Developed by solo developer Honor Games, Eternal Evil wears its inspirations on its sleeve; from the music to sound effects, mansion setting, and limited inventory management, it’s clear Capcom’s seminal series Resident Evil had an effect here. And for what it’s worth, it’s not a bad take on the genre. There is a good sense of atmosphere, and the slowly unravelling areas prove intriguing enough to keep us going forward. However, there’s no escaping a lack of polish and obtuseness, and the hurdles to jump over to find the fun are just slightly too high at times.
We get a branching story to play out, choosing either between Hank or Marcus. I went for Hank first and this is where Resident Evil shines through. We’re plonked in a mansion, with all manner of locked doors and puzzles to solve. Oh, and a handful of shuffling enemies to fend off. Story scenes are played out in comic book style, with still panels overly laid with text. There is full voice acting too though this leaves a lot to be desired – though you could argue this is part of the charm of these b-movie style experiences.
Exploration is done in first person, and we’re tasked with collecting items, ammo, and puzzle pieces to gradually unlock the full scope of the area. It’s fairly straightforward stuff; colour-coded keys for similarly coded doors, scraps of info to hint at a solution, or specifically shaped items to slot into similarly shaped holes. In this aspect, Eternal Evil is pretty successful, always giving us a little something to aim for. Where things fall apart a bit is in some of the trickier puzzles that, quite frankly, are too obtuse and confusing – and I’m not entirely sure weren’t broken in my playthrough.
One featured vinyl records to collect to create a collection of sounds, but there was a lack of explanation as to what to do fully. Thankfully, we can collect Skip Skulls (almost an admission that the puzzles need some work) and placing one of these lets us skip the solution as long as we have all of the items. However, I later found the final vinyl in a locked room way after the fact of me skipping the puzzle. The inventory was also confusing, with items not showing up in certain scenarios for no explicable reason.
A later puzzle in the Library was also very confusing, with a clue that didn’t seem to relate to the puzzle at hand in any obvious way. Even once it was solved (thanks to a YT guide) it still didn’t make a great deal of sense. It’s a shame that these puzzles let the side down, as with a bit more polish and well rounded clues they could have been fun to solve. As it was, I just found myself frustrated and unsure if I was being dim or the game wasn’t telling or giving me something I needed.
Combat follows the same pattern in that it’s passable but now without fault. Enemies (which I think are supposed to be vampires but sound and act like zombies) slowly shuffle toward us, and a few headshots will usually be enough to down them. Guns feel weighty, and we can carry as many as our limited inventory allows which comes in handy later on. However, there’s a lack of feedback from the bigger foes which makes other aspects of the combat feel worse than they are; reloading and swapping weapons is slow, and the animation cannot be interrupted once it starts which can mean we’re left watching as enemies batter us with no fear of recourse.
One boss fight almost got the better of me as it was against an large enemy in a small area, and with no room to move and slow reloads meant I barely made a dent before dying. I eventually beat it, but it was absolutely more luck than anything. Luckily we don’t have limited saves, but the reload and trek back to the boss umpteen times did not make almost instantly dying any more fun. The aim assist is also far too strong with no way to adjust it – hovering over an item or enemy slows the aim to a crawl, but hit the threshold and its back to full speed, meaning a lot of wildly swinging aiming at enemies and wasted bullets.
And that’s not to mention the litany of bugs I came across, from getting stuck in doors or unable to back out of viewing an object, to enemies being able to hit me through floors and walls, or corpses (which can be picked up and moved) sticking to my players face making it impossible to see where I was going for while.
Conclusion
And that kind of sums up my overall thoughts on Eternal Evil. It has some good, almost great aspects, in its world design, vibe, and atmosphere. The basis is there for a great survival horror, but at every turn it feels hamstrung by dodgy technical aspects or simply bad puzzle planning. It’s the exact type of game that appeals to me, but I also can’t wholly recommend it over countless better examples already out there.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
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