The Evil Within: The Executioner

The final DLC for the Evil Within is here, ending things on a highly gory note. The Executioner takes players into the role of the infamous Keeper as he journeys through the horrifying nightmare of STEM. His assignment is to find a number of infamous monsters from the Evil within and assassinate them for Mobius. This particular segment of the Evil within takes a different approach from the other games and brings in an element extreme violence and shady voyeurism, as we see through the eyes of the keeper as he partakes in various disgusting and brutal activities.

The narrative sees an unnamed man who becomes The Keeper, told he must eliminate a number of targets within the STEM nightmare, in order to save his beloved daughter. The major change you will notice here is that player will literally see the Keeper’s disgusting journey through his own eyes. Players will traverse the game-world, complete various challenges and even perform the combat in first person. An interesting way to view the Evil within, taking it away from the 3rd perspective and making things even more unsettling by getting players to perform grotesque actions with a front row seat. It works well to escalate the horror elements, similar to games such as Condemned and Outlast. Thankfully as well, the black bars that blocked the screen have gone for good. Also, the loading screens hardly pop up in this expansion. Joy!

The first person view also helps in delivering a more intensifying experience when it comes to combat. The Keeper’s main form of combat is melee based, so like games such as Condemned, players will witness all the gory moments and dismemberment in close proximity. Progressing through the game will unlock more weapons and upgrades that will help take on the larger enemies and more troublesome boss battles. To buy and obtain upgrades, the keeper is to explore the world presented to him, scavenging through wooden creates cupboards and killing off wondering enemies and collect tokens to use as currency. The combat experience is brutal, as larger enemies will fight back with their own weapons and often these encounters become electrifying duels to the death.

The Keeper will also be allowed to test his skills and earn more rewards by taking part in multiple challenges within the game world. An arena type event where waves of enemies will be unleased and the Keeper must take them out as the difficulty increases. But the Keeper is able to brutalise fallen enemies, pick up and throw NPCs into giant meat grinders, rip them apart with your vast array of weaponry or simply crush them with your boot. It’s exploitive and over the top nature is wonderful to observe in first person and an experience that’s rarely been seen. Think Zeno Clash meets F.E.A.R or that Condemned was remade with more of a gothic vibe. Its first person melee combat is definitely a refreshing and joyous experience compared to the likes of Outlast where running is the only option.

It’s a shame that the overall game feels fairly easy and poses no real challenge to harden gamers. If you have played anything similar, like Condemned or Riddick, you’ll find that the Executioner won’t measure up in terms of risk or danger. There were also some minor graphical glitches to report on but nothing that really broke the flow of the game.

It was nice they introduced a narrative but I would have enjoyed seeing new enemies and bosses that weren’t just reused from the previous segments. To give this DLC a little more of its own identity, seeing as though the gameplay worked so well to deliver a new experience compared to the rest of the game. But considering (by itself) its small price tag, there is enough to appreciate.
I was satisfied when completing the game and saw the amount of unlocks and bonuses given as a reward, meaning that there was plenty more reason to replay the game. New weapons, upgrades and even new challenges were open to play after finishing the game, which lasted around 2 hours. Again, this makes it well worth the asking price.

Overall the Executioner is a gripping expansion that builds on the structure of the Evil Within and brings in enough new ideas to make it impressively enjoyable. Being worth the asking price alone, I would have happily paid more to see this DLC expanded.