History VideoGame / TheEvilWithin2

* SlidingScaleOfAntagonistVileness: [[spoiler: Inverted. The first major villain, Stefano, is a monstrous MadArtist, followed by Father Theodore, who is a cruel and egotistical ManipulativeBastard but also a KnightTemplar who earnestly believes he's building a perfect utopia, and then Myra, who is outright pitiable and only acted the way she did because of Union warping her motherly instincts. Of course, if one counts [[GreaterScopeVillain the Administrator]], it could be a ZigzaggedTrope, as it turns back around again.]]

* CheckpointStarvation: Taken UpToEleven in "Classic Mode", where the autosave feature has literally been disabled. You are instead allotted 7 chances to save across an unbroken 17-chapter narrative[[note]]technically 8, since you're also given a free "Game Clear" save upon finishing the game[[/note]]. Better hope you didn't squander your saves during the early chapters.

* 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.

* AwardBaitSong: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hId34I6hOQg cover of Duran Duran's "Ordinary World"]] that serves as the game's main theme.

* SkillTree: Like the first game, you have skills that can be upgraded by taking a visit to Nurse Tatiana. However, the sequel adds a few additional skills to your tree, such as the ability to dodge certain attacks, break out of an enemy's grasp, and improve your stealth.

* KnifeNut: One of the new antagonists, Stefano Valentini, is a MadArtist who carves up his victims with a large, serrated dagger that makes Film/CrocodileDundee's Bowie knife look like a butter knife.

* TooDumbToLive: Mobius as a whole for [[spoiler:thinking it was a good idea implanting chips directly connected to the STEM into the brains of ALL of their members, making it easy for Myra to wipe them all out in one fell swoop.]]

* SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer: Discussed / acknowledged InUniverse -- if you hit the maximum 100k point prize on the ''Candy Crush''-esque shooting minigame, Sebastion remarks that he should go back to the whole "finding [his] daughter thing".
* SlidingScaleOfAntagonistVileness: [[spoiler: Inverted. The first major villain, Stefano, is a monstrous MadArtist, followed by Father Theodore, who is a cruel and egotistical ManipulativeBastard but also a KnightTemplar who earnestly believes he's building a perfect utopia, and then Myra, who is outright pitiable and only acted the way she did because of Union warping her motherly instincts. Of course, if one counts [[GreaterScopeVillain the Administrator]], it could be a ZigzaggedTrope, as it turns back around again.]]
* SinisterMinister: Another new villain, Father Theodore, is in charge of a ReligionOfEvil within STEM and wants to get his hands on Lily, likely for the same reason Valentini does.

* SceneryGorn: As the stem starts to fall apart, we get scenes of mind-bending and downright apocalyptic devastation happening to Union.
* SceneryPorn: The center of Union, where Myra resides, is a huge expanse of snow with the remnants of Union orbiting high above. It's a very striking area, and the string quartet playing in the background allows the player to relax and prepare for the inevitable final battle.

* AssholeVictim: Turner and Hayes, the two dead Mobius agents who planned to go rogue. Any sympathy one may have had for them vanishes when they agree to gun down a bunch of frightened survivors, simply because it'd be easier than dealing with them if they turned into monsters.

* AdultFear:
** Learning your only child, whom you thought perished in a fire, isn't dead, but is trapped in the same kind of nightmare hellscape you barely escaped from three years ago, likely all by herself and with no idea what's going on or why... How would you react if you were Sebastian?
** [[spoiler: Discovering your wife has been corrupted by the kidnappers of your daughter and is now an insane WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds who hates you has to hurt, too.]]

** A slightly more minor one but your flashlight doesn't alert any enemies, which is very useful when trying to avoid them in darker areas.
** Unlike the first game, your sprint isn't disabled when your health is below a certain point (though this is compensated by the fact that you don't get to sprint as fast).

* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: Sebastian starts the game with the knowledge on how to perform sneak attacks on unaware enemies from behind, but needs some Green Gel to learn how to sneak attack monsters from cover. He also can throw bottles to distract enemies, but needs a trip to the nurse’s office to figure out how to smash them into someone’s face to escape a grab.

