Shinji Mikami is quite possibly the most important horror game director of all time, having created the Resident Evil franchise and directed Resident Evil 4, with the latter having a massive impact on game design outside the horror genre as well. Mikami stuck with the horror genre when starting his own studio, developing The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2 under the Tango Gameworks banner.
For those unfamiliar with the series, The Evil Within is a darker, gorier take on the Resident Evil-style gameplay. The games are third-person survival-horror games that play very similarly to Resident Evil 4, but with a heightened focus on actual horror elements. The Evil Within 2 retained the visceral horror of its predecessor, but made some major changes to the gameplay to make it a more engaging game overall.
The most notable change to The Evil Within 2's gameplay is how it uses semi-open world settings. Instead of confining players to mostly linear hallways and the like, players are free to explore open areas, which creates a sense of exploration that's rare for the horror genre. This freedom gives players more options when it comes to completing objectives in the game, making The Evil Within 2 arguably more engaging than its predecessor from a gameplay standpoint.
Some fans have made the argument that The Evil Within 2 isn't as scary as the first game due to some of the gameplay changes, and that is something to consider. But even if one doesn't find The Evil Within 2 to be quite as unnerving as the original, it's still a high quality horror game to play on Halloween, with an engaging narrative and the cheesy B-movie style reminiscent of classic Resident Evil games.
In the meantime, it will be interesting to see exactly how Tango Gameworks' next title turns out. Ghostwire: Tokyo seems to have had a mostly positive reception so far, and while it's not a horror game, it does feature a slew of supernatural elements that should ensure it still appeals to fans of the genre.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is a PS5 exclusive, but Microsoft's purchase of ZeniMax Media, Tango Gameworks' parent company, means that the game will likely make its way to Xbox Series X at some point down the line as well. Microsoft has said that it plans on honoring PlayStation 5 exclusivity agreements that were signed prior to its purchase of ZeniMax Media, but one has to imagine that the game is now going to be a timed PS5 exclusive as opposed to a pure exclusive. And in future, if there are any more Evil Within games, it seems likely that they will be Xbox-exclusive titles as well.
The Evil Within 2 is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.