The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2 were released in 2014 and 2017 respectively. It was developed by Tango Gameworks and directed by Shinji Mikami. Mikami served as director and/or producer of the first four Resident Evil games. He has an incredible understanding of what makes a survival horror game work.
The first game in the series stuck to many of the traditional mechanics seen in the Resident Evil series. However, Evil Within 2 improved on its predecessor in every way, the game was far more open-ended and made good use of environmental storytelling.
Developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda, The Evil Within embodies the spirit of the producer Shinji Mikami’s work on the Resident Evil franchise and brings a horrifying, yet gratifying experience to players. Playing similarly to Resident Evil 4, the game brings out the horrors and a gruesome atmosphere that has long departed the horror genre up until recently, but we were glad The Evil Within brought true fright back into the gaming world.
The sequel focuses entirely on Sebastian’s family life and his desire to rescue his daughter from the STEM. The Evil Within 2 features a very similar structure to the original Silent Hill game, where protagonist Harry Mason had gone through his own traumatic journey to find his daughter Cheryl.
It’s pretty difficult to find survival horror games like Silent Hill, as the series itself is so cerebral and mixes emotional trauma with survival gameplay, but The Evil Within 2 is the closest modern example we have at the moment
Now, Union is a unique situation in which it is a fabricated city that was built from the mind of a woman named Lily Castellanos. It serves as the setting in The Evil Within 2 that Sebastian must navigate in an attempt to redeem himself in the eyes of the organization known as MOBIUS.
Union is a city literally falling apart due to the core memory it's attached to belonging to a missing person. It was intended to represent a small American town but is filled with the creepiest and most off-putting parts of Lily's mind. Like most classic horror films, it'll have you second-guessing whether you should stop for gas at the gas station located in the Middle of Nowhere, USA.
Released at a time when survival horror was in a slump and the fans of the original game just wanted a continuation of that experience, The Evil Within 2dared to do something different. However, despite being dismissed by the very fans that it tried to serve, this brilliant sequel managed to not only fully realize the vision of creator Shinji Mikami, but also deliver some incredibly fresh ideas to the genre.