Evil West is a 3rd-Person Hack N Slash game was released in 2022 for PS5, PS4, XSX/S, XBONE, and PC. It was developed by Flying Wild Hog and published by Focus Entertainment.
As many of you guys may know Flying Wild Hog which is a Polish game developer was known for its their work like Shadow Warrior, an action-packed series reboot of the 1997's original FPS game created by 3D Realms are hella fun to play back then, and so with the Hard Reset Redux which is the forgotten FPS game that nobody ever talks about it but it's decently a good shooter.
After previously enjoyed their titles from the past, I was hoping to look forward playing their another action title which I've discovered a wild-western action title with the combination of 3rd-person shooter and Hack N Slash genre all fused together, so that is Evil West.
So think the game as the old-western action-horror with the style of Van Helsing and Devil May Cry combined together is something that I'd been interested in play this kind of game that has really unique style of presentation simular to vampire monster films and the combat system has sort of involving fast-paced shooting and slashing going on which I think the idea of creating the 3rd-person Hack N Slash game featuring a cowboy take on vampire may could work well, but the question is does the story and campaign lives up my expectation? well not so much to be frankly honest with you guys which is why I am here to review this title to see whats good about it and some others may be not so good which I will discuss these details further on this review.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game takes place in an alternate-history of wild west where the advanced human technology was designed to reduce supernatural species, so that's what causes the threat on vampires goes on declaring a war on humanity.
To prevent their own extinction, they begin raising an army of monsters and familars to wipe out human society.
The game begins with the cowboy vampire hunter named Jesse Rentiera, an agent of the Rentier Insitute which is a organisation dedicated to battling numerous of supernatural creatures that prey on humanity, partnering with retired agent Edgar Gravenor as they went on their mission is to protect the American frontier and hunt down the high ranking vampire Peter D'Abano and his daughter Felicity who are plotting to exterminate many humans.
I say the story in the game is rather mediocre at best is because I don't really mind the idea of having a cowboy vs vampire concept which is quite fair, so you just the vampire hunter doing a job to protect the wild west town from numerous of dangerous vampires who goes on killing many humans as possible.
I also understand the use of human technology are designed to get rid of all vampires is the reason why the conflict between the humans and vampires had occured which is seems sounded pretty acceptable in the action horror style, but unfortunately it suffered with the generic story dialogue with badly written plot that kinda sounded like a low-budget level which doesn't really help the game's storyline so I wish they could have made the dialogue a bit better that would have add-up the quality story written.
Despite the mixed bag story, I say I do like the main protagonist in the game which is the only good thing in the game.
Jesse Rentiera is just like many of badasses cowboys had a cool outfit filled with leather jacket, western hat, boots, and ammunation belt around him is something that they got the main character just right, and his personalty type descibes as hard-boiled monster hunting gunslinger justs fits his character's persona which makes him likable throughout the game's campaign.
Despite the decent protagonist, the half of the side characters in the game is rather pale and dull at best except the twos like Edgar Gravenor is an Jesse's acceptable partner that aren't half that bad and the other ones James Harrow is what I descibe him as funny self-centered bastard that has an anger issues with his foul-mouthed lines just give us a laugh throughout the cutscenes which is fine, but it's the rest of the side-characters that I finding them quite lame in the game which has William Rentier is a boring looking insitute director which I don't find him intresting, then you had Emilia Blackwell as the average medical researcher are not kinda the best in my opinion, and of course the worst of all is got to be annoying field agent Vergil Olney is doing my f***ing heading which I can't stand his overly exaggerated persona and being too talkative throughout the game's campaign is something that I can't enjoy the game as much.
I say the villain in the game is kinda lackluster at best is because I don't find these guys quite terrifying it's just felt like a cheesy B-Movies vampires that are trying so hard to be a serious horror villains which unfortunately it didn't work well in the game.
The game's presentation settings is actually decent which I like the weird style of wild west environments blending a classic American frontier aesthetics with dark fantasy, steampunk technology, and supernatural horror.
