The Evil Within 2 Strives For a “Theme-Park Ghost Mansion” Open-World

Tango Gamework’s first The Evil Within game forced players on a linear path filled with tense moments of survival-horror action. The developers aim to deviate from this in The Evil Within 2 by “considerably” mixing up the experience.

Speaking to GameSpot, executive producer Shinji Mikami said the team has created “very large” open-ended maps and stages, each with a “high degree of freedom” for exploration. Side-objectives and resource gathering systems are also in place to provide a breather for tense moments. “We really wanted to separate ourselves from how the first game was presented, which felt like non-stop pressure and tension–we really wanted to alleviate that with more downtime and exploration.”

Ultimately, Mikami doesn’t want to stress players too much that they “pee out of fear.” “So basically, the design of our game this time is like a ‘theme-park ghost mansion’ or a haunted house. And in order to keep up the level of tension for the players, we made sure that all the enemies and adversaries are placed in certain locations that can really frighten our players in interesting ways. We’re always focused on keeping up the momentum overall. However, if you give only horrific scenes one after the other. The player may pee out of fear. To avoid that, we have places where they can feel safe and secure, to take a break.”

In a separate interview with GameInformer, Mikami said the optional tasks are not limited to resource gathering or acquiring good loot. Protagonist Sebastian Castellanos’ communication device will pick up trails of resonance in the game world, showing players notable waypoints in the map. Apparently, some resonance won’t be “good things” as it may lead “into a dark corner of Sebastian’s subconscious.”

One of The Evil Within 2’s side mission can be seen in the video below, which shows a unique mission encounter where Sebastian must sneak past a terrifying ghost-like creature.

The Evil Within 2 launches on October 13, 2017 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. A new comic set between the events of the first The Evil Within game and the sequel will be released in September 6.

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