Weird West: Definitive Edition

This is a flawed gem that I had a great time with. There are parts of it that are tedious. The reused environments, how every other cave and temple and town look exactly the same (hello Dragon Age 2). The combat is both finicky and simplistic. After a certain point, the fights became too easy even on the high difficulty settings, especially once I started hoarding the good gear in my safety deposit box and saddlebag (because those carry over from character to character). And throwing projectiles during combat is like trying to aim and throw a hyperactive squirrel with any semblance of consistency. But there are parts of it I was very much hooked into. Worldbuilding that takes the dusty wild west trope and injects it with the supernatural. The dev's efforts to include characters from all walks of life and have their background be a focal point of the story. A narrator who is straight-up fire. They had a clear vision of the aesthetic they wanted to achieve and the beats of the story they wanted to relay. A sense that these are just normal people trying to live as best as they can in a world that's confusing and hostile and just a bit *weird*. The shortcomings of the game aren't for the lack of talent and creativity, but of budget and time.

Mixing twin-stick shooter and Im-Sim sounds (to me) like a bad idea but this game manages it OK. Despite managing to get the rough shape of the game and a lot of little things right such as polish, mod support and interactivity and responsiveness of the world I still can't really get into the game. Even writing the above paragraph I remember a lot of little touches that impressed me (the rain filling up containers, the npcs reacting to my showing up on fire, etc) but I can't summon any memories of really having fun playing. Maybe it's because I'm not a twin-stick guy, but I bought this game expecting the Weird West setting and the Arx Fatalis legacy (both of which I like a lot) to keep me in anyways, guess I was wrong about that. Tl;Dr: The game works and achieves what it sets out to do but it very much is a hit or miss, I would reccomend using GOG's refund window to try it out for yourself because this one is more niche than most Im-Sim which is saying something.

The first thing that struck me when playing is how fantastic that looks. The art is undeniable and it adds a lot to the ambiance. From there, you're greeted with an interesting story which unravels as you play through "Journeys" : bite sized story averaging a few hours each not rushing. The universe is satisfying, and character progression is fast paced so it never get tedious, which is necessary due to the player "restarting from scratch" at each journey. Similarly to Dishonored, of which this game takes quite a lot from (which is to be expected knowing Wolf Eyes Studio shares much of Arkane's DNA due to being funded by Arkane's former executive producers), there are two main sources of progression, and where it gets interesting is that one source is shared accross all characters, whereas the other is not ; it's also fairly easy to get back the gear lost from a previous character, so this "restarting from scratch" is far from being a totally adequate description. With fantastic art, an interesting & unique universe and a great story, it could have been a home run, but the game is unfortunately let down by its combat, which unfortunately constitutes a big part of it. There are literally two way to approach encounters : Stealth or Combat. Stealth is serviceable but with no real way of one shotting enemies unless knocking them down, it gets old real fast. Combat doesn't fare that much better unfortunately. It's fast paced enough, so will usually be chosen as the fastest way to get things done, but the fact it is real time really does it disfavour. Most of the combat skills you acquire needs Action Point, which are hard to get & deplete fast so most of your skills are useless, and you may well finish a journey without using one you acquired. Eventually, it's just aim & shoot, with no real planning. A turn based combat ala Fallout/Wasteland would have gone a long way to improve that while making those skills shine. That being said, it's still a pleasure to play.

TLDR: Could be better in every category, doesn't feel like an RPG, doesn't feel like a stealth game, doesn't feel like a twin stick shooter, doesn't feel like much of anything, really. Get it if on sale and out of every other game of its ilk. Worse than mediocre. Feels like a sales pitch. If I had to use one word to describe Weird West: superfluous. Everything is surface level. - Money has no point to being in the game beyond buying your horse. - Bounties are useless as they reward money. - Crafting useless see next point. - Only shops have Legendary gear (can't craft Legendary) and all you need is a rope to rob them. - Every location is a copy paste of another location, copious amounts of copy paste for the entire game. - Quality greatly diminishes after the first chapter where you play as Jane. - Stealth is inconsistent even with a knockout bow. The save game feature; saving and then reloading randomizes ai pathing and can put the player out of the map until reloading an autosave (if you quick save near a wall). Enemies notice bodies if they are in LOS even contradicting the tall grass tutorial. - Environmental interactions consist of: fire, oil, and water barrels, and fire traps. Things I DID like: - Bodies tossed in water will die. - Being allowed to loiter since using a bed at an inn is pointless and free. - Graphics & sound. Overall, I just didn't enjoy this game. The developer says you can beat it without killing, but then the design of the game shows that this idea wasn't fully developed or adhered to. Vendetta's from previous characters are Wanted DEAD only, not alive. Some enemies cannot be knocked out in stealth, i.e., chapter 2 end boss (Ruth). These inconsistencies are throughout the game. Big part of me is struggling to not refund the game, I love GOG, but I don't like this game at all. Rather, I hate it with a real passion 90% of the time, only when the stealth works and the game doesn't soft lock me, do I tend to enjoy it, which is rare.

This is one of those games that gets you (or at least me!) really interested in what's going on and what is the world like, but.. really indifferent to exploring it. It's mechanically not so good, the content outside the main quest is for the major part not good or interesting, and stuff in the main quest is repetitive and kinda boring. Also, for an immersive sim the quest strings break pretty easily in very nonsensical ways. The story and the world is intriguing and innovative. If you don't mind that actually playing it is pretty clunky and that the controls take a bit to get used to (I used keyboard + mouse, it's actually fine when you get a hold of it), it's.. pretty fun. Definitely doesn't sound like 4/5 stars review, does it? Well.. I agree. But the concept deserves better than 3/5, so there you go. Wouldn't get it at full price, though.