Laura (Creature) (2024)

"Deep down I knew she was only an apparition, but I would regain my face, recover what was taken from me, restore her. My beloved sister, Laura."

―Ruvik vowing to make things the way they used to be

A twisted reincarnation of Laura Victoriano, is a recurring enemy that appears in The Evil Within, and briefly in The Evil Within 2.

Symbolism[]

A creature born from the memory of Laura's tragic death and Ruvik's own vengeance. She is nearly immune to bullets but reacts violently to open flame, a reference to the barn-house fire which heavily injured Laura and placed her in a vegetative state that led to her eventual death. Likely as a result of the fire, Laura's reincarnated form possesses discolored and patchy mottled skin.

Her constant screaming is possibly an effect of Ruvik's last memory of Laura screaming in anguish as she was being burned.

Plot[]

The Evil Within[]

Sebastian Castellanos first encounters Laura at the end of Chapter 4 in a morgue-like room at the end of a short hall. Upon Sebastian nearing the pile of corpses in the back end of the room, Laura suddenly bursts out of the dead bodies while letting out a blood-curdling scream. Sensing that the creature in front of him is quite a challenging foe, the detective decides to run for his life.

The chase is far from over, however, as Laura once again shows up at the end of the very next chapter, where she must be fought inside a large incinerator room. Using the burners mounted in the floor, Sebastian is able to incapacitate the specter after burning her three times.

Laura will be met later on in the game once again, in Chapter 10, before the Amalgam Alpha teleports Sebastian to a different zone. She is first seen crawling on a large wire tube, where she will eventually break through after Sebastian opens a door. The detective must then make his way to the elevator at the end of the area. If Laura is not defeated before entering the elevator, she will grab Sebastian through the chain doors as it descends, causing it to sever two of her arms.

Laura then vanishes for the rest of the game. Given that Ruvik is either dead or disconnected from STEM at the game's conclusion, it is safe to assume that Laura perished along with the rest of the creatures inhabiting the zone.

The Evil Within 2[]

Laura briefly returns in The Evil Within 2. If Sebastian triggers the memory in a house on the north end of Cedar Street in the Residential Area, Sebastian will be transported to Beacon, where he will enter a room and see an image of himself, dressed as he was during the Beacon incident, slumped over in a chair in a pool of blood. Reaching out to inspect his own body, Laura's clawed hands will reach out from the blood and drag him into said pool. He will then wake up in the house the memory started in. The words "NEVER FORGET" as well as the Beacon symbol will be burned into the wall.

During the boss fight with Theodore Wallace, who uses Sebastian's memories of STEM to torment him. After Sebastian's defeat of The sad*st and The Keeper, Laura emerges from the latter's fallen head safe as the setting changes to a room similar to the incinerator room where she was fought in the last game. Sebastian avoids Laura long enough to turn two valves and use a lever to ignite an overhead incinerator in the center of the room, defeating his memory of Laura and erasing her influences over him forever.

Strategy[]

The Evil Within[]

• Laura moves quite slowly, however, she can teleport over short distances to keep up with Sebastian, so the player must constantly be on the move. In some cases, certain objects like shutter doors can be closed to slow her down momentarily.
• Laura can spawn out of any corpses on the ground, though she prefers bodies that are close to Sebastian. If the player burns all the corpses in the Chapter 5 encounter before she can make use of them, it will reduce the number of times she can withstand being burned.
  • Laura's spawning animation takes several seconds to complete, during which the corpse can still be burned and will cause great damage to her if timed correctly.
• It IS possible to take on Laura herself with conventional weaponry, though her high health on top of her constantly teleporting around when aimed at makes her a massive resource sink.
  • One way around Laura's teleportation is to quickly hold aim, then release while simultaneously firing, as it takes her approximately one second to make a dash after being aimed at. The Shotgun with its dedicated hipfiring capability is a valuable asset to have when fighting Laura.
  • The Shotgun, Magnum and especially the Rocket Launcher are recommended if the player definitely wants to fight Laura, as the first two deal heavy damage to her while causing her to stagger, while the last can kill her very quickly provided that she is stunned so that the rockets can all score direct hits.
  • Laura is especially vulnerable towards being frozen with Freeze bolts from the Agony Crossbow, which can pin her in place long enough for Sebastian to retaliate or make some distance. Other bolts can be effective as well when used as land mines, as she is not scripted to avoid these.
    • Freezing her with bolts will interrupt her retreating animation, however, which can mislead players into dumping more ammo into her than necessary during the parts where she cannot be killed.
  • Laura can only be "killed" in the Chapter 5 fight and the last stage of the encounter with her in Chapter 10. Damaging her enough in any other encounter will only cause her to flee.
• Consider your options: Fighting Laura will more often than not be suicidal, especially so given the incredibly limited resources given by the game, while the rewards are usually piddly amounts of Green Gel along with some ammo found in her general vicinity, which are generally not worth the hassle. The only significant incentive in fighting her is to grab the 8,000 she drops each time she is "killed".

