AMID EVIL - Heretic/Hexen-inspired FPS from the creators of Return of the Triad mod

[Hobo Elf]

In this case, I think the game is better at this than most other indie games, given the fantasy theme and the budget limitation. Weapon model is pretty high-poly and detailed, and they used a modern lighting renderer. Environments looked realistic. My only complain is that the monsters sometimes looked intentionally low-poly, but there are realistic ones too.

Models? Polygons? What if I told you that they were 2D sprites.

 

[SkiNNyBane]

Dudes real talk. I know you all played every single retro fps ad nauseum but calling this game trash makes all the classics even more trash (outside of mod packs etc...). This is a significantly better experience if you dare to take of the nostalgia glasses. This is not a 2nd coming of jesus to freshen up the burnout with the genre and you are all understandably disappointed. Yeah its same old but slightly better. FFS if you woke up from medically induced coma with severe amnesia and had a chance to pick one game to play, none of you edgelords would pick quake 1. Save the prestigious virtue signaling for someone who buys it.

 

[Atlet]

Ok, I am starting this game. On Normal, but I will spike up the difficulty once I understand a bit more the mechanics and it's style.

 

[Atlet]

1. Playing this game a bit more made me realise that maybe spiking up the difficulty is not that interesting to me anymore, because it seems that amid evil is not focused that much on the difficulty of the combat challenges but on the exploration of the dungeons (finding keys, secrets, etc).

2. Since the weapons are a bit overpowered, this game will be more fun if played in the warrior mode (you only start with the axe and need to find the weapons on each level).

 

[Ghulgothas]

Expansion Incoming.

 

[lightbane]

Coolio! Should I buy this if I liked Dusk? Although the final levels of the latter were a bit tiring IMO. This is more action-focused than Hexen/Heretic though, with barely any puzzles IIRC. Is that right?

 

[El Presidente]

Coolio! Should I buy this if I liked Dusk? Although the final levels of the latter were a bit tiring IMO. This is more action-focused than Hexen/Heretic though, with barely any puzzles IIRC. Is that right?

I have the opposite question. I love Amid Evil, grabbed it because I love the Hexen games to death. Will I also enjoy their other FPSes? Which ones to grab and which ones to avoid? They have somes FPSes I've never heard about, like "MAXIMUM ACTION", do people avoid mentioning this stuff because it's bad or is it some solid hidden gem?

 

[Curratum]

No real puzzles to speak of. I like it better than Dusk. Sure, Dusk has some very original level ideas but AE is so much more varied and every new space you walk into is amazing. I like the much greater overall enemy variety as well.

 

[Curratum]

Coolio! Should I buy this if I liked Dusk? Although the final levels of the latter were a bit tiring IMO. This is more action-focused than Hexen/Heretic though, with barely any puzzles IIRC. Is that right?

I have the opposite question. I love Amid Evil, grabbed it because I love the Hexen games to death. Will I also enjoy their other FPSes? Which ones to grab and which ones to avoid? They have somes FPSes I've never heard about, like "MAXIMUM ACTION", do people avoid mentioning this stuff because it's bad or is it some solid hidden gem?

Maximum Action can be good if you REALLY like small sandboxes and endless mode. It's just a handful of short levels with mooks in them that you replay over and over, doing cool stunts and bullet-time shenanigans but that's it.

 

[Ghulgothas]

Coolio! Should I buy this if I liked Dusk? Although the final levels of the latter were a bit tiring IMO. This is more action-focused than Hexen/Heretic though, with barely any puzzles IIRC. Is that right?

Yes and Yes. DUSK still has the best atmosphere and tricks of this new wave of shooters, but Amid Evil is the most creative.

Will I also enjoy their other FPSes? Which ones to grab and which ones to avoid? They have somes FPSes I've never heard about, like "MAXIMUM ACTION", do people avoid mentioning this stuff because it's bad or is it some solid hidden gem?

Get DUSK before anything else.

 

[El Presidente]

Coolio! Should I buy this if I liked Dusk? Although the final levels of the latter were a bit tiring IMO. This is more action-focused than Hexen/Heretic though, with barely any puzzles IIRC. Is that right?

Yes and Yes. DUSK still has the best atmosphere and tricks of this new wave of shooters, but Amid Evil is the most creative.

Will I also enjoy their other FPSes? Which ones to grab and which ones to avoid? They have somes FPSes I've never heard about, like "MAXIMUM ACTION", do people avoid mentioning this stuff because it's bad or is it some solid hidden gem?

Get DUSK before anything else.

Thanks bro. Is this good too or nah?

 

[Ghulgothas]

Thanks bro. Is this good too or nah?

That ooooonnnne... I can't say, haven't touched it myself. Looks cool, but I'm waiting for it to escape early access.

