The Evil Within TGS trailer analysis

The Evil Within is a hard game to not be excited for. Created by Shinji Mikami, the father of survival horror and the Resident Evil franchise, and backed by a publisher that has full faith in him and the genre, this game has incredible potential. Bethesda has been fairly mum on the game, showing us very little footage and not revealing too much about the story.

This past week brought us a brand new trailer of the game from TGS. You know what that means! Trailer analysis time. Let’s see what we can point out. Watch the trailer here to follow along.

00:26

00:32

00:34

00:40

00:50

[00:26] Here we are given an establishing shot of the exterior of Beacon Mental Hospital. Several police cars are lined up as Sebastian and his partners are called to the asylum by a fellow officer that does not know of what events transpired. He sounded confused and scared.

[00:32, 00:34] Sebastian’s partners Joseph Oda and Julie Kidman arrive at the scene appearing bewildered.

[00:40] Joseph comments on the missing Krimson PD officers and the removal of their weapons from their vehicles. In the following scene we the missing officers.

Is the city of Krimson a nod to the color of blood? Cute.

[00:50] Sebastian and Joseph enter the asylum but this is the last time that we see them together in the trailer. I can’t recall seeing them together at any other moment from the limited footage that we’ve seen of the game. Assuming the events of The Evil Within are not a personalized, psychological nightmare for solely Sebastian, I doubt this is the last we’ll see of Joseph and Julie.

One interesting idea about Joseph, and perhaps Julie as well, is the switching of protagonists. Being created by the father of Resident Evil, what if The Evil Within follows in a familiar gameplay territory of the series and features multiple playable characters? I don’t think that we’ll have the option of choosing either Sebastian, Joseph or Julie at the start of the game, because from what I’ve seen, Sebastian seems to be a primary focus but what I do think is that we may occasionally play from the perspective of Sebastian’s partners, perhaps aiding Sebastian or searching for him after the following scene occurs.

01:02

01:04

00:55-00:56

01:10

[1:02, 01:04] Here we can see a man in what appears to be ceremonial robes killing three police officers in one motion. Whatever creature this may be, it is clear that it is not human. Its appearance early into the game and its role in bringing Sebastian into the darkest part of the asylum suggests that it is a primary character, perhaps even the main antagonist. Clearly Sebastian has a higher purpose than his uniformed peers. Why does he have the “honor” of being sent deeper into the asylum whereas the others were killed?

[00:55, 00:56]It’s safe to assume that Sebastian was alone when this entity knocked him unconscious. Joseph and Julie were probably exploring a different part of the front lobby. Looking at the image that I have put together from 00:55 and 00:56, you can see that the security room is not too far from the front entrance. I guess we’ll be thrust into the nightmarish stuff fairly quickly once the game starts.

[1:10] Now’s when we start to get some story hints. At this moment we can hear Sebastian conclude the statement “I was right, it was him.” It seems like Sebastian may meet or learn about the antagonist before he realizes who that person truly is. Will there be betrayal? Will Sebastian learn about a figure from the past and discover that he has somehow returned? Or is he referring to someone that he knows and trusts?

Unrelated to the story, this image also hints at real-time bleed out when extremely hurt. The amount of blood seems pretty extreme, so either Sebastian is on the verge of death due to normal enemy/environment damage or this scene is from a particular point in the game where he gets badly wounded.

01:11

01:19

01:21

01:24

01:26

01:28

01:29

[01:11] This scene depicting swirling blades indicates that Sebastian is going to have to endure some deadly traps. I’m going to assume deactivation of the traps will involve puzzles. I don’t think Bethesda has shown off puzzle solving just yet, but I wouldn’t doubt that they’ll be in the game.

[01:21] It seems that Beacon Mental Hospital is not the only environment that Sebastian will have to brave. Here we can see him outside in some village that reminds of Resident Evil 4. I wonder if Sebastian will somehow end up in this village from within the asylum. That doesn’t make any sense at all but it will most definitely be cool and creepy to see.

[01:19, 01:24, 01:29] This guy has appeared a few times since The Evil Within‘s announcement. He looks to be a butcher of some sort, having access to a row of chainsaws and a meat locker filled with human corpses. I can’t be sure if this character is one-in-the-same as BoxHead, seen within the reveal trailer, but their butcher-esque qualities make me believe that they’re at least similar in design (perhaps a thematic similarity from one of the game’s chapters).

Another speculation that I have is that Butcher Dude will be a recurring enemy that will remind us of the Nemesis encounters in Resident Evil 3. There is a scene in this trailer that shows Sebastian running down a hallway. Based on gameplay footage from E3, we can confirm that there’s at least once instance in which the Butcher chases Sebastian down a narrow hallway, with a chainsaw. Sebastian can also be seen hiding from the Butcher at 01:26 and crawling away from him at 01:29.

[01:28] At this point in the trailer the camera can seen trembling. This indicates that either the asylum is having weird, supernatural earthquake or that a very large presence is on the move (or angry).

01:30

01:36

[01:30] Here we see a group of nasty zombie guys taking down Sebastian. Spikes and barbwire protrude from their flesh, and their eyes are glowing.

[01:36] Now, here’s my biggest speculation that ties into the types of enemies that we’ll encounter and how it relates to the game’s name. The Evil Within is the western title for this game. The Japanese release is called Psycho Break, so many fans believed that we’re dealing with a psychological story that may lead to a twist involving things not being real. But, let’s consider the western name and the image above. Spider-Lady is seen crawling out of a corpse and the Spike Zombies appear to be plain dressed individuals covered in torture devices. Now, what if The Evil Within means that we’re dealing with possession? We know that the game deals with supernatural elements, but we might be able to narrow it down to demonic influences and possession that are causing the events within Beacon Mental Hospital.

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We’re still a ways away from the release of The Evil Within and while it’s nice that Bethesda is keeping a lot of the game secret, it’s difficult being left in the dark. Hopefully I was able to point out a few interesting things for you guys and I plan to continue to do so as more trailers release.