Amid Evil + The Black Labyrinth Review

As nostalgia for ‘90s shooters reaches its zenith, one publisher has been at the forefront of the boomer shooter resurgence: New Blood Interactive. Three of their published games, bundled together on Steam as the New Blood FPS Trilogy, represent some of the most iconic faces of the modern boomer shooter. 2018’s Dusk, which I’ve already covered, reinvigorates the classic Quake structure with ingenious creativity to remind the world what was so great about boomer shooters in the first place. Ultrakill, which I plan to cover once it’s finally out of early access, innovates beyond the boomer shooter so effectively that it’s already inspiring lots of new releases before it’s even really done. Finally, 2019’s Amid Evil nods back to Heretic and Hexen as a medieval boomer shooter with magical weapons and worlds.

On the surface, Amid Evil isn’t quite as impressive as the genre titans it gets lumped in with. Whereas Dusk and Ultrakill show how much untapped potential remains in this subgenre, Amid Evil seems content to stay in its comfort zone. Boomer shooter fans will find it familiar, and new players will get a good sense for what to expect from the genre with this game. The game even opens by saying you’ve been recruited to destroy “the Evil,” which is about as boomer-shooter-simple as it gets. I’ve always enjoyed Amid Evil just fine, but I couldn’t match the enthusiasm some fans have for it. However, upon recently revisiting the game and trying its 2023 expansion, The Black Labyrinth for the first time, I’ve gained a certain respect for just how solid this game is at its core.

Amid Evil’s strong fundamentals are never more obvious than with its weapons. On the surface, the arsenal consists of magical-themed proxies for the standard Doom II-style weapons, but in practice, there’s a good bit more nuance to how you use them. Even your starting melee weapon, the Axe of the Black Labyrinth, proves useful throughout the game, evoking Hexen’s melee emphasis. Though the lightning-launching Voltride seems to fill your standard full-auto niche, its ability to cast chain lightning between crowds of weak foes by “overkilling” an enemy makes it feel unique and satisfying. Where most shotgun-type weapons exist to get eclipsed by super shotgun-type weapons, the Whisper’s Edge’s ability to pierce groups of enemies with the edges of its sword beams give it a niche even compared to the Star of Torment’s devastating hail of shards. The enemies, unique to each of the game’s seven worlds, play into this even further. Some enemies are weak to certain weapons or vice versa, and others have unique interactions with your weapons like reflecting your projectiles with a shield or turning into stronger enemies if they’re set on fire. The worst boomer shooters find themselves getting stale, and Amid Evil wards this off quite well.

Much of the arsenal’s satisfaction comes from the presentation, as well. “Overkilling” enemies results in especially gory deaths like pinning foes to the walls with the Star of Torment’s shards. Even though the Celestial Claw is essentially just a rocket launcher in function - which is good, because the boomer shooter rocket launcher is a sacred tenet which should not be infringed upon - the fact that it fires entire planets at enemies sure makes it feel unique. I kind of feel bad about doing that, especially since there’s a small chance that the planet you pull with it is Earth. All of this gets cranked up to eleven when you collect enough souls to activate Soul Mode, a state which boosts your weapons akin to Heretic’s Tome of Power. If you thought firing planets at enemies was excessive, how about firing SUNS? The Voltride fires a continuous lightning beam in soul mode, carrying on the Quake Lightning Gun’s legacy in admirable fashion and making it even easier to overload foes. Finally, the Aeternum, your mystical equivalent to the screen-clearing BFG, will switch from casting energy at crowds to firing a black hole, sucking in even the toughest foes you face. It’s important for weapons to feel good to shoot in these games, and Amid Evil certainly clears that bar.

Amid Evil’s sense of style thoroughly extends to its world design. It has an artstyle which I can’t quite say I’ve seen anywhere else. Its levels have Quake-style low-poly environments and low-res textures, but the lighting system is extremely sophisticated. The game even supports raytracing! Your weapons also animate like 2D images, very much in the style of classic Doom or Heretic, but I’m pretty sure they’re all 3D models since they’re affected by the environmental lighting. It’s sort of like combining the way you remember classic games with certain modern trappings. Like Dusk, the atmosphere is complemented by a solid soundtrack from boomer shooter darling Andrew Hulshult. His work on this game is more ambient than usual, evoking much of his music for Quake Champions, but it ramps up and excites when it needs to.

Amid Evil tours seven different realms, each with their own unique architecture and enemies. Worlds range from mountain castles and citadels to monolithic forges to trippy voids in space, all vaguely united under a medieval aesthetic sensibility. Messages on the wall and a lore codex accessible through the pause menu flesh the areas out, showing how the Evil wormed its way into these ancient realms. Though the Evil is largely depicted as a sort of corrupting influence, the context of each world makes it clear that these worlds fell only to themselves. The Lunar and Solar Solstices were corrupted by tribalism against each other, the Sentinels’ obsession with perfection rotted them from the inside, and the Mages of the Arcland Expanse broke the world apart with overzealous magical experiments, for instance. It’s not particularly fleshed-out, but I appreciated the attempt at something more subtle and metaphorical.

