The Evil Within - New Horror Game from Shinji Mikami

[Damien_Azreal]

The newest Survival Horror game from the grandfather of the genre, Shinji Mikami.
Coming from his brand new studio Tango Gameworks, published by Bethesda and running on a heavily upgraded build of id Software's idTech5 Engine (the same tech behind RAGE and Wolfenstein: The New Order).

The game comes out next week, and I can not WAIT to get my hands on it.
I'm a huge fan of Shinji's and still hold Resident Evil 4 in ungodly high praise.

The Evil Within

Tango Gameworks

Is anyone else there as excited for this as I am? The game simply looks beautifully gory and disgustingly awesome.

[fast-1]

Yeah played those old Resident Evil games that he made. Got lot's of talent, think I will be a cracker. I am now just playing Ressie 4, but keep getting hit by that chainsaw dude.


Is it better with a gamepad or keyboard and mouse.

The Evil Within looks like it will give you nightmares. Brown pants on standby.

[smashed pumpkin]

Looking forward to this one.

I seem to recall some early previews from e3 saying that the game looks like it may not be that great/impressive. I can't remember exactly though.

Or maybe I'm confusing this with Outlast?

[Damien_Azreal]

Since the game is releasing next week, Bethesda put up some answers to a few specific questions they've gotten...

What are the PC requirements for The Evil Within?

Minimum

OS: Windows 7/8 (64 bit)
GPU: GTX 460 or an equivalent 1gb VRAM card
CPU: i7 or an equivalent 4+ core processor
RAM: 4 GB
HDD: 50 GB
High Speed Internet Connection (Steam account and activation)

Recommended

​OS: 64-bit Windows 7/Windows 8 (64 bit)
GPU: GeForce GTX 670 or equivalent with 4GBs of VRAM
CPU : i7 with four plus cores
RAM: 4 GBs RAM
50 GB of hard drive space*
High Speed Internet Connection (Steam account and activation)

*It’s worth noting that the 50 GB of space required is for the PC install. When the installation is complete, the game will take up ~41 GB of HDD space.


What are the file sizes for The Evil Within on console?

Xbox One — 40 GB HDD Space

PlayStation 4 — 40 GB HDD Space

PlayStation 3 — 7 GB HDD Space

Xbox 360 — 7 GB Note: The Evil Within requires a mandatory install to the Xbox 360’s HDD or a USB 2.0 (or higher) flash drive.


Am I able to pre-load The Evil Within once I've pre-purchased the game?

Yes. Preload dates include:

Steam -- Available for pre-load on October 10th. (We will update when it's live)
PlayStation 3 & 4 -- Currently slated for Pre-load on Sunday, October 12th. (We will update when it's live)
Xbox One -- Already available for preload with your purchase of the game.
Xbox 360 -- Pre-loading is not available, however, you will be able to purchase digitally on day 1.


Why does the PC recommended ask for 4 GB of VRAM?

The PS4 and Xbox One both have 8 GB of unified RAM which can be used as both system and video memory. Because our PC version is functionally identical to those platforms, we recommend 4 GB of system memory, and 4 GB of VRAM for the best experience.


Can I run it on a card with less than 4 gigs of VRAM?

Yes. Please refer to the minimum requirements above. You won’t be experiencing the game at 1080p and you’ll likely need to turn off some features, but you will still be able to have a great experience with the game.


What are the graphic options available?

For all versions:
Brightness
Display area adjustment
Screen Grain adjustment

Additional options for PC (if supported by your hardware)
Fullscreen or windowed support
Anti-aliasing – FXAA, MLAA, SMAA
Shadow Quality – High, Medium, Low
Motion Blur
SSAO
Reflections


What's the status on the game's framerate and aspect ratio?

Shinji Mikami and the team at Tango designed The Evil Within to be played at 30fps and to utilize an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 for all platforms. The team has worked the last four years perfecting the game experience with these settings in mind. For PC players, we’ll provide debug commands on how you can alter the framerate and aspect ratio, but these commands and changes are not recommended or supported and we suggest everyone play the game as it was designed and intended for the best experience.


Does the game support 4K resolution?

Yes. The engine can go even higher if you’ve got a monitor and video card that supports it.


Can I disable the letterboxing?

The letterboxing (a 2:35:1 aspect ratio) is used for gameplay purposes, as certain elements display in the black areas of the screen. On PC, you can turn off the bars and force the game to render full-screen. However this option is not supported. We’re keeping the ability to turn off bars as a console-only command that we will share at launch


How can I turn on the debug console?

There will be a command-line option to enable the console. More at launch.


What can I do with the debug console?

Gameplay cheats, as well as advanced camera controls will all be available via console commands. More to come!


Is the game playable with a mouse and keyboard?

