"Evil Within" Promises Scares By Making Players Powerless, Says Mikami

Think survival horror isn't scary? Try encountering enemies that can't be killed with weapons.

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Leave it to Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami to bring the long-ailing survival horror genre back to its roots – with his new game he promises to scare the living s#$% out of players by doing what should be obvious for horror game designers: making them totally powerless.

In a new interview with Edge, Mikami said that Evil Within will be scary because it won't just deliver the tropes or progression (or even gameplay style, necessarily, that horror game players generally use as a crutch.

"Not much has changed when it comes to instilling terror in the player,” Mikami said in the interview. “But people have got used to the tropes of horror and they know what’s coming next, so in that sense it is harder to make them afraid.”

That will manifest itself in Evil Within through a focus on ammo scarcity, claustrophobic environments and enemies that are nearly impossible to kill, Mikami said. Working with his own small development studio, he doesn't feel the pressure of working for a large company either, letting him and his team and Tango Gameworks embrace individualism in their design.

That should make for some great and interesting moments in a genre that is in desperate need of a good shake-up.

"The scariest parts will be when you encounter enemies that cannot be killed with a gun,” Mikami told Edge. “Even if you shoot them they won’t die, so you’ll have to run or use a trap to beat them. That should be fun – and also scary.” 

Check out the full interview via the link below.

 

Via Edge 

 

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