The old school-style FPS has seen a resurgence in recent years, with games like Devil Daggers, Dusk, Ion Maiden, Strafe, and others. Lightning-fast movement and equally fast firepower, “combat chess” as you prioritize enemies and positioning in the heat of battle, a fine balance between classic design and modern improvements. Amid Evil jumps into the Hexen and Heretic side of the pool, combining surreal cosmic environments with frenetic and flashy combat.
You are the Champion, summoned by the gods to clear away a cosmic corruption across angelic and otherworldly sanctums. In classic Heretic style, your weapons protrudes from the center of the HUD and each is a familiar yet delightfully weird magical variant of first-person shooter guns: your “rocket launcher” is a gnarled claw flinging planets at foes, your wide-spread “shotgun” is a crystal blade unleashed arcs of energy, and so on. Discovery and exploration in Amid Evil is often just as interesting as the action, as you sprint and leap across elaborate inhuman architecture and gather weaponry to fight vibrant hordes of winged knights and energy beings.
Defeating enemies leaves souls in their wake for you to collect; enough souls and your weapons unleash upgraded firepower, a mechanic iterating on Heretic’s Tome Of Power. The spread-shot blasts from your crystal sword suddenly ricochet against walls, letting you turn tight corridors into death traps. The head of your default axe becomes a whirlwind of iron. Activating this useful upgrade at the right moment is key to surviving Amid Evil’s hardest battles.
Amid Evil is currently in early access, with three of seven chapters available as well as a horde mode. The game is available for $ 20 on Steam. For more details, visit the sites of developer Indefatigable or publisher New Blood (also behind shooter Dusk).
