Video Games

Evil West Hands-On Preview: Refreshingly Old-School

The limited time I was able to spend with the Evil West part of Flying Wild Hog felt like time travel. A linear third-person action game? What are hidden collectibles? No side quests? A checkpoint without a bonfire? Crush your enemies in an open area that doubles as a combat arena and then try again? They don’t make games like this anymore.

Set in an alternate 18th century, where the West is still wild but teeming with vampires, as Jesse Rentier, star agent and heir to the Rentier Institute, an organization of vampire hunters powered by sci-fi technology and government spending. to play As a tough guy in the field, you’re a go-to when you need to do some dirty work.Demo I played.At his level, that job recovers skills lost in a snowy mine was to do

Exploring the story and characters was very easy with this build. Even with a sort of joking sidekick, Jesse looks like a run-of-the-mill tough-guy protagonist who prefers shooting guns down over his mouth. On the other hand, many of the settings are cool on the surface. Inspired by Nikola Tesla, the electropunk tech is flashy and over-engineered, attracting more than backlash.

Inspired by Nikola Tesla, the electropunk tech is flashy and over-engineered, attracting more than backlash.


Once the shooting begins, Jesse is primed, armed with both mundane, traditional firearms and mechanical tricks that bridge the gap in magical power between him and his foes. The base of my attack was his dangerous gauntlet form. He can mash for quick face-smashing combos or hold down the attack button to launch enemies into the air. Follow up with a diving punch or quickly draw a pistol to fill the hole before it falls. It’s easy to do on the fly. For example, if you want to fire a pistol, press the shoot button. If you want your rifle to hit a target at a distance, aim and shoot.

Rentier Institute also offers several other gadgets. Your energy shield isn’t like hiding behind you and absorbing attacks, but if you time it right, enemies who try to touch you can be sent into a burst of high voltage and take massive damage. . Clipping Rods do the same thing, but for many enemies at once. Aside from being flashy, every tool feels tailor-made for a specific situation and never feels irrelevant or redundant compared to others. I really liked that the action didn’t go on its own.

There seem to be plenty of ways to upgrade and personalize your tools to suit your preferred playstyle. Alternatively, character-focused perks can be added to grant new abilities or modify and extend existing abilities. As you see the knock-on effects stacking up, Jesse starts getting really nice to the one-man army they present him with.

Finally, the vampires here aren’t your Bela Lugosi Dracula. Some are like hives of large glowing explosive insects marching to death to protect your life. These ingenious and sometimes very challenging creatures make you want to learn more about the strange horrors that lurk in the shadows of this alternate history America.

Each encounter feels handcrafted to create a particular kind of challenge, feeling more like a deliberate puzzle than a happy coincidence.


The linearity of the stages I played offset pretty well with the nooks and crannies scattered around to find consumables, money, or other collectibles. Not that I was impressed, but I can see OCD gamers having a lot of boxes to check in a full release. No, but I really appreciate the emphasis on making the interacting elements lively and purposeful. Each encounter feels handcrafted, creating a specific kind of challenge that feels more like a deliberate puzzle than a happy coincidence.

The short demo time we got in Evil West left us thirsty for Old West vampire hunting. Somehow, in a year that found him three notable games set in dark and haunted westerns, Flying Wild Hog’s remains unique not only among its setting counterparts, but among its contemporary genres. is. The action is easy to immediately come to mind, but each new powerful upgrade, strange tool, and fangs-baring enemy reveals a new layer of depth and strategy.

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