EvilVEvil, from developer Toadman Interactive, is a fast-paced, co-op, first-person shooter. It promises unique playable vampires with their own playstyle and abilities, strong progression and customization and some serious weapons and modifications to cater to your preferred method of hunting.
Leading up to the Closed Beta release (March 01, 2024), we had the opportunity to test out an early build of EvilVEvil. After hacking, slashing and shooting our way through countless hordes of cultists and otherworldly creatures, there’s a lot to unpack in this fast-paced shooter.
For the EvilVEvil playtest, we were treated to a mix of early and mid-tier missions, all driving a dark and mysterious narrative forward. While story beats will be avoided for the sake of spoilers, story delivery was a well-presented affair, with most narrative beats being delivered via voice-over in-game. This helped keep the pacing quick while still delivering important narrative exposition.
Mechanically, the game performs exceptionally well. As promised, EvilVEvil is an incredibly quick-moving game. With a variety of guns to unlock and choose from, you’ll have no problem finding weapons that suit your playstyle. As for gunplay, it’s quick, responsive and feels great. As a vampire, you can jump exceptionally high and hover for a few seconds. In practice, this gives you a vertical advantage that can be prolonged while looking down at the sight of your gun once again, offering a unique option for engaging enemies.
“…EvilVEvil is an incredibly quick-moving game. With a variety of guns to unlock and choose from you’ll have no problem finding weapons to suit your playstyle.”
While movement and combat feel great it would be nice to see a couple of features added in future updates. For starters, there is no way to grapple a ledge and pull yourself up, something that would make a lot of sense for fast-paced movement. It would also be great to have some type of slide ability to add to the arsenal of movement options. These could add another dimension to navigating the world and engaging enemies.
For this playthrough, I opted for the Assassin class and was treated to some fun and fast abilities to complement the gunplay. My ‘Q’ ability had the character dash through enemies in a straight line, slashing with swords, instantly killing all but the most resilient enemy. The ‘E’ ability sent forth a wraith-like version of the character, quickly slashing through several enemies in view. The ‘Shift’ ability saw my character pounce on an enemy caught in my cross hair, instantly feeding on them to regain health.
These abilities are a core mechanic of the combat experience and add a layer of speed, mobility and fun to the overall experience, offering variety to the standard shooter mechanics. Both guns and abilities can be levelled up and upgraded thanks to unlockable modifications earned through gameplay. This reinforces the customization and progression of your character, making every playthrough feel meaningful. Over the long term, these systems should help promote replayability.
For those wondering, EvilVEvil supports up to three-player co-ops, and it’s a lot of fun. In fact, after playing both single and co-op, the latter is by far my preferred way to play. Toadman Interactive has done a great job at implementing co-op with easy lobby inviting, built-in voice chat and character classes that complement each other nicely. It’s impressive, considering the early build state.
World and level design are a bit of a mixed bag at the moment. The world itself draws a lot of inspiration from titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Borderlands which for the most part works. The level layout itself is fairly creative if not a little linear. The use of vertical space does help break up otherwise straight line runs through each mission making each one feel unique in layout.
This linear experience is further exasperated by mission objectives that simply move you to the next area without ever spending any real time exploring the environment. On the topic of objectives, at the moment they feel a bit basic with the standard get from A to B, hold location and destroy the thing being about as varied as it gets. With only limited exposure to the missions, I hope that we will see some more creative options moving forward.
“As EvilVEvil continues development there is an opportunity to fine-tune the design.”
While each level does have its own theme and aesthetic, nothing in the current tile sets helps them feel unique. It’s not that the tile sets are bad, EvilVEvil looks visually solid, it’s simply that nothing makes the setting and world stand out from other shooters. As EvilVEvil continues development, there is an opportunity to fine-tune the design.
The final note from the playtest that could use some more refining is the enemy AI. At the moment, the AI feels a little clunky. While I do appreciate the power fantasy of playing a Vampire hunting evil, the AI detracts by not offering a challenge. Often they were slow to engage, would offer little by way of unique encounters and didn’t offer a lot of variety in character models.
Thankfully, EvilVEvil is still in active development, and these critiques are things that can easily be remedied. Overall, while still sanding out some rough spots, EvilVEvil is full of potential and offers a solid gameplay loop for FPS players looking for some light RPG progression systems.
