Blood West is an immersive stealth shooter taking place in a nightmare version of a classic wild west setting. The player takes on the role of an outlawed gunslinger brought back to live by strange native spirits to find the root of a curse that has befallen the land. They will explore the dangerous frontier, gather supplies, expand their arsenal, and gain experience to unlock special traits, to best the many monsters and face off with challenging bosses.
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Decent immersive-FPS with a focus on stealth.
A complete open-world each chapter free to explore as you like, full of secrets and extra goodies. Servicable skilltree that doesn't offer a lot of interesting perks though.
Guns in this game are (literally) hit or miss, as the leniency with headshots is non existent (as in, being barely a few pixels off will count as a miss), and bodyshots are a waste of ammo on virtually every weapon except for the shotgun.
Stealth in this game is really easy most of the time, but extremely punishing if you mess up, since guns-blazing approaches require you to be super accurate with headshots (or have enough shotgun shells on hand), and as mentioned before; headshots have no leniency and all alerted enemies move their heads super sporadically.
The bosses are laughably easy, along with a really, really annoying ending that nullifies any and all efforts to say the least without spoiling it.
A complete open-world each chapter free to explore as you like, full of secrets and extra goodies. Servicable skilltree that doesn't offer a lot of interesting perks though.
Guns in this game are (literally) hit or miss, as the leniency with headshots is non existent (as in, being barely a few pixels off will count as a miss), and bodyshots are a waste of ammo on virtually every weapon except for the shotgun.
Stealth in this game is really easy most of the time, but extremely punishing if you mess up, since guns-blazing approaches require you to be super accurate with headshots (or have enough shotgun shells on hand), and as mentioned before; headshots have no leniency and all alerted enemies move their heads super sporadically.
The bosses are laughably easy, along with a really, really annoying ending that nullifies any and all efforts to say the least without spoiling it.
Dropped this game at the final boss because I have a massive skill issue.
Blood West is one of that games that may make immersive sims great again — it has everything to be a exemplary representative of the genre and a good game generally. I enjoyed it a lot, especially the swamp level, but the mountains seemed to me kinda lame comparing to the other part of the game.
I also liked the skill system, but IMO most of the perks appears to be very situative and not as useful as they could be. On the other hand, maybe that was the point: you're making your own unique build using only necessary for this build skills. Anyway, the system is fine, but it could be better, I think.
The stealth system is okay too, but sometimes it may be frustrating a bit. Don't know if would've I changed it, prolly not.
Resuming all of the said, Blood West is a quite nice game with some big potential in it, which the devs can develop in the possible sequel or a similiar to this game project. Good work.
Blood West is one of that games that may make immersive sims great again — it has everything to be a exemplary representative of the genre and a good game generally. I enjoyed it a lot, especially the swamp level, but the mountains seemed to me kinda lame comparing to the other part of the game.
I also liked the skill system, but IMO most of the perks appears to be very situative and not as useful as they could be. On the other hand, maybe that was the point: you're making your own unique build using only necessary for this build skills. Anyway, the system is fine, but it could be better, I think.
The stealth system is okay too, but sometimes it may be frustrating a bit. Don't know if would've I changed it, prolly not.
Resuming all of the said, Blood West is a quite nice game with some big potential in it, which the devs can develop in the possible sequel or a similiar to this game project. Good work.
Fanning a Rusty Revolver
Coming off the heels of the phenomenal Postal Brain Damaged (one of my personal favorites of 2022) Hyperstrange decided to go in the opposite direction with the next game they made, with Blood West being more of an immersive sim. While its a bit under cooked in some ways I still had a fun time.
As the name suggests, the overall look of Blood West is a mixture of both the wild west and horror, with all the enemies being deformed in one way or another (even allies aren't immune considering you play as a zombie). In this department BW absolutely nails it with flying colors, as each locale is teeming with atmosphere that makes exploring feel that much more rewarding. Another strength of Blood West is just how engaging the loop can be, with every area being filled with nooks and crannies that reward all play styles (though I'd argue stealth is preferred but I'll talk about that later). Melee weapons in particular feel so much fun to use, with the ability to HEADSHOT with them making combat a joy with excellent sound design and visceral. Guns are also a valid option but since the game doesn't auto reload the risk of being caught without a full clip is something that can and will happen which increases tension. A perk system exists which gets the job done but more interesting is the trinket system, with 3 slots being available. While the game has way too many (and lots of them are very specific) I still loved being able to tinker my build that much further, with some options being really fucking broken (stack stealth on stealth).
