Evil West is a somewhat charming third-person shooter with added melee combat thrown into the mix. It is developed by Flying Wild Hog, the development team behind the Shadow Warrior series, and more recently, the fantastic Trek to Yomi.
In Evil West you play Jesse Rentier, a stereotypical grizzly grunting game whose job is to take out the bad guys. In this instance, those bad guys are in fact vampires, mutants and everything in between.
Set in the wild west sometime during the 1800s, Jesse is a member of a secret organisation called the Rentier Institute and it’s this organisation’s job to keep the American frontier safe or at least, that’s what we’re led to believe.
Credit: Flying Wild Hog
While on a routine job with a buddy and veteran monster hunter, Edgar Gravenor, the job leads them somewhere far beyond their pay level. When the duo reports their findings to the superiors, who just so happen to be Jesse’s father, they do not get the response they had hoped for and before the next mission can be prepared for, an unexpected turn of events turns their world into a living hell.
At its core, as I mentioned earlier, Evil West is a fairly basic third-person shooter with added melee combat. Which is fine, not everything has to be complicated. Evil West very much reminds me of a game developed in the mid-2000s. It’s a game that very much requires you to leave your brain at the door and sometimes, that can be a dose of what we need.
Credit: Flying Wild Hog
In terms of firearm combat, Jesse has access to an old-western style six-shot revolver, a rifle, a shotgun, gatling gun and a flamethrower to set those demons alight. The firearm combat runs as well as you hoped and if you’re quick enough to react to an on-screen prompt, you can deal extra damage to the enemy.
Jesse also wields an electric gauntlet which can not only shock enemies but also pull and throw them too. If you’re aware of your surroundings, you can even use the environment to your advantage to land an insta-kill.
Later in the game, Jesse will also be armed with an axe which is handy for dealing damage at close range. Surprisingly, on a more basic level, the combat of Evil West has hints of God of War post-2018. As you progress in the game, you will also be able to level up your skills as well as being able to gain new abilities.
Credit: Flying Wild Hog
Evil West features the choice of favouring either performance or visuals. To be honest, even in performance mode, I wouldn’t say this game is a super smooth experience. That being said, the visuals while looking nice in places on either mode don’t stand out from each other. So, in my opinion, I’d recommend settling with performance mode.
Evil West does feature campaign co-op, which is always a fun addition. It’s worth keeping in mind that when playing co-op, the enemy difficulty will scale to avoid the game being less of a challenge. However, character progression is currently locked to the host player. So, if you join someone else’s game, story progress will not be tracked. The character will scale up to match the level, but that will reset once the multiplayer session ends. Players can also revive each other, something that is not present when playing solo.
All in all, Evil West is a fun game if you want something easy to pick up and play, with little complication. I won’t hold that against Evil West, because sometimes this is the kind of game we need to wind down after a long day. Sure, it won’t win any game of the year awards, but this game knows exactly what it is. Evil West is a fun and charming action-packed shooter of a recently bygone era. If you wanted an alternative take on the wild west, you can’t go much wrong with Flying Wild Hogs’ latest offering.
Game Review: Evil West was last modified: December 16th, 2022 by Richard Lee Breslin
Positives
Negatives
Overall Score
+ Easy to pick up and play
+ Decent combat mechanics
+ Leave your brain at the door story
- Not the smoothest game
- Multiplayer progression is locked to the host
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