

You play as the last of a corps, a top-secret, vampire-hunting institute, and – per the developers – “the final line between humanity and a deep-rooted terror that now emerges from the shadows”. The premise of Evil West is encouragingly simple: a dark menace consumes the American frontier. Evil West: probably my favourite game of Gamescom 2022. And it kicks ass (literally, and metaphorically). And – fresh off the back of the excellent Shadow Warrior 3 and the artful Trek to Yomi – the folks at Flying Wild Hog are focusing on what they know best: fast, hard, bloody action.

So there’s a gap in the over-the-top action market in the frontier lands of the American West. God of War… well, it’s a couple of millennia too early over at Sony Santa Monica, isn’t it? Bulletstorm needed its uber-capitalist planet colony to contrast the anarchic chaos of its core cast.
#Evil west flying wild hog series#
Their tone just wouldn’t work: Devil May Cry’s trio of main characters most recently took up residence in definitely-not-London, and that modern setting meshed well with the series penchant descent into hell. “We don’t need Norsemen, space edgelords, or the son of a demon king in the Old West.”Īnd he’s right, you know? If any of these games went to the Western setting, they’d flounder and fail. “This is my turf, lads,” he says, sounding like he’s been on 12 packs of cigs a day since he was five years old. Suddenly, a gravel-voiced cowboy with pissed off eyes and a six-shooter in his hand kicks the saloon doors in. They all sit, have a drink, and chat about revenge (or something). But I guess we’ll find out in November.Devil May Cry, Bulletstorm, and God of War walk into a bar. But Flying Wild Hog was making like three games at once, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if all of them ended up being super short. I mean, I enjoyed the hell out of Shadow Warrior 3 while it lasted, so I’m hoping that this game has a bit more meat on the bone. I didn’t like this part as much as the others, but my time with Evil West has left me cautiously optimistic about the game. The level I played also had a mine cart section where I had to shoot explosives to clear the cart’s path and shoot targets to switch the track to stop myself from dying horribly. Cash can unlock new upgrades, such as giving your gun more bullets. You can find cash and upgrades in designated areas too, so there are a lot of reasons to explore. You go around pressing switches, moving carts, and climbing things. If Jesse punches an enemy that’s shocked, he gets to wail on it like he’s Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star. It’s a bit ridiculous and I had to get used to it, but it honestly works pretty well. From there, you can punch it some more or shoot it until it’s dead. Jesse will launch it into the air and slam it into the ground. Instead, you want to shoot them when it’s safe, use your abilities when they’re available, and hold down the gauntlet attack button when approaching a demon. You can certainly run up and wail on enemies with the gauntlet, but that obviously leaves you very exposed. The game’s demons run around and chase you, others shoot you with these little orange orb things that follow you, some fly, and some are large and sturdier. He also has a gauntlet for punching things, which he can also use to parry incoming attacks and stun foes.Īs you probably guessed, the gauntlet is pretty important to Evil West. Jesse has multiple abilities, including a shotgun blast (how do you do that with a rifle?!), electric stun thingy, and something that lets him heal. It’s got shooting in it, sure, but if you try to shoot things and nothing else, you’re not going to get much done. That’s because Evil West isn’t really a shooter. As soon as I spotted enemies, I obviously started shooting them, but it wasn’t long before I got overrun. Jesse’s main form of attack is his rifle, which shoots semi-slowly and reloads semi-slowly. This is what happens when there aren’t any tutorials, I guess. I jumped into the game and had zero idea how the gameplay worked, which resulted in me dying almost right away. Jesse is a demon-hunting cowboy of some sort. Due to this, I don’t really know who the characters are or what they’re trying to accomplish beyond a surface-level understanding.

The build of Evil West that I played offered a single mission that’s a bit deeper into the campaign than I expected. I mean, over-the-top demon-hunting game with a Western aesthetic? Yes, please! The game takes a bit of getting used to, but I’m definitely more interested now than I was before.
#Evil west flying wild hog crack#
The game comes out this November and I got to take an early crack at one of the levels. In practice, though, it definitely feels like its own thing. It’s a third-person shooter built around dodging and using abilities that are on a cooldown, so that comparison doesn’t seem like much of a reach. At first glance, Evil West looks a lot like Remnant: From the Ashes.
