Remember, the titles you expected the most are often the ones that disappointed you the most. Conversely, the most surprising are sometimes those that we did not necessarily expect, and that we followed out of the corner of our eye. The Wild West is like piracy. Understand by this that in all the universes where a cultural work can take place, these are the ones to which I am the least sensitive, without ever having been able to really explain it to myself. Despite everything, when it was announced, Evil West had not escaped my radar. Beat em Up à la God Of War in a deep west invaded by vampires, the production of Flying Wild Hog looked like a nugget serving as the perfect outlet to unleash the forces of evil with guns and mandals. Without knowing anything about the story, even the artistic direction seemed qualitative combined with dynamic and enjoyable gameplay. After the release of the Santa Monica title tested recently and which has won numerous awards at the Game Awards, the publisher Focus Entertainment had to be sure of the Polish game to dare to release it only a few weeks apart.
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Once upon a Time in the West
A classy title, right from the title screen!
Evil West is a bit like a mixture of a Robert Rodriguez and Tarantino film. A barred scenario, camped by characters with a real mouth. Even if the impression of nard does not leave us during the game, the imagined story holds up completely by immersing us in an America plagued by the forces of evil, more precisely, by vampiric forces. To put them out of harm’s way and defend the homeland, the Rentier Institute, of which the government is aware of the existence, represents the last bastion of humanity.
You play as Jessie, the son of William Rentier, the institute’s founder. Sent on a mission to capture Chester Morgan, he finds his trail by blowing up a train full of monsters and blood bound for a gathering of vampires at the Belmontville mines. Accompanied by his partner Edgar Gravenor, Jesse captures there Peter D’Albano, a vampire lord planning to declare war on humanity before it is too technologically advanced.
The artistic direction of the game is one of the great strengths!
Back in their quarters, the respite is only short-lived since Felicity, Albano’s daughter, recovers her father’s (living) head, sets the mansion on fire and eliminates a good number of agents present on the spot. William Rentier is seriously injured, likely to have been infected by the vampires. The characters then leave for the Calico annex base in order to prepare the counter-attack.
Let it be said, we did not expect as much from the game from the point of view of the scenario and its universe. It’s a totally twisted and assumed b-series western, which doesn’t overlook humor, a coherent uchronic lore with a touch of steampunk influence.
The finish moves are as impressive as they are enjoyable
Guns and fists!
The title is therefore a perfect clone of the Santa Monica license in its 2018 version. Your character is equipped with the family gauntlet for sniffles, a lasso serving as a grappling hook, and a whole series of firearms allowing to vary the pleasures.
The huge strength of Evil West is its depth and mastery of its gameplay. Joystick in hand, the many controls seem ultra-natural. For the less experienced, know that the game has three difficulty levels and a diabolical mode, many assistance options, locking, as well as the possibility of playing it in cooperation. In normal mode, the rhythm of the fights is often breathtaking, sometimes reminiscent of that of a fast FPS like the last parts of Doom.
To prevent players from getting bored quickly, the developers have chosen to include a large number of attacks and movements. The title has the intelligence to distill weapons and new possibilities regularly during the 10 to 15 hours of play. As a result, the pleasure is constantly renewed and we are always in this feeling of experimentation and discovery. Jessie can attack in melee, from a distance, he has a roll, a fury and can perform very effective bloody finish moves against the monsters he meets on his way. The fights require strategy, observation and knowledge of enemy patterns without pushing this last point to the extreme.
The crossbow is one of the many weapons at your disposal
Although the title is accessible controller in hand be careful, the game has a real peak of difficulty and will ask players to hang on to reach the end and be able to start again in “new game +”
In order not to overload the players with the platform phases and the contextual actions, everything is reduced to the simplest. The environmental puzzles will allow you either to advance or find the money partly necessary to improve your equipment.
Between the beginning of the adventure and its end, Evil West offers a nice character improvement curve with a perk system, unlockable combos and equipment that you can obtain through combat experience or finding different patterns. Those allergic to RPG mechanics can be reassured, this aspect is very light, readable and does not invade the game.
The developers have created a whole lore around the game
Technique is not everything!
A skill tree is available to improve Jessie
Evil West does not shine as much in the technical field as on the previous part. On this point, we realize that this is not the typical AAA made by one of the industry leaders. Some textures can sometimes look a little poor and the 3D models of the characters are dated and really lack finesse. Height of discomfort, some animations of the character look like to be mistaken to that of Kratos. The developers could have hidden their inspirations a little better.
Everything else is top notch. The importance of a good framerate and the essential fluidity in any good self-respecting beat ’em up has been taken into account. Flying Wild Hog does not disappoint and Evil West runs under Unreal Engine in a totally optimized way with no apparent aliasing.
All your allies work with you to fight back from the Calico subbase
Where the studio has managed to stand out is in the ultra-successful artistic direction which imposes its signature from the beginning to the end of the game. The Wild West atmosphere is perfectly transcribed with all the clichés of the genre, all perfectly sprinkled with steampunk and retro futuristic elements that hit the spot.
While this won’t always be to everyone’s taste, the choice of colors is compelling. Saturation enhances the mood and lighting of certain environments by giving them a real cachet. Everything could have been enhanced even more by a soundtrack worthy of the name, unfortunately, it is quite discreet and totally forgettable.
Everything is well orchestrated and linked between narration and gameplay. The cutscenes of the game are not left out since the black bands reinforce the cinematographic aspect. They are very successful with sometimes funny dialogues or spectacular scenes in which the developers had fun!
The cutscenes bridge the gap between gameplay and narrative in addition to being often very spectacular
The nice surprise
Throughout the adventure you will increase in skills
Fans of action games that let off steam but with real depth, you would be wrong to miss out on Evil West, which has all the nice surprise of the end of the year.
Aware of its qualities but also of its limits, this serious title has everything from the time capsule located between the end of the PS360 generation and the middle of the PS4 / Xbox One area. Even if the means of the Polish studio are limited, we are faced with a real beautiful proposal of gameplay with a worked universe and an artistic direction which sublimates the talent of the teams.
Some huge bosses, are impressive
Linear in its progress, the lane without backtracking that it offers players is very pleasant and it will make an impression as few AA games are able to do. The bestiary of the underworld is relatively varied and the bosses are quite impressive.
The Flying Wild Hog teams have a real talent, we can see it with this second game from them this year. We can’t wait to see what their productions could give with a little financial extension.
Weapons can also be upgraded
To know
► Release: 22/11/2022
► Platforms: One, Series, PS4, PS5, PC
► Developer: Flying Wild Hog
► Publisher: Focus Entertainment
► Genre: Beat Em Up
WE love
► Very complete gameplay
► Original story and lore
► Art direction
► A real stress relief
We regret
► Discreet soundtrack
► Visually dated
► No VF
► Little exploration
Our video
[VIDEO] Evil West, one of the surprises of the end of the year