The Evil Within: The Assignment Review – Clunky Terror

The Evil Within: The Assignment

Developed by: Tango Gameworks

Published by: Bethesda Softworks

Available on: PS4 (version reviewed), Xbox One, PC, PS3 and Xbox 360

MSRP: $20 (season pass for 3 pieces of DLC)

The Assignment, the first of three planned DLC packs for Shinji Mikiami’s The Evil Within, hit last week and offers more intense survival horror with all new enemies and mechanics. Although brief, it does bring some new ideas to the table and fleshes out the overall story, both with mixed results.

In The Assignment players take the role of Juli Kidman, who players may or may not remember as The Evil Within’s protagonist, Sebsastian Castellanos’ partner who showed up from time to time in the main game. It seems her role in the previous game had ulterior motives and she’s actually there under the directives of a (literally) shadowy organization called “Morbius.” While their plans remain fairly nebulous and opaque throughout the campaign; only pieces of the puzzle are revealed by the time credits roll, leading into a teaser for the next piece of DLC.

Right off the bat, this feels like a mistake because Kidman wasn’t interesting in the main game, and even with the focus being on her, she remains uninteresting as a character. While the story of The Evil Within wasn’t the game’s strongest suit, it’s even less so in The Assignment. Admittedly, it does start off rather interestingly with Kidman being tasked with her mission, walking through an office building and everyone she passes having their faces blurred out. Ultimately, as this is the first of two parts, not much is revealed and the intriguing premise falls by the wayside.

So without the story to hang on to, what’s left is the gameplay. Which, for the most part, is pretty good. Players going into The Assignment expecting more of the same from The Evil Within should be warned, this isn’t the same game. Sure the movement is the same, and it features the same basic control set, but it should be highlighted that there very little combat, as Kidman remains unarmed through most of the game and the upgrade system is gone completely. Instead, she must use her wits, extremely limited ability to run and a newly implemented cover and lure mechanic. By taking cover, Kidman can peek above and around and lure patrolling enemies away from areas using her voice, by throwing a bottle or using environmental noise. Once the enemy has been distracted, Kidman must make her way to the next area.

It definitely adds tension to the proceedings; however, the controls are pretty clunky and not all intuitive when compared to other games with similar mechanics. First of all, you can’t move from cover to cover, which means to have to press a button to stick to cover and either press the button again to get out of cover or pull the right stick to move away. Once out of cover you have to keep your finger on the crouch button move to the next piece of cover and perform the process all over again.

It seems as though the system was created within the 6 months between releases of the main game and this DLC and Tango Gameworks didn’t have enough time to really flesh it out and tune it. Almost as a concession for the clunky stealth, enemies have been severely dumbed down as they pretty much give up chase, should you get spotted, almost immediately once you’ve broken the line of sight. That said, the clunky mechanics do add to the overall tension of the game, and either by design or not, it is incredibly effective.

While the stealth mechanics don’t quite work, there are thankfully other neat ideas that work pretty well. As mentioned before, Kidman is unarmed, but she does have a flashlight. At certain points in the game, Kidman can shine light on specific pieces of the environment to either open doors, or reveal hints to the puzzle solutions. It’s pretty seamless and works to add more wackiness to the world Mikami has created.

Also on display are a handful of new enemies, most notably, a bipedal woman with a torn up lab coat and a rusted light for a head who likes to call/whisper “Leslie” whom you may remember as the unstable young man from The Evil Within. Easily the most terrifying enemy in either game because the moment she spots you, if you can’t escape, it’s instant death as her torso is made of jaws with 12’, talon-like teeth that will bite Kidman in half at the waist. What this nightmare creature wants with Leslie is never explained, but based on what she is capable of it can’t be anything good. It’s in these sections where the tension and horror truly shine.

Regarding presentation, The Assigment takes the best and worst from The Evil Within. Sound design is, once again, a bright spot. Ambient noise, acoustics and the score all add and heighten the tension so that walking anywhere in The Assignment can raise the hair on the back of your neck. The voicework, unfortunately, hasn’t improved and Jennifer Carpenter remains exceptionally weak as Kidman. Graphically, it seems as a step back. The Evil Within was never a looker but here it really feels, at times, like I was playing a last gen game.

Some other odd choices are the interface with the cover mechanic. Every time you go into cover, two button prompts appear in the black bars underneath the action. While I do appreciate these not taking up already limited screen real estate, they are distracting every single time and I’m fairly certain people would remember which button does what since it’s the must used mechanic in the game besides walking forward. Imagine Super Mario Bros reminding which button is used to jump throughout the game and you’ll get the idea.

I advise anyone interested in playing this do so in one sitting. Getting to the DLC from the main title page is one of the most cumbersome and time consuming experiences I’ve ever experienced. After the initial load screen, you’re prompted to “press any button.” From there the game has to load your player profile. Once that’s done you will find yourself on the the main title page, from where you have to select “Downloadable content.” From there you have to select “The Assignment” then the game has to load the DLC. Then you have to, again, “press any button,” before being taken to, another title screen where you can finally hit continue, where your proper game loads. This may seem like picking nits, that’s why I advise getting it down in one sitting. Trust me when I say, sitting through that 3 times was not enjoyable and kind of a annoying.

At the end of my three and half hour experience with The Assignment, I was mildly disappointed because I enjoyed The Evil Within so much. I appreciate Tango Gameworks’ efforts to offer something new in terms of mechanics and story, I just wish both were more fully fleshed out and didn’t feel like it was put together in less than 6 months. I am looking forward to the next piece of the story, The Consequence, and I’m hopeful that with these new mechanics in place, they can fine tune them, making for a better experience overall. I can only recommend this piece of DLC for those that truly loved The Evil Within and just want to experience another, albeit brief, trip into Shinji Mikami’s twisted mind and world.

This copy was provided for review purposes by the publisher