The Evil Within Promises Survival Horror Revival

The survival horror game genre has not seen too many notable releases lately, but that may change when Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami and Bethesda launches The Evil Within. The game promises to revive the genre by being truly scary and keeping players on the edge of their seats, instead of just allowing them to brainlessly shoot their way through the game.

The Evil Within will be published by Bethesda Softworks, but is being developed by Mikami’s Tango Gameworks, so expect it to bear more similarities with the Resident Evil franchise than with Fallout. A live action teaser trailer for the game has been released along with the official announcement, while IGN just got a closer look at how the game is played and revealed more details about the plot.

The game is basically a third-person survival horror that centers on homicide detective Sebastian who is sent to investigate a murder at an asylum. As expected, the line between reality and insanity-induced hallucinations will be a blurry one, and the protagonist ends up having to find its way out of an alternate asylum setting by battling a considerable number of scary monsters.

Although the story may seem to be a bit of a cliché, the execution is impressive and the game is deeply cinematic, for a more immersive experience that will leave players feeling like they are watching an actual movie.

But don’t expect just an endless string of scares and no real action. Mikami’s ultimate goal after all is to breathe new life into this dwindling genre and one way of achieving that is by creating a perfect, well balanced blend of action and horror. The player will of course have access to weapons such as guns, knives and axes, but no extraordinary powers and endless ammo. If you run out of ammunition during a fight, you will have to actually run for your life and hope the monster doesn’t catch up, Mikami says. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a survival horror.

Check out the teaser trailer below to get a better feel of what to expect. The Evil Within will be released next year for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 but also for next generation consoles.

[Image via Mashable]