The world is filled with vampiric temples, creepy forests, abandoned mining towns, and shadowy swamps which you can tell that these places are being overrun by bunch of vampires and monstrous beasts turning whole western towns into a dark and gothic battlegrounds which really adds the game's bloodthristy themes to it which I've liked it.
I do want to praise the cinematic design on the cutscenes has sort of the 90s western movie feel to it which is really good on the screen with letterboxed ratios just makes the game quite stand-out for modern gaming standard.
Overall, an mediocre storylines and lame side-characters and villains, but has decent presentation design.
Gameplay
In single-player campaign, you take control of Jesse Rentier on 3rd-person perspective, as your main goal is to push back the dark forces and stop the impending war from vampires, so in order to do that you must defeat waves of monsters, complete specific environmental puzzles, and missions to prevent their plans to overtake humanity.
For basic movements, push the left-stick controls is to move character, push the right-stick controls is to look around, and press the left thumbstick button is to sprint that makes character run.
Press the cross button is used for interacting stuff like activating switches and opening the chest box.
For the combat, press the right shoulder button is to use melee punch and press the right thumbstick button is to melee kick on close range which deals a lighter damage attack, where as the square button is to use quick shotgun on close range which deals a heavy damage attack.
You also have different kinds of firearms which can be fired with the right trigger button, so you just press the right trigger button is to fire pistol which deals lighter damage shot in mid-range, where as holding the left trigger button to aim then press the right trigger button is to fire rifle which deals mild damage shot in long-range.
You can cycle your weapon with the d-pad button, such as d-pad up button for rifle or crossbow which the crossbow has the same damage shot as the rifle but in long range, then the d-pad right button for chaingun which deals heavy rapid damage shot, then the d-pad left button for flamethrower which deals firery damage on enemies, and of course the d-pad down button for explosive charges act as throwing attack item which deals exploding damage on enemies.
You can stun them with the zapper by pressing the left shoulder button or the rod with the triangle button which temporaily stuns them for 5 seconds, but while they are stunned you can able to perform rapid melee attack them by tapping the right shoulder button until its stops, so it delivers quicker damage attack than the regular melee punches.
You can evade the enemy melee attacks or projectiles by tapping with the cross button while pushing with the left-stick controls which allowing you to dodge or roll around.
You can also replenish your health by pressing the circle button to use health dispenser or obtaining the health item from the enemies that drops item will restore your health points.
To keep you mind, each of the weapons and gadgets you're using will have temporaily cooldown system meaning the stuff including health dispenser, rod, shotgun, flamethrower, chaingun, and explosive charges will ran out the ammunation quickly which led the cooldown time will take 30 seconds to slowly replensish till its ready to use.
So far, these controls is quite straight-forward to play is because the way they designed the control scheme is actually made for not just being a shooters but also made and designed for Hack N Slash game that was known for its fast-paced action.
What I'm saying this is that the combat gameplay is heavily focused on button mashing action meaning that its relying on multiples of combo moves and using various of special attacks on enemies which plays it simular to the likes of Devil May Cry series which is the reason why I liked the style of combat mechanics where you had to keep mashing the random buttons to perform a various of combos and crazy techniques such as launching enemies in the air with uppercut, dragging enemies with the zapper, making multiples of slam attack with ground punches, and of course punching an enemies directly into hazards like spiked walls or TNT crates is just really amazing to perform these kinds of fighting moves. I also liked the finishing kills on enemies simular to the likes of God of War (2018) where it gives you the options to finish them off with the gruesome animation kills is just looking brutal as f**k to watch them getting their limbs tore down in pieces.
I got to admit that using the supercharge mode is pretty neat is because when your battery energy is filled up on the screen with every punches you make, then you will be able to activate the supercharge mode for 10 seconds allowing you to instantly kill many enemies on screen is just looks brutally cool to watch.
While these controls worked really good, I got to talk about the upgrades is where you need to progress your abilities and perks by obtaining enough currencies and leveling up your skills progression meaning that you had to spend time beating the shit out of these enemies in order to increase your experience points as well as collecting all currencies can be found on the chest box in which you will see it on the pause menu, so once you obtained the upgrade points and earned enough currencies then you will need head over to the upgrades and perks by going to the pause menu screen.
