Evil West Gameplay Review

With no open-world distraction, treasure, crafting, or side missions, Evil West is a shockingly straight third-person action game. It is linear and fast-paced. The B-movie story is well delivered through a succession of high-quality cinematic, and the fighting system at its core is quick-paced, responsive, and fair.

Given its AA beginnings, Evil West’s graphics are impressive; a few clever modifications might really make it sparkle.

The sheer amount of diversity on exhibit here is what really stands out. You are taken to a unique environment with fresh views and a ton of intriguing artwork every thirty minutes to an hour, since each level takes place in a brand-new territory with distinct resources and a strong cinematic language. Without actually sacrificing the caliber of any place, a lot of work has obviously invested in making the game feel new.

The impressive array of lesser locations offered by Evil West makes the campaign more engaging. The highlight is undoubtedly the combat, and the outcomes are excellent. The game combines quick shooting, a great selection of special powers, and cool-downs with melee combat. The entire animation process seemed really professional, responsive, and with smooth transitions. Each strike sprays a generous amount of stylized blood and intestines into the air, which is both incredibly satisfying and useful as visual feedback. A lot of per-object and camera motion blur, which some people might find too much but that I really quite liked supports all of this. The action looks excellent when it’s in motion, especially when there are a lot of foes and particles around.

The production qualities of Evil West are really excellent. This seems distinctly different and considerably improved when compared to Flying Wild Hog’s earlier games, which were low-cost, more constrained gaming experiences. With the skillful usage of Unreal Engine and many artist hours put into this game, Evil West stands head-to-head with other recent full-price releases.

What then doesn’t work? A sharp eye will see several accommodations for hardware from 2013 because this is obviously a cross – gen effort. For instance, asset quality generally appears acceptable, although there are a few spots with low-resolution textures and rather clunky modeling.

There may be an odd specular shine on the player character, opponents, and non-player characters (NPCs) that seems out of place.

Every eighth – gen visual hallmark that was expected is there, most notably the heavy dependence on screen-space effects like SSAO, SSR, and screen-space shadows. While the effect appears fantastic in still photos, there are some difficulties with dis-occlusion that are noticeable in video, especially with shadows cast by bigger geometric objects. Overall, lighting appears to be extremely strong, with realistic bounce and dramatic light placement, although there are a few problems.

Here, the player character occasionally displays a brilliant specular shine on his rear in indirectly illuminated locations, which is typical of baked global illumination methods that struggle with dynamic objects. This also affects the game’s adversaries and non-player characters (NPCs), although during normal gameplay, the player is the one who notices it the most. Although the game’s semi-stylized character rendering helps, it still doesn’t look amazing. A little odd-looking specular doesn’t feel as out of place as it could in a more realistic title.

Although the game’s baked lighting looks amazing, there are few instances when tiny details don’t exactly hold up as well – maybe because of the quality of these features. Real-time shadow-maps also have a lot of aliasing and quite low resolution. Even while this is not a problem that occurs frequently, they may resolve it with a few adjustments and more thorough probe coverage. Some interiors perform poorly and seem to lack sufficient GI.

PS5 and Series X are nearly identical, save for slightly sharper shadows on PS5, but the presentation is softer than in many contemporary titles.

For a cross-gen game without boundary-pushing visual features, this is a little disappointing. The experience can look a little murky at 1080p and the quality modes on PS5 and Series X don’t deliver the sort of image clarity we’re used to seeing from 30fps games on the premium current-gen consoles. Perhaps Evil West is uniquely taxing but even if so, some up-sampling or dynamic res would likely deliver a more detailed result on a 4K display panel.

Performance problems exist, though, sadly. Across all current-gen console platforms and modes, I could not detect any load-related dips, but the 30 frames per second modes have obtrusive frame-pacing issues. Unfortunately, the 30fps options on PS5, Series X, and Series S have incorrect frame pacing.

The action game Evil West is fantastic. Strike reactions are pleasant, adversaries hit hard yet have distinct and well-telegraphed crime patterns that are enjoyable to learn and navigate around, and the combat system is quick and adaptable, combining melee and extended weaponry with a variety of special capabilities without overpowering. Flying Wild Hog has done something spectacular here, and I had a great time playing the game. Of course, that the game typically has fantastic locations and a wide diversity of visuals helps.

Sadly, the picture quality isn’t very good, with current-generation consoles showing details in a softer-than-normal manner. Although it’s not a deal-breaker, it falls short of what one might expect from a cross-gen title. The game’s performance is more difficult to justify because it targets 30 frames per second but produces excessive judders. This is a pretty fun game if you can get beyond those issues, but Evil West could truly shine with a little more care and a few fixes.