Darkwatch ps2 nostalgia6/19/2023 ![]() ![]() In those combat arenas is where the game reminds me most of my PS2 days. You use a rope mechanic to reach new places, destroy chests by punching through their top, and stumble upon combat arena after combat arena in between more explorative sections. Even traversing this wild west feels like a walk through one of God of War’s nine realms. Combat plays out nearly the same from the close-up, over-the-shoulder, third-person camera keeping the action in your face, to the finishers that unlock when the enemy is glowing orange, to the over-the-top guts and gore that splatter with each enemy kill. The gameplay speaks directly to my PS2 nostalgia, as well, although I’d be remiss not to mention that this is one of the first games I’ve played that wears its God of War (2018) inspiration fully on its sleeve. ![]() And in Evil West’s case, I’m okay to follow Jesse to the farthest reaches of this strange frontier to stop evil. I certainly don’t need every game to feature a story that raises the hairs on my arms or moves me to tears. Sometimes a simple reason to kill countless vampires and enemy creatures is all I need. It gets the job done, and it, perhaps accidentally so, harkens back to the Darkwatches of the world. I’d be content if that’s all the story the game gave me. In Evil West the Sanguines, an underground council of vampires, are seemingly being split apart by a young, anger-filled daughter who, like her father, believes it’s time for her kind to stop hiding in the shadows, and it’s up to Jesse to stop her. He has a working partner – what good cowboy goes it alone in the wild west? – and over-the-top garb that matches his caricature-like physique, and of course, the persona every leading cowboy in basically any western game has, too. ![]() Jesse is a gunslinger with an electricity-imbued weapon on one arm, wolverine claws on the other, and three guns in tow, like his father before and his grandfather, too. ![]() It begins with a cinematic that sets up Jesse Rentier, the son of the leader of the Rentier Institute, an arm of the government that works specifically against the forces of evil hidden in plain sight. All of this is to say that playing Evil West makes me feel like a child again in the best way.īeyond its setting, which had me waxing nostalgic even before its release, almost every aspect of Evil West presents itself how I remember PS2 games doing when I was ten or so years old in the early 2000s. My mind can’t help but see Darkwatch, a game I played repeatedly as a child, when I see Evil West.Įven more generally, that era was great for third-person action westerns – Gun, Red Dead Revolver, the aforementioned Darkwatch, and Call of Juarez (although Techland released this during the next generation, its 2006 release year is close enough to the PS2 that it feels at home here). Evil West’s premise also feels reminiscent of something you’d see in the PlayStation 2 era: cowboys who protect mere mortals from the secret horrors of the world, such as vampires and other creatures. Despite Red Dead Redemption’s best efforts, I’ve always felt there’s a shortage of wild wests in video games, although some games use a western’s formula to tell a story set elsewhere. So much about it immediately captured my attention. I’ve been excited about developer Flying Wild Hog’s Evil West since its reveal at The Game Awards in 2020. ![]()
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