Long rumored but not officially confirmed, it looks like we may see the announcement of The Evil Within 2 at this year’s Bethesda E3 conference. 

Just hours before the conference is due to take place, an ad for the game has leaked on Reddit, announcing that the game is available for pre-order with a link to the official site which doesn’t currently say anything about the sequel…yet. 

The ad was captured by Reddit and NeoGafusers and reads “Bethesda returns you to the nightmare in The Evil Within 2. Now available for pre order. How will you survive?”

We’ve not been able to make it reappear for us so there’s a good chance it’s been taken down from the site. If it did indeed appear, it appears to have been an error. 

To make matters worse for Bethesda, Gematsu has reported a second ad appearing which states “From survival horror mastermind Shinji Mikami comes The Evil Within 2. Now available for pre-order. ‘The only way out is in.’”

If this is true, fans of the first Evil Within will likely be pleased to see that its director Shinji Mikami (who also directed the first Resident Evil) could very well returning for the sequel. 

Released in 2014, the original Evil Within was a horror game that was praised for its uniqueness, despite having some flaws. Most notable was the way the game managed to combine features of classic survival horror games with more up-to-date third person action elements to create something that felt classic without feeling outdated.

Bethesda did say in late 2016 that it felt the game had performed well enough to justify a sequel.

After three years, now does admittedly sound like a good time to announce a sequel. Only time will tell if we see it at Bethesda’s conference which takes place June 11 at 9pm PT (or June 12 at 5am for anyone tuning in from the UK).

Check back here for a full report if and when it’s revealed.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? A sequel to the horror game The Evil Within
• When can I play it? It’s hard to say, but if it is indeed going to be available for pre-order we imagine there’s not too long to wait.
• What can I play it on? It’s most likely you’ll be able to play it on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

What we know so far

Release date

Since the game hasn’t been formally announced by Bethesda just yet, it’s hard to put any kind of figure on a release date. 

A reveal at E3 is, however, looking increasingly likely and it’s here that we’d be most likely to see a release date confirmed. At the very least, the recent leaked advertisements that have been spotted on Reddit suggest the game will be available for pre-order when it’s announced. This suggests to us a late 2017 to early 2018 release window is plausible.

Story and gameplay

The Evil Within 2 could either be a direct sequel to the first game in the series, or an entirely new adventure. We can’t be sure, though the ending to the first game does suggest a fresh scenario would work best.

It seems highly likely, though, that whether we see the return Sebastian Castellanos or not, The Evil Within 2 is likely to be just as (if not more) grotesque than the first game with a hopefully similar refreshing take on the modern horror game and a third person perspective. 

Who’s on the team?

The leaked adverts on Reddit certainly suggest that Shinji Mikami (director of the first game and the original Resident Evil) will be returning to work on The Evil Within 2. It’s not clear, however, in these adverts in what capacity he’s involved. Though he could be returning as a director, there’s also a chance he could be playing a consultant advisory role. We firmly hope it’s the former. 

What we want to see

A more nuanced story

We enjoyed the story of The Evil Within, and we also enjoyed its protagonist but it’d be nice if the sequel was slightly less ambitious with its story and went less all in on the absurd plot twists that tended to detract from rather than add to the game. 

It absolutely is possible to balance the strange horror elements and wild monsters of The Evil Within with moments that are more grounded in real-life fears and still have it make an impact. This is something we’d love it if The Evil Within 2 was able to achieve. 

Great visuals

If there’s one area a horror game really needs to perfect to instill fear, it’s its visuals. A solid aesthetic and consistent framerates and textures are key. It’s harder to be scared of monsters when they’re juddering towards you or their textures aren’t fully rendered. The original Evil Within sometimes had the problem of being inconsistent in these areas. This is likely in part because it was straddling the PS3 and Xbox 360 to PS4 and Xbox One generations and was playable on both.

We’d love to see The Evil Within 2 burst onto the latest generation consoles with gusto. Perhaps we could even see support for PS4 Pro and Project Scorpio. 

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