Raphaël Colantonio’s decision to leave Arkane stemmed from wanting to get away from the bloated-ness and inefficiency of AAA game development – he often used the example of how chairs would take 2 days to model during the making of Prey 2017, while during the days of Arx Fatalis it was closer to 2 hours. So how’s his first experiment in scaling down to the indie realm gone? Pretty well, all things considered. I’ve felt for a long time now that Colantonio is one of the best game directors currently working and I’m happy to say that Weird West is another solid attestation to that, with the caveat that it takes a good while before it clicks.
For anyone who’s familiar with immersive sims, the most immediately offputting part about Weird West is its camera perspective. I almost fell prey to this myself, but once you become more comfortable with the game, you’ll start to realise that all the juicy emergent goodness that makes this design philosophy (or, if you dare, this genre) tick is still there, even if you’re not witnessing it from the same point of view as your character. More than once, I set off an unintended chain reaction of events via independent but interlinking gameplay systems that ended up revealing a new path through an area or which allowed me to complete a quest in a roundabout, unscripted way, and these sorts of organic, player-directed experiences are what Looking Glass Studios ultimately predicated the term upon in 1997. Where so many games popularly touted as living up to the definition just don’t, Weird West surely does.
Environmental interactivity arguably doesn’t quite approach the craziness of Prey 2017, but Weird West’s integration of status effects into its physics engine gives it a leg of its own to stand on. I’m a huge fan of how soaked containers dynamically fill up with water for loads of reasons, but special mention also goes to the sheer amount of stuff you can set on fire, because there’s nothing quite like accidentally burning down an entire farmstead or patch of forest in the process of fending off an ambush. I like how these properties are applied to character abilities too because of the room for experimentation it allows, especially when you combine several at once. I particularly enjoy secreting poison pools as the Pigman and then setting them alight with explosive shotgun shells to make a porky mini-nuke on demand, but the beauty of games like this is that I'll probably look back on a current favourite tactic like that and eventually think of it as rudimentary compared to what's possible when you dig deeper into its systems.
Weird West’s story is more interesting than it’s being given credit for on here, but I don’t blame anyone for tapping out before it gets to the point where you can say that. I get the need to ease people into an unorthodox setting with a vanilla premise, but Jane Bell’s narrative hook goes beyond vanilla and pivots itself on something that you as a player have no reason to care about. Jane might be fussing about where her husband is, but I’m not. Who is he to me? It runs the risk of driving a wedge between the player and their character, but the other four protagonists (especially the one immediately after Jane) more than make up for this in terms of intrigue and how elegantly they fill the “blank slate player avatar” role, albeit not quite as perfectly as Morgan Yu.
In terms of niggles, the movement comes to mind. Dishonored 1 and Prey 2017 have some of the most liberating, intrinsically satisfying movement in the medium – you explore every nook and cranny of Dunwall and Talos I not because you're told to, but because it feels so good to do it that you naturally want to. Despite the impressive size of its world, I never felt that same enticement in Weird West because its movement options are so paltry in comparison. And how’s about those character portraits not matching their models? Like, at all? I’m willing to chalk this up to a case of “small indie company please understand,” because I can’t imagine anyone actively wanted lean, bearded, grizzled veteran gunslingers to share the same in-game appearance as (oddly abundant) overweight, alcoholic Asian women. It’s true that this camera angle allows for some mental abstraction on the player’s part – Fallout 1&2, both big influences on Weird West, use one animation for loads of different stuff – but past a certain point, I feel like I’m being asked to deny what’s in front of my eyes. Or even what’s happening around me, sometimes, considering how often my companions would try attacking invincible children or be rendered immobile by an ankle-high step, the deadliest of all the west’s creatures.
In the grand scheme of things, though, issues like these are probably worth looking past. Immersive sims have been around for longer than I’ve been alive, and in that time, there's not been nearly as many breakout hits or unambiguous commercial successes as you'd assume from the notoriety of examples like Deus Ex or System Shock; we’re pretty fortunate to still be getting any new spins on the formula at all. And as a new spin on the formula, Weird West’s definitely an impressive first showing for WolfEye, but also one with more than a few holdovers of the days when its staff were still under the watchful eye of Bethesda’s investors – hopefully their newfound freedom permits them to become a bit bolder and weirder from here on out.
