Weird West kept the chaos coming with weapon-specific abilities and passive perks to help me build Jane into the killing machine of my choice. These, on top of a spread of elemental explosives and throwables, opened the door to a host of combat options. Jane’s signature revolver is joined by a selection of other choice weapons: a melee tool, shotgun, rifle, and a bow. A combination of environmental hazards, scattered consumables, and my personal combat capabilities informed every approach. Weird West let me find my own way forward and deal with those consequences as they come. Using the environment against enemies or even taking a stealthier approach could be the key to coming out unscathed, though rarely does any plan go off without a hitch. Gunfights never last too long, but they’re risky and costly. Resources are scarce out on the frontier, especially ammo and consumables. That didn’t stop at the reputation system either. The potential repercussions raced through my mind each and every time I thought to pull the trigger. Positive and negative reputations affect Jane’s relationships with the world and its many inhabitants robbing the townsfolk of their valuables and their lives is not a good look, to say the least. Every significant action, whether I saved someone’s life, took it, or turned it around, added or subtracted from the counter. One of the few things that stayed our hands was Weird West’s reputation system, which presents the product of hundreds of nuanced decisions as a number value. Person, animal, monster-no one was safe from a lethal lead injection courtesy of me and my trigger-happy posse. What I experienced on my way to retrieve my MacGuffin husband got me hopelessly excited for the four future character stories to come, all undoubtedly filled with dead loved ones and revenge-fueled murder sprees. That journey lasted roughly four hours-it would have certainly been more had I stopped to do the rest of the side content. With my husband kidnapped and my son lying face down in a pool of his own blood, the only logical course of action was to shake the dirt out of my crusty six-shooter and hit the open trail. I spent my time trekking across the fantasy frontier as Jane Bell, one of five playable characters. On my way to the next bloodba-I mean, adventure. Every design decision is well considered and every system contributes to a cohesive whole worth more than the sum of its parts. Instead of vomiting text to satisfy lore-hungry players, the game kept conversations succinct and only ever fed me the necessary details - for example. Everything is implemented with a shocking amount of restraint. Despite this, Weird West is not a flashy game. Throw in an excellent soundtrack and the resulting aesthetics are unrivaled. The art draws influence from the aesthetics of western comics, from its bold lines to its aggressive colors-something that bleeds into its menus that are just oozing with this signature style. The world of Weird West is vibrant in both senses of the word its striking visuals and the myriad interactions to be had within it never cease to impress. There were so many choices to make and resulting predicaments to shoot my way out of. In the few hours I had to acquaint myself with the game and its many systems, I was only able to scratch the surface of what’s possible in this Wild West fantasy. Unsurprisingly, this fledgling indie studio is a few dollars, and developers, shy of being able to produce a Dishonored of their own-though unsurprisingly again, Weird West’s excellent design pushes it straight up my list of most anticipated games for 2022. WolfEye Studios is no stranger to the immersion sim the company is filled with ex-Arkane employees that lent their expertise and obvious passion for the genre to Weird West.
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