Evil West

 Red Dead Eternal

There's nothing more embarrassing, within this specific line of time killing that I like to partake in, I should specify, than completely forgetting the game that you're dealing with and thus misrepresenting it. And of course the only reason I bring that up here is because I fell for exactly that. During the Game Awards I remember perking up and to attention the second I heard the name of Evil West and going, "Oh, I remember this game, don't I?". "Yeah, sure I do! It's the really exciting little isometric horror-western title that was teased a while back. A real CRPG abased around weird and mind-binding horror fiction, how cool! I've been really excited about this one!" So many times I talk about how I'm going to keep up with a game and see what becomes of it, flaunting my omnipresence over the title like I'm some sort of Higher Being with a memory longer than a decaying chunk of half-digested brine- but it's a façade. A convenient lie I tell myself and you. Just like every part of the thorn strewn bush we wear over our heads and call 'confidence'. I actually totally forgot about that game's name (called 'Weird West', by the by) and totally believed this game to be it. (A humiliation I'll never deserve to live down.)

My first suspicion was aroused during this gameplay teaser trailer where I saw action and combat that was decidedly, how do I say this, not Isometric. Yeah, that's a bit of red flag, wouldn't you know? A little bit of a "What party did I wake up in again?" moment. Turns out that Evil West is a game that was also teased a little way back but which left a decidedly vague and non-sticking impression on little-old me. Which isn't to say that my experience was everyone else's because looking at the 'Focus Entertainment' Youtube upload of this Game Awards trailer, it would seem like others have this game's brand on their 'must-play' watchlist. And what is that brand? Simply put, badass western-fantasy with a horror-themed supernatural miasma hanging over the world. When I frame it like that it almost sounds a little like 'Remnant: From Ashes', but allow me to assure you that this is a game much more interested in the 'heavy electric guitar' side of that image than the 'solitary survivor struggling to survive the apocalypse' side. Think 'The Doom Slayer' rather than 'The Lone Wanderer'.

It certainly fits the style established by Flying Wild Hog, the studio behind this game, given their experience in making the spectacular Shadow Warrior revival as well as the sequel games that I haven't personally had the chance to play. Their peculiar brand of wild action has the excitement and speed of old-school FPS action titles in it's execution, where the action-to-second ratio seems to have been juggled across every level of the design process. Which isn't to say that their style is perfect, in fact one of my big problems with Shadow Warrior (ignoring the late game questionable level design and direction telegraphing) was the unrelenting nature of the action which got so heavy-on in it's wilder section that the levels started to feel oppressive rather than exploratory, and at that point it the game really has to rely on the strength of the world design to keep an embattled player feeling invested instead of drained. Luckily Shadow Warrior had mostly stellar level design, but then there was the first dock level, and the boat level, and please don't bring up the lime-green-hued sewer level. (I feel queasy even remembering the near hour I spent wondering that maze.)

So there's room to improve in their formula. (which for all I know they have improved. Again, haven't played their last two games.) I think Evil West is definitely cut from that same cloth to a degree, but shifting from first person to third person (nevermind the theme switch) comes with it a big change to the way the game is played. For one, Evil West has this tangible weight to it's player actions in the snippets of gameplay we've seen, as our demon slaying cowboy kicks and punches his way through meaty looking demons. The pace of the game is bought down a lot to in order to compliment this, almost reminding me of that unintentional Remnant comparison I made earlier. (Although that might just because of the matchingly garish wide brim Stetsons. Fashion Souls does not approve.) It's not quite modern DOOM levels of chunky in it's carnage, but I feel whispers of that soul dotted here and there throughout these gameplay snippets.

Steampunk electricity buzzes through this world in order to bridge that gap between Red Dead style Cowboy eccentricity and supernatural demonology, embodied in a somewhat stereotypical lighting crackling glove with diodes poking out the business side. The image that Evil West is trying to draw from comes with many clear and proud influences, from DOOM to a little bit of WARHAMMER, and the intended payoff is clear: They want to give the players the power fantasy of being the one man army killing machine that slays demons like a practical demigod. And does it with style, you can't forget the style. And to that end I think that Evil West is definitely on the right track, what with the fist/six-shooter combo combat, electric power attacks that seem to go as far as shortrange teleportation (going anime up in here) and, I may be wrong about this, but there appear to be Devil May Cry style enemy juggling as well. There's a couple of shots of enemies being suspended by a sixshooter volley, although that animation looks a tad canned, as well as a more traditional juggle of the player literally interrupting enemy fall animations to keep them locked in the attack loop. (I don't think you'll be doing any no-touching-the-ground challenges anytime soon though. Our hero seems a bit too heavy for that.)

If I have a concern at this point, and it leans off of much of what this game is trying to be, I'm not sure if there's a unique twist to it's personality quite yet. I can see it's many influences off it's face, those the game bears proudly, but beyond a main character 'dark Cowboy' aesthetic that I'm not exactly in love with, there's an aura of generic seeping out of the wallpaper right now. Of course, that which we've seen is infinitesimal, and I hasten to add that any game trailer worth it's salt is going to save the big surprises for the game itself, (do you hear that- 'Jedi: Fallen Order' trailer makers?) but even then I'm failing to see what this game brings to the table that I can't personally get elsewhere. The action looks good, and is animated very well, but I can't just help but yearn for something a bit faster, or a bit gorier, or just something that leans heavily to at least one extreme. A good chunk of people out there find no problem in that area and think it looks sick, however, so I guess it comes down to what you look for out of action games.

Something I keep coming back to in the debate of 'does this look too generic?' is the enemy designs and how little personality I'm feeling from them. Much of the trailer shows us these DOOM Imp-looking zombie creatures that just- they're fodder, I don't care much about them. And then you have the big winged something at the end of the trailer that doesn't excite nearly as much as a big dragon-esque thing really should, and typical bulbous flesh monsters pop up here and there. There's this rubbery pink colour palette that seems to feature on most enemies this game has revealed so far and brings this samey-ness to otherwise varied looking monster designs. I did see some swamp creatures with white ribbed-armour pieces that looked pretty cool and different, and the promotional art teases some werewolves, which are always fun to see how they materialise in new worlds, but with the promise of horror-themed enemies that don't have to play to the laws of nature- I mean the sky is the limit and I don't want to see that potential go to any sort of waste.

Evil West isn't exactly the sort of game that is readily blowing my socks off from it's mere inception and I could see myself easily forgetting it exists by the dawn of the new sun; but honestly that might just be the way that I'm wired. I can tell you right away that there are people who simply adore the wild west aesthetic and anything you throw at it, and whilst I may find ideas like 'Cowboys versus Aliens' cheap and hollow, others might flock to and drool all over it for that very cheap shlock I'm repelled by. (Of all the things I didn't expect from that movie, for it to bore me was a true system shock.) So Evil West has it's audience already, and given the pedigree of the studio I'm fairly certain they're not going to let those people down; and if the final game proves to have more to it than this teaser hints (more than Savanna and Swamplands at day and night) then it might just win me over too.