”Watcher Think?” is GameWatcher’s series of unscored mini-reviews for those short on time but still craving our opinions. This time around, Chris Capel checks out The Consequence DLC for The Evil Within just in time for the announcement of the next one.
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I did a proper review of The Evil Within: The Assignment, the first DLC pack for Tango Gameworks’ survival horror, and The Consequence continues that story and its themes. Once again (but unlike the main game) the story centres around Mobius agent and seeming backstabber Juli Kidman as she attempts to find patient Leslie and the main game’s protagonist Sebastian. The story in these two DLC packs is actually both stronger than the main game’s and enhances it too, as blanks are filled in and side-stories end up more interesting than the confusing mess that was The Evil Within’s plot. Certainly Juli is more interesting a character than Sebastian at any rate.
Also once again the gameplay is far less gun-focused than The Evil Within, although unlike The Assignment there are actually guns this time. These appear for all of 20 minutes however (running time’s about 4 hours), consisting entirely of a pistol (for 5 minutes) and a shotgun (for the last 15). The pistol’s fine, but the shotgun has an agonizingly slow reload rate, which it does after every shot, which is meant to build tension except that there’s a bug that means sometimes Juli does the reload animation but doesn’t actually reload. The rest of the time though The Consequence is all about stealth, evasion, hiding, clever use of thrown bottles for distractions, and axing enemies in the back. This remains a little frustrating as if you get spotted as it’s hard to get away from enemies afterwards, but it works better with the “survival horror” angle than Resident Evil or the main game’s “shoot everything” approach.
There’s some great use of lighting when you lose your torch.While the controls remain a little frustrating in this new stealth-focused type The Evil Within remains at the very least a continually interesting and never boring game. Where the main campaign would warp Sebastian all over the place and The Assignment could bring in invisible enemies or a terrifying creature with a lamp for a head, The Consequence impresses by mixing in that gunplay and even removing Juli’s torch at one point. This forces her to rely on glowsticks, which are pretty useless but ramp up the tension massively. Then just when you think the game’s starting to get predictable, boom, torch back and you get a wall of eyes staring you in the face. Or you end up outside as the city crumbles and you get to push zombies off rooftops.
While not perfect if the next DLC pack The Executioner ends up as good as both of Juli Kidman’s episodes then we could be looking at the first instance of a Season Pass being better than the main game. The Consequence is as good as first DLC pack The Assignment and yet isn’t just more of the same, with new gameplay moments, a fun conclusion to a story more interesting than the main one, and a lot of surprises. If you’ve got The Evil Within and liked it but wished it was a little less gun happy and more survival horror then you absolutely have to pick up the Season Pass.
The Evil Within: The Consequence is available on Steam for £6.99/$9.99 or as part of the Season Pass for £14.99/$19.99.
