Evil West’s premise should not be hard to figure out based on the title. Set in the Old West, players assume the role of Jesse Rentier. After a routine inspection with his partner, they uncover a plot involving a high-ranking vampire and his child. After reporting back to HQ, they get attacked.
With the organization in ruins and its enemies getting stronger by the minute, Jesse has to race against time to stop evil in its tracks. Evil West may not be the best shooter or action game of 2022 but there is a lot to love past the outlandish premise. Let’s go through the positives and negatives of this latest frightful adventure.
8 Best: All Of The Gadgets
Players begin simply with a glove that can punch monsters as well as a revolver. Over time this arsenal will grow into a huge collection. The glove gets upgraded with electric powers, allowing players to counter enemies, pull enemies toward them, or fly to enemies with a whip-like crack.
There are more guns as well and mods for these guns via upgrades like Blaster which adds electricity to the revolver’s basic ammo. These powers and guns have been in third-person shooters before, so there is nothing original here. That doesn’t mean they aren’t satisfying though.
7 Worst: Same Enemies
As fun as it is to use weapons and powers, fighting the same enemies can get tedious even with bosses. Players will go through several routines with the bigger enemies to weaken them up first to then counter with a finishing animation.
These brutal enemies have a lot in common with an action game like God of War Ragnarok since Kratos also reuses many killing animations. The enemies are at least uniquely designed in Evil West. It’s just unfortunate things get repetitive with them fast.
6 Best: Co-Op
There have been a lot of great co-op games this year from Gotham Knights to the new Pokemon games. Co-op is back and better than ever but that doesn’t mean these modes are guaranteed. That’s why it was a nice surprise to see Evil West with one.
Players can jump into a friend’s game, or have someone assist their adventure. There are limitations to what progresses for each player that would be nice to see improved, but getting a mode like this is better than nothing.
5 Worst: No Map
Evil West is a fairly linear shooter through tight corridors conjoined by monster arenas. There are some avenues for exploration though. Chests contain gold to help modify weapons or they can sometimes unlock new paths in skill trees.
Unfortunately, there is no map of any kind in the game. A mini-map would have been nice as navigating can be a chore. Some sort of guide to point players in the right direction would have also been appreciated.
4 Best: Good Environment Variety
While the enemies lack diversity, at least there is more variety in the environments. The game begins with Jesse trying to stop a train in a gorge which then leads them back to HQ which leads to a frozen mine and so forth.
Graphically, even on the best settings, Evil West is not going to wow anybody. At the very least they can admire the places they will go which is admirable for an action game. It’s also wonderfully campy with gore aplenty with body parts hilariously exploding for no reason.
3 Worst: Your Downtime
Between missions, there are some moments when players can unwind at HQ. It’s nice to find a shooter like Evil West that does this. However, there isn’t much to do in these HUB areas. There are no side quests or characters to catch up with akin to talking with pals back on the Normandy in the Mass Effect series.
All players can do is look for objectives, hidden texts, or more gold. There could be characters with dialogue choices, or mini-games. As it stands now, these HUB areas then are kind of pointless, but they didn’t have to be.
2 Best: Can Be Funny
The humor is as over the top as the gore is in this game. The jokes aren’t going to land for everyone which is true for most games with comedic purposes. The funniest lines are often delivered by Jesse who is tired of going through bureaucratic red tape just to get things done with his teammates.
He’s not as brutal as Kratos, but there are some interactions that are reminiscent of Kratos losing it in the new God of War reboot series. Evil West is at least guaranteed to make players smirk at least once.
1 Worst: A Cliff Notes Approach To Storytelling
The overall story, on the other hand, leaves something to be desired. It’s almost like this is a theatrical cut of an even longer game. Scenes begin and end abruptly only to have players catch up later as if they should know what’s going on. It’s all too rushed and doesn’t give players time to breathe and drink in the world.
Shooters are not known for their world-building or storytelling abilities generally. A narrative following the unique concept of having cowboys fight monsters in the Old West could have been so much more entertaining.
Evil West was released on November 22, 2022, and is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.