![]() But a field swarmed with flying, burrowing, charging, and exploding vampires is best cleared by making full use of Evil West’s arsenal of gruesome killing tools. To be clear, it’s completely possible to win most fights with a limited selection of weapons. In this sense, it’s not unlike the increasingly complex mix-and-match combat of the original Doom games and their rebooted sequels. The pacing is immaculate: Evil West’s gradually expanding loadout and ability set is never overwhelming and, as a result, encourages improvisational tactics that make full use of every weapon at Jesse’s disposal. He nimbly zips around the battlefield and launches himself at enemies like a stubbly cannonball - one of his abilities is, appropriately enough, named “Cannonball.” The deliberate weight of his movements carries over into the rhythms of Evil West’s shooting and punching, too.Īs Jesse traipses around America, he gains new weapons and upgrades from the institute’s engineers or as pick-ups in the field. Jesse is surprisingly spry for a guy who pounds across sun-baked desert canyons, misty forest paths, and humid swampland like a forgotten Gears of War backbencher. As it is, Evil West’s half-baked attempt at a story - there are plenty of cutscenes and inter-mission levels that involve walking around a home base hub to pick up scraps of in-universe text - detracts from what the game does best: offer up a barrage of combat arenas populated by a variety of monsters seemingly delighted to be ripped, shot, and beaten apart by Jesse. If the story leaned a bit further into the inherent camp of its premise, finding more joy in the ridiculousness of its dialogue and the dramatics of a plot about stopping a nefarious conspiracy led by an immortal little girl vampire, it’d offer a better time. None of these limp jokes are nearly as funny as the fact that he has the words “RENTIER INSTITUTE” embossed on his gauntlet.)Įvil West’s violence is, ultimately, what carries the entire game (While exploring, Jesse will half-heartedly utter “moneyyy” at the sight of a bag of coins or “burnnn” when lighting giant spiderwebs on fire with a flamethrower. Their writers never seem quite sure whether the cast ought to be cracking jokes about the absurdity of their vampire-hunting mission or delivering straight-faced, dull exposition about it. He, along with the other members of the Rentier Institute (including its leader, Jesse’s gruff, horse-faced dad), are an uneven combination of deadly serious action heroes and quippy scamps. Jesse is forced to carry a lot of Evil West’s storytelling on his beefy shoulders, and he’s not quite equal to the task. It doesn’t help that protagonist Jesse Rentier, a blankly determined supercowboy decked out in a notched wide brim hat and layers of ornately patterned black leather, is a real dud. Image: Flying Wild Hog/Focus Entertainment Unfortunately, Evil West, despite devoting a lot of time to its narrative, doesn’t seem all that interested in its story beyond the foundational premise of mixing a pulpy monster movie with a semi-passable Western. A mythological take on historical settings can be a great way to portray the past. A vampire conspiracy, we’re told during the opening, has existed in the nation “since the time of the Founding Fathers,” resisted by monster hunters belonging to an organization called the Rentier Institute. The latest from Flying Wild Hog, the team behind the Shadow Warrior reboot series and Hard Reset, is set in a supernaturally inflected version of the 19th century westward conquest of the United States. ![]() It’s important to mention the texture of Evil West’s violence up front because, ultimately, it’s what carries the entire game. ![]() Shoot a different enemy and its arms might fly off, fountains of blood gushing forth like Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s Black Knight suffering from hypertension. Sometimes, when using certain moves, punching a monster makes its skeleton zap into sight as its freakish body vibrates, fixed in mid-air with bolts of blue electricity. Punch a monster some more and it will eventually burst apart with the wet sloppiness of a water balloon filled with ketchup. Punch a monster in Evil West and the connection of armored fist with enemy body makes a cartoon sound effect like a cinder block smacking into a side of frozen beef. ![]()
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