• Laura will not spawn near the end of Chapter 5 until Sebastian comes near the central platform. Use this free time to set up traps, burn bodies, and scrounge the area for supplies.

• In chapter 4 she can be easily beaten by using a combination of grenades and explosive bolts. Lay down bolts between the door and where she spawns, then when she does run back towards the entrance and then turn around to throw some grenades at her. On survival it takes seven bolts and two grenades.

The Evil Within 2[]

• Laura retains her vulnerability towards being frozen with Freeze bolts, careful exploitation of which is all but mandatory to open the gas valves that power up the incinerator needed to defeat her.
• Additionally, if Sebastian has built his own flamethrower, it can also be used to great effect. Defeating her requires a grand total of 80 units of flamethrower fuel and bypasses the need for activating the incinerator entirely.

Death Animations[]

Like Ruvik, coming into direct contact with Laura herself results in instant death.

• Laura will lunge at Sebastian when close enough to him. If this connects, she will pull him to the floor and pin him in place while her back-mounted arms proceed to smash his head several times. Sebastian seemingly stops struggling immediately after the first blow, with his face visibly denting and caving in on the third hit before the fifth obliterates the head entirely, spewing blood everywhere. Laura then leans in to drink the blood that leaks out of the stump before the screen cuts to black.
  1. The same happens in The Evil Within 2, but Sebastian's face no longer caves in.

Powers & Abilities[]

• Teleportation - Laura can teleport behind Sebastian

• Corpse Emergence - Laura can emerge from a blood-pool and a corpse.

• Tunneling - Laura can tunnel into any surface.

Achievements[]

The Evil Within[]

Old Flame 20 - Finished off a shrieking beast. This is a Secret achievement.

Bathed in Flames 25 - Enough running! I'll burn her to the ground right here! Defeat Laura before entering the elevator in Chapter 10.

The Evil Within 2[]

I'll Take You Down Myself 20 - Brought your own equipment to the barbecue this time. Fight off Laura using a Flamethrower.

Trivia[]

• The design of Laura seems to have been inspired by the Jorōgumo, a spider yokai of Japanese folklore that takes the form of a seductive woman.
  • Additionally, her wild, unkempt long black hair is also characteristic of the Onryō, a vengeful ghost created from a person (typically a woman) dying in a state of extreme rage or anguish, which is doubly fitting considering the circ*mstances of her death.
  • Laura's design seems also to have been inspired by Kayako Saeki from The Grudge: both of them have long black hair, pale skin and walk on all fours (such as the famous scene of Kayako crawling down the stairs)
  • In The Evil Within 2 when Laura emerges from the Keeper's head safe emittis the famous death rattle of Kayako Saeki. This is probably an easter egg or a reference to The Grudge film series.
• Laura was featured at the end of the first gameplay previews [1].
• Using the Agony Crossbow, the player is able to sever the two arms that extend from her back. While this does slow her down, they will grow back within seconds.
• In various early concept artworks, Laura was originally labeled as "Re-Bone Laura" and "Re-born Laura". She was also at one point a humanoid biped instead of being spider-like.
• Despite being mostly naked, Laura does wear blood-stained shoes, which can be observed during the animation where she kills Sebastian, or if she's been frozen with crossbow bolts. This was intentional, as the developers wanted this aspect of her design to embody what little vestige of humanity Laura has left after her resurrection.
• Defeating Laura in any way will still prompt her to catch on fire before collapsing to the floor as if she was burnt to death. This happens even if the final blow was dealt by the minuscule amount of damage caused by a Freeze bolt.
• During the concept phases of the game, Laura was initially to be concieved outwards from another creature.
  • At later stages, it was suggested by Laura's artist that she have two means of locomotion, bipedally, and on all fours. The idea of running into a two-metre tall scorched woman with long, black hair in a dark corner seemed "spooky" to her. It was later decided that only moving on all fours left a more lasting impression.
  • Unlike other creatures which were initially designed to be Ruvik's underlings, the resurrected Laura was intended to be a play on his feelings of guilt. As she died saving him, Ruvik originally assumed that she blamed him for her death, and has returned from the grave to come after him.
  • Closeups of Laura's face reveals she still wears braces.

Gallery[]

Promotional and Concept Art[]

Screenshots[]

Other[]