Flying Wild Hog is back after its FPS launch earlier this year of Shadow Warrior 3 and they are stepping into the third-person action-adventure genre with Evil West. This horrific-themed action game puts players in the boots of gunslinging vampire hunter Jesse Rentier, on the biggest hunt of his career. While the game has some great visual spectacles and environmental backdrops, it is important to note how deep does the gameplay get? This title is a great turning point for Flying Wild Hog and shows that old-school charm can still offer a good time, but there are some missing features that could have taken the game to greater heights.

Story

Set in America’s wild west in the 1800s, the world is terrorized by vampiric monsters that prey on humans. This war between humans and vampires has lasted since the beginning of civilization. America’s only defense against the monster horde is the Rentier Institute, a monster-hunting coalition that works in tandem with the government. Jesse Rentier, son of the Rentier Institute’s leader, is a highly skilled and star field agent. Jesse knows life to be nothing but vampire slaying, weapon-wielding, and snarky comment-making.

Unfortunately, things quickly get out of hand when the Institute is destroyed by a vampiric conspiracy that puts Jesse and his remaining allies on a race throughout the West and trying to rebuild the Rentier Institute. Jesse will have to travel through various locales and utilize a variety of weapons in order to defeat this new looming darkness that threatens to end civilization.

I was okay with the story and I appreciated the lore that can be uncovered throughout the game via letters. Evil West attempts to provide a rich narrative-driven story but it was tough to keep my attention. Jesse is a straightforward one-dimensional action hero and I never clicked with the character. He’s not terrible, he's just bland. This is unfortunate given that Evil West's elements would lead to potential juicy lore bits, but it keeps Jesse at bay. The story is not bad, it's just not great. Considering plenty of narrative-driven games can capture so much emotion and thrills, Evil West reminds me of a summer action flick, fun but forgetful.

Gameplay

The combat is thrilling and displays some awesome eye candy. Evil West is made up of both melee and gunplay mechanics. Jesse can utilize his lightning-fueled gauntlet to decimate the vampiric monsters. Lightning is the key and it is everywhere. Eventually, players can upgrade their ranged weapons to be infused with lightning attacks, allowing for a shocking revolver that bounces sparks amongst multiple enemies and more.

Melee is a bit limited to simply ground base attacks, uppercut, and charge attacks, all of which are played out by pressing one input. The R1 (on PS5) is designated for melee. Not much depth in melee specifically but thankfully the combat makes up for more variety than depth, thanks to Jesse’s arsenal of monster-killing weapons.

Firstly, all ammo is unlimited but balanced with a reload cooldown time. Guns can be reloaded in the background while you are fighting, so there is no need to sit through a reload animation. This is in place to keep things moving very quickly. Combat feels similar to other Flying Wild Hog titles from the past. Very frantic and arcadey. Enemies drop health and power pickups upon death, allowing Jesse to keep the fight going.

The lighting gauntlet is loads of fun. Not only does it make for one hell of a spectacle on screen, but it really speeds up the combat once unlocked. In the beginning hours, Jessie is a slow tank. With the gauntlet, he becomes a gunslinging lighting superhero zipping around from monster to monster. The gauntlet allows you to close the gap between enemies very quickly, allowing for combos to be nearly constant. Jesse can also pull enemies towards him, allowing for follow-up attacks to become even more devastating from afar.

The weapons consist of revolver, rifle, shotgun, crossbow, flamethrower, and grenades. There is one other that I will not spoil here but it's good to see that the arsenal is varied. The revolver is perfect for quick shooting succession and taking care of weaker enemies quickly. The rifle and crossbow are the long-range necessities for shooting enemy weak spots as well as traversing through the level (more on that later). To no one's surprise, the shotgun is for vampires looking to take a bite out of Jesse in close combat. It is important to note that even though ammo is unlimited, some weapon cooldowns take longer than others, requiring some strategic timing, especially when mini-bosses enter the arena.

Did he just say arena? I did! Old-school fans of Shadow Warrior or Doom will feel right at home with Evil West’s combat. Combat arenas are “blocked” to a designated area. There are many times when I would come across a battle stage and attempt to pick off the enemies from afar, without entering the designated battle zone. The game will not allow this, you must enter the arena in order to inflict any damage to enemies. Although this makes sense, considering there is unlimited ammo, it still brings you out of the immersion. If only there was a lore explanation, then this would be more forgiving and feel a lot less like a dip in quality.

