The Evil Within 0 The Executioner (DLC)

The Executioner is the third and final DLC for The Evil Within, developed by Tango Gameworks, and it takes a sharp left turn from everything the main game stood for. Where Sebastian Castellanos crept through STEM desperately low on ammo and sanity, here you play as Pedro - a father who enters the STEM nightmare wearing the avatar of the Keeper, that safe-headed butcher who spent the main campaign making your life miserable. The camera flips to first person, the horror atmosphere mostly evaporates, and what replaces it is a blunt, arena-crawling melee brawler that feels closer to a boss rush than a survival horror chapter. The core loop is simple: move from arena to arena through the Victoriano mansion hub, hunt down a named target, collect Memory Tokens, and upgrade at the wall safe between fights. The Keeper's signature spiked hammer is your constant companion - you can chain a three-hit combo, slam downward, or lunge into a sprint attack. When an enemy is dazed enough, you can execute them with a flashy finisher or grab and throw them onto environmental hazards like spinning blades and wall spikes. Secondary weapons - chainsaw, rocket launcher, dynamite, spike traps - can be purchased as you progress, but most of them break with use, so the hammer stays your most reliable tool throughout. Optional Execution Chambers scattered around the hub offer wave-based encounters that are worth running for extra tokens, though health and items carry over in both directions, so they carry real risk. New Game Plus unlocks after the credits, adding a secret boss fight and a new weapon, which squeezes an extra hour or two of meaningful content out of an otherwise lean runtime. The honest concern is length and repetition. A first playthrough runs roughly two hours, and the boss roster is almost entirely recycled faces from the main campaign. The DLC leans on familiar locations, too - the arenas are retreads of areas you already cleared as Sebastian, now stripped of tension because you're the biggest threat in the room. The horror DNA is still visible in the art direction and lore collectibles (14 Daughter's Diaries flesh out Pedro's story quietly), but the scare factor is largely gone. What you gain is a power-fantasy contrast that is genuinely refreshing if you've spent 15 hours being hunted. The combat is basic by any FPS melee standard, but the gore feedback on hammer swings is satisfying, and the dodge mechanics - sidestep, back-hop, sprint-lunge - give it just enough rhythm that it doesn't feel entirely button-mashy. This one is squarely for players who have finished the main game and both Kidman DLCs. Coming in cold makes no sense narratively or contextually, and several boss encounters are callbacks that only land if you recognize who you're fighting. Completionists chasing the full Evil Within story beat will find it worthwhile. Casual horror fans looking for more of what the base game delivered should look elsewhere - the scares simply are not here. As a short, weird detour that lets Tango experiment with perspective and tone, it works on its own modest terms. It won't redefine anything, but smashing the Sadist across a parking garage with a spiked hammer after he terrorized you for hours is its own kind of catharsis.

Alex · Scout Team

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