AMID EVIL

For years, the first-person shooter genre was trapped in a self-inflicted cycle of military realism and “brown-and-gray” aesthetic monotony. Then came the “boomer shooter” renaissance, a movement led by publishers like New Blood Interactive that looked back at the mid-90s not with nostalgia, but with a clinical eye for what made that era’s level design so visceral. AMID EVIL ranks among the movement’s most visually ambitious and mechanically sound offerings, thanks to its fully 3D low-poly worlds and projectile-driven combat.

Positioned as the spiritual successor to Raven Software’s Heretic and Hexen, AMID EVIL swaps out the standard-issue shotguns and assault rifles for a collection of arcane artifacts designed to feel more dangerous than any lead-spitter. You play as “the Champion,” a lone warrior tasked with purging the “Evil” from seven distinct realms. It’s a thin narrative wrapper, but in a game where the environment tells the story through sheer scale and architectural audacity, it’s all the motivation needed.

Developed by Indefatigable (under the New Blood banner), the game leverages Unreal Engine 4 to do something remarkable: it creates a world that looks like a high-definition dream of a 1994 hardware accelerated title. It avoids the trap of being a mere “clone.” While many retro-inspired titles lean heavily on 2D sprites, AMID EVIL embraces a low-poly, fully 3D aesthetic that allows for levels of verticality and environmental complexity that the original id Tech or Build engines could only dream of. It’s a project that honors its ancestors while ruthlessly cutting out the friction that made those older titles a chore for modern sensibilities.

• The Seven Realms: Seven distinct episodes, each with a completely unique visual theme—from the flooded cities of the Sacred Path to the reality-warping geometry of The Void.
• Arcane Arsenal: Seven magical weapons that use mana as ammunition, ranging from a staff that launches miniature planets to an axe that feeds on the souls of the fallen.
• Soul Charge System: A core mechanic where collecting “souls” from defeated enemies allows triggering an “overdrive” mode, transforming every weapon into a temporary tool of god-like destruction.
• Modern-Retro Hybrid Engine: Built on Unreal Engine 4, the game features modern lighting, reflections, and physics while maintaining a crisp, low-poly aesthetic.

The brilliance of AMID EVIL lies in its combat geometry. Modern shooters often rely on hit-scan weapons—you click, the bullet hits instantly, and the math is done. AMID EVIL rejects this. Almost every weapon in the arsenal is projectile-based. This creates a rhythmic, dance-like flow to every encounter. Every encounter becomes about managing the physical space between the player and a charging horde of crystalline knights, as much as health and ammo.

The Power of the Arcane Loop

The weapons are the stars of the show. The Staff of the Azure Orb looks like a basic pea-shooter, but its projectiles have a slight tracking property that makes clearing lower-tier mobs feel effortless. But the real ingenuity shows in the Star of Torment, a weapon that fires massive spikes to pin enemies to walls, or the Celestial Claw, which literally plucks miniature planets from the cosmos and hurls them at foes.

The Soul Charge mechanic adds a layer of strategic depth that prevents the gameplay from becoming a mindless click-fest. When the meter fills, there’s a choice: trigger it now to clear a difficult room, or save it for the inevitable boss fight? When active, the Axe of the Black Labyrinth turns from a melee tool into a whirlwind of death, and the Volatile Scepter transforms into a beam of pure, concentrated energy. It’s a feedback loop that rewards aggressive play without being punishing.

Architectural Ambition

Level design in AMID EVIL is genuinely impressive. Most modern shooters guide players through corridors with an invisible hand. Here, the levels are massive, sprawling puzzles of stone and magic. One moment the player is navigating the sun-drenched ruins of a forgotten civilization, and the next, falling through the “Solar Solstice,” a level that challenges any understanding of up and down. The onboarding friction is surprisingly low for a game with such complex layouts; the developers have a keen sense of “visual breadcrumbing,” using light and architectural cues to lead players toward their goal without ever feeling like they’re holding their hand.

Enemy Agency and AI

The AI isn’t revolutionary, but it is persistent. Enemies in AMID EVIL don’t just stand behind crates waiting to be shot. They flank, they leap from heights, and they force use of the entire arena. The difficulty curve is generally smooth, though certain realms—specifically the underwater-themed Sacred Path—introduce spikes that might frustrate those used to more forgiving modern checkpoints. The satisfaction of mastering a difficult room through pure movement and weapon switching is a high few other games in the genre provide.

Visually, the game is a triumph of art direction over raw pixel count. By using a low-poly aesthetic but saturating it with modern lighting and high-quality shaders, AMID EVIL creates a look that is both nostalgic and strikingly current. The reflections on the floors of the Astral Equinox and the way light bleeds through the stained glass of the Gothic realm are stunning.

A 2D-adjacent game of this scope is light on hardware, and the low-poly design is well suited to sustaining high frame rates even when the screen fills with soul-charge effects, mana explosions, and gibbed enemy parts—a sensible match for a game that demands high-precision movement and twitch reactions. The soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult deserves its own accolade; it’s a brooding, heavy-metal-infused synth score that perfectly mirrors the game’s shift from ancient mysticism to cosmic horror.

On Steam, the game is at home. The precision of a mouse and keyboard is almost mandatory for the later levels, where “strafe-jumping” and mid-air target acquisition become vital for survival. The game’s aesthetic is built to scale well to smaller screens, though the inherent limitations of analog sticks for high-speed tracking make a traditional setup the safer bet.

AMID EVIL refines a genre that many thought had reached its peak decades ago. It proves there is still real room for innovation in the “keys and doors” shooter format. By focusing on kinetic movement, imaginative weaponry, and excellent level design, Indefatigable has delivered a title that stands comfortably alongside the classics it seeks to emulate. We recommend it to anyone who values gameplay depth and visual identity over the bloated, hand-holding experiences of the AAA space—just be ready for a few rough edges along the way.