Evil West Review: strong Doom-like combat, mediocre vampire western

Smash a monster into it Bad West and the armored fist’s mating with the enemy’s body creates a cartoon sound effect like a cinder block smashing into a side of frozen beef. Hit a monster a little more and it will eventually pop apart with the wet sloppiness of a ketchup filled water balloon. Sometimes, when performing certain moves, hitting a monster will cause its skeleton to leap into view while its insane body vibrates and becomes fixed in the air with bolts of blue electricity. Shoot another enemy and their arms might fly off, fountains of blood like gushing out Monty Python and the Holy Grail‘s Black Knight suffer from high blood pressure.

It is important to mention the texture Bad West‘s violence in the foreground because it ultimately carries the entire game. The latest from Flying Wild Hog, the team behind the shadow warrior Restart series and hard reset, set in a supernatural-tinged version of the 19th-century westward conquest of the United States. A vampire conspiracy, we were told during the opening, has existed in the nation “since the days of the Founding Fathers,” opposed by monster hunters affiliated with an organization called the Reindeer Institute. A mythological interpretation of historical locations can be a great way to depict the past. Unfortunately, Bad WestThough he dedicates a lot of time to his narration, he doesn’t seem overly interested in his story, which goes beyond the basic premise of mixing a mushy monster movie with a semi-passable western.

It doesn’t help that the protagonist, Jesse Reindeer, a deadpan, determined super cowboy adorned with a notched wide-brimmed hat and layers of intricately patterned black leather, is a real dud. Jesse is forced to carry a lot Bad Weststorytelling on his beefy shoulders, and he’s not quite up to the task. Along with the other members of the Reindeer Institute (including its leader, Jesse’s gruff, horse-faced father), he’s an uneven combination of dead-serious action heroes and witty villains. Its writers never seem quite sure whether the cast should be joking about the absurdity of their vampire-hunting mission or providing an honest, boring account of it. (During exploration, Jesse will half-heartedly say “moneyyy” at the sight of a bag full of coins, or “burnnn” as he sets giant cobwebs on fire with a flamethrower. None of these limp jokes are nearly as funny as the fact that he did them the words “RENTIER INSTITUTE” embossed on his glove.)

If only the story leaned a little further into the inherent camp of its premise and found more joy in the ridiculousness of its dialogue and the drama of a plot to stop a nefarious conspiracy being led by an immortal little vampire girl , she would offer a better time . How it is, Bad West‘s half-baked attempt at telling a story – there are plenty of cutscenes and mid-mission levels that require you to trek around a home base hub to pick up snippets of text from the universe – distracts from what the game does best: launch a barrage feature battle arenas populated by a variety of monsters who seem delighted to be ripped apart, shot and smashed apart by Jesse.

Jesse is surprisingly sprightly for a man who trudges like a forgotten man through sun-kissed desert canyons, misty forest trails, and damp swamplands war implements

backbencher. He darts nimbly across the battlefield, launching himself at enemies like a stubbly cannonball – one of his abilities is aptly named Cannonball. The conscious weight of his movements is transferred to the rhythms of Bad Westshoots and hits too.

As Jesse traipses across America, he receives new weapons and upgrades from the Institute’s engineers or as pickup trucks in the field. The pace is flawless: Bad WestThe gradually increasing loadout and skill set of is never overwhelming and therefore encourages improvisational tactics that take full advantage of every weapon at Jesse’s disposal. In that sense, it’s not dissimilar to the increasingly complex mix-and-match combat of the original demise Games and their newly launched sequels. To be clear, it’s entirely possible to win most battles with a limited selection of weapons. But a field full of flying, burrowing, charging, and exploding vampires is best cleared by taking full advantage of it Bad West‘s arsenal of ferocious killing tools. As the old saying goes, there is a key for every lock; Jesse has a weapon capable of opening any monster.

As entertaining as the fight is, it’s still disappointing that the only good way to interact with the gathering of vampire geeks is coming in Bad West is to turn them into explosions of red goo. While the parasitic nature of America’s Westward conquest is being talked about, Bad West

otherwise he pays too little attention to the context of his late nineteenth-century American setting to draw anything meaningful from it. And it’s not for lack of opportunity: the plot immediately puts the leaders of the expansionist United States in conversation with literal vampiric monsters who thrive on siphoning the life force from others. Despite some deceptions towards a general comment on the brutality of its surroundings, the game never lingers long enough to make a point.

It falls even more flatly as one approaches details — take, for example, a menu description’s claim that a giant species of vampire is “native to the Jenu tribe of North America” ​​when the reference instead seems to quote a creature from Mi’kmaq folklore named “Jenu”. Although the error is likely due to simple carelessness, this is a clear sign of it Bad WestThe creators of weren’t so concerned with serving the specifics of the setting as with using it as a kind of moodboard for cutscenes and battle arenas.

Aside from the downtime expended on the charming characters and boring storyline, there’s an undeniable thrill to the fights. If only the rest of the game had a punch as memorable as its protagonist knocking out the insides Bad West‘s Vampire, it would be easier to recommend. By the looks of it, it’s little more than a series of above-average arenas beating up monsters punctuated by uninspired storytelling.

Bad West will be released on November 22nd on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X. The game was verified on PC using a pre-release download code provided by Focus Entertainment. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. You can find For more information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy, click here.