The visual variety is nice, and that extends to the way you play through these levels as well. The map design has good momentum and is rarely confusing, but there’s still plenty of secrets to hunt down to give yourself the edge. Since the game is broken up into so many different worlds, you frequently have your arsenal reset, which gives the whole loadout some more value. Boomer shooter vets will also enjoy the “Champion Mode” where you begin each level with only your axe. Overall, barring some late-game exceptions, the level design is where the game feels the most like standard boomer shooter fare. The first world in particular is a little too easy, and the whole game provides you with a lot more mana and health than you really need even on the hidden Evil difficulty. Evil is really not that evil, and it’s probably only hidden as a reference to how Quake hid its nightmare difficulty. Movement is pretty basic, too; you have your obligatory rocket jumping (planet jumping?), but there’s no strafe-jumping, sliding, or the like.

In short, Amid Evil plays the boomer shooter straight with smart execution and satisfying weapons, even if its approach is a little too safe. Its presentation helps it stand out, but it doesn’t really have the spice and cleverness that something like Dusk has and it’s certainly not as creative as Ultrakill. Should I ask for more? I’d quite like to; the game is right on the edge of being something genuinely impressive. Well, in 2023, The Black Labyrinth DLC arrived to give Amid Evil a little push and show off the best that it has to offer.

A prequel to Amid Evil, The Black Labyrinth depicts the Champion’s quest through the titular labyrinth to earn its coveted Axe. Of course, this means you’ll need a different melee weapon; ironically, the Gauntlets of the Platinum Star are not only cooler than the Axe, but integrated into the level design significantly more. There are a ton of surfaces and switches that can only be activated with a firm punch, launching huge blocks or yourself across the level. The Black Labyrinth’s levels aren’t nearly as generous with mana as the main game, too. There’s also these annoying shield-bearing enemies that show up about halfway through who can reflect your shots, but can’t do much about getting punched in the gut. All of this already means you’ll want to throw hands with enemies more often, but the Gauntlets just look cooler even in a vacuum. Observe:

Using Soul Mode even lets you rapidly punch like it’s Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, but I won’t include a video here since it’s honestly pretty disorienting.

As you beat your foes to death with your own two fists, you’ll likely notice that The Black Labyrinth feels more brutal than the base game. Throughout nine levels with eleven new foes and two new bosses, the titular Black Labyrinth earns its reputation as a challenge which has stood uncleared for generations. War horns blare in a new collection of epic anthems from Hulshult as you descend from challenge to challenge; his final boss theme for this DLC is so good, he made it the first track on the soundtrack album. A strange spirit watches over your progress every now and again, voiced by Stephan Weyte of Blood fame. The levels are all visually standout, fun, and just that little bit sharper than before. The Black Labyrinth is about twice as long as Amid Evil’s original brief worlds, which is great because this is definitely Amid Evil at its best.

Aside from the Gauntlets, The Black Labyrinth only includes one new weapon. Amid Evil’s arsenal was always its strongest point, so I don’t really mind this. The Voidsplitter is a space-rending scythe which can reap even the largest groups of enemies in a brutal slice, replacing the Aeternum. Activate Soul Mode to straight-up wipe your foes out of existence. I think it says something that you can replace the base game’s weapons with their Black Labyrinth equivalents when you play it, but not vice-versa. Black Labyrinth’s unique enemies fill the base game’s familiar archetypes, but this episode’s increased enemy variety makes it much more consistently challenging throughout. You’ll be giving everything at your disposal a workout, and the aforementioned decrease in mana pickups forces you to think more about how you shoot in a good way. It’s all so intense and solid that, when you beat the expansion and it loads right into the base game, it feels like crazy buildup for that easy first world.

Simply put, The Black Labyrinth is Amid Evil with that extra edge I wanted it to have. The base game was already solid, but this DLC highlights all of the game’s best elements and makes it clear why this game sits at the same table as Dusk. It’s not groundbreaking or genre-defining, but it’s just damn solid. I’ve played lots of games that were fine, but didn’t come together in one way or another. Hell, I just reviewed one. To say nothing of all the games I’ve played that were simply bad, you do gain an appreciation for something that nails the basics when you’ve waded through so much of the middle ground. Amid Evil gets props for simply feeling the way a game like this should, even hitting occasional highs where it stands out as uniquely worthwhile. If you like boomer shooters, you’ll like Amid Evil, and if you think you might like boomer shooters, Amid Evil’s not a bad place to find out.