So I have that old 'morbid curiosity' bug that wraps itself around my psyche every now and then, and it sometimes gets me to tune into that anime that everyone's been talking about for years now, and sometimes it forces me to click on that one steam page I saw for half a second even though I should really know better by now. But come on; the game was called 'The Walking Evil'... I can't not, you know! It's that perfect blend of "I see what you were going for, yet the SEO exploitation is so thick that I just don't care." So in a world of reboots and remakes and HD re-imaginings; let me take you into the 'entirely original world' of indie_games_studio's 'The Walking Evil'. (Yes, that does appear to be the name of their studio; and I know it's incredibly on-the-nose.)
First off, elephant in the room; the title's a complete rip-off. For some reason these developers wanted to simultaneously invoke the dual spirits of The Walking Dead and Resident Evil in order to indicate... What exactly? Is this supposed to tell me that this will be a game with the level of horror mastery as Resident Evil but the contextual breakdown of The Walking Dead? (That would be quite the achievement to brag about if true!) But after looking at some screenshots I think it's pretty apparent that the former inspiration took chief precedent. Now of course I'd never be so foolish as to grant Resident Evil and Capcom eternal ownership over all things 'survival horror', but you can still tell when a game is going the same direction as another compared to one that is literally copying their homework. Even in the provided screenshots you can see the inventory widget that is almost identical to the one that Capcom have employed since Resident Evil 7, the health bar is represented by a heart-rate monitor (also indicative of Resident Evil ever since the originals) and even the over-the-right-shoulder perspective was literally popularised by Resident Evil 4. (It's a way to achieve a third person view whilst bringing the player close enough that they still feel in danger when the enemy starts lunging.)
Now you could say something to the avail of "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", to which I would be inclined to agree; however there does come a point where 'imitation' becomes: "I'm going to dress in your clothes, bathe in your bath and follow you around trying to convince everyone you know and love that I am you." (Adoration turns creepy fast) In fact, the extent to which this game tries to imbue Resident Evil is only set-off by one small saving grace; these developers aren't in the same league as Capcom. Now of course there is no shame in that, Capcom are a multi-million dollar company who have been doing what they do for decades; but I mean that there is a clear divide between a game constructed with intent and one that was... well, just not. 'The Walking Evil' appears to be the latter.
My first evidence to that proclamation actually comes from the provided screenshots on their official Steam page. Now do try to remember, this is the page where they must put their best foot forward as for Indie developers, this is literally their billboard moment. This means that the most enticingly concise description should be provided, with the most alluring 'about' section and a smattering of interesting, yet not spoilery, screenshots should get posted. In fact, I'd say that the screenshots are the most important ingredient in that recipe. They are the first thing that anyone see on this page beyond the title card, and it's the aspect that will make most people decided whether or not they want to stay on this page any longer. Now for 'The Walking Evil', the team went a very interesting direction for the screenshots, in that there appears to be no direction. You'll have the usual screens of sections of gameplay, (the protagonist with his gun out, the driving sections) a few cinematic shots taken from cutscenes (Our man staring at a marked crime scene) and then there will be a jarring too-close screenshot right up the deuteragonist's nose.
Now I understand being proud of your characters and the amazing models that you've built to bring them to life; but don't you think you're doing a bit of a disservice to them when you stick us close enough to see the plastic-gloss off their fake skin glow like someone's shoving an industry grade flash light through their ear? It just sort of highlights the dead emotionless hundred-yard stare and synthetic stiffness to the whole scene. (What I'm trying to say is; you're doing a poor job at selling the illusion.) And do try to remember; these aren't the amateurish screens you'll find stuffed on the 'user' section of someone's Nexus Mods page, these are the official pictures. Some developer took these and went "Yes, these make our game look it's best. This will get people to stop and pay attention to our unique and special title." Well, to his/her credit, they were right; I'm here right now and I'm paying way too much attention. (Also, one of the screenshots was taken mid-conversation with subtitles on, so you can see that the captions are unfinished mid-way through a word. I know that's kinda minuscule in comparison but we promote professionalism in this household, dammit!)
But hey, I'm in the door. The screens got me hooked and now I just have to know more about the game, I have to see what sort of experience I've gotten myself into, so next stop is the description. Oh, the humble Steam description box, what wonders do you hold for me today? "The Walking Evil takes you to the great classic of the survival horror of the 90s". Bit of a mouthfull but I'm picking up what you're putting down. "where you guide the main character with a fixed system of cameras" Huh... wait, that's just not true. I can see there's an over-the-shoulder cam from the screens! What are these guys talking about? "which enhances the feeling of being in a real horror movie." ... Okay so maybe English isn't these guy's first language; but even then there is a distinct disconnect in what is being stated and what I can clearly see from the screens. Someone is lying to me and I'm just trying to figure out who.
But if English isn't this team's language, then what is? Perhaps this is a little besides the point, but at times like this I feel the need to figure out exactly who it is I'm dealing with. That little mystery took me to scour the Internet for a studio with one of the most frightfully generic names that I've ever seen, and you know what I found? Diddly squat. Their Twitter and Facebook is empty of background information, their personal website is completely defunct and even the wayback machine provides little in the way on context. In fact, all the site appears to show is a list of tools that might be useful in game develop- oh, goddamn it. This is why a studio with a name like indie_games_studio is so infuriating stupid it's not even funny. They call themselves IGS and even have a custom-made logo, but how do you expect any opportunities to come your way if your entire team is invisible to the Internet? (This all just makes me so frustrated!) Of course, it was only after this search that I enlarged one of their screenshots to see a description clearly written in Cyrillic, so I'm guessing the team is Russian.I'm off track, lets get back to the game in question; shall we? It seems that IGS go into a little more detail in their 'about' section, explaining that players can pick between fixed and third person angles (the mystery of a generation is solved!) and it even touches on their plot a bit. "It’s an interesting detective story - there is nothing more wonderful than a twisted plot." Nothing, huh? How about a coherent one? Nope, okay... "The plot, which keeps in suspense from the first minute to the last." I always hated when movies and such were imbued with this sort of quote, it's just so moronically generic that no one who says it really stops to think what it means. You're basically saying that the story is one note, it has no depth beyond it's mystery and once that's done (presumably after the first watch) than the product holds no further value. I'm sorry, that's more a personal gripe but I had to say something.
