The Evil Within 2

The Evil Within 2 gives you more options to play your way in a much bigger survival-horror playground than the original. Although a disjointed plot and weak protagonist make it slow to get started, being pursued through an intriguingly bizarre world by plentiful and disturbing monsters kept my palms sweaty and my heart in my throat thanks to a strict adherence to the most important survival horror rule: you should always be on the back foot.

The sequel to the mind-bending survival-horror game is a clever follow up that makes some big changes.

Resident Evil 4 meets the Truman Show in an entertaining but unremarkable follow-up, held back by tepid stealth and warmed-over scares.

An intense and thrilling psychological survival horror sequel that improves on its forerunner in almost every way.

It's a brilliant horror game, one that understands when to ratchet up tension and when to pull back and let you collect yourself. If the first game was a failed attempt to capture the spirit of Shinji Mikami's classic Resident Evil 4, the sequel is a successful attempt at something much better: finding a chilling, exhilarating voice of its own.

Though it doesn't outdo its predecessor, The Evil Within 2 delivers another fun, challenging, tense horror headtrip that should delight fans of the first game.

The Evil Within 2 offers some enjoyable scares, but it never transcends or deviates from the many works it draws from

The Evil Within 2 feels like something of a departure from the first game, but also an extremely fitting follow-up.

The Evil Within 2 often feels uneven, but that's probably the point. Even if it isn't, there's enough blood, guts, and horror to keep your heart racing.

When I finished the story, I had to stop myself from immediately starting a new game. That's partially because this is one of the best survival horror games I've played, but also because you unlock several snazzy new shirts for Sebastian, alongside other goodies to take with you into NG+.