The Green Gel, introduced in the first game, can be used to customize Sebastian's abilities, which are divided into five different trees: health, stealth, combat, recovery and athleticism.

[5] Three years after the events of the first game, Sebastian Castellanos (Marqus Bobesich / Hiroyuki Kinoshita) has left the Krimson City Police Department, haunted by his experiences at the Beacon Mental Hospital.

His only child, Lily (Kiara Gamboa / Sakura Sakai), supposedly perished in their house fire, and his wife Myra (Elizabeth Saydah / Rika Fukami), unwilling to accept her daughter's death, abandoned him.

Drowning his sorrows in a bar, Sebastian is approached by former partner and Mobius agent Juli Kidman (Meg Saricks / Yūko Kaida), who reveals that Lily is still alive.

Upon entering Union, Sebastian discovers the town has turned into a nightmare realm where all of the inhabitants were either killed or mutated into monsters.

He manages to find surviving Mobius personnel Liam O'Neal (Jesse LeNoir / Takuya Masumoto), Yukiko Hoffman (Ying Hsiao / Mayumi Sako), and Julian Sykes (Hari Williams / Tōru Sakurai), who help him in the search for Lily.

Sebastian refuses and is banished to a forest outside Union where he meets with Mobius operative Esmeralda Torres (Crash Barrera / Tomo Muranaka).

Upon reaching her safe house, Torres reveals that she, Kidman, Myra, and Theodore had conspired to break Lily out of STEM and destroy Mobius from within via their chip implants.

She disobeys him and helps Sebastian and Lily escape the STEM while Myra enacts her plan, killing the Administrator and all Mobius operatives (except Kidman who has removed the microchip from her brain).

The 2.5:1 aspect ratio featured in the first game was removed due to the mixed response this design choice had received upon its release, even though the team liked it.

[10] In August 2016, Pete Hines, an executive from publisher Bethesda Softworks, revealed that The Evil Within had sold enough copies to warrant a sequel, though he declined to comment on whether a new game is in development.

While The Evil Within 2 isn't without problems—and I'm not sure it's the kind of game I'll ever want to play through a second time—by the time the final credits rolled, I had legitimately enjoyed the adventure I'd just gone on, and the improvements that Tango Gameworks had tried to bring to the series.

Its progression and difficulty curve create a satisfying loop that repays resourcefulness and strategy, but its set pieces and structure don't build enough on the many ideas they borrow to make them feel new or interesting.

"[22] Paul Tamburro of Game Revolution awarded it 3.5 out of 5 stars stating that "The Evil Within 2 is a worthy sequel that makes a number of bold decisions.

For those solely looking for the survival horror thrills of the first game, its spotlight upon combat will likely be a disappointment, as will its introduction of a dull open world.

However, there's plenty tucked away in The Evil Within 2 that will appeal to both fans of the original and new players, with it presenting a mix of Mikami's best ideas and John Johanas' new direction.

Coming in at a lengthy and surprisingly packed 15-hour campaign, the sequel does an admirable job of ratcheting up the tension and scares when it needs to, while also giving you the freedom to explore and proceed how you want.

"[26] 80/100 was Joe Donnelly's score on PC Gamer and said it was "An intense and thrilling psychological survival horror sequel that improves on its forerunner in almost every way.