Even though the combat is restricted to arena stages, the game does a good job of hiding it. It is not blatantly obvious that you are fighting in an arena, such as giant impenetrable walls that magically dissipate when the fighting is over. Thankfully that is not present here, and it's a smart move since Evil West has some great environment art direction. It would be a shame to cover it up with horrible-looking videogame boundaries.

Character progression is key. Weapons, perks, and even some cosmetics can be upgraded and customized. Players will find hidden chests full of money, skill points, or cosmetics that can all be used to customize the experience. I must say that upgrading the lightning gauntlet is key and thankfully the game does allow for perk and skill resets throughout the game. This allowed me to change which weapons I wanted to fully upgrade to suit the current situation.

This action-adventure title does provide some exploration but not much. It's almost laughable how “easy” it is to find a “secret” stash that is merely just a few feet away from the intended path. This is by no means an open map and Evil West very much feels like a linear experience. Puzzle aspects consist of simply making a proper walkway for Jesse to continue his journey. Unfortunately, this adventure aspect is where Evil West has the largest missed opportunity. It just doesn't do enough to make the exploration feel like nothing but filler before the next combat arena.

Audio and Visuals

This narrative-driven plot was carried by a mix of voice acting quality. There are times when our main hero sounds completely off-tone to the situation and then there are other scenes that are voiceacted appropriately. It's honestly a hit or miss with a few of the characters in the game but thankfully it did not distract me too much from enjoying the story. Music and environmental sounds are both fitting for the title. I would prefer a bit darker tones as opposed to campy instrumental, but the western guitars and bass-heavy symphonies are all present here and are fitting for the setting.

Evil West has great environmental art direction. The locales were all satisfyingly gloomy and trepid. The dark blues and vibrant reds mix very well with the neon blue of Jesse’s lightning gauntlet. The game does look great during combat and runs at a steady 60FPS 1080p in performance mode on PS5. It is a different story if you decide to play in 4K, with a 30FPS limit on quality mode. I personally prefer higher frames over anything else and this game looks great in 1080p. As for character models, Jesse looks very detailed and well done. You can see all of his equipment on him as you unlock them throughout the game and really looks badass. However, the same can not be said for NPCs. Some models clearly did not have the same amount of detail and textures consisted of washed-out colors. This really showed a significant difference in quality.

Replayability

Evil West has co-op! The game can be played entirely in online co-op, no split-screen or crossplay here. The host saves all progression and the guest acquires upgrades and weapons based on the host’s current progression in the game. It is as basic as co-op can get, but at least it's here. Co-op sessions do allow for friendly revives and all money collected is awarded to both players equally. The game does ramp up its difficulty to accommodate two players, which is a nice touch.

The game has multiple difficulty modes as well as a one-life mode, clearly for the combo diehards. The co-op mode just consists of two players both playing as Jessie, which I feel is a huge missed opportunity to allow for another character and progression tree. This would have really given the game some great replay value and given players a reason to tread through the story again, with a friend. 

What It Could Have Done Better

Longevity is always nice to have in a game like this and Evil West attempts this with the inclusion of co-op. It is unfortunate that the co-op is so limited. No split-screen, no crossplay, no search for match! The only way you can play co-op is if you invite a friend from your friends list. Now I understand we live in modern day gaming where Discord exists and is very much alive. However, I shouldn't have to take the time to go on discord and find someone to match with, add them to my friend list, and possibly enjoy their company? This co-op mode really just feels tacked on and could have really used some love and attention.

As far as exploration goes, the game is very linear which makes it feel dated. I understand this was going for an old-school vibe, but to call this an action-adventure title, it is really lacking in the amount of freedom a player has in the level. Instead of wanting to replay the entire campaign, I would prefer just replaying the combat sections since this is really where the game shines. Hopefully, we can expect an update for the game allowing for more ways to play and enjoy the solid combat mechanics with a friend.

Verdict

Evil West promised an ass-kicking vampire game and it delivered exactly that. It is not without its flaws but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. I do believe developers should focus on making a title worth revisiting and give the replayability aspect a bit more love and quality. The co-op is a welcome feature but is so basic that it won't likely keep me coming back to tread through the adventure multiple times. The lack of split-screen, crossplay, and progression really holds the co-op mode back from being something great. Combat is invigorating and fast-paced, which is the main course of this adventure, and rightfully so.

Evil West is launching on November 22 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam.