Evil West Review – Undead Redemption

Evil West asks a simple question: what would happen if a cowboy fought a vampire? Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford films greenlit, and developer Flying Wild Hog certainly gets a lot of mileage out of its whimsical concept. Set in an alternate version of 1890s America, Evil West is the Wild West at its wildest. Familiar backdrops of swinging-door saloons, rolling tumbleweeds, and abandoned gold mines are interwoven with Nikola Tesla-inspired Electro’s steampunk technology and ravenous vampire hordes. Evil West shines in the heat of battle when it manages to answer its first question, but its strengths are often undercut by the outdated designs wrapped around them.

The story is a battle between a vampire hunting organization and an enemy army of vampires threatening the mainland United States. You’re strapped into the spur-clad boots of Jesse Rentier, a typically moody protagonist who has little emotion beyond mild indifference. His occasional pragmatic responses to the absurd, though a little endearing, also speak to the fact that I had to look up his name before writing here. brooch to For example, one of his highborn vampires is concerned about humanity’s ever-expanding technology and the threat it poses to his fellow Sangisuge. It’s the only one to revolve around a despicable, misogynistic government official, but his resurrection isn’t as satisfying as it deserves.

Ultimately, it’s easy to ignore these one-dimensional characters and their tense, swearing-filled, demeaning dialogue. The story is little more than a vehicle for chaotic combat, moving from dusty towns to dark swamps in search of new monsters to extinguish. It means being a brawler. The behind-the-scenes third-person view is reminiscent of the latest God of War games, allowing you to get up close while slamming enemies into bloody pulp. Equipped with metal gauntlets that add extra weight to each punch, Jesse can utilize a charged uppercut to launch smaller foes into the air and follow up with a Cannonball Strike. You can then bother your enemies with conveniently placed spike traps or stacks of TNT. Jesse’s melee attacks are moderately weighted, and the undeserved gore that coats each arena in blood and crimson guts really sells Evil West’s core power his fantasy.

Eventually, the gauntlets will be infused with electricity, further expanding your repertoire with a variety of new moves. Pull enemies towards you or pull them towards you, sending bolts into their bones, giving them a short window to destroy their helpless shells in one hit. This has her two uses. He can catch enemies at a distance to avoid danger, or he can pick one out of his pack to deal damage before his allies arrive. Most of Evil West’s challenges come from throwing a lot of enemies at once, so having this kind of mobility alongside typical evasive moves and kicks that can disrupt certain attacks survives. is the key to There’s also an electric grounding pound that vaporizes multiple enemies at once, and a shockwave attack that stuns multiple enemies, giving you a chance to temporarily rest or focus on a specific target while the rest are locked in place. give.

It’s not just melee combat. Jesse still packs an arsenal of lethal firearms that slowly expands throughout the game. I’m here. Pressing the shoot alone fires Jesse’s his six-shooter revolver, but aiming down sights automatically switches to the rifle to deal with long-range threats. Another button on his boom stick fires a quick blast from her shotgun. There are some special weapons that won’t spoil here. No ammo to collect. Instead, everything works on cooldown. There’s a lot to learn, but combat is intuitive and fluid. Launch an enemy into the air, use a revolver to hang it with lead, and Evil His West’s Devil May reveal her Cry’s DNA before zapping another enemy and blowing them away with close-range buckshot. I can do it. It’s the type of game that would be nice to have a combo meter just to keep track of how much you’re slaughtering everything in front of you, but unfortunately it doesn’t.

Evil West shines in the heat of battle when it can answer its first question, but its strengths are often undercut by the outdated designs wrapped around them

The enemies that stand in your way are also diverse at first. From leaping werewolf-like creatures and bulbous humanoids that charge before exploding, to giant enemies with giant shields and leeches for appendages, burrowing underground when not throwing rocks. down to the creatures. Each presents their own challenges, but they also have moments of weakness when performing powerful attacks, indicated by glowing circles and prominent chimes. Given, and often with a very significant health drop, trying to perform a technique like this can be some frustration due to the sheer breadth of enemies on screen at once. When there’s too much traffic, lining up a clear shot can be difficult, and there’s readability issues in knowing when an enemy is attacking from a blind spot.

Despite these issues, Evil West is at its best when it’s at its most tumultuous. It doesn’t take long for mini-bosses to be reintroduced as regular enemies and become part of the supernatural furnishings. you have to make use of everything. Unfortunately, this feeling starts to fade by the time the third act rolls around and the new enemy types are exhausted. At this point, the game resorts to throwing the same combination of familiar creatures over and over again. There is a limited number of times you can defeat the same group of shielded enemies before a repeat begins.

Part of the problem is also in Evil West’s formulaic design. Combat usually takes place inside a boxed arena denoted by Spike Trap and TNT. The boring and predictable layout of these areas isn’t a major issue, as juggling all the abilities at your disposal is engaging enough, but it’s outside of combat that it gets bogged down. The main path connecting the combat arenas is marked with a shiny silver chain. You can burrow into a barely hidden side passageway to find money used to upgrade your weapons, but this makes for the lightest exploration. Just go to any object in the , where you can watch Jesse climb ledges and squeeze through gaps. There is one level where you can explore an entire city as you hunt down and destroy several monster nests. It’s not a particularly large space, but the newfound freedom allows for a little more interesting navigation than usual.

Technical shortcomings are another nasty problem that raises an ugly head. I ran into some glitches. These included moments where one sound effect suddenly overwhelmed the rest and continued playing after the battle ended. There have also been a few instances where it got stuck on the floor and the aiming reticle was knocked off-center. None of these issues were game-breaking, but it may have been more down to luck than anything else. Thanks to the scene, I wasn’t stuck forever.

In many ways, Evil West feels like a relic of the past. This is the kind of game you could imagine playing in, say, 2010 or earlier. This simplicity may have been somewhat refreshing given how overly bloated many modern games are, but it looks like a game that lacks ambition. It will always keep you entertained with heavy and satisfying action. The endgame gets tedious as a result of enemy oversaturation and overload, but that’s one aspect of what makes Evil West worth playing. The rest of the game is formulaic and mind-bogglingly boring, aggressively reducing its high points as you wander from one combat arena to another. Not that I enjoyed it, but I hope a sequel is in the pipeline just to see if Flying Wild Hog can expand and improve on its promise.