Weird West legends meet eldritch horror in BLOOD WEST, an immersive stealth FPS. Become the Undead Gunslinger, doomed to roam the barren lands until he finds the means to purge their curse and free his soul. No, this isn’t your typical Wild West desperado redemption arc. This is a damnation arc....
Weird West legends meet eldritch horror in BLOOD WEST, an immersive stealth FPS. Become the Undead Gunslinger, doomed to roam the barren lands until he finds the means to purge their curse and free his soul. No, this isn’t your typical Wild West desperado redemption arc. This is a damnation arc.
The Canyons, the Swamp, and the Mountains. Each swarming with abominable monsters and unholy demons, these are open-ended worlds for you to explore freely at your own pace. It will take the player over 20 hours on average to complete all three scenarios, and over 35 if they want to see everything the barren lands have to offer.
Blood West is a stealth FPS inspired by the genre classics such as the Thief series (whose fans will be happy to hear the voice of Stephen Russell, the actor voicing the master-thief Garrett, returning here as the protagonist), S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, or - from the contemporary catalog - Hunt: Showdown. The gameplay rewards the careful approach: scouting the area, stalking your enemies, and striking from the shadows. Can you figure out a way to clear a fort full of ghouls and monsters without raising an alarm?
The Barren Lands present the player with a nightmarish, twisted vision of the Wild West legends. The curse that has befallen the realm has corrupted every living thing, defiled the land itself, while summoning restless spirits and dark entities. In this mixture of gunslinger pulp and Lovecraftian horror, dark occult magick presents just as much of a threat as sudden lead poisoning.
In Blood West you will meet many colorful, yet strangely twisted, fully-voiced NPCs. Just as much prisoners of the Barren Lands as you are, they will sometimes share their unusual stories and send you on various missions. Play nice and they might reward you or become your allies. Cross them and risk their wrath.
The game won’t hold your hand. You’ll have to explore the land for yourself (buying a map from a vendor might prove useful!), and figure out your own way to approach quests. As you poke around the three expansive maps, keep an eye out for hidden places and secret stashes. There’s gold in the mountains! Fair warning - it’s probably cursed.
If sneaking around isn’t exactly your thing, or you feel that you have a power advantage over your enemies, you can always take the head-on approach and meet your enemies guns blazing. Blood West comes from the creators of the fan-favorite boomer shooter POSTAL: Brain Damaged, so much gratuitous fantasy violence and pixelated blood splatter is to be expected!
One man’s hell might be another hoarder’s paradise! From simple one-use items like bandages, through medical tinctures, explosives and incendiaries, straight to arcane artifacts that - once slotted - can change the way you play the game, the Barren Lands are just filled with STUFF. There are tons of useful items to discover, and there’s a special player’s stash crate for all those super-rare potions that you’ll hoard and never use.
A gunslinger without a gun would be just a regular slinger. Where’s the fun in that? Blood West makes sure you’ll have plenty of weapons to choose from. Revolvers, rifles, shotguns, carabines - a great variety of firearms, from standard army-issue to those infused with powerful magic, or straight-up possessed. And if you prefer not to cause a ruckus, there’s a wide selection of hand-to-hand combat weapons and archery weapons to pick your favorites from.
The RPG-like perk-based progression system in Blood West will allow you to highly customize the gameplay experience to your liking. Become a stealthy hunter, a revolver-fanning gunman or a relentless berserker. You will gain experience and progress through the skill tree, while discovering new artifacts in each of the scenarios that will bestow on you additional abilities. Combining skills and load-out creates more possible playstyles than you’d normally be able to explore in one playthrough.
Are you ready to take back the frontier from the dark forces of demonic corruption and earn the right to move on to a better world? The Barren Lands call you, Gunslinger!
I am privileged to have experienced two GOTY contenders in the same year. The first was Baldur's Gate the Third, and the second is Blood West.
To you, whoever reads this review, and in response to your hypothetical question "Is this game for me?" I ask only one question in return as the answer.
"Do you like immersive FPS-Stealth titles, such as the legendary Deus Ex or the exemplary Dishonored?"
If your answer to the afore-questioned is yes, buy this game. If your answer is no, well, then I must exile you to the Call of Duty MP-mines for a year-half.
You will not find the same depth and intrigue here, perhaps, as in Deus Ex, but you will none-the-less find a solid game worthy of your time, and more importantly your money; that will challenge your skills and ability in much the same way.