Yes, and you can rebind controls as you see fit, and auto-aim is disabled when using a mouse. Please be aware however that the game does feature an upgrade system for aiming accuracy, so pixel-perfect aiming with a mouse is not possible from the outset. You’ll need to upgrade Sebastian first.


What do you suggest if I think the game is too difficult?

You can toggle the game's difficulty level at anytime. Additionally, we'll be be opening our spoilers/help board at launch, in which we will include some "in case of emergency" tips. You can also check out our new gameplay videos covering strategy (1, 2).


Will you have support forums?

Yes, our support forums will go up when the game releases on Tuesday. We have dedicated support boards for all five platforms. You can also contact customer support at help.bethsoft.com for additional assistance.

By default the game runs at 30fps and in Cinemascope. Bethesda commented that certain HUD elements will be displayed in the black bar areas of the screen, as to make use of the space and not clutter up the gameplay space.
But, both the frame rate and the aspect ratio will be able to be tweaked via console commands they will release next week.

[fast-1]

It's states that the EVGA GTX750ti SC shared memory ??


------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 10/9/2014, 20:29:19
Machine name: ALPHA_PC
Operating System: Windows 8.1 64-bit (6.3, Build 9600) (9600.winblue_gdr.140723-2018)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: To be filled by O.E.M.
BIOS: BIOS Date: 10/24/12 13:25:17 Ver: 04.06.05
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3470 CPU @ 3.20GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8152MB RAM
Page File: 1854MB used, 7576MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.03.9600.16384 64bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 750 Ti
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Type: Full Device
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1380&SUBSYS_37533842&REV_A2
Display Memory: 4018 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1970 MB
Shared Memory: 2048 MB

[ZuljinRaynor]

That's just a Windows thing. You only have 2GB VRAM dedicated.

[Damien_Azreal]

So, while there hasn't been a ton of interest for this game on this forum (mostly due to the lack of traffic)...
I finished it the other day. And decided I would post my initial impressions of it.

It's honestly an odd game to try and describe, coming from Shinji Mikami you almost instantly want to reference his work on the Resident Evil series, but this game is a huge departure from them.
Firstly, this is true survival horror. A genre that, IMO, has been almost completely dead in recent years. And something that has been so sad for me to have sit back and watch die.
I used to love the Silent Hill and Resident Evil series, but both fell into such awful tropes and flawed designs. Silent Hill completely losing track of what made the first couple of games so great and instead turning into a joke of it's former self.
And Resident Evil, also losing track of itself, and morphing into a pathetic Gears of War clone attempting to be "scary" and only making itself look stupid.

The Evil Within is survival horror.
You are weak. Extremely fragile and weak, your melee attack isn't for force or quick take-downs.. it's a frantic last minute effort to push an enemy away. As only a couple attacks will cut you down.
Also, inventory is extremely limited. You can only carry a handful of bullets for your pistol at the start, and chances are you won't find more then a couple most of the time.
You are more often out-numbered, and the better option is to avoid and ignore the enemies if possible. If forced into combat, you really need to be aware of your surroundings and use them to your advantage. Using the enemies traps against them.

I've seen a lot of comparisons to Resident Evil 4. And while I can see why, the camera perspective is identical. A few enemy types are the same (the chainsaw guy) and even a few locations look the same. Yet, if you attempt to play the game like RE4 you will die. Quickly.
RE4 is what I would consider "action horror". Same as I would Dead Space. And while I love RE4 and the Dead Space series, they are huge departures from survival horror.

The one thing I can't really discuss in The Evil Within is it's story.
Not only because I don't want to dip into spoilers, but also because it's extremely difficult to even talk about without going into a gray area.
But, the pacing is spot on. And despite what a lot of the footage shows, the game offers plenty of variety and interesting environments that continue to draw you into the world on display.

I finished the game in 16 hours, and died 30 times.
And according to what I've seen on other forums, I've managed something others haven't. Most people seem to be averaging dead counts between 50 to 200.
But, I've already started a New Game+ and I can't wait for the story based DLC.

Hell, give me a sequel. Now.

[Damien_Azreal]

The PC update was released today. The update is 1.5gb in size...

Update Notes

Frame lock settings added
In settings, you can now toggle between a 30 FPS and 60 FPS cap.
Letterbox setting
UI toggle to disable the letterbox bars
Fixes gameplay issues when running at >30 FPS
Fixes for visual issues associated with removing letterbox framing
Achievements now work when console is enabled
Fix for game starting in windowed mode on first run
Minor localization fixes

So, anyone who held off or was unhappy with the frame rate cap and letterbox presentation can now be pleased.
The game gives you the options to change those settings.

Uncapped I get about 45 to 50fps, and it feels pretty smooth.
The letterbox fix is nice, cutscenes and such (the menu and loading screens) are still letterboxed, but when you are able to take over control the borders slide away showing the entire screen. Looks really nice.