Five things worth noticing in Bethesda’s Evil Within teaser

We’ll find out more about Evil Within as Bethesda carefully doles out information starting next week, but five things struck me about the live action teaser.

After the jump, could this be an actual horror game instead of a shooter?

1) There isn’t a gun anywhere. Most horror games are actually shooters. Whatever Evil Within turns out to be, Bethesda steered clear of implying gunplay for the initial announcement. For that matter, nothing in the teaser implies combat. Although those monsters look like you’re totally going to have to fight them at some point. That multi-armed Left 4 Dead witch seems like she’s going to be a serious pain.

2) Who listens to vinyl anymore? There’s no sign of contemporary technology in the teaser. The photograph of the woman implies a setting no more recent than the 40s.

3) When tentacles bust out of the facial region of something, I can’t help but hope there’s something Cthulhu-esque going on. However, the body dysmorphia stuff like shards of glass sticking through skin, barbed wire, and head-box-with-a-door reeks more of Clive Barker.

4) Someone has seen Session 9. From the trailer:

From Brad Anderson’s superlative horror movie:

The empty wheelchair in a dark hall is almost a cliche at this point, and creepy wheelchairs were a fixture of the original Silent Hill, which predated Session 9 by a few years. But that shot from Session 9 is iconic for a reason. I’m glad the folks making Evil Within appreciate it.

5) Man, do I feel like a wuss for falling for a jump scare in a teaser trailer. I blame the Bach for lulling me into a sense of complacency.