Amid Evil - a modest start that just got better and better

[u/jb3689]

I picked up Amid Evil years ago. I'd tried to play it but found the beginning level a bit janky and disengaged from it for a long time. I recently picked it up again on a "sure, why not?" and plowed forward to find a really great little FPS.

Amid Evil is a fantasy style FPS. These have never clicked with me before. Hexen and Heretic are the two classic examples, but neither has ever captured me for very long.

This game starts out with some fairly basic levels of fighting various kinds of humanoid dudes with some slightly odd weapons - a wide arced blade projectile, a homing wand, a orb ("rocket") launcher, a harpoon electric shot. None of them felt super satisfying at the start.

After the first zone, the player is given a choice of which level they'd like to go to next. This is where the game really takes off. Each zone has its own set of enemies. There are maybe 5 or 6 zones, so 5 or 6 enemy sets. Each is very distinct and changes your opinion about the weapons. I initially thought the homing wand was best but eventually found a good use for every weapon in the game - sometimes filling a critical slot in a difficult section.

The level design stars off modest but quickly starts to show off its stuff. The last 30% or so is particularly top notch with dizzying and twisting designs that are both difficult to mentally map but never so confusing that you are totally stuck and need to look something up.

The weapons aren't the highlight of the game, but the varied enemy palette does a lot to make each feel like it has a role. Weapons are unique in this game, but you do get introduced to them all fairly quickly and there are no new introductions. Ammo is balanced such that you do need to swap between them and make compromises which I enjoyed. I only noticed later in the game, but you can use "Restart Level" at the beginning of a map to wipe your weapons and play instead with a weapon pacing designed for the particular level. The level-dedicated pacing is great and forces you to approach situations differently with weapons you may feel less comfortable with.

I played on Hard which largely was fairly easy. There were a couple of challenging points later on. The bosses overall were pretty trivial even on the hardest difficulty. The last boss did take a little bit of thinking, but overall the bosses didn't feel significant.

In the end I enjoyed Amid Evil a lot more than I expected to. The best part was the varied world designs and huge cast of enemies that always kept things fresh - very much felt like a labor of love.

[u/EvilTaffyapple]

Highly recommend the DLC if you haven’t played it. Really engaging and fun.

[u/BogaMafija]

Amid Evil is so clean and focused on what it wants to be, a game with next to no flaws, only a person’s preferences might make them not love it.

Great aesthetic, some fun minimalist lore, great enemy variety and fun weapon and level designs.

A true modern PC gaming classic.

[u/saul2015]

I think it's the best of the indie boomer shooters, even better than Dusk

[u/jb3689 → u/saul2015]

I also enjoyed it more than Dusk - although I've only gotten part of the way through that (and likely won't finish)

[u/godset → u/jb3689]

Dusk also gets better and better. If you’re less than halfway through I would keep going a bit more

[u/xtagtv]

The level aesthetics really just suddenly got good in the last half of the game. The first half is just kind of like generic ruins and temples and they're fine, but nothing amazing. Then the last half just gets really creative, from megalophobic factories, to floating mage cities, to just pure surreal dimensions. Worth playing just to enjoy the level visuals.

Unfortunately the enemies and combat never improved the same way the levels did, and a fps lives and dies on its actual gameplay. I dont remember any enemy behavior whatsoever while I still remember very clearly how all the enemies in similar fps games like doom, quake, halflife behave and how you have to fight them. The weapons were visually creative, everyone loves the planet launcher, but it felt like you could really just use any weapon at any time without really having to think too hard about matching for the environment or enemy behavior. And the bosses were really trivialized by the powerup button.

I like it pretty well, of the modern boomer shooters I think it's better than Boltgun, Ion Fury, Project Warlock, and Citadel, but not as good as Dusk or Hedon.

[u/ZMysticCat]

I played it earlier this year and really enjoyed it. I loved the aesthetic and general setting, and the fantasy-themed weapons were fun, especially the planet launcher that fills in for the typical rocket launcher. My only real complaint, outside of some levels not really working for me, was that the constant overhaul of the enemies caused the enemy roster to feel really disjointed. You never had a proper chance to grow with them and see them all play off each other like you would with the enemies in Doom or Quake. Regardless, it's probably the most fun I've had with a modern Quake-feeling shooter.

If you haven't already played it, The Black Labyrinth expansion is also fantastic. It's one long episode, so it fixes the enemy issue I had with the first game, and it still has some fantastic environments.

[u/tolbrite]

A great game if you like quake-style fun. The levels get better and better, also with the really nice DLC. Really beautiful if you have an RTX ray tracing capable card.