ZADZOOKS: The Evil Within review

Shinji Mikami, the patriarch of survival horror games, takes lessons learned from creating the “Resident Evil” franchise and applies them in his latest, third-person action adventure The Evil Within (Bethesda Softworks and Tango Gameworks, reviewed with PlayStation 4, Rated Monstrously Mature, $59.99).

Within minutes of controlling Krimson City Police Detective Sebastian Castellanos, the player finds him hung upside down next to gutted bodies and stuck in a mental hospital. Once extricated, he tries to escape from a guy who makes the Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface look like a Boy Scout.

Life never gets any easier for our hero, as he plunges into an ever-evolving nightmare spread out among poorly lit mansions, insane asylums and forests while caught in plot that will leave psychiatrists and biochemists scratching their heads.

This unnerving dark ride combined with a “Hostel” group of enemies (disfigured humanoid creeps looking to butcher for pleasure) infects 15 chapters of action as a player is immersed in roughly a 20-hour killing spree.

Sebastian eventually carries a pistol, shotgun, crossbow (with constructible bolts that explode, freeze and poison), matches to burn bodies, and grenades. He is always short of health and ammunition, as he spends an inordinate amount of time crouching in the face of unimaginable horror (his back must be killing him).

A player learns quickly the delicate choice between fighting off difficult-to-kill, mutated humans (often wielding weapons), and simply hiding or running away after watching Sebastian get brutally murdered over and over again. It’s a game that challenges the gamer to the point of insurmountable frustration even while set on a “medium” difficulty mode.

There are a few jump-out-of-your-seat scares within some beautifully constructed environments, but “The Evil Within” ultimately takes its cue from “Resident Evil 4,” and is more about the slaughter. I was hoping more for the scare here rather than shock. By way of comparison, instead of getting John Carpenter’s 1978 “Halloween,” a player ends up with head-splattering gore of Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake.

Those looking for these types of grisly encounters — absolutely not for the squeamish or anyone under the age of 17 — simply need turn off the lights and get ready for a blood-soaked journey into a virtual hell.

Specifically, the player can see characters stumbling upon a field of zombies and getting ripped apart, sliding down a chute filled with entrails and lined with blades, being eaten alive, blowing off parts of enemies’ heads, skewering creatures with harpoon bolts and routinely being electrocuted to upgrade skills.

Despite this fairly exhilarating experience (my palms were sweating a couple of times), I’m forever stunned by one of Mr. Mikami’s choices when saving the game.

He obviously has attempted to craft a cinematic experience, including having the players work in a widescreen space (black bars at top and bottom) complete with scratchy video effects and hyper-realistic violence courtesy of the PlayStation 4’s power. But by adding a mandatory “save” screen after concluding a chapter, he sucks away the horror movie magic and nerve-wracking suspense. I’ll reference Sony’s “The Last of Us” as a blueprint for continuous, creepy cinematic immersion.

“The Evil Within” has enough moments to make for an irresistible Halloween treat but relies too often on bloody kills to satisfy. Unfortunately, for this gamer who loves scares, Sebastian’s survival offers little resemblance to the days when Mr. Mikami’s original “Resident Evil” chilled a player’s bones.