Every horrible monster youll meet in The Evil Within

Sentinel

This is definitely not man's best friend. Bred by a cult in the catacombs beneath their cemetery and raised on a diet of sacrifice victims (because they do not half-ass their mutant wolf husbandry), Sentinel is the guardian of the church and the last line of defense against something. You, I suppose, because the second you put a toe in its territory, you're as good as dog-food. Not the kibble kind either--the nasty table scraps kind.

You almost feel bad for Sentinel the first time you see it, because someone went to a lot of pains (probably literally) to keep it muzzled and caged. That sympathy gets cut clean off when the beast busts out of all its restraints and goes for your throat. Sentinel is bigger than you, faster than you, and has way sharper teeth than you, so your best bet is to unload everything you have (what little of that there is) to try and bring him down. Bad dog, very bad dog!

Alpha

And this is why I avoid giant dystopic-looking underground spaces at all costs. You never know when something like this is going to show up. An amalgamation of Haunted fused together under what I assume were horrific and painful circumstances, the Alpha is a mindless wreck of madness and viscera. You know this creature is serious business because it shows up outside windows and in the middle of Sebastian's mentally-fractured freakouts from early on, and stars in at least one hallway chase sequence before you come face-to-face-to-face-to-face with it for real.

It catches you, as youve probably guessed, inside an abandoned underground with plenty of space to thrash you about. And that car you were just hiding behind? Alpha picked it up and threw it like it was made of styrofoam and empty dreams. Yeah, have fun with that. And sorry if you can never use a parking garage again. My bad.

Shigyo

Remember that human-mouthed shark thing I mentioned earlier? Well here it is again, looking no less horrifying than it did 11 slides ago. Shigyo the man-shark was apparently a lost soul that drowned somewhere in this nightmare-scape and became a water demon. That sounds like the craziest fish story ever, but whatever. It now spends its days nabbing anyone stupid enough to swim through its waters, dragging them under like a creepier and nastier Jaws. You are definitely going to need a bigger boat.

Unfortunately, Sebastian doesn't get a boat at all, because that's the kind of luck he has. Sections where he's separated from his goal by even a pond-sized patch of H2O can be deadly, because Shigyo is relentless in its commitment to ruining your day. Thankfully, it also seems unable to tell the difference between a warm body and a cold one. If you can get a corpse in the water, it'll act as a nice distraction while you dive in. Now swim! Swim like your life depends on it because it does.

Heresy

Ever had a spider fall on your head from their ill-chosen ceiling spot? That sucks for a normal person, and gets ten times worse if watching those little dudes crawl makes your skin... crawl. Now imagine that, except the spider is about 10,000 times bigger and uglier and ripping the roof off a bus. That's Heresy, the gigantic half-human half-arachnid, and you have to kick him to the literal curb. It's okay, don't cry.

A bit different from the Spider-Man you probably remember, Heresy nonetheless rules his city, even if he can best be described an amorphous pink blob with breathing problems balanced on nasty, hairy spider legs. Supposedly a mutated human soul run amok, he clearly wants you out of his town, and more than once you will have to deal with an arachnophobe's worst nightmare when he chases you relentlessly through the streets. I... I think I had a dream like this once.

Quell

There are species of squid that can make their bodies transparent or use camouflage as a defense mechanism. I don't know that for any admirable, scholarly reason--I just wanted to know why there are two squid enemies that can turn invisible in The Evil Withins nightmare world, because oh goddamnit come on! You know about the first tentacle-faced cheater, but the second is infinitely more intimidating: Quell, the full-on land squid, with eight nasty ways to mess you up.

Oddly enough, this wriggly guy actually helps you at first, because he's perfectly willing to kill the enemies trying to take your head off. That is, until you get to the heart of his lair, at which point he is no longer your friend. While he's got some slick moves (probably literally; watch where you step), what makes him downright frightening is the fact that he can vanish without a trace. He uses that to send stealth larva-bombs at you (just go with it) or jump out and nab you from nowhere. Like I said, cheater.

Doppleganger

Well this is vain of you, secretive hooded antagonist. I know you have a packed schedule of wandering around mysteriously and staring at Sebastian through barred gates (little weird, dude), but you're really so busy that you have to send a doppleganger to do your dirty work? I guess the faceless blood-vomiting is a nice touch, but really, if you want something done right

The Doppleganger acts as a sentinel when his original can't be bothered to kill you, commanding hordes of Haunted like his own personal undead army. That doesn't seem so bad until he turns around and spots you, then lets out the sort of blood-freezing scream that belongs in a slasher movie and erupts in a crimson wave. Then his hemoglobin-coated claw friends show up, a series of arms that chase you around until they grab and literally rip you apart. Hmm, creepy, spindly arms shooting out of the floor. Where have I seen that before?

Ruvik

Turns out this guy does have a name besides secretive hooded antagonist or the much snappier mystery hood guy, and that name is Ruvik. Developers have kept mum about this keen-eyed fellow other than to say "you never know when Ruvik will make an appearance," and that's pretty much on the mark. He shows up in the first five minutes to give Sebastian a zoom-enhanced stink-eye, and after that you never know where you're going to turn a corner and find him staring holes in you. And then putting holes in you.

Ruvik's methods really are mysterious, given that he can kill you by tapping you on the shoulder but doesn't make it a priority. When he does appear he follows you at an intimidating distance, giving you plenty of space to run your terrified behind off before he vanishes into the ether. That is, as long as he doesn't actually catch you, because this isn't abomination amateur hour and he will obliterate you if you let him. I'd say don't mess with him, but he's the bad guy. You're not gonna have much choice.

When you look into the abyss...

Not curled up under your bed crying? Want more terrifying horror stories? Curled up under your bed but still want more? Shine on you crazy diamond, and check out our Evil Within review. Also, for more scares check out Silent Hills 13 creepiest enemies and what they represent.