The Good, the Bad and the Janky
Evil West is part of an almost extinct species of games these days: AA games that tread the no-mans land between high polished premium AAA titles and scrappy indie releases. And it shows, in good ways and bad.
As a genre Weird West fiction is near and dear to my heart, combining historical settings of the Wild West with the more fantastical and mythical. The time period between the Civil War and the turn of the 20th century is in itself a rather nebulous one, full of tall tales and stories they still tell around the campfire. So it makes sense to combine it with the even more fantastical and deliver stories like straight out of the penny dreadful where history meets legend. The most well known examples are probably Jonah Hex and Wild Wild West to give an example.
When it comes to videogames the results have been rather mixed but Evil West is definitely on the higher end of the curve.
The first thing you notice is that the game is gorgeous. It offers sweeping vistas and stunning sunsets, dusty frontier towns and moonlit swamps. When it comes to the character models is where the game shows a bit of its jank. The models are not bad but facial expressions can at times look strange. The characters themselves are not much to write home about but very much what you would expect for a story like this. Which is not necessarily something bad.
The game shines the brightest when it comes to the world building and the amount of detail that has been put into the horrible creatures that you encounter. It delivers a nice mix between well known vampire lore and a distinctly American cryptid feel with inspiration from Native American folklore.
Gameplay is very much in the vein of the 2018 release of God of War in terms of combat and overall feel and pacing. Combat is both brutal and satisfying and has a good way of ramping up as tbe game goes on, growing more complex and varied while walking a fine line between making you feel powerful and making the enemies threatening.
In terms of performance is again where the game shows a bit of its jank. I have had two game breaking bugs within the first three hours that forced me to reload a safe.Both had to do with clipping. Otherwise the game has been stable for the most part, only occasionally struggling with huge amounts going on and when loading a lot at once for the first time. I had one freeze and a crash but the game was able to re-launch without any trouble and just pick up again where I left off. Tabbing out did not seem to agree with it though.
Overall Evil West is a very good choice for fans of the genre and more pulpy Western fare.
(As usual the review has been written without the use of AI of any kind)
