The Evil Within – The Executioner (DLC) – PS3

Release Date: May 26, 2015

Developer: Tango Gameworks

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Nerd Rating: 6.5/10

Reviewed By: Steroid Gamer

It’s time for a review of the final DLC installment for The Evil Within, The Executioner, which strays extremely far away from the typical theme the previous DLC packs contained. Yet, it still proves to be a fun, gruesome change of pace. The Executioner is not really a “story” expansion, but more of an arcade mode that has some story elements thrown in to rationalize its existence.

Strangling zombies can be very effective believe it or not.

The few little bits of story you do get involve the main character, who remains unnamed, and his quest to rescue his daughter. His daughter has been put into the STEM program from the main game, and if she remains in STEM for too long she will lose her memory and become one of the many monsters that inhabit the dreadful wasteland. So you bravely enter the STEM program and transform into the Executioner. Your goal is to eliminate all the enemies and save your daughter. If you’re successful then whoever is in charge of STEM, something that has yet to be given a solid answer, has agreed to let you and your daughter out alive. That’s it for the story. There are some hidden files to collect that explain a little more, but there are no cutscenes or dialogue spoken by the characters.

The primary function of The Executioner is to give players every reason in the world to run around as one of the main game’s biggest and baddest bosses. The Executioner enemy was a forceful foe throughout the campaign, and getting to control him in this DLC gives you all the brute power you once faced in The Evil Within. Seriously, the Executioner is an absolute force to be reckoned with, smashing skulls left and right. The best part about the entire DLC is just how sick and bloody it is. The game takes a different approach from all the previous content and changes the perspective from third, to first-person. Luckily, the controls don’t suffer in the slightest, and controlling the Executioner feels intuitive and responsive. Despite the Executioner being a slower moving character, he is an absolute tank and can crush some enemies into a billion guts, splattering them all over your screen.

Chainsaw….man’s best friend or worst enemy?

You start out with a hammer and go around bashing foes heads in or hitting them enough to stun them. Once they are stunned you can perform a brutal execution. These brutal executions zoom the camera out back to a third person perspective and show off some of the most unbelievably sickening kill moves. As sadistic as it sounds, crushing an enemy’s head like a pumpkin and watching their skull shatter into pieces is freaking fantastic. As you progress through the game more weapons and perks become available which you can buy using the in-game currency system. Coins are collected for every enemy you kill. Most of the upgrades are standard course, with things like faster moving speed, more health, and the ability to deal more damage.

The weapon upgrades are where the real fun comes in. You don’t just have to use your default hammer even though it is more than capable of getting the job done. As you progress through the arcade arena and defeat bosses you gain access to a chainsaw, Molotov cocktails, more efficient barbed wire floor traps, and more.

Welcome back to the lovely Victarino Estate

Welcome back to the lovely Victorino Estate

The gameplay itself is pretty simple and straightforward. You start off in the familiar Victorino Estate and go into a couple of rooms. At the end of each room you are transported to a previously used location in the game and start fighting monsters in an arena format. There are no time issues, but once you get teleported everything from the weakest of foes to stronger exploding kamikaze foes are thrown your way. In each arena there is also a boss that you have to deal with. While fighting the bosses as the powerful Executioner is a blast, it’s also a disappointment because there aren’t any new bosses for you to face. All the bosses are just repeats from the main game and in most cases the fights and arena battles take place in the exact same area as the main game. So, yes it’s fun to go in and whoop the snot of these bosses you struggled with during the campaign, but it’s also a letdown to retread through the same areas with the same enemies once again.

The kill animations are some of the most gruesome scenes among all The Evil Within content.

In between the arenas you get to explore your surroundings, but there isn’t much to find. A couple of hidden files are scattered through the area, but for the most part there aren’t any enemies to battle outside of the arenas. And while The Executioner doesn’t specify if the specific character you are playing as is the same Executioner that Sebastian Castellanos faced in The Evil Within, it is insinuated that there are multiple Executioners. The Executioner is more of a persona that STEM employees give to certain “chosen” individuals that they want to run testing on. There also isn’t much of an ending at all when it comes to the story, but at this point would you really expect there to be one? What can be considered the ending is super vague, but it’s easily overlookable since the primary point behind The Executioner is to capitalized on the game’s combat with the story taking a backseat.

Following the ghost of your daughter. Hopefully, all ends well.

The Executioner DLC is a really fun addition to The Evil Within package. Controlling the powerful Executioner is thrilling and provides endless opportunities to brutalize foes and make them pay for crossing your path. Fighting the bosses from the main game as the Executioner is fun, but it’s disappointing that everything is just a rehash of locations and enemies from The Evil Within. The controls are extremely responsive, but the DLC itself can be completed in less than an hour. Personally, if you purchased the season pass and already downloaded The Assignment and The Consequence, then you might as well download The Executioner too. While The Executioner is the best of the three DLC packs it’s not because The Executioner is particularly great so much as the other DLC add-ons just weren’t that good, making The Executioner, by comparison, the best of the three. I wouldn’t recommend picking up The Executioner as a standalone because there just isn’t enough content for the price. However, if you did purchase the season pass then you’re in for a vicious, blood-spattered, bone crushing experience.