I loved playing through this game so much. The story is pretty much complete shit, the voice acting ranges from passable to awful, and the writing in general is bad, but the gameplay, the horror, the creatures, the upgrade system, the exploration, the stealth, the linear moments, the reoccurring monsters that you can run away from or use every last resource to defeat, I love it.

Evil Within was like a fever dream, this sequel is more like a afternoon nap, comfy but mundane.

bruh, what a disappointment after the near masterpiece of the first game.

For a sequel, The Evil Within 2 does a lot to distance itself from it’s predecessor. Between sandbox sections, refined gameplay, the removal of cinematic black bars, and very goofy story, TEW2 feels like the studio tried blending new mechanics (like most sequels should) and also trying to appease a more mainstream crowd. It honestly feels like Mikami tried catching that RE4 magic once again in attempt to shift the franchise a bit. It still is quite good, but TEW1 is clearly superior.

Amazing first half when you have free-roaming round Union, mediocre second half working through the silly story.

Open world kiss of death for the horror but it's like a John Carpenter movie now (one of the bad ones and don't you dare snark Starman )