First of all, I like the way the story is told in this game. Up until around chapter 8, basically nothing makes sense, then you start to get some clues from all the notes left around, small details in cutscenes. Maybe the story is not the best, but I definitely enjoyed looking for clues on my first playthrough until everything is revealed at the end.
Now the gameplay. I heard a lot of people complain about difficulty in this game and I mostly get those complaints, majority of them are reasonable. But I still can't say that this game is "impossible" or "too hard to be enjoyable". But it would probably be really hard if you haven't played anything quite like this before. During all of my playthroughs (I did 3, one as my first one on the medium difficulty, second on Akumu, which is the hardest difficulty in the game and one on the easiest difficulty for some achievements), I never felt that this game is truly unfair. It is hard, but it's not unfairly hard like some other games I played. The difficulty never felt artificial. Here, the game always makes sure you have all the tools you need to beat a certain segment or a boss. For example: in chapter 6, at one point your partner is dragged away by 2 enemies, he is out of reach, so you need to either use the crossbow, handgun or your sniper rifle. I didn't have ammo in my handgun and I didn't want to waste my crossbow bolts, so I went with sniper. Because I only had one bullet, I just could not kill both enemies, so I looked around, and there are exactly 2 sniper rifle bullets laying a few feet away from the player. So the game gives you just enough tools to progress and if you fail, there is a checkpoint right before this segment, which means you have a basically infinite ammount of attempts. During bossfights, you can always look around and find some ammo, healing syringes and sometimes even grenades. The Evil Within is well designed and it always makes sure you have all the tools you need to proceed.
New enemy types also regularly appear and are usually unique to a certain location (slow, but strong guys in the catacombs, Haunted that can turn invisible in the hospital-like places etc.). It was fun to find new strategies on how to approach different enemy types.
Even though I adore this game, it still has quite a few problems. Here are those, that annoyed me personally when I played it:
The main character has too little personality. Voice acting is ok, but he is just not memorable.
Movement and controls feel sluggish at times. Sometimes the character might get stuck in things. I mostly had problems in chapter 2-3 because he always got stuck in rocks and other stuff laying around, especially when running away from The Sadist during his bossfight. You also cannot cancel the match dropping animation if you timed it badly, you automatically stand up when healing or aiming and cannot do those things while crouching. In case of healing you can't even move during the animation.
I also kinda disliked how unconnected locations feel. I get that it's kind of the point (don't wanna spoil anything), but it just feels weird when you were in a city, then in a village and then somewhere else. But maybe it's just me.
Overrall, it's a great game, I highly recommend it if you liked some similar games (for example, Resident Evil series). As of what to play it on, I played on PS4 with no problems. Some occasional frame rate drops, but nothing unplayable. But I suggest playing on PC if you have the option.
Now the gameplay. I heard a lot of people complain about difficulty in this game and I mostly get those complaints, majority of them are reasonable. But I still can't say that this game is "impossible" or "too hard to be enjoyable". But it would probably be really hard if you haven't played anything quite like this before. During all of my playthroughs (I did 3, one as my first one on the medium difficulty, second on Akumu, which is the hardest difficulty in the game and one on the easiest difficulty for some achievements), I never felt that this game is truly unfair. It is hard, but it's not unfairly hard like some other games I played. The difficulty never felt artificial. Here, the game always makes sure you have all the tools you need to beat a certain segment or a boss. For example: in chapter 6, at one point your partner is dragged away by 2 enemies, he is out of reach, so you need to either use the crossbow, handgun or your sniper rifle. I didn't have ammo in my handgun and I didn't want to waste my crossbow bolts, so I went with sniper. Because I only had one bullet, I just could not kill both enemies, so I looked around, and there are exactly 2 sniper rifle bullets laying a few feet away from the player. So the game gives you just enough tools to progress and if you fail, there is a checkpoint right before this segment, which means you have a basically infinite ammount of attempts. During bossfights, you can always look around and find some ammo, healing syringes and sometimes even grenades. The Evil Within is well designed and it always makes sure you have all the tools you need to proceed.
New enemy types also regularly appear and are usually unique to a certain location (slow, but strong guys in the catacombs, Haunted that can turn invisible in the hospital-like places etc.). It was fun to find new strategies on how to approach different enemy types.
Even though I adore this game, it still has quite a few problems. Here are those, that annoyed me personally when I played it:
The main character has too little personality. Voice acting is ok, but he is just not memorable.
Movement and controls feel sluggish at times. Sometimes the character might get stuck in things. I mostly had problems in chapter 2-3 because he always got stuck in rocks and other stuff laying around, especially when running away from The Sadist during his bossfight. You also cannot cancel the match dropping animation if you timed it badly, you automatically stand up when healing or aiming and cannot do those things while crouching. In case of healing you can't even move during the animation.
I also kinda disliked how unconnected locations feel. I get that it's kind of the point (don't wanna spoil anything), but it just feels weird when you were in a city, then in a village and then somewhere else. But maybe it's just me.
Overrall, it's a great game, I highly recommend it if you liked some similar games (for example, Resident Evil series). As of what to play it on, I played on PS4 with no problems. Some occasional frame rate drops, but nothing unplayable. But I suggest playing on PC if you have the option.