AMID EVIL VR: The Wicked Good Review
AMID EVIL VR is one of the many great “boomer shooters” published by New Blood Interactive, best known currently for the game ULTRAKILL. I had a lot of fun first opening the game and finding a massive hub world with difficulty select and episode select, all being an explorable area. You can even see me fail a short jump while trying to select the medium difficulty. After falling, the game teased me, which made me think that maybe game journalists really are bad at video games.
I really took my time indulging in this game and had to take it a few hours at a time. This VR port of the 3d shooter of the same name had me getting motion sick at times after moving so fast. However the many accessible comfort settings helped me ease that feeling. As for combat, there’s a ton of weapons I found really fun. My favorite being this orb on a stick which you can launch into grenades. The bosses also felt really epic, and unique, bringing a different challenge with each one.
As for how I enjoyed this game, let’s start with…
The Good:
As I launched the game in Steam VR I was met with an interesting hub world to select difficulty and episodes like I mentioned before. The landscapes for this area were beautiful, with sandstone rich environments that expanded as you cleared different episodes. Each episode was unique in appearance ranging from dungeons, magical castles, all the way to fiery landscapes.
Finishing each level rewards you with a score based on your time, kills, any secrets found, items collected, etc. It will even award you with some medals, one of which I found was the speedrun medal for completing a level in a very fast amount of time. If you ever want to feel like a powerhouse, the cheat menu is really simple to access and use. Perfect for those who have cleared a level before and just want to mess around. It contains the usual godmode, all items, and kill enemies cheats that you would expect from a classic DOOM inspired shooter. Each level has some lore you can find with text that translates from runes automatically when you approach them.
The game also has a codex menu to deepen your understanding of the world as well as the items, weapons, and enemies you’ve encountered thus far. Boss fights are very aesthetically pleasing, with big arenas, and a variety of movesets each giant sized boss has at their disposal. There’s a myriad of weapons to choose from, from cannons that blast everything in front of you, to a stick that launches orb shaped grenades, and the standard wand and axe. Everyone will find a weapon they love in this game. The VR shortcuts work well when holding down the button to switch weapons, and even includes a quick save option under the weapon wheel.
The Bad:
As the VR guy in the Wicked Good Gaming community, I play a lot of VR games like Pavlov or VRChat which usually don’t need as many comfort options as the movement is much slower. As such, any rapid movements and jumps required in a boomer shooter, can be pretty hard to not get motion sick with in VR. Thankfully the game does have a ton of comfort options to mitigate this, but I ended up spending a lot of time in them to try and make the game as friendly as possible to my vertigo affected brain.
In a game with levels as big as AMID EVIL, sometimes you can get lost with so many different paths in some levels. When you include backtracking after getting that item you need to open the next door, it can make finding the next exit a little difficult. However, this may just be due to my terrible sense of direction in video games comparable to the constantly lost pirate hunter, Zoro from One Piece.
The Verdict:
Overall, there’s much to love about this VR shooter with its bosses, secrets, and multiple worlds to explore.
I give AMID EVIL VR: 4.5 out of 5 Index Controllers
