14 DAY TRIAL // The Evil Within is the new survival horror title from Shinji Mikami, one of the creators of the genre, and the game maker believes that improvements in computing power are a crucial element when it comes to creating scarier situations for players to experience.
The developer tells Eurogamer that he is looking forward to using the better graphics of the current and next-gen consoles in order to improve the quality of his game.
He also believes that developers need to find new ways to frighten their players, instead of relying on old concepts like overwhelming gore and jump scares.
Mikami states, “Sequels are a big problem in horror entertainment. As a horror game series continues you begin to know who the enemies are going to be. Just this knowledge naturally makes the game less scary.”
He adds, “So to capture a wider audience designers add more action. That further reduces how frightening the game feels. Instead of trying to introduce new ideas I want to return to survival horror’s roots. We’ve strayed from that. I want to explore fear again, and that sense of overcoming fear, one that’s unique to games.”
The developer believes that some gamers are looking forward to being scared and he is ready to have fun with The Evil Within while taking the entire survival horror back to its roots.
The new Shinji Mikami title is being created in collaboration with Tango Gameworks and will be published by Bethesda.
The demo shown during E3 2013 certainly had a number of scary moments but failed to show too much innovation and relied on blood and gore to generate fear.
The Evil Within is set to arrive on the PC, the current generation of devices from Sony and Microsoft, the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One at some point in 2014.