REVIEW – Last year Shinji Mikami’s new horror game, The Evil Within left us scared, annoyed, and puzzled by the end of its run. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a fun romp in a distorted landscape of deadly traps and horrific creatures. However there were few unanswered questions that now the DLCs wish to resolve.

Does it work? Will we ever get to know more about the demons, characters, and motivations with the help of this filler? Read on to find out!

Exposition and gore

The Assignment fits in to the lore and story of The Evil Within in a very weird way. It runs parallel with the main storyline, yet seems entirely different. The playable character in the DLC is Julie Kidman, who at times helped, other times tried to halt our progress in the main game. Here however Julie seems to serve more as a sort of “vehicle” for the player. As the game drives her around plot point by plot point that was either missed by the main game, or did not receive enough attention previously. This would be great, but as a ten dollar DLC left a bittersweet thoughts once I finished it.

Sure there are gameplay elements here, but most of them rely on being stealthy, and running away from enemies (or baiting them). There’s no upgrade mechanic (probably due to the game’s length), and there’s also a lack of weapon variety. In fact you only get a pistol / or an axe by the second chapter of this DLC. There are also the long walks in scary hallways, and one or two enemy per segments that can kill you in an instant.

The previous two elements help uplift the lack of agency that is provided in this DLC. It is still scary as hell, and it does not rely on jump scares. The gore, the weird sound effects all build up to a tense atmosphere.

Is it real? Nope… well sort of

Without spoiling the story for the DLC too much, it doesn’t answer every question that the main game brought up. Some are directly, some hinted, while others are just entirely confusing whether what is real, what is happening and where in terms of the series’ already chopped up timeline. Events, landscapes, and even conversations are “remixed”, to provide a different point of view in terms of the narrative. It will turn many heads to figure out what exactly is happening.

Should you dabble in more blood and gore?

The DLC in total is around four hours, but for some the lack of agency will be off putting. It’s definitely a stealthier, and story heavy DLC than the main game. While it reveals key mysteries, and has length, it does have its issues as mentioned previously

Still if you are invested in the lore of Evil Withinthis a must buy, as the scares, and the atmosphere is impeccable. Let’s just hope the second DLC will provide us with more combat.

-Dante-

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Editor: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Genres: Adventure, action

Publication: 2015 March