Does Evil West deserve Redemption?
A dark menace consumes the Old West. In solo or coop, fight with style in visceral, explosive combat against bloodthirsty monstrosities. Eradicate the vampiric hordes with your lightning-fueled gauntlet and become a Wild West Superhero.
I can’t think of a game from the past that tried to cross-over vampires with the Wild West, but that’s exactly what you get with Evil West. It’s cheesy and over-the-top, but in a humorous way that does more than enough to get you to the end credits.
The gameplay is a mixture of third-person brawler and shooter as you slay different types of vampires. The variety between them is on the small side but you’ll still need to keep your wits about you as some of them can really pack a punch if you aren’t careful. Combat is definitely a big highlight of the game, and it does feel really satisfying to annihilate a group of vampires or werewolves with combos or your guns.
The formula itself may seem a bit dated in comparison to games today, but it works well within the confines of the game and as far as old-school games go, you’d be hard pushed to find one as rewarding to play in 2022. The real controversy comes down to resolution and performance which sits at either 4K 30fps or 1080p 60fps. The problem is that the 1080p mode makes the game look a bit murky but runs smoothly, while the 4K mode doesn’t seem to output at 2160p but instead more towards 1728p and the 30fps still isn’t as smooth as you would hope, especially compared to other 30fps games from this generation.
I know its nit-picky though because the game itself is visually impressive overall. There are some fantastic environments such as dark catacombs and sandy deserts with some great high-octane effects thrown in during combat. The character models are also well detailed and the cutscenes deliver that B-Movie quality that you would expect from the premise of the game.
The Verdict
Evil West feels like an old-school game from about a decade or so ago, but it does it well if not better than games of that era. It has high-production values and despite some performance/resolution issues, it doesn’t take away from the fact that this is an incredibly satisfying game to play and undeniably addictive from start to finish.