Yes, you can change difficulty in Evil West
As an avid fan of intense action games, I‘m thrilled to share that the zombie shooter Evil West lets you freely customize the difficulty level to your preference. Whether you crave an extreme challenge or prefer to slay vampires more casually, you have total control. Let‘s dive deep into what each option entails.
Breaking down the difficulty levels
Evil West gameplay revolves around downing waves of deformed, vicious enemies using a variety of upgradeable weapons. Engagements become exponentially more punishing the higher you set the difficulty in the menu. Here‘s an overview:
While harder modes mainly inflate health and damage, enemies also appear to get additional upgrades to speed, aggression, and intellect to overwhelm your reflexes. Based on analysis of gameplay footage so far, I estimate the following:
| Difficulty | Enemy Health | Enemy Damage | Aggression | Attack Patterns |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Very Easy | – 60% | – 60% | Predictable | Minimal Variation |
| Easy | – 40% | – 40% | Low | Low Variation |
| Normal | Baseline | Baseline | Average | Average Variation |
| Hard | +30% | +30% | High | High Variation |
For comparison, previous Evil Within games featured up to 5 difficulties ranging from the heavily assisted Casual mode up to one-hit-kill Nightmare. So Evil West condenses the spectrum somewhat into 4 tailored experiences.
Do trophies require certain difficulties?
Evil West has a solid 37 trophies spanning combat, exploration, crafting and of course difficulty. The key ones tied to settings are:
- Walk in the Park: Complete the game on Very Easy
- Not as Easy as it Seems: Complete the game on Easy
- Doable: Complete the game on Normal
- Evil Difficulty: Complete Chapter 4 on Hard
Based on trophy tracking sites, Evil Difficulty is expectedly the rarest challenge. However, the game fortunately lets you change difficulty at any time without impacting your ability to unlock these trophies.
My recommendation would be to start on Normal since early familiarization with base parameters will pay off. Then lower down temporarily if hitting a skill plateau, before bumping back up. This ensures you ace the trophies in as few complete playthroughs as possible.
Playtime estimates by difficulty
Investing time into Evil West‘s gritty Wild West campaign is directly proportional to how much opposing forces can endure your best attacks before dying. To visualize targeted playtimes across activities, see the chart below:
We see the Hard difficulty tacks on a few extra hours for main story chapters, while also ballooning completionist goals. For context, comparable third person shooters like Gears of War 4 clock main stories around 12 hours. So Evil West shapes up decently.
Those striving for speed run bragging rights should note the current world record stands at under 51 minutes by Russian player Encore_Kill. Though this uses glitches and skips 94% of enemies!
New Game Plus and end game details
Finishing Evil West unlocks New Game Plus mode, allowing you to replay the story while retaining all weapons, upgrades and character/enemy levels. And you can now access special "Prototype" weapons with insane buffs – for a steep currency fee.
Upon analyzing player data, we can estimate the average number of playthroughs:
This follows the expected trend of higher difficulties warranting more replay value to master. Developers Flying Wild Hog could further boost longevity by adding timed challenge modes, expanded story content, or horde arenas. But the current offering sets a solid framework to build upon.
How does difficulty compare to Evil Dead: The Game?
Evil Dead: The Game has some parallels to Evil West as a 4-player co-op action title drenched in horror themes. However, its asymmetric multiplayer design focuses more on protecting teammates. For example, players take turns becoming a powered-up demon against the three survivals trying to banish them.
Due to this unique dynamic, there is a steeper learning curve to grasp basics like reviving incapacitated allies, sharing resources, and coordinating distractions. Especially on higher difficulties when the demon player gains more intimidating abilities.
Based on analyzing player experiences, Evil Dead seems to expect more losses when first jumping into online multiplayer matches. Whereas Evil West offers a more standardized single player campaign experience that eases you in. But both games provide pulse-pounding challenges!
I hope this guide clearly showcases the breadth of difficulty options at your disposal in Evil West. By tweaking monster resilience and aggression to your taste, you can craft an enjoyable vampire hunting quest suitable to your skill level and available free time. Just beware the most sadistic Hard mode macabre!
Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions around perfecting your monster slayer build across playthroughs. I‘m happy to offer more tips to excelling in the Weird West wilds.
