History VideoGame / TheEvilWithin2

* RealityEnsues: Hits Sebastian when he climbs out of the STEM pod in the ending. Trying to get up and walk right after his body has laid motionless for hours on end results in him pitifully sprawling to the ground.

** The final enemy tints the entire place in white through the use of a white gooey substance called psychoplasm and are constantly dressed in a white coat, with a white mask. [[spoiler:Even when Myra phases back to her usual attire, she wears big white pearl earrings and a white sweater]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Sebastian is finally reunited with Lily, and with Mobius all but wiped out, the two of them are free to live their lives. However, the entire search team, with the possible exception of Sykes[[note]]Sykes uses a backdoor out of STEM if you do his missions, but even then, there's only a one-in-four chance he doesn't suffer a FateWorseThanDeath[[/note]], is dead, and Myra [[HeroicSacrifice had to stay inside the STEM as it collapsed so she could bring down Mobius. Also Joseph's fate is left unknown even after the defeat of Mobius and the post-credits scene shows the STEM system mysteriously reactivating itself.]]]]

* RedEyesTakeWarning: While mooks had glowing eyes in the first game too, the enemies in this game have eyes that brightly glow an intense, bloody red.

* SequelHook: If you find all the photo slides, [[spoiler: Kidman reveals to Sebastian that Joseph is still alive, and promises to tell him more later. Ruvik is also still out there somewhere, assuming he really did take over Leslie's mind in the first game, planning who knows what, and is implied to be the one who reactivates the STEM machine at the end of the game. [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou He also might not be very happy that Kidman destroyed Mobius before he could.]] There's also a file that mentions Mobius' plans to create a wireless STEM capable of inserting people into it with no direct connection to the STEM machine.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Sebastian is finally reunited with Lily, and with Mobius all but wiped out, the two of them are free to live their lives. However, the entire search team, with the possible exception of Sykes[[note]]Sykes uses a backdoor out of STEM if you do his missions, but even then, there's only a one-in-four chance he doesn't suffer a FateWorseThanDeath[[/note]], is dead, and Myra [[HeroicSacrifice had to stay inside the STEM as it collapsed so she could bring down Mobius.]]]]

* MistakenForRacist: A hilarious exchange between Seb and Sykes.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Checking out the billboards at the movie theater [[spoiler: Stefano is hiding out in]] has some pretty cheeky movie names, like "A Father's Nightmare", "Snap Shot", "Rotten to the [[PunBasedTitle Core]]" and a potential ''Franchise/SilentHill'' reference called "White Fog".

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Averted. Of the Mobius search team, Sykes is the only one to have any shot of getting out alive at all (and even then, his odds of doing so are 4:1 against).

** Stefano's {{Leitmotif}} is [[https://youtu.be/EMfjgyHcIWk Tchaikovsky's "Serenade for strings, Op 48]].

* ContrivedCoincidence: There appears to be no logical connection between Sebastian's daughter being used as the core of a STEM project which started years ago, and that he previously got involved with the STEM built around Ruvik seemingly by pure chance.

** Update 1.05 lets ''anything'' do this to you with the reintroduced AKUMU difficulty. Conversely, the update also gives you a cheat that lets you do this to most things in Union completely free of consequence, even some bosses.

* NoFairCheating: Averted completely with the cheat options added in Update 1.05, which consists of OneHitKill, Invincibility and Unlimited Stamina. Using these makes even AKUMU a complete cakewalk, and they don't penalize anything, either i.e. you can clear Nightmare and Classic modes with cheats on and still get the unlockable rewards for it.

** Update 1.05 let's ''anything'' do this to you with the reintroduced AKUMU difficulty. Conversely, the update also gives you a cheat that lets you do this to most things in Union completely free of consequence, even some bosses.

* NoFairCheating: Averted completely with the cheat options added in Update 1.05, which consists of OneHitKill, Invincibility and Unlimited Stamina. Using these makes even AKUMU a complete cakewalk, and they don't penalize anything, either.

* LighterAndSofter: While simultaneously being DarkerAndEdgier than the first game; on one hand, the game features a pair of murderers who are far more sadistic than Ruvik and deals with themes of guilt and despair. On the the other hand, it's not nearly as gory as the previous game, with the surrealism and BodyHorror being toned down to a certain extent.

** Update 1.05 let's ''anything'' do this to you with the reintroduced AKUMU difficulty.

** The double-barreled shotgun you get from Skyes [[spoiler:if you decided to help him escape STEM]] is much stronger than the normal shotgun, but it only holds two shells at a time and has to be reloaded a lot due to a very fast firing rate.

** The silenced handgun you get from completing Skyes' first quest. It's weaker than the standard handgun but, as the name suggests, it has a silencer which makes it much more quieter and is a preferred choice when wanting to lure away enemies from groups.

* CheckpointStarvation: Taken UpToEleven in "Classic Mode", where the autosave feature has literally been disabled, meaning that your only autosave is to save the game manually (which is limited to only 7 times throughout the whole course by the way).

* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: In the first game, Ruvik's main goal was to escape back to the real world. This game's antagonists, Stefano and Theodore, have no intention of leaving; Stefano wanting to stay to "make [his] art forever", while Theodore wants to take control of Mobius (and by extension, the rest of the world) through the influence Union gives him. [[spoiler: Subverted with Myra, as she originally entered Union to get her daughter out while she stayed behind to destroy Mobius, only for Union's malleable nature to corrupt her.]] Also, Ruvik was sinister and mysterious whereas Stefano and Theodore behave in a more theatrical and flamboyant manner that wouldn't be out of place in, say, ''Franchise/DeadRising''.

* OptionalBoss: The Watcher, a vaguely-serpentine BlobMonster Sebastian encounters in the Marrow. You are forced to encounter it, but you can quite easily avoid fighting it if you manage to sneak past. You'll still have to drive it off by firing off a few rounds after you get out of the room it's hiding in, but by sneaking you can avoid a rather difficult battle beforehand

* SequelHook: If you find all the photo slides, [[spoiler: Kidman reveals to Sebastian that Joseph is still alive, and promises to tell him more later. Ruvik is also still out there somewhere, planning who knows what, and is implied to be the one who reactivates the STEM machine at the end of the game. [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou He also might not be very happy that Kidman destroyed Mobius before he could.]] There's also a file that mentions Mobius' plans to create a wireless STEM capable of inserting people into it with no direct connection to the STEM machine.]]

* NewGamePlus: Unlocked after beating the game. You start with 40000 Green Goo and lets you find more upgrade components.
* NintendoHard: The “Classic Mode” difficulty in a nutshell. Take everything from “Nightmare” mode and turn it UpToEleven. This difficulty is meant to emulate the difficulty from the first game and it certainly shows. 95% of enemies drop nothing when they are killed, ammo and crafting components are very rare, you can save only 7 times throughout the campaign, checkpoints are literally non-existent and Sebastian must [[MinimalistRun complete the entire ordeal without being able to upgrade his abilities or guns]]. However, your reward is the CatharsisFactor prize of [[BottomlessMagazines Infinite Ammo]], which is certainly fun to use even if it is mostly a BraggingRightsReward.

* EverytownAmerica: Union was designed by Mobius to be this, in order to keep their test subjects calm and relaxed. Even Sebastian himself refers to it as "Anytown, USA".

* GoneHorriblyWrong: Union was supposed to be the first step in creating an [[LotusEaterMachine utopian Matrix-like world]] in which all mankind was to be included. Once Lily goes missing, the whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket almost immediately.