Bethesda Softworks released a new gameplay trailer for Tango Gameworks’ upcoming survival horror game, The Evil Within, during the Tokyo Game Show. The Evil Within is a title I have been following closely throughout the year, and I truly hope that director Shinji Mikami has created another survival horror masterpiece. Based on the latest trailer (available below), that is very possible.
For one thing, Bethesda’s marketing for the game has been fantastic. I love the use of classical orchestral music in the background, which I believe will be present in the final game as well. The latest TGS 2014 trailer features Debussy’s Clair de Lune to spine-tingling effect. Classical music is beautiful, but Clair de Lune has never been so creepy and unsettling. Music pieces like Clair de Lune can really underscore the setting of horror narratives. The Evil Within is no exception to that idea. Another great piece of classical music used for The Evil Within is Bach’s Air on the G String.
The new trailer also features some fantastic, chilling and downright haunting voice-over work by the great Jackie Earle Haley. While I have not been enthused by some of the dialogue for the game from the gameplay demo, Haley’s voice-over was used to maximum effect. I am not sure if this is dialogue meant only for the trailer or if it will be in the game proper, but I hope it will be in the game. This material is the best representation of the game’s main antagonist and villain, Ruvik. If there is one thing that Haley plays well, it is violent, sadistic sociopaths.
Based on some of the more creepier interludes during the gameplay demo I played, the main protagonist Sebastian uncovers some of Ruvik’s experiments. Ruvik’s experiments hint at unlocking a world through the mind. The segments hint at many interesting ideas. Is what is happening in the game even real? Is it a figment of Ruvik or even Sebastian’s imagination? Could Sebastian even be a reliable protagonist? At one point, Sebastian goes to what is apparently Ruvik’s childhood mansion, where Ruvik apparently murdered his family and conducted more arcane experiments. At the mansion, Sebastian has a sense of nostalgia and experiences some sense of familiarity to the place. It makes me wonder if Sebastian has some relation to Ruvik in the past, or if Sebastian and Ruvik are one and the same. Ruvik’s dialogue in the trailer is more frightening because even if my theory is completely false, it feeds off of that expectation when he says to Sebastian, “I know who you are. Who do you think you are?” Ruvik also appears to be digging into Sebastian’s id, saying, “I know what you crave, what you fear. Will you be able to live with yourself knowing what I’m going to make you do?” This line comes before some images of Sebastian’s detective partners, Julie Kidman and Joseph Oda. Kidman is depicted inside a water deathtrap tank. Oda is seen with a mutated and gruesome face, going after Sebastian.
The new trailer contains a lot of gruesome and brutal imagery, showing flashes of horrific, bladed deathtraps and multi-limbed, lugubrious monsters. However, the most unsettling moments are those where it appears that Ruvik is simply playing with Sebastian’s mind and the audience by proxy. The Evil Within hits the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC on October 14.
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