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From the moment she slowly rappels from the ceiling–star-like pose, back curved, holding onto her camera-head like the star of a glitzy burlesque production–the Obscura boss in The Evil Within 2 makes one hell of an impression. There’s a lot to love and dissect about The Evil Within 2. Just last Spookmas I sung the praises of its unique open-worldish design that lets you explore the simulation of idyllic American suburbia gone terribly horribly wrong. And yet, even when I don’t think about the game itself, that terrible, glamorous boss keeps buristing into my mind like the violent glare of a camera flash.

The Obscura is a creepy yet weirdly alluring tangle of limbs–three legs capped off with ballet shoes, then a freakishly curved spin leading to a pair of spindly arms holding onto a head that takes the form of an old-timey large format camera, complete with that long accordion-like tube that stands in for the creature’s neck.

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The battle itself has a compelling stealth hook to it, because ideally you want to stay out of the Obscura’s sight. At the centre of the battle is some kind of transmitter thingy, which is counting down towards… something, but the key thing to know is that the Obscura is trying to halt the transmitter by snapping it with her camera-face, while you’re trying to keep it ticking down. It’s a suspenseful game of cat-and-mouse; as you sneak around the large cavernous room, the Obscura is either skittering around looking for you on her three tippy-toes like a ballerina, or hanging around somewhere up above, where the ceiling is too high and dark for you to see her.

But it’s the sounds that make this battle as much as the Obscura’s appearance. See, this boss seems to be having a, shall we say, really good time fighting you. Put simply, her moaning and purring sound like the throes (and afterglow) of orgasmic ecstasy, in a way that sounds disturbingly realistic and not at all obnoxious. When she spots you, boy is she happy to see you, as she yelps and shrieks in unbounded pleasure while chasing you down with deadly purpose.

When you knock her down or outrun her until she tires, her voice descends into a quavering post-coital moan. I never dared go up to her during these periods of recuperation, but if I did then I wouldn’t be surprised to come around the corner at that moment, find her lying on her back (whatever her back is), light up a cigarette, take a deep inhale, then give a long, satiated exhale.

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But just as you start to ask yourself the dread question: ‘Is this actually maybe kinda sexy, or am I just going nuts?’ the moans descend beyond the human-sounding into a fractured, monstrous crackle. Just the kind of horrid acoustics you need to get your head straight again.

It’s the most strangely sexualised boss fight I’ve ever had in a game. You could compare it in some ways to Silent Hill, which has always liked its psychosexual imagery, but there’s much more of a sense of perverse playfulness here (besides, when has a Silent Hill boss battle actually been good?).

The Evil Within 2 is full of wildly imaginative weirdness as you explore its messed-up town of Union, and I thoroughly recommend it, but with the Obscura boss fight happening relatively early in the game, I have to say that the weirdness *ahem* climaxes pretty early.

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