You will have the list of upgrades and perks which you will spend these items to unlock your abilities such as energy siphon allows your zapper pull to restore energy, monster mash extends the duration and damage of your supercharge mode, blood & lighting heals you when performing electrified finishers or combo finishers, and the weapons will have bonuses such as focus on damaging weak spot hits, ability to stun multiple targets, using electrifying shot for critical damage, having cooldown reductions, and list goes on.
I say these upgrades are kinda cool which worked nicely done that improves upon the combat and abilities which helps you learn all the new skills and combos to use against the enemies that keeps the gameplay feel engaging to play for Hack N Slash action.
I do want to point out the criticisms which is the simple game design is somewhat too basic that led to repetition is because there's nothing much of the new segments going on, so instead you'll be going through repeated process like the environmental puzzles where you need to activate switches to open doors or gate, going on minecart for the ride while trying to evade hazards, and battling with the same enemies over again in each areas can get really tedious and tiresome for some players are expecting for the different action segments and creatures to fight can't be happening in later chapters, so there's not many of the varieties going on to be frankly honest with you guys.
I do find the boss battles quite underwhelming that doesn't live up to my hype especially the final ones are kinda dissapoints me the most which are slightly worst than the previous ones is due to overpowered damage attack and incoming projectiles all over the place that made it quite fraustrating to play which took me 10 to 12 tries to defeat them.
Unfortunately it's kinda shame because the game does have really good combat and upgrades can be fun, but it was let down by the repetitive game design and bland bosses which I wish they could have done a job quite more to make it solid experience, so that being said it's definitely not bad but not quite spectacular overall.
The game does include online co-op multiplayer in which you'll be partnering with the co-op online player to take part in story campaign, so in order to access the online co-op you have to finish off the tutorial mission in single-player campaign to unlock the online co-op multiplayer first otherwise it's unavailable until you completed the tutorial to do it.
I did hear the online co-op can be hit or miss for some players depending on their experiences, but I always thought having the online co-op is sounds like a fun idea to invite someone to participate the co-op campaign mission through online lobby, so to be honest it's fine to include it on the game which might be fun for anybody to play but I don't think it really adds the bigger replay value in which you can just play the game for one time after beating the whole story campaign.
Overall, an repetitive game design and dull boss battles, but has fun combat system.
Graphics
The graphics in this game is decent for its visual design and environments which I did appericate the most.
These environmental designs of level are sure has bold and sharp details giving it a crispy vibes to it, and I also wanted to praise the glossy effect on the reflections as you can see the surfaces like water puddles, glass furnitures, and shiny guns just looks pure clean with no roughness whatsoever.
I say I really liked the use of heavy special effects in some levels like the ones where the whole bunch of metallic scraps are full of fires and smokes collapses everywhere.
They done such a neat job for its the use of lighting and shadowy effects on the daytime chapters where you can see the brightness at the outdoor area are incredibly on high contrast to make it look like a sunny day with bit of shades, where as the nighttime delivers a gloomy mist effects and slight darker tone to make the shadow effects look more dim.
The weather effects are quite impressive in some chapters like in very cold hills where you can see the neon light and snow particles flying around above the sky, and then the best part in the game is the sunset stage is full-on peachy orange is just beauitful to look.
I also liked the heavy impact of exploading particles and firing projectiles are stupendously wacky especially with using the electryfing weapons and blowing up TNT boxes are incredibly ace, and of course the over-the-top gorefest animation are quite bloody during the finishing sequences on enemies is something that made the game quite appealing.
I want to point out some minor issue that I encountered which is the screen tearing, as you start looking round while rotating the camera you could see some white tearing lines which mostly happened in the old western house, where as you don't see much on the mission areas which thankfully it didn't screw up a bit, but you do sometime see the texture pop-ups at the draw-distance are can be weird as you may move forward a bit will made the texture pop-ups appears on the screen at the mid-distance.
