Hard West

Plays like a modern X-COM game, but without the conveniences. No "undo move", unclear line-of-sight, the card system doesn't really alter your play, it's not clear about what you're about to choose to do during various parts of the story, it's not even visible which tiles are actually lit and which are in shadow. But the story is interesting enough, and the gameplay is competant enough to be fun. Worth my time to play, but quite forgetable.

Not had this much wild west fun since Desperados "Wanted Dead or Alive" I like DoorKickers, Commandos, Soldiers:Heroes of WWII, because it's in real-time. ...but this is solid fun. A classic. The turn based combat is fun. Buy it now!

Pros: + somewhat fresh take on the turnbased tactical with new mechanics (no or rather very limited overwatch, risk-reward of debilitating combat injuries turning into strengthening scars over time, character building via sets of playing cards) + I like the "Weird West"-setting very much + great narrator voice + new take on storytelling with loosely but significantly interwoven episodes (a bit like some Jim Jarmusch-movies), each with roughly 5 missions + art and graphics style fit the atmosphere greatly Cons: - several scenario-breaking bugs, having no manual option to keep several saves means having to start the episode anew (most of these bugs seemingly can be avoided by completing a scenario in one sitting without exiting, which takes about 2-3 hours) - stuttering even though system should be able to handle the game effortlessly (I found a handful of different workarounds on teh web, in my case activating VSYNC and avoiding Alt-Tabbing seemed to improve things significantly) - achievements are also buggy, not always activating when they should - these issues most probably will never get addressed, since most of the development team quit the company and there have been no dev-answers on the forums for years Overall: The bugs and resulting need to complete scenarios in one go are quite annoying to me as a father of two with very limited gaming time. However, I enjoyed the game so much, that I actually did just that. A note on the difficulty: Seemingly, the lack of a proper overwatch presented a major obstacle to some people accustomed to the X-Com-mechanics. As a very methodical and careful X-Com-player, I had no problems whatsover and rather breezed thorugh most of the base game on the hardest difficulty. Positioning and flanking are key, don't let yourself be goaded into battles of attrition shooting though cover. Retreating and luring enemies into the open or teaming up to get one character into a flanking position works wonderfully most of the time.

I love this game. It's good in the way B-movies are good: the plot is nonsense, the technical side lacks polish, but I'm just having so much fun. Don't go in expecting a sprawling campaign like X-Com or a tightly designed indie gem like Into the Breach. Rather, get ready for light squad-based tactics in a trashy Weird West setting. This has all the marks of "let's make the game that we'd like to play" and, once again, I just love that.

This is what I call Linux support. This is purely technical review. I might readjust it later on based on the game experience.