i only finished 60 percent of re4. it was too long and tedius for me. maybe i was further then that. i was just like ugh, i get it, im done, wtf is this an 20 hour rpg. lol

like its the perfect blend of cheesy lines, and great delivery. its not like how in DmC its like horrible line by a shitty voice actor you cannot relate to, followed by the same, and the interactions are just too try hard. its like fun juvenile at times, cheesy but fune commentary throughout the game. like if you take youself beyond way to seriously you will immediately go to stupid land and not see the beauty of its creativity and just balls to be how it is in a time and age of just cookie cutter bleh

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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Shadows of the damned is a 8.5 imo. It’s not the most polished game in the world but goddamn is it good

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SO BACK NOW :smiley:

COUPLE MORE CONS

i wanted to say one more con of the gameplay that like the other cons doesnt really affect you that much is the limit on aiming all the way up or all the way down. so if youre trying to shoot down at enemies later on in the game in like chapter 4, you cant if they come to close under you, and sometimes its annoying when youre trying to aim up at a goat head, but you find you need to walk back some because youre too close. but all in all it doesnt destroy the experience, but it is an oversight.

not having chapter select is really a huge god awful oversight. if i didnt enjoy the game so much, i might have to take it down to a bias 7 and an unbias 6. i was really amped to just beat the game, then power up a ton of shit i didnt max out and just plow through demons and bosses in various different ways, but nope, beat the game and its like either continue from the last chapter or start a new game. i was like whoa, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME. actually the more i talk about it, the angrier it makes me. i have my xbox on right now and im playing a new playthrough just to try different upgrades and scam more white gems (capping knee caps and stomping demons) to trade, but cmon you gotta make sure the most simplistic shit is in order before you finalize and ship the game out.

speaking of gems, i wish there were more white and red gems. especially considering you gave me a game with no chapter select, so at the least more gems so i can take advantage of having fun with my upgrades while i can wouldve been nice. you get enough and there are a few minor gem glitches but nothing overwhelming.

THINGS I JUST LIKE

i love the main character garcia. it was a really new take on the main male lead, and im glad he was ethnic rather then just a white male. a tatted up mexican demon hunter with a cross scar on his face with a beautiful blonde white woman as his crazy girlfriend. also he just has nice styling. the purple coat i think was great. good color especially on us brown people, slick hair, skull rings. he just is a very well designed character in a very well designed environment.

i enjoy the constant interaction between garcia and johnson, and i like how they even joke on the game or genre too as they go along. like garcia saying he fucking hates puzzles, or johnson reading a sign spelled backwards and saying, hmm must be a joke by the developers (the sign said fucked up room). so you get a lot of that throughout the game and its fun

i liked the “mini games” of big boner and the little 2d shits. they can be frustrating at first but once you beat em its like oh okay, that was cool and different, and i really enjoy it because its nice to see the producers not be afraid to temporarily take you out of the world that youre use to and almost really just give you a little light hearted break.

i enjoyed the upgrading system and the weapons they offered, and how those weapons interact with the game at times, like going bowling with the charged skull bomb. its too bad there is no chapter select in this game. as i said earlier, thats a huge oversight and really fucks up the replay value a lot. but the sticky bomb is your best friend and its really fun to use to just layer an area and light up enemies or one shot those pyramid head guys that shoot red shots at you.

the overall tone of the game and its levels was nice. sometimes i did feel like i wanted a break in the dark hellish environment, but overall it was still great and it keeps you on your toes because it just doesnt let it up with the creep factor. its just like nah, your in hell, its dark, ugly and fucked up. deal with it. no blissful moments of finding friends or a bright corridor, or a bright sunny day. its dark, bloody, and creepy. boom

the sountrack. YESSSS,FOR THE LOVE OF GOD YESS. it makes everything that much creepier. i even think i heard somewhat of a remix of a big trouble in little track, the wong kong exchange, and i almost lost my shit. like for the love of god yes, we have some cultured, fun, producers here if you know that fucking shit. then you have all the other creepy sounding tracks, a little rock, giggling babies, etc… it just all fits in so well with the environment like i havent seen in this genre before.

lets see what else, oh the guy who you can buy gems, ammo, and red gems from is cool as shit, and i liked his ghostbusters line. that shit was funny. you have to talk then back out a few times to see all his lines for that area. they change and i still havent heard all of them.

the bosses were fun and relatively easy and straight to the point at least on normal mode. the like 3 story tall demons and that goat boss were really fun to play against and it was nice design. there wasnt really a lack of enemies either. i think there were a good solid 7 different types of demons you came across, with those little roach fuckers being the creepiest.

now that i googled it, yup they had a remix of this awesome track in shadows of the damned. great track to remix too. it has a nice dark tone to it.

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Hmm, you’ve just reminded me that I actually have Shadows. I enjoyed your take on the game but couldnt help feel I had heard of it before. Looked at my game collection and there it was. I now remember buying it in a closing down sale at a very reasonable price. £5 I think.

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When I think “pure” survival horror, I think of something like Amnesia where there isn’t combat at all. You need to rely on your wits to survive. I’m HOPING Zwei doesn’t have combat or has very little combat at all. Things are less scary when you’re actually able to kill them/defend yourself.

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Okay so we have a live action trailer now, better than nothing. Can see real influences of RE and Silent Hill. Game is confirmed for 2014, 360, PS3, PC and next gen consoles. Looking forward to seeing the first gameplay footage, seems like it might be an interesting game.

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Thanks Kneel !

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Actually he changed his mind:

“We’re incredibly proud to announce The Evil Within,” said Mikami. “My team and I are committed to creating an exciting new franchise, providing fans the perfect blend of horror and action.”

As a huge fan of horror games I can assure you there are dozens of truly scary ones you most likely haven’t played both before and after Dead Space. DS1 and especially the much scarier sequel are among my absolute favorite games, but it really bothers me quite a few scary/creepy horror games have been made since then that have been mostly ignored.

By definition survival horror is an offshoot of adventure, so a game can have some combat and still be considered pure survival horror. And according to the quote above Mikami has confirmed some combat.

Badass trailer, I’m confident Mikami will delver on the atmosphere at least. Anyways here’s more info on it:

http://www.allgamesbeta.com/2013/04/the-evil-within-debut-trailer-mikamis.html

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That’s a cool site, I like everything being on one page like that. I hadn’t seen the screen grabs earlier, those look interesting. The story sounds interesting too, for some reason I’m getting a Quantic Dreams takes you to hell kind of vibe from this game. I’m definitely keeping tabs on this game, huge fan of both Bethesda and the original RE game. Shame the release wont be for a long time but its nice to have 1 I’m looking forward to in the pipeline. I don’t have much besides Dark Souls 2.

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Amnesia is boring as hell though

This game has two of the game designers from Bayonetta working on it.

It’d be a waste if what they were working on was something with no gameplay.

I want guns and I want co-op personally. I’m ok with “survival horror” (haunted house) games as long as there’s interesting game mechanics that make them replayable.

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I really like what I’ve heard about this so far. Here’s to hoping it truly turns out to be survival horror. All the screens so far definitely look pretty spooky, though.