** The full-barreled shotgun can be found in a storage room after finding a key from a fallen Mobius in an alleyway in the Business District. It's pretty much the same as the regular shotgun, but it's longer barrel gives it better range.

** You can actually sneak attack more enemies than you'd think you're able to- in particular, the massive Gluttons that roam around past Chapter 12 can actually be sneak killed, and the Harbingers are also vulnerable to them- but they will take at least four or five, meaning it's not advised.

* MeatMoss: Played with; the stringy white substance that can be found wherever [[spoiler:Myra]] has been appears to be cast from the same substance which makes up her body inside [=STEM=].

* NighInvulnerability: The Invincibility mode added in the 1.05 update makes you to immune to ''almost'' everything, but things that are an instant-death condition on all difficulty levels (getting caught by The Guardian, Anima or a Lament, for example) are still an instant-death condition even when you otherwise can't be killed.

** Stefano Valentini was an artist who photographed the horrors of war who's eye was lacerated from shrapnel. In Union, Stefano's powers manifest in the form of creating [[StableTimeLoop Stable Time Loops]] to capture the gruesome deaths of his victims with his cameras. He is also able to manifest a massive eye resembling a camera lens that both watches Sebastian for him and attacks on his command.

* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Mobius built a second STEM machine, though this time it's powered by using Lily as its core instead of a pyschopath like Ruvik; apparently they only work if the Core is a child or TheSociopath. A file in the game explains that a functioning Core requires a person who has "limitless ego". Which is to say, you view the world around you only in terms of how it can be of benefit to yourself. This is a natural mindset for a very young child who only think of satisfying their own needs, before they develop a sense of self and begin to understand other people as differentiated individuals with their own wants and needs that should also be considered.

* VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck: You can kill Harbingers to get flamethrower fuel tanks and combine them with the Broken Flamethrower you get from [[spoiler: defeating O’Neal]] to make a flamethrower for Sebastian. While it’s coverage is huge, it slows Sebastian’s movement speed to a crawl and chews through ammo so quickly that it’s hardly worth the effort it takes to make it. [[spoiler:[[NotCompletelyUseless It does work pretty well against Laura, should you go to the extra trouble.]]]]

* RealityEnsues:
** It's revealed that Sebastian was left psychologically traumatized from the events of the first game, to the point where he had to seek counseling.
** 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. [[spoiler: Thankfully, since every possible threat to him had been killed at this point, it's not much of a problem]].

* NotSoDifferent: Tatiana tries to invoke this if Sebastian speaks to her about Stefano. An irritated Seb shuts it down pretty quickly, though, having little patience for her equating Stefano's gruesome murders with his killing in self-defense.

* OffscreenTeleportation: To be expected from a game of the Horror genre. [[spoiler: Oddly enough, it's not done by any of the enemies or bosses, but by ''Sebastian himself''.]]

* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Mobius built a second STEM machine, though this time it's powered by using Lily as its core instead of a pyschopath like Ruvik; apparently they only work if the Core is a child or TheSociopath.

'''Sebastian''': That may be... but there's ''EVIL WITHIN, TOO''...

->'''Sebastian''': Are you coming with me or not?\\
'''O'Neal''': I told you I wasn't going to leave this place. It's fucking EVIL out there.\\
'''Sebastian''': That may be... but there's EVIL WITHIN, TOO...

* SequelDifficultyDrop: Survival, the game's "Normal" mode, is easier than the original game's normal mode. Inverted with Nightmare, which is actually [[SequelDifficultySpike harder than the original game's hard mode.]]

* 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. Kidman lampshades this, as she was keeping tabs on Sebastian for Mobius at the time ''and'' also got drawn into the incident by pure chance.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The first area proper in the game you come across things that [[spoiler: represent the three antagonists in the game]]:

* 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. [[spoiler: Thankfully, since every possible threat to him had been killed at this point, it's not much of a problem.