The game does feel pretty indie/low budget (in a good/charming way), but has a great atmosphere, soundtrack and sound effects.
Plays like a simpler Thief game, with some ImSim elements, serviceable shooting and some RPG mechanics like an XP/skill system and shops.
My two main issues are that;
-The sound effects for enemies doesn't seem to take into account height, meaning you may hear something behind you that's actually on the floor above for example. I am playing on Linux so it could be Wine/Proton related, but worth noting
-Controller support looks fine at first, but the inventory management can be a PITA with the item selection being seemingly random at times. Not a deal breaker but a pain point nonetheless.
While the game is on the more pricey side, I would recommend at least trying it as it is in my opinion quite charming and really good at what it's trying to do!
I'll say it right off the bat; I love Blood West!
Blood West is reminescent of a bright, wonderful time in gaming that I miss.
Before the constant yearly sequels of games that are essentially the same game with a new coat of paint over and over again, before the broken AAA releases that require Day 1 patches to fix problems that should have been ironed out LONG before release.
The Indy gaming scene today seems to be where the most interesting titles are coming from. Not to mention, where the chances are being taken - chances that AAA companies will rarely risk due to the massive budgets their games tend to have.
Along comes Blood West; a game that graphically looks like a game that could have come out during the days of Quake 2, or Half Life 1. (Just one of its many charms, in my opinion.) The game elicits a feeling of nostalgia even though its new.
You are a Wild West Outlaw who died, and is brought back to life by strange Native spirits. They have tasked you with tracking down and destroying the source of the evil blight that has taken over the region. On your quest, you will battle innumerable horrors, and loot valuable treasures in a wild west that has become host to monsters and evil spirits.
The gameplay mixes fast paced shooting mechanics, and stealth - many have made comparisons to the legendary Thief games in regard to the stealth mechanics. (In fact, the voice actor who played Garret from Thief is voicing the hero here.)
There is an inventory system that has similarities to Diablo, your own stash, and a light RPG aspect that allows you to level up and upgrade your skills.
The game, at the beginning, is difficult, and you will die, often. But stick with it and you will be taking out monsters like a champ as you level and gain better weapons.
You will meet other living denizens of the west you will have to help out, and trade with to survive.
Blood West is one of my favorite releases of 2023, I HIGHLY recommend it.
-Would be longer limited writing space.
2023 has seen the indie shooter move from the run-and-guns we all know and love to more complex offerings; the System Shock remake, Forgive Me Father and now Blood West are showing that more open-ended games are possible on a budget. Far from becoming a poor man's Caleb, the player effectively becomes Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter, cleansing the land of evil.
The story is just as I have described it. There's nothing ground-breaking about it but then it shouldn't have to be; it serves the purpose of introducing the world and gameplay loop. Blood West takes its gameplay cues from...well, Blood. Ammo is scarce, the enemies are tough and the environment is unforgiving. Then the game throws a few immersive sim elements into the mix; a simple but effective stealth system can make the hardest kills easy when done right, charms and items looted from the dead (or purchased in shops) augment skills or prevent debilitating Curses upon death and there is an upgrade system in place that can further augment a particular playstyle. Blood West wears it's design cues on its sleeve without apology to make a fun and tense play session.
The graphical presentation is the tried-and-tested pixelated style; depending on taste this can be a mood enhancer or a game killer. During my playthrough I found that enemies were scarce on the map; while this did make encounters tense it was strange to go from place to place on the map and encounter almost no resistance. As well, enemies can be shot near their allies, die and yet no one will react because I took the shot in stealth mode. (Last time I checked a Winchester rifle is not silent.) These complaints are minor at best when compared to the the asking price and the definite care placed into making this game a standout.
This game may not be perfect but it's clear that this was made with passion on a budget. It runs without a hitch, plays as good as it looks and won't break the bank. You live again; make sure that Evil does not.
Is the boomer shooter phase finally over? I can't say, but games like Blood West and Gloomwood prove it should be. What was a interesting nostalgia driven dive back into mindless shooting and 90s graphics has became a plague of boredom while games that evolved the fps like System Shock 2 and Thief were seemingly ignored despite being exactly why we left boomer shooter games behind. It wasn't CoD that killed the boomer shooter it was genuine story telling with interesting gameplay systems and interactivity with the worlds we inhabited. Also Stephen Russell is the voice actor here. There is no reason you shouldn't be buying this game right now.
