Evil West review – One of the year’s best action games let down by outdated level design

Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition

Take an adrenaline-fueled journey through a mythical Japanese realm in the Definitive Edition of Shadow Warrior 3, packed with new features, and enjoy an ultraviolent blend of fast-paced gunplay, razor-sharp melee combat, and spectacular free-running movement.

There’s an early 2000s interview with director Quentin Tarantino in which a conservative pundit berates him about the level of gruesome violence in his movies. Their impassionate pleadings question the need for violence, but they’re met with a ridiculing, frustrated: “Because it’s so much fun, Jan. Get it?”

I thought about that interview as I played Evil West, the new game from the shooter masters at Polish studio, Flying Wild Hog. Evil West is an old-school action game that blends melee combat with firearms; a hybrid you don’t often see in the modern era.

Set in an alternate version of America’s wild west frontier lands, the story follows a secretive vampire-hunting order that has been dealing with an evolving threat for generations, while the government covers up their discoveries as viral outbreaks.

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