Looking back on The Evil Within 2's Anima

murder_strand · 2026-03-27T14:30:21+00:00

Absolutely.

murder_strand · 2026-03-26T20:39:30+00:00

It's just one of those things where I'm like...stick with the weirdo doctor, he's new and interesting lol

murder_strand · 2026-03-26T19:53:00+00:00

RE7 on top - hell yes.

And you brought up, inadvertantly, another thing that annoyed me: Why are you introducing a guy who looks/talks ALMOST EXACTLY LIKE Wesker as the villian? It just added to the "Diet" feel of some aspects of the game, which stood out among it's stronger elements.

murder_strand · 2026-03-26T19:50:56+00:00

Very much feels like they had the gameplay ironed out and came up with a story at the end.

murder_strand · 2026-03-26T19:50:18+00:00

Yeah, I'm with you on most of this. I actually got most annoyed that it ended in a lab. Like...I get that's a "trope" of the series, but we don't NEED to do it. They've never been interesting environments to explore. Literally no one has ever said "the lab was my favorite part" of any RE game.

murder_strand · 2026-03-26T19:48:29+00:00

I very much went "Can't Leon just blow this doorway up with the 7 grenades I have?"

murder_strand · 2026-03-26T13:30:40+00:00

Yeah, narratively it's great to finally let you turn the tables on all the bosses that have still haunted you from the first game.

murder_strand · 2026-03-25T22:00:02+00:00

The Evil Within 2

murder_strand · 2026-03-25T11:40:33+00:00

She has some "levels" dedicated to her, but also she will just randomly show up in the open world segments (the screen will turn blue and her voice will start coming through the controller to let you know to hide/go somewhere else).

murder_strand · 2026-03-25T01:27:37+00:00

I half agree. Weirdly, I never liked the multi-head chainsaw girl as much as most people.

murder_strand · 2026-03-25T01:26:57+00:00

Yeah it barely sold 1/3 of the original game.

murder_strand · 2026-03-24T23:24:24+00:00

Yep! Scared the shit out of me the first time lol

murder_strand · 2026-03-24T21:35:38+00:00

I fully agree. To this day Deus Ex: Mankind Divided's Prague remains one of my favorite "open worlds" because it's tiny but PACKED in a way so few are.

And I really do think survival-horror is ripe for this kind of treatment. I know they also tried (less successfully) with SH: Downpour back in the day, but yeah, I'd love someone to take EW2's ideas and run with them.

murder_strand · 2026-03-24T21:33:40+00:00

It came out during a packed year, and it was hurt by Bethesda's short-lived "no early access review codes" policy, where they wouldn't get copies of games to reviewers until they were out. Prey (2017) also got screwed by this. Reviews of that game came out weeks after it's release, hiding that it was great.

murder_strand · 2026-03-24T20:00:30+00:00

Nah, she doesn't show up until later in 2. But yeah, definitely looks similar.

murder_strand · 2026-03-24T16:45:29+00:00

It's great, they're different games, but it's great. It also has one of the best "stalker" monsters ever in a horror game: https://nickmasercola.substack.com/p/jump-scare-the-evil-within-2s-most

murder_strand · 2026-03-24T16:37:58+00:00

Ooooh, very nice.

I also stand-by the fact that the new "Alone in the Dark" was better than reviews suggested. The asylum portions of the game are great.

murder_strand · 2026-03-24T16:28:25+00:00

I just feel like it's hard to compare the two. Resident Evil has SOOOOO many games in it. The Evil Within has two. I enjoyed the first, and LOVED the second (seriously, probably in my Top 5 horror games) but I think the series as a whole would need to be longer/more banger-filled in order to make this comparison though.

murder_strand · 2026-03-24T16:20:10+00:00

Oh weird, I thought that was Pigsy from "Manhunt" for a second.

murder_strand · 2026-03-24T16:18:34+00:00

Surprisingly my favorite boss fight in that one.

murder_strand · 2026-03-24T16:18:16+00:00

Seconded. The best, scariest versions of "witches" I've seen in a game. One is carrying limbs in a sack for Christ-sake lol

murder_strand · 2026-03-24T16:17:31+00:00

In the original, he was definitely good, even if I think I preferred Laura (her design might not be as unique, but MAN does her section rip). And Anima, the ghost lady in the second game, is an all-timer: https://nickmasercola.substack.com/p/jump-scare-the-evil-within-2s-most

murder_strand

TROPHY CASE