For anyone who’s familiar with immersive sims, the most immediately offputting part about Weird West is its camera perspective. I almost fell prey to this myself, but once you become more comfortable with the game, you’ll start to realise that all the juicy emergent goodness that makes this design philosophy (or, if you dare, this genre) tick is still there, even if you’re not witnessing it from the same point of view as your character. More than once, I set off an unintended chain reaction of events via independent but interlinking gameplay systems that ended up revealing a new path through an area or which allowed me to complete a quest in a roundabout, unscripted way, and these sorts of organic, player-directed experiences are what Looking Glass Studios ultimately predicated the term upon in 1997. Where so many games popularly touted as living up to the definition just don’t, Weird West surely does.
Environmental interactivity arguably doesn’t quite approach the craziness of Prey 2017, but Weird West’s integration of status effects into its physics engine gives it a leg of its own to stand on. I’m a huge fan of how soaked containers dynamically fill up with water for loads of reasons, but special mention also goes to the sheer amount of stuff you can set on fire, because there’s nothing quite like accidentally burning down an entire farmstead or patch of forest in the process of fending off an ambush. I like how these properties are applied to character abilities too because of the room for experimentation it allows, especially when you combine several at once. I particularly enjoy secreting poison pools as the Pigman and then setting them alight with explosive shotgun shells to make a porky mini-nuke on demand, but the beauty of games like this is that I'll probably look back on a current favourite tactic like that and eventually think of it as rudimentary compared to what's possible when you dig deeper into its systems.
Weird West’s story is more interesting than it’s being given credit for on here, but I don’t blame anyone for tapping out before it gets to the point where you can say that. I get the need to ease people into an unorthodox setting with a vanilla premise, but Jane Bell’s narrative hook goes beyond vanilla and pivots itself on something that you as a player have no reason to care about. Jane might be fussing about where her husband is, but I’m not. Who is he to me? It runs the risk of driving a wedge between the player and their character, but the other four protagonists (especially the one immediately after Jane) more than make up for this in terms of intrigue and how elegantly they fill the “blank slate player avatar” role, albeit not quite as perfectly as Morgan Yu.
In terms of niggles, the movement comes to mind. Dishonored 1 and Prey 2017 have some of the most liberating, intrinsically satisfying movement in the medium – you explore every nook and cranny of Dunwall and Talos I not because you're told to, but because it feels so good to do it that you naturally want to. Despite the impressive size of its world, I never felt that same enticement in Weird West because its movement options are so paltry in comparison. And how’s about those character portraits not matching their models? Like, at all? I’m willing to chalk this up to a case of “small indie company please understand,” because I can’t imagine anyone actively wanted lean, bearded, grizzled veteran gunslingers to share the same in-game appearance as (oddly abundant) overweight, alcoholic Asian women. It’s true that this camera angle allows for some mental abstraction on the player’s part – Fallout 1&2, both big influences on Weird West, use one animation for loads of different stuff – but past a certain point, I feel like I’m being asked to deny what’s in front of my eyes. Or even what’s happening around me, sometimes, considering how often my companions would try attacking invincible children or be rendered immobile by an ankle-high step, the deadliest of all the west’s creatures.
In the grand scheme of things, though, issues like these are probably worth looking past. Immersive sims have been around for longer than I’ve been alive, and in that time, there's not been nearly as many breakout hits or unambiguous commercial successes as you'd assume from the notoriety of examples like Deus Ex or System Shock; we’re pretty fortunate to still be getting any new spins on the formula at all. And as a new spin on the formula, Weird West’s definitely an impressive first showing for WolfEye, but also one with more than a few holdovers of the days when its staff were still under the watchful eye of Bethesda’s investors – hopefully their newfound freedom permits them to become a bit bolder and weirder from here on out.
Discovering that Weird West is kinda jank is like learning that Snoop Dogg smokes weed. Like, no fucking way, the new, ambitious, semi-indie immersive sim/WRPG thing from the co-founder of Arkane is a bit rough? I'd almost be dissapointed if it wasn't.
