Amid Evil: High Fantasy Quake

I’ve been eyeing this one. Might have to dive in.

Yes, I also made the same connection when I saw that gif… seems like a boss.

I saw the thread title and thought “have people forgotten heretic and hexen existed?”

No! But Heretic and Hexen were Doom-clones, technologically speaking, and this is more a Quake clone, or even between Q2 and Q3, in those years there were a series of games that went ham with the colored lightning.

This is definitely in Quake’s path. Especially the more recent levels with very elaborate geometry and look. Gameplay was also quite slow in Hexen and Heretic, that were slower than Doom, that is slower than Amid Evil.

This is like Quake 3 Arena speed with Quake 1 recent maps (Arcane Dimensions and others), providing a very specific style of complex and beautiful level design that you cannot find anywhere else. But you can find it here, made even better.

There’s something I don’t understand because Dusk is immensely popular while looking like ass. This one instead is a real marvel in both visual and gameplay… but it gets far less attention.

Maybe it’s the lack of “guns”, or maybe there’s something in the gameplay that is done better in Dusk, but I don’t know because Dusk seems to be getting more attention even at first sight, somehow.

The only real big problem is that it’s Unreal engine, and so the lifeblood necessary to make this game an eternal classic is cut off because they cannot allow custom levels and mods.

But the game itself has all the fundamental qualities and potential to be a real eternal classic. It’s excellent. I haven’t delved enough to see if it holds up and delivers, or if it becomes duller, but what’s at the foundation is a pure marvel. It then all depends on how they build on it.

I can think of a few things HRose:

-This game setting may be a bit too out there for some people, while Dusk theme of swamps, wasteland, graveyards desolate towns, and general ‘rust and blood’ themes is more recognizable. And while the graphics are pretty outdated indeed, it really gets very well that ‘rust and blood’ atmosphere and infernal vibes in the later episodes.
-Dusk weapons are on fucking point, they are very sweet to use, from pistols to shotguns to the machinegun. While Amid Evil again could be too unrecognizable, with magical staffs and whatnot, they aren’t as visceral and immediate as a shotgun. And the gore in Dusk also helps with gunplay, while in Amid Evil lots of time you are combating against automatons or abstract blobs or things that don’t feel as good to kill.
-Amid Evil first early access had a less-than-stellar combat, from what I know it was reworked in Episode 4 or a bit before, so some people’s impressions are outdated. From what I read before enemies were very aggressive and just run to attack you, now they use more ranged attacks, have more interesting attack patterns, sometimes they can sidestep/strafe, etc.
-Dusk has been released already so it has received good reviews, but Amid Evil is still in Early Access, so who knows, maybe Amid Evil will also be received very well, eventually. Let’s wait. Also, Dusk is more recognized because it was the ‘pioneer’, the first great retro FPS of the last years, while Amid Evil released later than Dusk, so obviously it gets less recognition, it’s just following the trail that others opened, even if in the end could be a better game.

Why do they avoid mentioning the master of this genre… Daikatana?

Well, if you try Amid Evil one day, you will see the ‘gunplay’ is better than Heretic, maybe just a bit lower than the level of Dusk. For a fantasy setting, they got something pretty decent.

The hype cycle starts for the final Episode



The final game gets nearer, here it’s a post explaining the latest changes to Ep 3 and how they are going to retouch the entire game before release.

Damn. Sold.

Holy shit this is good. SO. GOOD.

No Brain! Do it like me and hold strong until the 1.0 version is released!

Hah, I already bought it and played a few levels. Amazing stuff. Wonderful levels, varied weapons and enemies, fun secrets to find, and so violent. I also love how it lets you select your difficulty level.

It looks like an angry kaleidoscope.


More angry kaleidoscope, this time with the final date, June 20th.

Perfect. I stopped playing because I wanted to wait for all the chapters to be done. It’s so good.

It looks good in the trailers except for when you’re fighting that huge flying snake in the sky. That part doesn’t look appealing to me. (It reminds me too much of Devil Daggers, which I ended up being not very good at compared to most Qt3 peeps who were playing).

Amid Evil is out for people who already had it bought. One more day for the rest of mortals.

Some Amid Evil quick & dirty impressions:

UE4 is worth it, it giving me great performance and instantaneous loading when pressing f9.
Very good music, although by default the music volume is pretty low, I found myself adjusting the sound effects to below the music level to enjoy it better.
As commented before, the game in Hard is easier than say, Dusk in Cero Miedo, so hardasses should search how to use ‘Evil’ difficulty.
Good enemy variety. One of the strong points as each episode has their own enemy set. It’s almost a pity that they enemy set is tiered and limited to each episode in that way. I’m more in the ‘fuck realism and verisimilitude’ camp and have all the monster types mixed up.
The level design is pretty decent for an old school style shooter, and there is plenty of secrets, but for now (the first two episodes played) there is nothing super memorable or outstanding. In that regard E2-E3 of Dusk has the edge as it had some memorable shit. Although it seems the level design is more spectacular in later episodes in Amid Evil…
Weapons are nice. It has some cool moments, like doing a lightning trident overkill or countering a red saber slash with your own magic saber.
Around episode 3 it starts having levels with somewhat hidden switches or non-obvious ways to advance, the first two episodes were pretty straightforward.
…and, it’s very traditional, classic early 90s FPS.

I think the last point is the most interesting. Let’s compare it with Dusk, which is the other famous retro shooter of the last year, also published by New Blood Interactive.

If you haven’t played them and only look at the trailers, Dusk, with the brown palette and the very old looking graphics circa 1997, seems to be the most retro, ‘classic’ FPS, at least more than Amid Evil which uses UE4.
Dusk, behind the vintage looking aspect, has a more modern design as there is more variety in the experience, with levels that try to mix up things, one play with darkness and an oppressive atmosphere, other you start with the sword but there is no weapons nearby, another play with gravity, this other one transform the level with water, another you play around with portals, or it has a powerup that works like the Superhot time stop, etc.
On the other hand 'm finding Amid Evil being a very classical, straightforward experience, no twists, gimmicks or surprises. It feels pure, but it also could be seen as flaw depending on the person and the expectations.