The Evil Within gameplay trailer shows that hiding trumps chainsaws (good to know)

I can't think of a situation in life that can't be solved by hiding. Tough exam coming up? Simply hide under some coats and hope that somehow everything will work out. Stole a joke from The Simpsons? Simply hide under the bed until Matt Groening stops hammering on your door. Stocky Leatherface-type dude chasing you down with a chainsaw, in a 12-minute trailer for the 2014-bound horror game The Evil Within ? Simply hide in a locker until he goes away. Then you can flee outside to find that...some sort of apocalyptic event has occurred. Where the Hell are you going to hide to solve that?

The Evil Within, then. I'd say I'm tentatively excited, although I am a little worried that Shinji Mikami's grand return to horror may have taken a substantial detour through Action Country along the way. There's a good deal of atmosphere, some seemingly quite robust sneaking, and I particularly that you can burn enemy corpses, presumably to stop them returning from the dead. A later scene reminds of Resi 4 rather a lot (the bit with the windows and the rubbish mine weapon), but equally there are quieter moments featuring a single, powerful enemy (ol' chainsaw-dude) that may evoke that elusive survival horror feel. But enough about my thoughts; have a watch yourself and see what you think.

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.