Faisal Ghaffar 
Few games ever answer the question, what if Van Helsing was actually in the Wild West? Let’s be fair; no games had answered that question before Evil West came along and decided to go absolutely nuts with the idea. With a range of powerful and punchy weapons at your disposal, along with a deeper melee system, it manages to take inspiration from a multitude of games and isn’t ashamed of doing it. As a matter of fact, it’s easily one of the most cathartic games to come out during the year, and a lot of that has to do with its combat.
A Rich and Diverse Combat System
So combat can essentially boil down to two things, punching and shooting. You punch things that are close to you and shoot things that are too far away to punch. Revolutionary. But given the incredibly weighty feel of every attack you input, you can’t help but run yourself into enemies just to hear the satisfying sound of your massive metal gauntlet crushing flesh and bone alike.
Thankfully, while the setting is of the Wild West, you won’t necessarily be using weapons that are as slow and clunky as the originals. You have your trusty six shooters with you that you can use for a quick draw to keep an enemy in the air like Devil May Cry. You also have a rife that makes a satisfying “click” every time you fire, along with an amazing squishing sound as you blow heads off with your bullets.
What makes the game even more fun, though, are the other weapons that you can get as you play the game, like the minigun and the crossbow, which are fun to change up during a fight. You also get new moves as you play, including a move where you uppercut an enemy in the air and slam them into a nearby red barrel to have it explode. The game is all fun all the time.
What Do You Mean By “Good Story?”
So this may come as a surprise, but Evil West does have a terrible story. Shocking, isn’t it? The game has subpar voice acting with a protagonist who sounds like he eats several ashtrays for breakfast and speaks exclusively in mumbles and grumbles. The villain is boring, and all of the other characters might as well be T-posing while speaking their lines since that would accurately represent their lifeless voice acting. And don’t forget that the story is formulaic and generally very cliché.
And yet, it’s so bad that it manages to come full circle and be good again. Make no mistake, the story is bad, but not in a way that’s offensive. The bad voice acting and story are almost like a reward for getting through waves of enemies, only to be greeted with some of the most strangely endearing cut scenes you will likely see all year.
A Game As Edgy As The 2010s
Evil West is, if anything, a video game. And while most games keep taking themselves too seriously, Evil West goes in the other direction and embraces the teenage cringe that the industry has moved away from. The difference between gameplay and cut scenes is night and day, every time your character speaks; it sounds like it was written by the loneliest person in high school.
And yet this incredibly brash, macho, and dare say chad-like persona exists in everything, and it almost reminds you of a simpler time. If anything, this game is a good way to experience the highs of the 2010s without having to actually go through them.
Conclusion
Evil West is an unapologetically intense action game that is all about bashing vampires in the face until their faces resemble tomato paste on pizza. Its voice acting is bad, but the satisfying gameplay just makes it so much better. As a whole, it is easily one of the most fun games you can play right now.
