Going Down the Weird West Trail...
When the Choice is Spoilt By a Wild West Legend...
Since I played Red Dead Redemption 2 I've become a bit of a Wild West shooter fan, though good Western computer games have been a bit thin on the ground. The trouble is that RDR2 made such a good job of things that it's kinda spoilt it for everyone else!
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| Above: Red Dead Redemption 2 was a masterpiece, with spectacular cinematic vistas of the Old West that will perhaps never be bettered in a computer game. |
How can any game developer make a mark in this genre without being compared (in all likely hood unfavourably) to Rockstar Game's tour de force?
So, I guess the best thing to do - as a developer who actually wants a successful game - is to make a Western shooter with a twist! Enter the 'weird West' games...
'Weird West, also known as Weird Western, is a term used for the hybrid genres of fantasy Western, horror Western and science fiction Western.[1] The term originated with DC's Weird Western Tales in 1972...'
In terms of movies - as examples of the genre - the themes can range from Steampunk (such as the rather awful 1999 Will Smith movie 'Wild Wild West') to the supernatural (with movies like 2010's 'Jonathan Hex' and 2012's 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter').
Above: As badly received by the critics as this movie was, I kinda enjoyed it. Though,
I do admit to being a bit of a Josh Brolin fan-boy! LOL
(At this point, though, I should make honourable mentions of the 'Call of Juarez' series of Western arcade shooters, the isometric tactical shooter 'Hard West' and a possibly novel title of 'Saloon Simulator', which I played the demo of and it was fun. These are examples of straight 'Western' games that had interesting )
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| Above: 'Call of Juarez: Gunfighter' (2013) was a hugely enjoyable arcade Wild West shooter representing a 'spaghetti Western' to Red Dead's John Ford-esques classic. |
Weird West Computer Games
I had a bit of a chuckle - I must admit - when I was looking into what weird west games there are when 'Fallout: New Vegas' cropped up in my search! It just goes to show what a wide ranging genre wild west is... But, I digress. 😏
Future dystopia takes on the Western them aside, my personal interest is more in games based in an alternative 1800s 'old West' setting and preferably with a supernatural/occult twist...
Enter Crytek's 2018 PvP first person shooter 'Hunt: Showdown'. My youngest daughter and I were really excited about this game as we are big co-op team shooter fans. The graphics looked superb, there were a plethora of customisable and cool looking character skin and upgradable weapons and the almost 'Lovecraftian' mythos was exactly up our street... BUT...
Unfortunately, as mentioned, the central focus of the gameplay was a PvP extraction looter shooter. 😟 (Bear in mind that this game was released when extraction/Battle Royal games were the hot item.)
Now, keen an FPS gamer that I am with years of experience - including being a competitive clan member - I have never been anything more than 'mediocre' quality when it comes to PvP (*real* player versus player). I have never been as good as those spotty little 'twitcher' youths with their lightening fast reactions and only really shone as a (just) 'good' team player who occasionally had a 'lucky' kill streak! 😂So Stace and I were both in for a nasty surprise when we fund that our 'Hunt' sessions turned us into the hunted more frequently that us being the hunters!
I am too old for that s**t and Stace was more of a laid-back casual player that prefers to kick back on a sofa and play using a Xbox controller... Neither her or I liked the sheer stress that a PvP game comes with. So 'Hunt: Showdown' was quite quickly abandoned, which was a shame as we did occasionally have some very entertaining sessions with it (even when things went wrong)...
Enter Flying Wild Hog's 'Evil West' (2022)
Now, we missed this release first time around - we were probably engrossed in something else at the time - so it wasn't until the game was reduce on a STEAM sale that it caught my eye. Stace and I had just completed some DLC for 'World War Z' and so were on the look out with something to fill the gap until 'Borderlands 4' is finally released and up popped 'Evil West'.
I wasn't too bothered about the luke-warm reviews for the game as we saw it as just a filler. And the graphics and theme looked cool enough, with a 'Jonathan Hex' look alike bounty hunter facing off supranatural demons and monsters. What's not to like (especially when it's a bargain price)?
Well, I have to admit that 'Evil West' does have it's obvious flaws, especially because our main interest in it was as a cooperative team shooter...
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| Above: Here StaceFiona and I take on one of the boss demons, with a very satisfying final dispatch. |
To me, Evil West's 'multiplayer' mode feels like it was stitched on as an afterthought. Yes, you can invite a friend into a session with you to play through the single-player story BUT little thought or planning seems to have been put into how the one player campaign would work when you throw two players into it. This becomes glaringly obvious in two particular areas - one minor (but annoying) and one major (and very frustrating).
Cut scenes are very obviously design with one single main character in mind and occasionally produce - because of that - glaring continuity issues. Now, this is sorta common with signal player story driven games which are given a co-op game mode as it's difficult to produce a single character centric cut-scene to then 'upscale' to include two or more central characters. A few games do make the effort to do this properly but Evil West's game designers have just taken the 'f*** it' approach and ignored any issues that adding an additional player would have on a cut scene.
Still, that's a - as I said - minor annoyance compared to another 'feature' of the co-op mode that REALLY annoyed Stace and I whilst playing... Character customisation.
Again, Evil West co-op mode seems to have been a after-thought as there is NO real multiple player customisation facility. As you can see in the clips I have included of StaceFiona and I playing are characters are identical twins complete in exactly the same outfits (like some bad WWE tag team duo)!
This is not only a wee bit confusing when you are embroiled in some of the action - as having a doppelganger running around during the chaotic fights messes with you head a bit - but it also has the effect of breaking your immersion in an - otherwise - fun game.
We both laughed uproariously when Stace pointed out that our characters were not 'totally different' when she upgraded hers with a different coloured bandana!!! Yes... Totally different! 😆
This isn't just a cosmetic faux pas, but it was annoying for Stace that she did not have the option to play a female character. A kinda big omission these days (and remember Evil Dead was released in 2022).
Conclusion
Anyway, I could go on chipping away at the game's weaknesses, but as I said earlier it was just a bargain filler game intended to keep us entertained until something better came along. And in this it did actually fit the bill.
It is fun. Graphic might only be so-so, the story might be lack-lustre (we ended up skipping the cut scenes anyway, due mainly to issue I mentioned above) and all increasing the difficulty does is to make enemies more absorbent bullet/punching-sponges but...
The actual melee action is amusing as you get to knock seven shades of doo-doo out of your poor advisories and the variety of weapon and fighting perks you get do add some amusing ways to despatch the baddies.
Although Western weapons are one of the great attractions - and something 'Hunt: The Showdown' excelled in - Evil West's guns aren't either all that novel or hard-hitting. To the point, when just beating your opponents with some well aimed punches or kicks is far more satisfying.
So, don't think you are getting a classic in any sense with Evil West... Just look at it as a sort of arcade style beat'em'up and have a laugh when you pull off a hysterical combo!
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