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.
I got two emails today. Apparently Dusk is on sale on Steam for $15 (ends July 9th) and Amid Evil is $16, since it just left Early access.
Which of these two would you recommend getting first?
You save $3.10 by buying both together.
Hmmm. That’s not much. Nice try though Brian, trying to unnecessarily add to my backlog! :-)
(Unless I actually both of them simultaneously, then it would make sense to buy both together).
Turin’s post just above yours should tell you all you need to know. For me, personally, Dusk is a bit too aggressively retro. There’s still some nice modern dazzle in Amid Evil. Unless you’re seriously interested in old school fidelity, you’d probably be happier with Amid Evil.
-Tom
I still have to finish Eps 5-7 which is where it seems the game will get a bit wilder in setting and level design, but for now I would put Dusk over Amid Evil, and with some margin.
Too late! Brian seduced me into getting both last night.
I haven’t tried Amid Evil yet, but I’m not digging Dusk so far. I’ve only done the first level, but nothing feels satisfying. Even the shotgun, for example, doesn’t really feel like it has enough oomph. I accidentally clicked the right stick at the beginning, so I was crouching everywhere. Crouching in that game feels like crawling in modern shooters. And not crouching feels like the equivalent to crouching in modern games. I guess you’re playing as a gnome or something in Dusk.
Back on topic, I’ll give Amid Evil a try tonight.
I finished the game.
Overall the game isn’t as good as I hoped to be, although end last two episodes (6-7) improved my opinion of the game, as they are really the high point.
After completing the first level in each of these two games, I’m not feeling either of them so far. There’s something vaguely dissatisfying about both of them.
Beautiful game! I tried Dusk a few months ago but it didn’t click for me, mostly for aesthetic reasons. But this game looks and feels so much more my speed. I love it. I actually love playing it. It didn’t have to win me over, as soon as I started hacking and blasting away at my first enemies I was sold. And I love the level design so much more than Dusk. This game is a huge win for me, and I’m glad I took a chance on it.
It’s one of the first neo-retro games I’ve tried that just instantly clicked (besides Nintendo’s consistent output).
I’m only a couple maps in, so maybe my opinion will change, but right now I’m pretty jazzed about this.
Awesome video review from Civvie:
One thing I will say about Amid Evil. I’m continuing to play both Dusk and Amid Evil even though I’m not feeling it yet, but at least in Amid Evil, after exploring an area thoroughly so far, I’ve found about half the secrets in each level. Meanwhile in Dusk, I’ve completed 3 levels and not found a single secret yet, despite searching every inch. At the end of the third level in that game, I thought I’d finally found a secret for sure. Instead of going down the corridor towards the exit, I found a little hole in the wall that I had to crawl through.
Aha! I thought. I think I finally found a secret. So instead of going down the main corridor, I went into the little hole. And apparently that was not a secret, that was the regular exit to the level. *facepalm.
I finished up the first map of chapter six last night before bed (I must be doing these out of order, because I think I’ve only completed 2 chapters). I really enjoy the theme of this chapter, but when loading up the second map, Hexed Passage, I was immediately put off by the vertigo-inducing hex effect they’ve got going on here. Basically the world spins round and round and round and round while you try to murder enemies and navigate skinny little walkways in other-dimensional space.
Finally, after thirty minutes of struggling through this god forsaken map and its idiotic effect, I was greeted with the completion screen and moved on to the next map. Unfortunately this map also had the same spinning effect going on, and it pissed me off to the point where I was about to shut the game down and write a negative review for the fucking thing since there’s no way to disable this effect in the options menu… But then I had an epiphany.
I glanced over to my right and… sure enough… my controller was plugged in and upside down, pushing the thumb-stick just enough to make my character spin round and round and round.
The moral of this story is: I’m a fucking idiot.
LOL
I was going to reply how I didn’t know what effect you were talking about, but it seems you solved the mystery yourself :D
This game is fun. Well worth the $16 spent.
After finishing the game one time through, I’m sure I will go back and play through it again but this time look for all of the secrets. On my very first playthrough I usually try to find what I can, but I’m not constantly checking to see if I’ve found all of them before finishing a level. On subsequent playthroughs I’ll either focusing on finishing a map within the default time frame they’ve assigned as a par, or I’ll run through for completeness sake and look for all the secrets. But I usually don’t like to rush so I’m sure I’ll be taking option b.
Is anyone else getting poor performance? Every once in a while the game starts performing really poorly. The Steam frame rate counter in the corner says I’m getting pretty decent frame rate (between 44 and 89 or so), but the actual gameplay in those times feels very choppy. I wonder if the game just has a CPU requirement that is cropping up.
I’m not sure why I continue to play a game I’m not enjoying much. What is that thing called, the sunk cost fallacy? I paid for it, so I’m going to see it through in the hopes it becomes more fun later. Plus it’s something mindless to play while listening to podcasts.
Edit: Yesterday I took a break and went back to the new Quake episode that came out recently from MachineGames. That one is so much more fun. I wonder if it’s just the game mechanics I like better or the level design or a combination.