 

[DalekFlay]

I played the Ultrakill demo and it's very different. Dusk and Amid Evil are retro FPS games as you'd expect, but Ultrakill felt more like a mish-mash of FPS and console style action games? I dunno, hard to remember, but there was a bunch of stuff that turned me off but would probably thrill others. Demo is probably still out there, I'd expect.

 

[Curratum]

I went through the entire EAccess content of Ultrakill.

It's good, perhaps even great, but it's not my type of game. The core mechanic, the thing that feels good about the game and is the focus of the gameplay loop, is parrying bullets and doing ground/air dashes/dodges.

There is very little level design to speak of, you're going through a series of "rooms" or arenas you get locked into until you clear the spawns in them. The enemies are fun, the dodging is fun, the parrying feels immensely rewarding when it works, but I'm just not too hot on the idea of this being the focus of the game.

The game is also pretty hard, I died multiple times on all bosses on Normal, something that doesn't happen in other shooters. Died in a few of the arenas as well. If you can get into the groove of the punch-parries and the dodging, it can be great, I think, it's just not my sort of thing.

 

[Hobo Elf]

It's good, perhaps even great, but it's not my type of game.

Played and finished the demo yesterday and that was my feelings on it too. The game is pretty amazing for what it's trying to do, it's just that what it is doing isn't necessarily what I'm looking for from my shooters. I need fun level design and immersion. This game has no level design as you're going from set piece to set piece and all enemies teleport in after you enter the arena, which makes the world feel less lived in and, as a result, less immersive. But the gameplay, the guns and the bosses themselves are really something else. Man, what a great game this would be for me if it had real levels. Ah, well. There's value in variety.

 

[Boleskine]

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/amid-evil/

AMID EVIL

Posted by Jonathan Kaharl on December 4, 2020

AMID EVIL – PC, Switch (2019)

If you’re familiar with DUSK, you should probably be familiar with the second major FPS New Blood put out. If you’re not, you should change that very quickly. AMID EVIL has a familiar foundation, but it’s a unique beast in a lot of ways. Developed by a variety of devs behind the rocky Rise of the Triad reboot, AMID EVIL is a send up to the likes of Heretic and Hexen, a fantasy themed FPS bloated with monsters and mayhem. Where DUSK benefited more from its unique level design and the little touches it put on the old Quake formula, AMID EVIL succeeds through the tightness of its combat.

The excuse plot is that you are the champion, a mighty warrior sent to free the realms from a dark corruption that has already won the day. You do this with ye old battle axes and magic staffs, among other things. Your arsenal is seven weapons, which seems low, but their specific uses more than make up for that. Your starting ax takes no mana, the game’s ammo type, while everything else is divided into four colors of mana use. The shotgun equivalents use green ammo, rapid fire weapons use blue, yellow is reserved for a rocket launcher type weapon, and purple for your magical BFG.

Your starting ax is actually a rare highly useful melee weapon, able to one hit the majority of enemies you’ll come across for the first half of the game, and it draws in enemies while in use for the chop. It speeds up fights significantly. Green mana weapons are a sword that shoots a sword beam that can hit multiple enemies and a crystal mace that can unleash a deadly swarm of magic rocks that hits harder at closer ranges. Blue mana weapons are a staff with homing shots (great for flying enemies) and a very accurate electro-trident that functions sort of like a slow fire machine gun that can make enemies gib with enough shock. The yellow mana weapon is a staff that launches exploding planets (which occasionally includes the Earth), and the purple mana one unleashes an electric ball of death after a short charge.

Further more, the game has a soul meter that fills as you collect souls of fallen enemies. When full, you can use alt-fire to unleash a super mode for your weapons, though you can also check an option to make this happen instantly when the meter fills (as it was like in early access). The ax becomes a spinning instrument of doom you can charge enemies with, the sword fires stronger beams that ricochet off walls, the mace fires homing shots with a huge damage boost, water staff gets a hard damage boost and turns enemies into water, trident becomes a thunderbolt from Quake, planet launcher fires exploding stars, and the purple mana BFG creates black holes that swallow up most everything. All these modes take more ammo (except the ax) and can turn tough situations into flashy storms of nonsense that wipe your foes from the lands.

The trade-off is that enemies are very, very dangerous. There’s a wide variety, changing up with every one of the seven episodes, and they all offer a different sort of danger to deal with. There are the less durable but vicious melee chargers that tend to shake things up with variants like the leaping ninja guys in a later episode, flyers that pelt you with fast projectiles, big guys who take more damage that dish out attacks you have to read, and surprise floaters that take damage and fire off punishing attacks you need to stay away from as soon as you see these guys spawn. There are also unique enemies to various episodes that require strategy change up, like crystal monsters that spray you with tiny crystals when you’re in their sight, or mages who are using the same weapon set as you. There are even baddies that leave a toxic effect on the ground for awhile that can damage you as you pass over.

