Evil West Reviews
Evil West's core combat is an absolute blast, though the game's short length and underwhelming presentation may be deal-breakers for some gamers.
Evil West is far from the most complex or innovative action game around, but it nails the most important parts of its old-school, monster-killing campaign.
Evil West delivers on its big dumb action game premise, for better and worse.
A gleeful splat-'em-up featuring a lovely bag of tricks.
Though it captures the heart of Darkwatch in its environments and atmosphere, it can’t make up for its lack of variety or its inability to scale difficulty in a satisfying way. The best throwback games borrow aesthetics, iconography, and mechanics from the past, and blend them with modern sensibilities. Evil West does the first part beautifully, but can’t quite pull things together for audiences today.
An enjoyable combat system is left to flounder in an otherwise unambitious ode to Xbox 360 era shooters, that quickly gets too repetitive to enjoy.
An entertaining remix of familiar action mechanics and narrative tropes, Evil West is a solid modern beat-em-up that puts combat first.
Evil West's kinetic combat thrills as you dismember vampires by the bucket load, but it's dragged down by level design that's both formulaic and repetitive.
Still, disregarding the downtime spent on its charmless characters and bland plot, there’s an undeniable thrill to the fighting. If only the rest of the game packed as memorable a punch as its protagonist does when beating the insides out of Evil West’s vampires, it would be easier to recommend. As it stands, it’s not much more than a series of better-than-average monster-pummeling arenas interrupted by uninspired storytelling.
For me, Evil West is the kind of game I miss these days. I’ll fully admit, I love games like Destiny and Fortnite, games that never end and are filled with battle passes, crafting, loot, etc. Those games can provide hours of fun and are great to play while chilling with friends or listening to a podcast. But I don’t want everything to be a complex, all-encompassing, time-monopolizing social experience that continues to grow and evolve as time goes on. And Evil West is a wonderful example of the kind of games I want more of moving forward. Not everything needs an endgame or a crafting table. Sometimes, I just want to move forward, hear some bad banter and punch some monsters in the face for a few hours. And Evil West gave me exactly that. No more. No less.
Evil West has the style of a B-movie (in a good way) and the proposal of a PS3/360 game (again, in a good way): it gives exactly what it promises, goes what it goes, does not entertain with nonsense, does not fill for the sake of filling and ends when it has to end. It is a game of those that are no longer made; It's amazing.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Evil West is an old-school banger, a reminder of the quick and sharp fun that action games can deliver. It has some flaws here and there, but the meat of the game is fast-paced and endlessly entertaining combat. Smacking vampires into clouds of red mist with a giant lightning gauntlet is something that every video game needs.
Evil West is a straight shooter. It doesn’t pretend to be something more than it is — a game about cowboys slaying vampires without mercy. Despite being a tad unvaried, the combat is viscerally gratifying and confidently uncomplicated. And for that alone, the game is largely able to overcome the hiccups with the limited multiplayer, graphics crashes, and awkwardly edited story. Though the campaign is fairly short given the asking price, it has a permadeath mode and new game plus for replayability. Evil West may be rough around the corners, but it’s worth a shot of whiskey down at the nearest saloon.
However you feel about Evil West, the $50/$60 asking price is too steep for what’s on offer: the nature of its level design, limited enemy variety, and forgettable story will get in the way of your enjoyment, even if you’re only there for the combat. As engaging as it is, that action just doesn’t make up for Evil West’s shortcomings elsewhere.
Evil West is not the most ambitious game of the year, but can still provide some fun thanks to its solid action gameplay and its many satisfying combat encounters with all sorts of vampires and monsters.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Evil West deserves a spot among the best games that take place in the wild west.
Evil West is one of the most surprising and enjoyable action games of the year, and Flying Wild Hog have an absolute banger on their hands.
Evil West is the kind of beautiful trash I wish we had more of. It’s a ridiculous game in service to a purpose no higher than smashing monsters to gloopy bits, and by God do I admire that. While at times combat balance is uneven, any such moment is made up for by a terrific weapon set, extravagant finishers, and an immediacy of offense that ensures the action never wavers.
For all its superficial swagger, it'd be remiss to call Evil West a case of style over substance, because there's a deceptive amount of substance to its combat system and the vibrant world its set in–just the amount you'd want in such a game. It's a good game for a good while, before its relentless pace runs of steam in the final third when repetitive, tiresome battles highlight the limitations of a mostly solid combat system. With the ability to play the entirety of the campaign in co-op however (with appropriately scaled enemies), I wonder whether spreading the relentless heat between two players could actually be the best way to play Evil West, and I plan on finding out soon.