"The player will take on the role of Detective Daniel Robinson" (Huh, I think I went to school with this video game protagonist) The section further teases that the title will contain "puzzles", (true to it's Resident Evil inspiration) "trials" (kinda vague but I can dig it) and "Terrible enemies." (Well if you're just gonna come out and say it...) Other points that this developer thought were worthy of sticking in their 'about' section was the ability "to interact with many objects." That's sort of how most games work, but maybe I'm missing something and 'The Walking Evil' actually contains a complete evolution towards the player/environment interactivity-relationship! (I can keep an open mind.) "It is possible to drive a car" (Knowing how vehicle sections usually pan out in these low budget Indie games; that really isn't something to brag about.) "It is possible to play for two characters" (As far as I can tell this refers to playable characters and sadly not some latent multiplayer potential.) Also, there's "1K animations". I- I don't know what that means. I can't even make a joke, that's just gibberish to me.
Now I've gone through just about everything this page has to offer except for the one thing I dreaded the most; the trailers. (May God have mercy on my soul) So let me quickly find out whether or not everything else about this game and studio has been a red herring, for the real talent might lie behind the game in action!... >5 minutes later<... that's a nope. Okay, so the first trailer is actually the VA for the protagonist reading the same introductory script provided in the 'about' section and it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect, no great shakes. What astounded me, however, was the way in which the actor said that the bodies were found on "Tuesday Evening" rather than "Tuesday Morning". Now, this could have been some last minute change to the script that someone inexplicably forgot to reflect in the description, but I like to think the VA just fluffed the line and no one cared enough to do it again. (Oh, you can just taste the mediocrity in the air.)
The second trailer, which I'm now suspecting is actually just a cutscene lifted from the full game, reeks of that unfocused, directionless aura you get around some games like these. The whole thing was constructed with canned animations and, seemingly recycled, poor character models that made the whole thing look like a slightly higher budget studio filmmaker project. Which is fair enough, you've got to work with the resources available to you; but the contents of the shots are just zombie models and police models fighting each other in a 2010's era YouTube-style. I refuse to believe at any point there was a director for these shots that had a vision in his head of what he wanted this all to look like, and that's a shame as there is a certain charm to be had from a mess with a purpose. This mess, however, felt abandoned from the start.
The third trailer is more of a gameplay showcase wherein we see the sorts of locations that this game will lead the player too. And by that I mean we see a little too much of the driving section and some in the inevitable 'mansion' section that the Devs likely felt obliged to include. Again, it's purposeless but it does reinforce an actual positive I have to note about this game (I know!) and that's the sound design. Don't get me wrong, it's not good by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not cluelessly terrible either. It's better then it has any right to be and that tells me that somewhere along the way some thought went into the elements that make a horror game; so I won't call this entire studio a lost cause. (And not just because that would be excessively mean, even for me.)
The user reviews are not so kind, however, and they pretty much flambé this entire game from start to finish. There are accusations of game breaking bugs, the entire thing being an asset flip and even one review (albeit from another terrible game by the same developers) which claimed to be the voice actor saying that he was never paid for his work. (But that is just a Steam Review, so take with an extreme bucket's worth of salt.) What I found particularly interesting was one positive review from a fellow who commended the developer's ability and willingness to fix their bugs. What caught me up about this review was that it claimed that there was a one man team behind this, something that I've been unable to find hinted at anywhere on their page, Twitter or Facebook. Is this entire title a one man job? Is the entire studio just one man? It would certainly explain the screenshots if nothing else. (Any second opinion would have told him to stop. I have to believe that otherwise I might lose all hope in humanity.)
Oh, but you didn't misread me earlier, there are other games from IGS; and honestly they all make The Walking Evil look like the stuido's Magnum Opus. You have 'Zombie Claus' which contains that aforementioned pay-accusation alongside a truly awful trailer and claims from the reviews that the puzzles require players to visit the Dev's Youtube. (That's a strange way to promote your channel.) Centralia and it's sequel which claim to be based on a true story that I'm having real trouble fact checking. Unless the developers changed the location, names, dates and events themselves; that's a lie. And the game 'Ebola' that seems to be another zombie-ridden Resident Evil clone, only this one in distinctly poorer taste. Also, this was released in 2019. I guess we can expect in 2025 their first release of the year to be 'Corona'.
But hey, maybe this is all just the raging storm around a title that is actually pretty damn decent once you get your hand on it. Sure, every single red alarm is blaring, indicating the exact opposite, but who I am to say what games are bad and which aren't without playing them. And I'm sure as hell not playing 'The Walking Evil', you couldn't pay me to take that bullet. But if you've a stronger constitution than I and are looking for an experience that's sure to be a good laugh at the very least, why not? Maybe you'll find an Uncut Gem, maybe you'll find a furball, all's I can say for certain is that the Stream reviews are Mixed so that gives you a good 50/50 shot.
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