Looking for something scary to play while “spooky season” is in full swing?
You won’t have to spend a penny to play The Evil Within on PC thanks to a free promotion that launched today—and the sharp sequel will be free to claim starting next week.
It’s thanks to the latest promotion on the Epic Games Store, which launched early Thursday. Epic is offering up a free download of The Evil Within for PC with no strings attached. If you have an Epic Games account, you can download the game and keep it forever.
Released in 2014, The Evil Within is a survival horror game in the mold of Resident Evil, which makes a lot of sense given that Resident Evil co-creator Shinji Mikami created and directed it. The Evil Within features more of a psychological horror aspect, however, and the game received generally positive reviews at the time despite some complaints about dated gameplay elements.

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Also free to claim today on the Epic Games Store is Eternal Threads, a story-driven puzzle adventure from 2022 that also received largely positive reviews. Both games can be downloaded for free until October 26.
Come October 26, the selection of free games will flip and the Epic Games Store will give out The Evil Within 2, the much better-reviewed sequel from 2017, giving players an opportunity to extend the eerie thrills. Also free from October 26 to November 2 is Tandem: A Tale of Shadows, an atmospheric puzzle-solving platform game with a Tim Burton-esque vibe.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.