Shinji Mikami spills guts on streamlined HUD and nail bombs in his new survival horror The Evil Within

News
By published

The Evil Within , you'll recall , marks Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami's grand return to survival horror, after years spent overseeing such esoteric action games as God Hand, Vanquish, and the sorta horrific swearfest Shadows of the Damned. Bethesda gave us a live-action trailer that didn't reveal much the other week, but now we have some details straight from the horse's... man's mouth. We also have screenshots that reveal, yes, it's a third-person, gore-filled horror game, rather than the knockabout karting title that was rumoured previously. Read on for enlightment, and pictures of disgusting monsters.

  • It's called Psycho Break in Japan (mainly because it's easier to pronounce), but that doesn't mean its detective hero Sebastian will be suffering from any psychological breakdowns during the game. He's a strong guy that will be able to deal with whatever the game throws at him (Shinji tends to think "just die already!" whenever he sees a character lose their mind in a horror film).

  • Sebastian will enter an alerted state, by crouching down whenever enemies are around, and standing up when the coast is clear. On a similar note, there's "practically no interface" in the game, with labels popping up when you get close to objects, but with a clutter-free HUD otherwise.

  • Don't expect many sound effects or much music in the game. They'll be used to "signal events and information", including unseen enemies.

  • Lighting is important, apparently (as, I find, it is in real life).

  • You can lay traps, such as a Nail Bomb. These can be set behind doors and under windows.

Head here for more titbits, or scroll down to see what sort of evil can be found within the game. The Evil Within is coming to PC next year.

Tom Sykes
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.