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STEM needs a person (known as a 'Core') at the center of it to unify the different people who get attached to the machine. The Core basically works as the 'administrator' unit of the STEM, everyone within the STEM is a mental projection of themselves but the only person with full control is the Core. Without a Core, people's own mental spaces can begin to run wild and conjure things from the subconscious, and there seems to be an especially strong knack for the STEM to conjure up a person's innermost fears in weird ways. Lily was apparently the 'Core' of a STEM unit that Mobius had made and kept running, hosting a utopian city known as Union. However for reasons unknown, Lily just suddenly disappeared from within her own STEM. Mobius does not know how or why, but with her gone things have begun to go to hell in Union, as people are beginning to lose themselves to a nightmare within the STEM, and some of the people inside have gone on a power trip to take control of Union to change it into their own vision of utopia. They're all mentally stuck there until the Core returns and can't be extracted, but people can still go in. Mobius sent in several units of their own to respond and try to control and find out what happened to the Core, but things go south. In a last ditch effort to save all the time and money they've put into this STEM, they've contacted Sebastian as their last hope. He both has experience with STEM being a survivor of the Beacon Mental Hospital incident, and as Lily's father maybe injecting him into the STEM can get some sort of response out of Lily, wherever she is. Sebastian, broken and without much to lose, and given a chance to save his daughter, accepts this deal and enters into STEM one more time.

One of the big goals of The Evil Within 2 is to make a much better story than the original, with a cast of more likable and human characters. They have voiced they think the story of the game will be a surprise for many people, especially when it kicks into gear during the second half of the game.

When you start The Evil Within 2, there are three difficulty levels: Casual, Survival, and Nightmare. Casual is easier than Casual in the original TEW, but still not quite a cakewalk. It's recommended for players who want to not get too frustrated and are here for the story and experience rather than challenge. There's a variety of gameplay changes to make the game easier, including some abilities you need to usually spend resources on to upgrade being unlocked from the start, less and easier enemy placement, more resources in general, and other things you can turn on/off to make the game easier (like aim assist, which is an available option on Casual and Survival but not Nightmare and above). In contrast, Nightmare difficulty is recommended for people who like survival-horror games, it is apparently around the level of challenge of Survival in the original game, and has changes made for those who have more experience in the genre. It's also confirmed there's an unlockable difficulty which is NOT Akumu Mode from the original (no one-hit kills from everything) which will have limited saving, remixed scenarios, and other surprises we'll have to see when the game releases.

You are not defenseless in TEW, you get a knife and a handgun relatively early, and can gain more weapons over the course of the game such as shotguns, sniper rifles, crossbows, and more. Combat has seen improvements from the original, including a much wider camera when aiming, now being able to do a quick-turn, and a more extensive weapon upgrade system. In TEW2, you'll find Weapon Parts and High-Grade Weapon Parts, which can be used to both upgrade your weapon and repair broken weapons you find when you locate all the weapon parts. You must choose what to use your weapon parts on, as there's not nearly enough to upgrade all your weapons and repair all weapons you find in the game in a single playthrough (though the game does have New Game+).

However, this is a survival-horror game. You do have limited resources and ammo, and have other options than just fighting. You need to pick and choose your battles, as while there are new options to sacrifice certain resources for others (there's an extended crafting element in the game compared to the original to let you choose what to make), you can and will run out of ammo if you go crazy with shooting monsters up.

You can 'build' a Sebastian that's more oriented to fighting, however. Like the original TEW, there is an upgrade system for Sebastian himself using Green Gel (and a new Red Gel). You collect it from enemies and around the environment, though in a single playthrough it's impossible to fully upgrade Sebastian, so again you must pick and choose where to use your upgrade gel. Sebastian can upgrade his abilities in five area: Health, Stealth, Combat, Recovery, and Athleticism. Some upgrades are straight forward, such as increased max health, increased stamina, steadier aim... But there's some new and special quirks you can get too. Some quirks you can upgrade include having one-hit kill attacks no longer kill you, just nearly kill you but leave you alive with either a little or a lot of health left. Another quirk helps give Sebastian a small chance to dodge and avoid damage from certain types of attacks. There's also crazier abilities you can get, though they are expensive and to get them you'll need to focus on unlocking them. These abilities include a curb-stomp move to kill enemies on the ground, an ability to slow-down time while you're aiming, and a combo-like ability where your default gun damage is lower but you can start to get a 'combo', every time you shoot an enemy before the combo timer runs out you deliver more and more damage with each shot, increasing the damage output until either you run out of time and the combo ends or you run out of ammo. The crazier abilities are crazy expensive though, and you need to pick and choose what you want to upgrade with gel as you play to fit your playstyle.

Stealth has seen some big improvements since the original game as well, now allowing you to take and move from cover for stealth, a more refined enemy detection system and better use of light/darkness, sounds, and more environmental uses to distract monsters.

Traps have also been expanded, while still using the Crossbow as the basis for special elemental weapons, their purpose and abilities have been increased (for example, you may use an electric bolt in a pool of water to have the expected result or use a ire bolt on oil or grass to spread some chaos), as well as some new types of traps such as being able to set down trip wires or a detonation mine that makes a distinct sound to attract nearby enemies.

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But the enemies and dangers of Union have also seen an increase in nightmarish variety and threat since the original game as well. The main zombie-like enemies of the game are known as "Losts", lost souls to Union, who will not go down easily if their brain isn't taken out (and headshots have to be precise, as you can shoot off part of their faces rather than hitting them squarely in the brain). There are also new crazier types of the main enemy forces, including a type known as Hysterics who are far more aggressive, sporadic, relentless.

The enemy train doesn't stop there though, there's all sorts of weird twisted monstrosities within Union. Some of the biggest monsters can not be killed, but the screen tints to a blue tone when you're around a foe who is unbeatable to let you know not to mess with it (some unstopable forces wander dynamically through the game world). There is a much bigger enemy variety than the original game.

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The game takes place in a mentalscape small American town known as Union. The Evil Within 2 compared to the original game will have more open levels to explore, but the game itself is not an open world game. A more apt comparison is some hybrid of the original Silent Hill and Silent Hill Downpour. The game has a chapter system like the original, and still has linear levels and areas. However, in-between main story chapters you'll go to larger, more explorable levels with optional stuff to do in them. There isn't a whole big 'open world', as much as there's 'provinces' of Union you'll go to. In the original Silent Hill, in-between the main stages you went back to the town itself. The town is never 100% fully explorable, but you reach different segments which fill the in-between from the main locales.

It's also been said by Shinki Mikami (producer) and the game's director, John Johanas, that the side-quests and Union become a smaller part of the game in the second half when the story really starts kicking off, which is an intentional design decision for pacing.

The game is running on a custom engine by Tango Gameworks, which uses some of the skeleton of both idTech 5 & 6 within it. It [B]will support PS4 Pro and Xbox One X Enhancement, being able to run at 4K on PC, PS4 Pro, and XOX. It also has HDR support on all platforms.

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Originally posted by Smasandian
Yeah, I did. First when it came out but just recently as well.

I thought the bosses were on par. The first relied way to heavily on bosses that were incapable in being killed unless you followed the a specific path. And they repeated too much. This game was more varied, could be defeated by force and were in areas where you can move around.