Hard West

I should have liked it. I like westerns, I like fantasy, I like RPGs and I like turn based tactics. Hard West has all of those, but they are poorly done. The game mixes Western tropes with demons and cults but does little with it. Characters and story, while atmospheric at first, are forgettable and lead nowhere. Combat is extremely shallow. Hard West consist of two layers. One is choose your own adventure world map view, where you can travel to various locations like story events, side events, shops etc. This is where most of the story comes from as well as "resource management". However, it is a highly scripted affair, really easy to do well in, and choices you make don't carry much consequence. Even if some characters can get injured and die you care so little about them, due to poor story, than after a while you just tend to click on things, until you get to combat. The game is seperated into multiple chapters, which each chapter resetting your progress. As the result any "strategic" part of the game feels meaningless and I stopped caring about my inventory after 2nd chapter. Sadly, combat isn't much better either. It's an extremely shallow system, with some neat ideas which could be interesting in better hands. You can equip your characters with "ability cards". There are some powerful abilities, but only few of them, and you use the same cards in every scenario, meaning all combat feels the same, no matter where you are in the game, and whom you are fighting. The only consideration is flanking and being flanked but its extremely easy to outplay the AI, which seems to act mindlessly. There is attempt to shake things up, with unique gameplay mechanics in both worldmap and combat, but those are surface additions and don't change the gameplay in meaningful way. After and hour of playtime you will see all the game has to offer, and, after not too long, it become a chore.

It is one of the best strategic games I played in a long time. Wild West atmosphere is awesome, story is surprisingly interesting and gameplay is unforgettable. However to truly enjoy the game it is best to play it on Hard with Iron Man on. I know that it is not for anyone, but if you are looking for challenge this is the best one without felling of overwhelming (which can be very common in most of games with manually turn up difficulties). Even though the game is hard it is still pretty fair.

There no mystery story I was promised by trailer, in fact it looks like there no story at all, just some historical stuff. Tactical combat and map clicking. That's all. Story is more of historical western. So there two cons out of the box: not my setting and not my game genre. And there little annoying things you constantly get: in setup stage you have no limitation on movement, but you forced to switch between characters; when you start tactical episode you see no enemies at all, even if by story you saw them first and only then engage. Controls should be polished too.

Fantastic setting and classic cowboy revenge story with a juicy twist. Feels very much like a passion project, as the ideas are thoroughly executed and the experience is both beautiful and internally consistent, but the technical execution leaves much to be desired. What is not pretty are the actual visuals: the game looks and animates like Silent Storm with modern filters and a texture pack. The combat is like Silent Storm as well, but extremely cut down and very unbalanced (you cannot parkour, overwatch is automatic and proximity-based, some talents just break the game). The replay value is questionable because of this, as the setpieces and AI seem very rigid, and the ultra-basic gameplay does not require or allow for more tactics than "take cover and flank for instant kills". To further cement the impression of a rough draft, the game's soundtrack seems to consist of three tracks and the text has not been properly spellchecked even by version 1.5. I personally enjoy the game as a tech demo and short story. It is very basic, not very polished and relies heavily on the atmosphere and story to carry the player through. Extremely not worth the asking price of €20. I would suggest half that. I am only plaing the game because I got it for free on Christmas.

I'd just finished XCOM and felt like playing something similar. A Weird West-themed clone sounded neat to me. I got this for free last year and recall being chuffed, but somewhat wary about it. After going in knowing some of it's flaws and giving the game a reasonable trial run (5 out of 8 scenarios on Normal) I decided I'd had enough and considered requesting a refund for something I didn't even buy. Despite the crude graphics, animations and poor performance (more of the Unity engine at it's finest!) I still found the game initially engrossing. The stories to each scenario are intriguing at best and serviceable at worst. The OST and the Bastion-like narrator manages to sell the atmosphere when all else fails. People have complained about the unfair reaction shot ability enemies have (but not PCs). That sucks. So does the fact that cover reduces damage (in addition to hit %) which I found to make just about every firefight drawn-out and lacking in tension. The game as a whole is actually pretty easy. Ultimately, where I found the game to fall the most flat was a severe lack of variety combined with an underutilized setting/theme. Once you've finished the second scenario, you've seen literally all the "weird" stuff in this "Weird West" game as far as gameplay goes - which is to say, a bunch of really lame "demons" that are just the same idiotic gunslingers/bandits you fight for in rest of the game, except they have horns, red skin and higher amounts of health. They don't even have supernatural abilities like your Posse - they just take cover and make pot shots like every single other enemy. This here is no Blood (1997). There's no skeletons, wendigos, beasts from Mexican folklore and other foes you might expect in a supernatural western. Those crappy demons are your lot. There's no flying enemies, fast, resilient melee attackers, or spellcasting enemies. Just idiots with guns. Apparently the DLC adds frankensteins, but I'm guessing they are also lazy reskins.