Given my avatar, I really wanted to like the game and the game get high scores on both the visual and accustic front with a fitting orchestral soundtrack and a cute narrator that leads you on your journey. There is no combat so the gameplay is relaxing although the levels can feel a bit empty. Unfortunatelly the game seems to have some sort of problem with my xbox style controller and keeps randomly ignoring my input. It just isn't much fun when you have to check whether the jump key is still working and if you need to switch from analog to digital controls multiple times during a platforming sequence.
Amid Evil does a lot of things right: it is fast without being hectic, and the graphics make it look like a 90s game while being pollished at the same time. I don't have the best sense of direction, but only got lost once. The zones look very distinct although a few cutscenes (like in Duke Nukem 3D) or some narrated text would make it feel a bit more vivid. One thing that could use a bit of tuning is the gunplay: While there are 7 weapons with alternative firemodes, the secondary mode is only available when your soul bar is fully charged and you can't change back or preserve souls onve it is activated. You only need your Axe at the start of a zone and typically want to preserve the very limited ammo for your super weapon. The Planet (Rocket) Launcher has its applications but the projectiles are slow and can hurt yourself. Your blue mana powers either a staff that fires target seeking orbs or a trident that shoots lightning at a high rof that makes enemies explode, but the damage is just too low to justify the ammo drain. With green mana you can fire slow arcs of energy with a saber or use it for the wand which is simply the best general purpose weapon: It is kind of a shotgun with increased range and rate of fire. Since it fires large shards that stick in the opponent you even get a great hit/kill verification that preserves ammo in the long run. Long story short, you are typically only using 3 weaons and either your fire and forget weapon or soul mode in tough situations.
-short -no character progress (other than additional HP and a shield) -level randomization just switches a few treasures and doors around -for combat you can either use the main char with his 1 dmg stick (and grenades) or switch to one of your friends that 1shots everything but has weird optics and fast energy drain -no skills, power ups, equipment or consumables other than HP restoration and energy restoration in stores -after beating the boss, you get informed that you need to befriend ~ 3 more chars to fight the real boss. So you end up playing different low level areas again to unlock those (a wrong dialog choice can cause you to miss out on a char on that run) but then the epic boss fight vs King Ping Pong turns out to be nothing than a lame minigame...