Where the challenge comes in is that these enemies are often placed in a way where you have to deal with a wide selection of them at once, and running backwards ala Serious Sam will not cut it. You need to learn to weave through the chaos, use strafe jumps to avoid projectiles, read animations, and most importantly, dish back your own pain. While normal difficulty gives you plenty of purple mana to make these battles much easier, harder difficulties will actually speed up enemies to make them even more vicious then ever before. The bosses even stand out a great bit, each episode changing things up with a unique challenge with each end game big boy. The otherwise iffy forge episode (I hope you like waiting to avoid traps!) arguably has the most interesting fight, with a giant fire knight you have to drench to leave him vulnerable.

AMID EVIL is more than a mob shooter or a classic FPS send up, it’s a furious refinement of these old formulas. It’s not that the game innovates, but that it refines everything that was there and directs those mechanics towards a unique experience no other FPS game out there quite matches. The flow of fights and tightness of movement, animations, and the careful balancing of the weapons is masterful stuff. On a combat design level, there are few games as meticulous in their design as this one, though the long levels can occasionally downplay that. They have a habit of going on a bit longer then necessary, but outside the forge episode (I HOPE YOU LIKE WAITING TO AVOID TRAPS!), it rarely even becomes a major negative in the moment. It could simply be a bit tighter and make a more enjoyable game in the process. That might why there’s a wave mode, where you can really get a feel for how great the combat is with large mobs on sizable maps.

It also helps the game is just a treat for the eyes and ears. They made the most of the unreal engine they’re using to keep the blocky DUSK models, but also using high end textures and beautiful lighting on higher settings. It has a unique look to it partly due to these technical touches, but the art design is the real key to this, creating a ton of fantastical dungeons and dreamscapes. All sorts of colors are used in each episode, and the more samey areas still get a splash of life from the weapons and enemies on display. Special mention most be made to the sixth episode, which takes place in a starry realm of stained glass and colors, incredible wallpaper material.

The sound design gives you all the information you need, when an enemy is just damaged compared to its death sounds, and the soundtrack matches up with it great. Andrew Hulshult, who seems to be aiming to compose every modern boomer shooter ever made at this rate, handled the score and made a rich and exciting set of tunes that fit great with the fantasy epic theme. Once again, episode six is the pinnacle, starting with this beautiful piece with a slow build that reminds one of a particularly emotional fantasy metal track.

AMID EVIL is a great time and a must for FPS fans who want more from the combat than the map design. Despite all the similarities to DUSK, this is a very different beast, and a great compliment to that game. They make a great pair to show just how strong the talent working with New Blood is, and it suggests we should be excited about whatever the publisher does next. These are works of incredible passion and love for the genre, and few indie and Double-A releases quite match them.

 

[Boleskine]

 

[Israfael]

It might look beautiful to some, but to me it turns a clean-cut imagery that helps the player to see the enemy and navigate the environment into a mess of light and darkness.

 

[LESS T_T]

They also released a demo on Steam:

 

[Ghulgothas]

How about that DLC.

 

[SniperHF]

Rather enjoying the game. It's not a 10/10 effort but it's a solid romp.

Recommended if you're looking for some stuff to shoot. Don't bother playing on easy-hard, play on the "hidden" difficulty and it still doesn't get terribly challenging till the 5th episode or so.

Will say I like the weapons but I think it needs a little more variety. The Aeturnum is cool but way too easy to abuse. Should be weakened a bit and I think the game needs a second orange mana weapon.

Completely agree with the copy-pasta review above about how well the game flows.

 

[Curratum]

So happy to see people enjoying Amid Evil.

It's my favorite NB game and it never got the recognition it deserves. First Dusk was the headliner for the publisher, now it's Ultrakill.

Dusk was cool and interesting for its time as it was one of the first well-made retro revival shooters. Ultrakill is just a 20-dollar copy of Doom Eternal with meme graphics and meme weapons. I don't like it, I don't hate it either, I just feel it's the least original game NB have and it somehow got the most attention.

Not because it's the best, but because people like upvoting Dave Oshry's memes and because the publisher in general is one big meme.

Amid Evil has art direction and level design like no other fps I've ever played, and I've played everything worth spending any time with, honestly. The moment to moment action and shooting are not the best in the genre, but are good enough. When you combine this with the incredible level design and the originality of layouts, spaces and environments, you get what to me is easily NB's best published game.

Hopefully that slow-poke wanker that's working on Gloomwood can change that and snatch the laurels, but Thief With Goons will not be released in full until at least mid-2023, so honestly, it can fuck right off.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I booted this up for the first time in months, and it's even more awesome than before now. Since upgrading I get to run it at 4k 120fps with raytracing and it looks amazing. Gameplay is still great if a little simplistic and a little bit too easy.

 

[Infinitron]

AMID EVIL GETS A FULL PREQUEL EXPANSION.
SOON™

 

[Boleskine]