I wanted to talk about the game performances is becuase the frame-rate had run pretty nicely on 9th-gen machines like on PS5 and XSX/S (X Model) had a two graphical options such as performance mode which ran on 1080p/1440p resolution with 60fps delivers a smooth frame-rate which is acceptable for the fast-paced action game, where as the quality mode offers full 4K resolution with 30fps which has cleaner pictures and sharp details gives a cinematic vibes to it.
The XSX/S (S model) has 1080p resolution with 30fps which I got to say that the whole performance had no sign of slowdowns whatsoever which is a good news for S model owners.
Thankfully, the console version is optimising really well which I'm glad it runs pretty good on the system.
Overall, it has bold and sharp environments, decent special effects, and solid performance.
Music and Sounds
The soundtrack are pretty good in the game which I've enjoyed listening to old western music, it feels like I'm listening to cowboy western films from the 90s era just fits the game's presentation really well especially on during the cinematic cutscenes and in-game action is just sounds good to listen.
It was composed by Nima Fakhrara (composer behind Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2) and Michal Korniewicz did a great job of creating a finest score in old western action game.
The sound effects has really great environmental noises in some areas with surrounding surfaces and background sounds, and then I liked the sounds of the boom noises for the explosions and gunfire are also well designed.
I say the voice acting in the game is pretty done bad which you can blame it on the corny story dialogue which doesn't really do justice in the cutscenes.
Overall, an awfully bad voice acting, but it has good soundtrack and great sound design.
Special Features
The game does have the new game plus and collectables which is fine, but I was expecting more of the content.
Overall, it just needs to add more additional content.
Advantages
Fine protagonist
Decent presentation design
Fun combat system
Good visuals
Great soundtrack
Disadvantages
Mediocre storylines
Lame side characters and villains
Repetitive game design
Dull boss battles
Final Verdict
Presentation 6/10 - an mediocre storylines and lame side-characters and villains, but has decent presentation design.
Gameplay 6.5/10 - an repetitive game design and dull boss battles, but has fun combat system.
Graphics 7/10 - bold and sharp environments, decent special effects, and solid performance.
Music and Sounds 7/10 - an awfully bad voice acting, but it has good soundtrack and great sound. design.
Special Features 6/10 - new game plus and collectables.
Overall 6.5/10 - Evil West is an average 3rd-person Hack N Slash game which is not bad but it wasn't a perfect game which is nowhere near good as the other Hack N Slash titles from the past which did so much better than this, so this game can be a bit fun which I appericate the combat gameplay for its fighting system and upgrades did work well, but it doesn't help with the game design are not quite the best in my opinion in which these repeated puzzles and fighting with the same enemies in many areas can get really tedious pretty fast and the boss battle is bit a letdown which is something that need to improve on, and I wish they could have done it better with the story writing and some side characters that needed to be something interesting rather than making it boring.
At least the game has really good visuals for its graphical performances is nicely stable that optimised pretty smoothly and the gorey animation is fun to watch the enemies get tore up in pieces are satisfying to watch.
Is the game really bad? absolutely not because some of you may going to enjoy this game which is no problem at all especially the inclusion of online co-op in which you may concider finding someone who are interested to play this game, but then again it's just a one time campaign action game in which you can only play it for once.
I say I rather much prefered Shadow Warrior a lot better which is Flying Wild Hog only best series for its great story featuring comedic one-liner protagonist and had action-packed shooting going on with decent combat gameplay and well-structured game design is the reason why I've chose it over this game.
Going back to this game, it's not bad so the cost of the game for physical releases are less than £15 for PS5 and XSX/S, where as the digital storefront for PS Store, Xbox Store, and Steam are about between £45 and £50 in which you can able to play it free on Xbox Game Pass included in premium subscription.
Is it worth it? I say it might be not for everyone unless if you're into with the Hack N Slash genre then its fine, but what about the price point? I say you might want to stick with the physical release instead which is a cheaper option, where as the digital release is not worth of full price which is better off wait for the sales go cheaper unless if you have Xbox Game Pass then you might want it to get it for free on premium subscription instead.
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