OK, so Evil West released yesteryear, but there is no denying that what this game really is is a blast from the past. A recent past. This game evokes the Xbox 360 era of third person shooter videogames, when graphics were as cool as they ever were, but on the other hand games were as linear as corridors, characters were stiff and couldn't jump, lots of actions were contextual button presses, basically QTEs, etc.
So you might be asking yourself why am I giving this game 4 stars out of five, and not three stars or something. And that is because the game is basically combat, and the combat feels good. I mean it. This game's protagonist carries a whole arsenal in his back, which is hilarious. The way the game maps these weapons as actions is, every weapon has its own button. Like, "square" is the shotgun. You use the D-PAD to alternate weapons, so the controller can get mapped to twice as much weapons.
The game boldly discarded a lock on feature, choosing instead to give you ways to get close and personal if you want. Melee is risky, but you'll get more healing out of killing enemies with your bare hands. You'll find yourself shooting minions with your pistol until they're weak, then zapping up to their face with your electric gauntlet-whip, and combo-punchying them to death, in order to recover some health and keep going. Things can get frantic in Evil West.
The meat of the gameplay occurs in these combat arenas, where you fight a lot of foes. Lots of enemies feel like mini bosses in this game, and I usually have to retry combat encounters in order to succeed. It is dumb fun, and it plays well. The only thing that I wish was more responsive is the electrical gauntlet-whip thing. It also works well most of the time, but sometimes the game wants you to use it so you pull flying enemies from the air, or ranged enemies for their advantage positions. In these scenarios, the gauntlet is unreliable, which can be frustrating, although not deal breaking.
In between combat, you'll solve the dumbest puzzles ever presented to mankind. This game has some "PASSAGE BLOCKED BY ROCKS", "FLUORESCENT TNT CRATES GLOW BY THE SIDE OF THE ROCKS " kind of puzzle. If you're running forward and you don't know what to do next, you missed something stupid, because the answer is always in front of you. If you find an invisible wall, look up. There will be something for you to shoot and make passage forward to the rest of the game.
I said that this game evokes Xbox 360 era, but there is a major difference in the visuals department. Evil West is super colorful. It does the "Sea of Stars" thing of having its missions occur in a vast array of different visual themes. You'll fight in a brightly lit orange canyon, in green swamps whose water exudes purplish fumes, in misty forests that look like Alan Wake... The wild west feels like an adventure themed park ride in this game, and it works with the dumb fun vibes that Evil West already has.
This game has a story, but it is hard to care. The main character is a vampire-hunting ranger who is the son of the man who runs the vampire-hunting institution. The father wants the son to become a leader of sorts, delegating stuff to others. But the son is an adventurer by heart, a wild spirit, who wants nothing but to be part of the action. Are you sleeping yet?
To finish things up, I think that this game is good, dumb fun. Nothing more, nothing else. I like to play it in short bursts, but I can see someone going for a fast completion of this game without getting too bored. If they skip the cutscenes, that is.
So you might be asking yourself why am I giving this game 4 stars out of five, and not three stars or something. And that is because the game is basically combat, and the combat feels good. I mean it. This game's protagonist carries a whole arsenal in his back, which is hilarious. The way the game maps these weapons as actions is, every weapon has its own button. Like, "square" is the shotgun. You use the D-PAD to alternate weapons, so the controller can get mapped to twice as much weapons.
The game boldly discarded a lock on feature, choosing instead to give you ways to get close and personal if you want. Melee is risky, but you'll get more healing out of killing enemies with your bare hands. You'll find yourself shooting minions with your pistol until they're weak, then zapping up to their face with your electric gauntlet-whip, and combo-punchying them to death, in order to recover some health and keep going. Things can get frantic in Evil West.
The meat of the gameplay occurs in these combat arenas, where you fight a lot of foes. Lots of enemies feel like mini bosses in this game, and I usually have to retry combat encounters in order to succeed. It is dumb fun, and it plays well. The only thing that I wish was more responsive is the electrical gauntlet-whip thing. It also works well most of the time, but sometimes the game wants you to use it so you pull flying enemies from the air, or ranged enemies for their advantage positions. In these scenarios, the gauntlet is unreliable, which can be frustrating, although not deal breaking.
In between combat, you'll solve the dumbest puzzles ever presented to mankind. This game has some "PASSAGE BLOCKED BY ROCKS", "FLUORESCENT TNT CRATES GLOW BY THE SIDE OF THE ROCKS " kind of puzzle. If you're running forward and you don't know what to do next, you missed something stupid, because the answer is always in front of you. If you find an invisible wall, look up. There will be something for you to shoot and make passage forward to the rest of the game.
I said that this game evokes Xbox 360 era, but there is a major difference in the visuals department. Evil West is super colorful. It does the "Sea of Stars" thing of having its missions occur in a vast array of different visual themes. You'll fight in a brightly lit orange canyon, in green swamps whose water exudes purplish fumes, in misty forests that look like Alan Wake... The wild west feels like an adventure themed park ride in this game, and it works with the dumb fun vibes that Evil West already has.
This game has a story, but it is hard to care. The main character is a vampire-hunting ranger who is the son of the man who runs the vampire-hunting institution. The father wants the son to become a leader of sorts, delegating stuff to others. But the son is an adventurer by heart, a wild spirit, who wants nothing but to be part of the action. Are you sleeping yet?
To finish things up, I think that this game is good, dumb fun. Nothing more, nothing else. I like to play it in short bursts, but I can see someone going for a fast completion of this game without getting too bored. If they skip the cutscenes, that is.