Eville (Xbox One) Review

Step into the whimsically wonderful, colorful world of Eville in this medieval whodunnit from Vest Games. Use your powers of deduction and investegitive skills to nail the culprit, or sneak under the cover of darkness to kill innocent villagers.

Eville – Graphics

The visual beauty of Eville is what first struck us. The cartoon style perfectly compliments the sleepy 11th century village in which the game takes place. Perfectly contrasting colors are used, especially inside buildings and the vivid hues make Eville very easy on the eye. However, as a current generation game, it somewhat falls short of the mark and is marred by a few graphical issues – such as textures rendering in view and animations that make you feel like you’re controlling a concrete refrigerator, as opposed to a spritely goblin or the like.

With that being said, the game is still in its infancy and there’s ample time for Vest Games to step in and rectify these trivial, but somewhat off-putting hiccups.

Eville – Premise and Gameplay

While the game is said to be inspired by the Kickstarter success story, Werewolves Card game, we couldn’t help but find it reminiscent of the classical browser game, Town of Salem. Players use the daytime to set up traps, cast protective spells and trade with the vendor for a whole manner of useful items. Then, when the night falls, all but one of you (the killer) go to the Land of Nod and either sleep until the morning, or be slain brutally as you slumber. Then, as the sun rises and the bell tolls to inform the townspeople of a murder and you all congregate in the courtyard to point accusatory fingers and/or deny your innocence.

Eville does however come out on top where Town of Salem is concerned, in that its far deeper with the many buffers and character traits each role offers. Aside from this, unlike Town of Salem, Eville does feature some quests to keep you busy while the sun shines down. Admittedly, these rarely go beyond the age-old ‘fetch’ quests we so often see in the early stages of role-playing games, but they’re there nonetheless and do help to break the game down a little a bring a dash of variety to what could otherwise be a monotonous game.

Eville has no Voice Chat

While this is no major issue when playing the game on the likes of Steam, it can prove extremely irksome when, like us, you’re playing on a console. Eville is all about arguing your points and convincing others that you’re telling the truth – even when you’re not. By the time you have opened up the console’s text box and typed in what you want to say using the awkward input, you have missed your moment.

The lack of voice chat is also a huge hindrance on both console and PC for another mutual reason. With text messages, there’s no way to put any real conviction into what you’re saying. Pleading your innocence in typed sentences (that take way too long to do on a console) simply doesn’t work in the way a voice chat would. Tones and vocal nuances simply can’t be picked up by typed words. It’s a crying shame that Vest Games haven’t yet implemented such a feature. Especially for the type of game it is.

Summary

On paper, Eville seems like a surefire winner. The premise makes for some great gaming, while the graphics draw you into the world. The side quests offer a little variety, while the voice acting is at an AAA game standard. However, all of this is rendered as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike by the lack of voice-to-voice communications. We wait with bated breath for such an update.