Weird West: Definitive Edition

This is both better and worse than I thought. The good: great atmosphere, multiple solutions to problems. I actually liked the diorama look of the maps (I thought I wouldn't, but the presentation matches the tone perfectly) The bad: followers are dumb as rice (and that's after they have supposedly been made a lot better ...), I was better off playing solo. Stealth is quite okay, but combat is a chaotic mess. I could live with that, but I feel all my (upgraded) weapons do way too little damage. I felt underpowered all the time. This is also one of those games that cherishes singular objects like bullets. Almost all the junk you can pick up sells for $1, and a bullet also costs $1. You can get bullets from scrapping surplus weapons, but it's a very, very cumbersome business since the enemies really take a lot of lead to go down. I wasn't happy to learn this game has random encounters (I yet have to play a game where these are fun in the long run), but they weren't really that bad here (although many of them are rather bland and boring), so that's basically a neutral. The perks were a little underwhelming as were the weapon abilities. The class abilities were mostly fun, though. Inventory management is cumbersome. All in all I liked playing Weird West, but a lot of things made me want to pull out my hair. You'll need to be able to overlook some clunkiness, balance problems and QoL horrors before you can enjoy this game.

I will eat up nearly any game that someone slaps the label of "Immersive Sim" onto and Weird West was no different. The game does offer the immersive sim experience, albeit in a bit of a odd way. The role-playing elements are toned down in favor of playing as multiple characters. The "immersive sim" systems that you interact with feel fleshed out. The controls range from functional to infuriating. A lot of reviews blow the control issues out of proportion, but to WolfEye's credit they have done a good job of updating the controls to be better since release. However, the game can't tell if I aiming at an enemy or the oil lamp above an enemies head, it's nearly impossible to spin around and hit an enemy behind you, and the game sometimes thinks I'm trying to shoot an enemies behind walls, not the ones in front of it. I commend them trying something different for the genre but I think this game makes clear why first person is preferable in games of this type. Lastly, the bugs. Not so common, but this is the first game I've had in a while completely soft-lock on me. In chapter 3, 10 hours into the game, a main quest line is unable to be completed because a door to a building full of survivors refuses to open. Looking up guides reveal I wasn't supposed to go to that area until the game told me to do so, but this being an immersive sim I wanted to go out and explore! All in all, a good take on the immersive sim genre with some wonky controls. Maybe some bad bugs, but they're still updating the game so my compliant there may be gone if you're reading this 6 months from now.

The Game is very fun, interesting, and unique. I was able to see past many of the weird bugs and flaws. Eventually I got to a point in which I couldn't progress in the main story line. There's a character you are supposed to free for information, after unlocking their cage they flee but continue to talk to you as if you have yet to free them and the story does not progress.

I played this game on the XBox Series S and while I like the concept.. it's quite immersive...there are major flaws in the control scheme and the gameplay. I played games with similar (and better designed) schemes as this game (Too Human for instance), and had no problems. But this game makes something like aiming too twitchy (and in the heat of combat, you can target your companions.) The difficulty starts reasonably well, but it almost vertically ramps up after a few locations. Random encounters on the main map can be everything from animals to bandits to other things I won't mention in order to avoid spoiling the game. They ALL move faster than you. In some fights, you can be behind a rock that you cannot shoot over yourself (even without crouching), yet the enemy can from the same level ground as you. The enemies, bar none, can dodge bullets like Neo. Even at close range, I found myself missing. Ammo is scarce, and it takes too many shots to kill common bandit enemies, much less things like bears and other violent creatures. Your main source of non-story income is a bounty. The system is flawed in that it places time limits on bounties located at places you haven't even found yet. Miss the bounty and they become enemies with a "vendetta"... meaning in other locations, they might show up randomly to do you in while you're fighting off other enemies (that works well for those you rescue, but the vendetta is annoying at best.) Money is hard to come by even stealing things. People seem REALLY aware you're in a locked room stealing gold with the door closed. Of course even in "story" mode (the game's easy mode)... none of the difficulty is reduced... you just regenerate health and AP over time. That's another aspect that is vastly out of whack too. You have too little in the heat of combat, and reloading is a chore that you can't 'pass' as an action while shooting. The game mechanics take away from an interesting story. Hard pass.