Evil West Review

As a dark menace consumes the American frontier, Evil West tells the story of Jesse Rentier, one of the last agents in a top-secret vampire-hunting institute, as the last line of defense between humanity and the Sanguisuge, a race of monsters hellbent on wiping out mankind. Rentier will have to go head-to-head with a group of vampires who are looking to feast on humankind.

Evil West is a third-person shooter with an over-the-shoulder camera where players, as Rentier, punch, shock, and shoot every vampiric threat in his path. The first attack you’re introduced to is your melee attack. Pressing the RB will throw a punch, whereas holding it down results in an uppercut and punching the enemy in mid-air. And you can also create short combos by pressing it multiple times. Rentier can also run and dodge enemy attacks.

You’re then given your basic pistol, with infinite ammo; while it doesn’t do as much damage as the punch, it’s a great way to distance yourself from enemies, get a few hits from afar (very useful against bosses), and also hit their weak points. You can also mix things up with the melee and pistol. A bit later, you’re also given a shotgun which can be only one bullet at a time; it can be used again once the meter has a cooldown.

Also, let me reassure you, this is not a Soulsborne game. I’d refer to this as a bulky Devil May Cry. While you start with your punch and basic pistol, as you progress through the story, you’ll come across additional firepower such as the aforementioned shotgun, flamethrower (toasty!), and a cross attack that electrifies all enemies in your field of view; just to name a few. You can also upgrade your weaponry and unlock new skills and attacks.

While this isn’t a Soulsborne-type game, don’t expect to jump in and punch your way through each level willy-nilly. The combat does require a bit of strategy and paying attention as to which enemies are surrounding you. You’ll need to parry and dodge enemy attacks to prevent damage. Some enemies need to be in a shocked state to be hit for example. Unlike other action games with parry, this one is a bit more forgiving. You can press the parry button a second before the enemy’s attack while anticipating the hit, shocking the enemy. Furthermore, enemies have weak points. You can shoot and punch your way through battles, but not taking advantage of the weak spots, it’ll make battles longer than they should. Bigger enemies will display a flashy red dot for about a second, giving you a shot (literally) at causing extra damage,

So the way it works is that as you kill enemies and chain attacks, you’ll earn XP where you’ll level up and earn skill points that can be used in the skill tree. As you level up, new skills can be made available for purchase with your hard-earned experience points. And you can also find money that will allow you to buy new skills for your weapons and upgrade them. What is interesting here is that special attacks have a cooldown period, meaning no need to run and search for ammo. Health refills are also dropped from enemies, but your healing skill also has a cooldown period so you can heal whenever the meter is full.

Evil West does have a few nuisances. Using bumper buttons for melee attacks isn’t much intuitive and requires a bit of getting used to. Also, you can pull off a Scorpion and grab smaller enemies from afar, but it does feel a bit hit-and-miss and needs to be pixel-perfect to grab enemies. While not a huge issue, the game can become a bit repetitive at times, but it also throws you a mix and match of enemies at once, so it’s not always the same pathetic lower-level enemies. The game is mostly linear, but there are often a few, short, beaten path to explore for money and collectibles.

The game looks great in every area with highly detailed environments. The developers also implemented a few glowy items to indicate the path to follow, but that’s not to say that you can’t explore around. It’s not an open-world game, but there are a few additional paths that can be found to find hidden money or other little helpful items. There were a few technical hiccups, especially during a boss fight where I ended up clipped through the ground and couldn’t move. The soundtrack however feels a bit buried under the action. There are some dark, ambient tracks while walking around and the typical hard rock tunes during battle. The voiceover is pretty solid and spot-on where every character sounds invested in the actions and events.

Evil West is hands-down my personal game of the year. While I was curious about it, every time I picked up the controller to play, I couldn’t put it down. The combat is easy to pick up (hard to master!), areas are actually really interesting to walk around and explore and the battles, especially boss battles, are really addictive and rewarding. While the melee-ing is delegated to the RB button, once you get used to it, it feels just right. While the repetitive nature might turn off some players, the deep and varied combat mixed with the variety of enemies, makes each battle feel as intense as different from the previous encounter. Evil West is a must-play and it’s easily the best game I’ve played in 2022.