In my opinion – and in the opinion of our reviewer Joe – The Evil Within 2 is a damn fine horror game. But overall, survival horror isn't particularly huge on the blockbuster games scene anymore. Sure, it's better than it was five years ago, with games like Alien: Isolation, Resident Evil 7 and the original Evil Within releasing to positive reviews, but they're not as common as they were in the early 2000s.

Why's that? Game Watcher asked The Evil Within 2 game director John Johanas recently, and his answer was quite illuminating. The general message is that survival horror games, and especially big budgets ones, are too big a risk for most publishers to take on.

"It’s certainly tricky to make a big horror," Johanas said. "You realize when you make a AAA horror game that’s big on graphics, you don’t see it come together until the final moments. It’s tricky to calculate things in an effective way, and more so with horror because it’s so built on creating an experience that doesn’t have gaps. The risk is higher. We have the experience so we can mitigate those risks a little, but it’s a daunting task for anyone not familiar with the genre to create a AAA horror game."

Johanas credits indie studios for carrying the torch, and there's no doubting that Outlast, Observer, Amnesia and many more are exceptional(ly horrifying). But those are unlikely to set the mass market on fire, mostly due to their lack of action elements. 

You can read the full interview over here.

Here’s a neat trick for anyone that’s completed (or currently playing) third-person survival horror game The Evil Within 2: you can turn it into a first-person survival horror game with a simple console command.

There are one or two first-person sections in the base game (which is presumably why the option is there), but the command puts you into the skull of Sebastian Castellanos for the entire 15 hours, save for a few animations that switch the camera to third-person temporarily. It looks relatively polished, right down to head bobbing when you run, and I imagine it's scarier playing in first-person too.

To use the command, you'll first have to activate the console. So, right click on the game in your Steam library and select 'properties'. Then, hit 'set launch options' and type in '+com_allowconsole 1' (without the quote marks). Once you've done that, hitting Insert in the game will bring up the console.

The command to activate first-person is 'pl_FPS 1' (again, without quotes), and that should do it. If that doesn't work, some players are inputting the 'toggle' command first, or 'idStudio', which activates cheat mode. So if the first command doesn't work, whack either of those in and try again.

I just finished the Evil Within 2 and, like Joe, thoroughly enjoyed it. Enough that I might well go back and try it all over again in first person. Below is some first-person gameplay courtesy of Reddit user SkacikPL, who shared the footage on a thread discussing the change of view. There are a few hiccups at around 5:10, although I can't say if that's because of the change of perspective or not. 

Now that The Evil Within 2 has launched, you may have already started your journey to save Sebastian’s daughter and fight lots of horrible things that give you life-long nightmares. If you’ve yet to begin your nightmarish adventure, however, then Tango Gameworks' explanation of the game’s difficulty levels might help start you off on the right foot. 

The Evil Within has four difficulty levels: casual, survival, nightmare and classic. You’ll be able to change your mind and pick a lower difficulty while playing, but you won’t be able to pick a higher one if that ends up being too easy, so it pays to know exactly what the differences are. 

Casual difficulty is for people who mostly just want to experience the story. Items are plentiful, enemies can be killed easily, there’s aim assist if you want it and the Bottle Break ability is unlocked straight away, ensuring that you can escape grabs if you’ve got a bottle in your inventory. 

On survival difficulty, enemies are more numerous, and resources are fewer so you probably won’t always have enough ammo, for instance, to take them all out. A slow and steady approach is what Tango Gameworks recommends, and you’ll need to keep an eye on your inventory to make sure you don’t run out of important resources. Aim assist is available in this mode as well. 

In the first game, nightmare difficulty was for more experienced players who had already fought their way through the game. In The Evil Within 2, it’s unlocked right from the start and, in terms of challenge, sits somewhere between the last game’s survival and nightmare modes. It’s meant to be tricky, then, but still viable for your first playthrough. Ammunition is very rare, crafting is absolutely necessary, items in general are scarce and enemies are tougher. Aim assist is also not available. “It’ll be rough, but it’ll be tense,” says the developer. 

Finally, there’s classic mode. You’ll need to finish the game to unlock this mode, and while it’s similar to nightmare, it does come with some additional obstacles. There are no autosaves, for instance, and only a limited number of saves. You’ll get 7 chances to save throughout the game, and that’s your lot. Also, you won’t be able to upgrade Sebastian or your weapons at any point. Sounds awful! 

At least you’ll get some extra assistance based on the difficulty level you picked the first time around. Finishing the game nets you new weapons and more crafting supplies for your New Game + run. 

The Evil Within 2 is out now on Steam and the Humble Store for £39.99/$59.99. 

Horror sequel The Evil Within 2 comes out on October 13, which is just a couple of days away, and by now you probably have a pretty good idea of what grim delights it has in store. For those of you who don't, the launch trailer is here to help. 

The game sees the return of Sebastian Castellanos, who is once again forced to descend into the nightmare world of STEM, the bizarre system that enables individuals to connect their minds and share thoughts, experiences, and perceptions. But this time, it's personal. "He’s searching for his daughter Lily, who he thought he had lost many years ago, and it’s now a race against time as the world crumbles around him," Bethesda said. "Sebastian must rescue Lily before everything falls apart and they are both lost in STEM." 

The video doesn't do much to help nail things down story-wise (the story trailer is probably a better source of info on that) but it does have some interesting highlights: The little girl with the face, the sewer tunnel filled with rushing vomit, mutants that look like they were thrown together over a Tzimisce weekend workshop, and snippets of dialog like "Enough art school bullshit!" and "Keep shooting until they're dead or we run out of ammo" are all highlights in my book. 

It's perhaps not the cleverest bit of scripting ever, but you get the idea: The situation is bad, and the only things that are going to make it better are bullets and hard noses. 

In case you missed it, Nvidia released new Game Ready drivers for The Evil Within 2 yesterday, and you can check out the system requirements right here.