If I had to say what Blood West falters at the most it would easily be its balancing and bosses. While I appreciate just how many options Blood West offers, its all a bit pointless when stealth trumps so many options. With the right perks you can absolutely BREEZE through the first act and most of the second/third because of just how busted the systems are (and how bad the AI can be). Couple that with just how brittle you are in the beginning and its very easy to build into stealth. I think Hyperscape knew this because Act 3 tries (emphasis on TRIES) to balance it out by introducing much tankier enemies and more open areas that aren't that stealth friendly. A valiant effort but a bit ruined since most enemies have the awareness of a fish and won't react to gunshots, allowing you to clear multiple areas with the loudest of weapons and they just won't come after you (except if you don't kill them in one shot which isn't even that common). On the subject of bosses I don't hate the idea in theory but the execution fucking sucks, as they all are just massive bullet sponges that all boil down to shoot the area that does the most damage. The final boss in particular essentially forces a switch to a more gun oriented build because of how fucking tanky it is, while also spawning even tankier enemies because why not. It all just feels counter-intuitive considering the generally low health pools of most enemies. On a minor issue the lack of some quality of life improvements is bizarre, with inventory management in particular being pretty clunky and slow.
With a bit of polish and some balancing fixes I can see a Blood West sequel being a phenomenal followup and one of the best in the Immersive Sim genre. For now it's simply a good time with some messy design choices here and there.
7.5/10
As the name suggests, the overall look of Blood West is a mixture of both the wild west and horror, with all the enemies being deformed in one way or another (even allies aren't immune considering you play as a zombie). In this department BW absolutely nails it with flying colors, as each locale is teeming with atmosphere that makes exploring feel that much more rewarding. Another strength of Blood West is just how engaging the loop can be, with every area being filled with nooks and crannies that reward all play styles (though I'd argue stealth is preferred but I'll talk about that later). Melee weapons in particular feel so much fun to use, with the ability to HEADSHOT with them making combat a joy with excellent sound design and visceral. Guns are also a valid option but since the game doesn't auto reload the risk of being caught without a full clip is something that can and will happen which increases tension. A perk system exists which gets the job done but more interesting is the trinket system, with 3 slots being available. While the game has way too many (and lots of them are very specific) I still loved being able to tinker my build that much further, with some options being really fucking broken (stack stealth on stealth).
If I had to say what Blood West falters at the most it would easily be its balancing and bosses. While I appreciate just how many options Blood West offers, its all a bit pointless when stealth trumps so many options. With the right perks you can absolutely BREEZE through the first act and most of the second/third because of just how busted the systems are (and how bad the AI can be). Couple that with just how brittle you are in the beginning and its very easy to build into stealth. I think Hyperscape knew this because Act 3 tries (emphasis on TRIES) to balance it out by introducing much tankier enemies and more open areas that aren't that stealth friendly. A valiant effort but a bit ruined since most enemies have the awareness of a fish and won't react to gunshots, allowing you to clear multiple areas with the loudest of weapons and they just won't come after you (except if you don't kill them in one shot which isn't even that common). On the subject of bosses I don't hate the idea in theory but the execution fucking sucks, as they all are just massive bullet sponges that all boil down to shoot the area that does the most damage. The final boss in particular essentially forces a switch to a more gun oriented build because of how fucking tanky it is, while also spawning even tankier enemies because why not. It all just feels counter-intuitive considering the generally low health pools of most enemies. On a minor issue the lack of some quality of life improvements is bizarre, with inventory management in particular being pretty clunky and slow.
With a bit of polish and some balancing fixes I can see a Blood West sequel being a phenomenal followup and one of the best in the Immersive Sim genre. For now it's simply a good time with some messy design choices here and there.
7.5/10
Dark Souls Combat
Great western kinda empty but its an indie game
Explaoration for great loot is fun
Enemies are unique with different quirks to defeat
Story is not that interseting servers the gameplay
Great western kinda empty but its an indie game
Explaoration for great loot is fun
Enemies are unique with different quirks to defeat
Story is not that interseting servers the gameplay
+ Great mood with the cursed wild west vibe
+ Good looking visuals & art style
+ Varied enough enemies for each location
+ Enemies are better dealt with with specific strats and weak points
+ A lot of unique equipment loot variety
- Grind based inventory management is broken and missing a LOT of QoL features, examples:
you can't place an item on top of another to replace its position;
items are always placed horizontally so even if you have space vertically you cant pickup or unequip items;
and more problems I've forgot, all this makes inventory management really annoying...
(Resident Evil got this right decades ago come on)
- Story almost might as well not be there...
- Leveling perks are meh
- Gameplay loop & objectives starts getting a bit repetitive
Solid game for Wild West enjoyers, just needs riding on the sunset and train level.
+ Good looking visuals & art style
+ Varied enough enemies for each location
+ Enemies are better dealt with with specific strats and weak points
+ A lot of unique equipment loot variety
- Grind based inventory management is broken and missing a LOT of QoL features, examples:
you can't place an item on top of another to replace its position;
items are always placed horizontally so even if you have space vertically you cant pickup or unequip items;
and more problems I've forgot, all this makes inventory management really annoying...
(Resident Evil got this right decades ago come on)
- Story almost might as well not be there...
- Leveling perks are meh
- Gameplay loop & objectives starts getting a bit repetitive
Solid game for Wild West enjoyers, just needs riding on the sunset and train level.