Evil West Xbox Review

There’s something magical about games that come out of the left field, leave you with one impression from trailers and then completely subvert your expectations. This year, that honour goes to Evil West, a pulp-inspired Weird West tale that looked intriguing in trailers, promising a fun if possibly janky third-person shooter. Instead Evil West blew away all my preconceptions and, in a year filled with fantastic titles, firmly established itself as one of the best games I’d played this year.

Set during that mythical Wild West era, this vaguely Steampunk-ish and Weird Tales-inspired action game throws you into the shoes of Jesse Rentier, agent for the Rentier Institute and famed monster hunter extraordinaire. The West is, you see, facing down a vampiric threat of apocalyptic proportions and the Rentier Institute is the last line of defence in this secret war that the government has been covering up for decades. Just when things start to look up thanks to a new invention, tragedy strikes, crippling the Institute and leaving Jesse and a small Rentier Cell as the only things standing between humanity and certain annihilation.

Evil West’s story is firmly rooted in pulp and weird fiction tales, right down to the dialogue our characters spew. There’s a race to run all over the Wild West, hunting down vampires, and looking for technology to give you an edge, while dealing with typical ham-fisted bureaucracy. Our heroes are gravel-voiced Terminators with unreasoning hatred for the enemy while the villains twirl that moustache into next year as they fight for change. It’s an in-your-face tale of revenge whose only goal is to give you agency to slaughter with reckless abandon.

The story won’t surprise, its twists and turns entirely predictable, but it’s never less than engaging fun. And the tone, which may polarise many, fits in perfectly with its pulp inspirations and aspirations. Evil West is anything but subtle. This is a game about punching Werewolves in the face with a giant electric gauntlet that would make even Hellboy envious, so what were you expecting?

The world-building though is absolutely fantastic. There are plenty of letters and diary entries scattered across the levels to fill out this wonderful little take on the late 1800s, coupled with a Lore section for you to peruse at your leisure.

Evil West feels like a game that would have graced the PS3/Xbox 360 era with aplomb. It’s an old-school style, arcade experience composed of linear level design leading to arena-based encounters. There’s some very light exploration to hide the games corridor nature which leads to the aforementioned diaries, letters and money (Bucks here) that you’ll need to purchase upgrades with.

There are attempts at breaking up the gameplay, such as a mine cart ride, shooting targets or pushing blocks to navigate the environment. But they’re thin on the ground in the face of the game’s forward momentum. There’s rarely a chance to go back to an area you may have missed something in, as the game is all about getting to the next combat encounter.

And this is where Evil West truly shines. In its exciting, unapologetically violent, gibbet-spewing combat.

The trailers initially led me to believe that this would be a third-person shooter. And while you’re stomping all over the place like a Gears of War extra, Evil West is actually a brawling combat game along the lines of Devil May Cry and God of War. Sure there are guns, hell it wouldn’t be the West without them, but they play more of a support role to the glorious head-popping, bone-breaking melee combat. That gauntlet ain’t just for show!

You can uppercut enemies to juggle them, overhead smash them into other enemies or environmental hazards, dodge rolls, electric dash to them or pull them to you and throw out a flurry of punches to decimate their health. Throw in a block, parry and counter system and you’ve only just touched the tip of the iceberg.

You see, Evil West’s combat is incredibly technical and tactical. Far more than I ever expected. Fights get hectic as mini-bosses become standard enemies while arenas vomit grunts, heavies and mini-bosses at the same time for you to contend with. Surviving this onslaught comes down to tactics and situational awareness. You have a wealth of tools at your disposal, from a Boomstick to a flamethrower to mince enemies with and winning is about how well you make use of everything in your arsenal.

There’s a perks and abilities system as well, with each skill or ability you unlock designed to complement your existing ones and none of them feels superfluous. This expands your offensive repertoire immensely, opening up further tactics for you to use. There’s a fairly slow dole-out to the abilities, clearly meant to keep combat balanced as you progress.

That balance feels almost perfectly set and maintained throughout the adventure, even when everything attacks you at once. Death resulted in me simply changing tactics and wiping the floor with my ever-useful arsenal. Thankfully there’s no ammo to concern yourself with, just a simple reload and cool-down timers for the most overpowered gear.

The combat, even when dealing with the now standard bullet sponge bosses, is never anything less than thrilling, exciting and cathartically violent. Blood and gore soak the environment and enemies die a horrible, dismembering death. Evil West is concerned with player empowerment and the game makes sure you never feel anything less than walking mayhem itself.

All of this looks and runs wonderfully as well. Evil West is, most of the time, rather gorgeous in its surrounding level design. There’s a nice display of level variety as you run through ancient ruins, abandoned mines, tumbleweed-filled Main Streets and snowy mountains. The distant vistas, meant to evoke scale, don’t always look as great though. Interior areas are wonderfully modelled though there are some issues with what looks like occlusion culling.

The game runs almost perfectly well regardless of what’s happening onscreen. There were occasional frame dips during exploration but in combat, where it matters, it’s a perfect performance. Evil West is, easily, one of the best uses of Unreal Engine I’ve seen for some time and, in an age of day-one performance patches, one of the most stable and optimised games I’ve played right out of the box.

Evil West is the sort of game I’ve been waiting for, for ages and one that I’ve adored every minute of. One that knows what it is and aims merely to entertain. Its great visuals, near flawless technical performance and thrilling combat, coupled with pulp flavour that I adore, make this not only one of this year’s best action games but one of its best period.

Developer: Flying Wild Hog
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows

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