A shining beacon of AA glory, Evil West offers up some dumb co-op fun with a side serving of jank.
This is a really solid 3rd person action game that sees you beating the ever-living shit outta vampire-demons in an alternate history wild west. The story is pretty much exclusively told through pre-rendered cutscenes, which are surprisingly well crafted, with some decent imagery throughout. The actual narrative itself is the definition of forgettable but it has enough crazy bullshit going on to mostly hold my attention.
Structurally, its a very 7th gen affair of linear combat arenas, with small "puzzles" in between. The puzzles themselves are often more of a nuisance than anything else, serving only to artificially break up the pacing by having you waste time hitting a switch or two. I really think the game could have just done without them, but thankfully even with their inclusion, the game still does a good job of constantly throwing you into the action, which mostly shines.
Mechanically, its relatively simple, but theres enough variety in the abilities to keep things fresh, and cranking the difficulty can actually offer a really sizable challenge. There's also a decent variety of enemies, though the game does drag a bit in the middle and a few sections feel like they over-use the same enemies and probably could have been scrapped to tighten up the pacing. Still, the majority of it is really fast, fluid, and fun, with one boss fight in particular that punches well above its weight.
Unfortunately, like I said in the opening, this game comes with some jank. Some stuff is pretty minor like getting randomly launched into the air mid fight (theres no fall damage so honestly this is just kinda funny) but sometimes its a lot worse, like your co-op partner losing function on half of their abilities which is, yeah, not fucking good at all. There's also a co-op bug on one mission where if either of you open your menu the game will freeze and the connection will be lost. No idea how this even happens, but its also kinda wild how this still hasn't been fixed 6 months after release.
But despite its flaws, Evil West shines as a great example of middle market goodness. It's not gonna blow you away by any means, but it doesn't have to, because its sole purpose is to offer an entertaining slice of dumb, VideoGameTM bullshit, and it certainly succeeds at that.
This is a really solid 3rd person action game that sees you beating the ever-living shit outta vampire-demons in an alternate history wild west. The story is pretty much exclusively told through pre-rendered cutscenes, which are surprisingly well crafted, with some decent imagery throughout. The actual narrative itself is the definition of forgettable but it has enough crazy bullshit going on to mostly hold my attention.
Structurally, its a very 7th gen affair of linear combat arenas, with small "puzzles" in between. The puzzles themselves are often more of a nuisance than anything else, serving only to artificially break up the pacing by having you waste time hitting a switch or two. I really think the game could have just done without them, but thankfully even with their inclusion, the game still does a good job of constantly throwing you into the action, which mostly shines.
Mechanically, its relatively simple, but theres enough variety in the abilities to keep things fresh, and cranking the difficulty can actually offer a really sizable challenge. There's also a decent variety of enemies, though the game does drag a bit in the middle and a few sections feel like they over-use the same enemies and probably could have been scrapped to tighten up the pacing. Still, the majority of it is really fast, fluid, and fun, with one boss fight in particular that punches well above its weight.
Unfortunately, like I said in the opening, this game comes with some jank. Some stuff is pretty minor like getting randomly launched into the air mid fight (theres no fall damage so honestly this is just kinda funny) but sometimes its a lot worse, like your co-op partner losing function on half of their abilities which is, yeah, not fucking good at all. There's also a co-op bug on one mission where if either of you open your menu the game will freeze and the connection will be lost. No idea how this even happens, but its also kinda wild how this still hasn't been fixed 6 months after release.
But despite its flaws, Evil West shines as a great example of middle market goodness. It's not gonna blow you away by any means, but it doesn't have to, because its sole purpose is to offer an entertaining slice of dumb, VideoGameTM bullshit, and it certainly succeeds at that.