Evil West is by far one of the best games I’ve seen on Gamescom. The game – which was only recently pushed back to November 2022 – is being developed by Flying Wild Hog (you probably know it from Shadow Warrior and Hard Reset), and I was impressed with this week’s German presentation.
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But those impressions are for another day. In the meantime, there’s good news for gamers afraid of spiders — we’re all 420 million. Our eight-legged “friends” can be turned off completely in-game if you wish. That’s a good thing, because there’s a lot out there – little bastards are tied to the instability and arcane magic at the center of the game’s story, so you’ll find them nesting in a lot of places to explore.
Flying Wild Hog is the latest developer to incorporate arachnophobia into its production: Back in 2020, Kill It With Fire allowed players to lessen the arachnid nature of insects by turning them into something that looks more like a stuffed toy. Webbed 2021 (where the protagonist is a spider!) introduces an option to turn your protagonist into a cute little blob with eyes instead. Grounded, the most high-profile game in the space since 2020, may have chosen to turn spiders from eight-legged nightmares into floating double corps.
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So the game is getting better and better in that regard. When asked why Flying Wild Hog wanted to give players the option to remove these mobs, Flying Wild Hog’s Tomasz Gop told me “it’s all about accessibility”. Per Gop, the studio just wanted to add an option for players to take spiders away when they give them too much trouble.
Although it comes with a warning: “There’s still going to be some spider stuff out there,” he points out. “There will be webs in some places, and some enemies will be inspired by spider-like designs.” We’re also told that there will be a boss that may have spider traits, but that’s a bit vague. As far as I know, if the option to remove them is turned on, the worst triggers of spider fear — small things running around and swarming — will disappear completely.
It’s good to know that Flying Wild Hog is doing well among arachnophobes around the world, and it’s good to know that every time I force my way into a dark, magic-filled cave, I can enjoy Evil West without letting my Skin crawls.
Sadly, though, I still have to deal with finger crawlers in Elden Ring.
Evil West is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S on November 22, 2022