Ambition is the real kicker here, and probably the game's greatest issue. Weird West is a reasonably short game but it's also vast, with dozens of locations, and it's also going for telling 5 character's stories, each of which with their own set pieces and locations and artwork. Barring a dev cycle that lasted until the heat death of the universe, something has to give, and it does.
There's just a real lack of stuff in Weird West. I appreciate that its a relatively short game, but even if you're rushing only the main quest, it's lack of breadth in nearly every department is stark. There's a real element of every area feeling like a procgen version of each other, with one template for town, dungeon, temple and fields put on different floor textures - with every story gets basically one location each that feels hand-made. Combat, whilst actually fairly fun and certaintly above most WRPGs, quickly becomes repetitive. Each character gets only 4 unique skills on top of about 20 shared ones, which only in the werewolf campaign feel very different - and otherwise behave mostly identical. Random events across the west get quite repetive to the end, and sidequests of any substance are extremely limited.
But again, if you're signed up for Weird West, if you know the context - you were probably expecting something along those lines. But the story and the worldbuilding will be good, there'll be some really cool shit to make up for it, the quest design will be great or something - right?
And there is, but there is a twist in the tale, and in my opinion it's what makes Weird West a game I think could be very divisive. Normally, good Western RPGs with a similar smorgasboard of problems actually make sure to do all they can to make sure you don't just miss the good stuff. Take New Vegas, a game that despite being ostensibly open world, funnels you in a general direction and makes most of it's really good questlines cross your path at some point or another.
Meanwhile, if you follow the path of least resistance in Weird West, do everything you're told to and keep an eye on that objective marker, you will have probably the most miserable time possible. You will experience the least interesting versions of the stories available, have the worst gameplay experience, because it'll all be pretty basic and the game wont really be responding to what you do.
To get the juice out of Weird West you need to squeeze it. Mess with the narratives, do weird shit like kill your husband for no reason, make vendettas, truly test how far you can push the narrative and choices until the game stops you. Usually, it'll go further than you think, and it's great. The game in general is extremely good at giving the player's actions long term consequences, both in major story decisions and in gameplay ones. Even in the next life, the actions of previous characters resonate through the west, leaving a world changed, be it in the ghost towns, or the peoples in it. This stuff is fantastic, especially as the events and people of the world itself is interesting - so getting to influence it in a noticeable manner that you get to interact with is satisfying.
Gameplay also benefits greatly from throwing a spanner into the works. Whilst the core systems are pretty basic - it's twin stick shooter with some stealth elements and skills basically - things like environmental effects, third party enemies/wildlife, friendly fire and such add up to make a system that quickly descends into chaos, which is where it thrives. Going into NPCs estate to negotiate for a thing, failing, deciding to steal it, getting caught and then quickly getting involved in a fireight that leads to a dozen dead, including the mayor and the rest of your posse, with you having gained a bounty and a vendetta - that's a good encounter. And when those posse members can be major NPCs, and these encounters can significantly change the world, it makes rolling with the chaos massively enjoyable and unpredictable. It helps that the flat out gunfights where everything is on fire is by far the best way to get fun out of the gameplay.
When the game's played like this - wild and chaotic - the world of weird west, story and gameplay and world, integrate so well. Far gone from those ten UE Marketplace assets placed over the map 90 times, it becomes a thick, cruel world, where death lies around every turn, stories come from nothing and the supernatural wraps around it all like a thorny rose.
The game ends well, to boot, with a satisfying conclusion that answers the right questions, even if the final Oneirist story is probably the weakest without it. And again, at about 12-15 hours, it knows when to end.
But you have to put your own effort in, and possibly stretch your sense of disbelief a bit, for it to work. And I think it is perfectly reasnable for the game's myriad problems to really not make that worth it for many. Hell, I myself am not really sure how to score or truly think about it, and i'm a veteran of enjoying kusoge through it's faults.
Ultimately it's miles better than anything Arkane have put out since dark messiah, and probably the best Western RPG since New Vegas - if you can put the legwork in to get the juice.
Ambition is the real kicker here, and probably the game's greatest issue. Weird West is a reasonably short game but it's also vast, with dozens of locations, and it's also going for telling 5 character's stories, each of which with their own set pieces and locations and artwork. Barring a dev cycle that lasted until the heat death of the universe, something has to give, and it does.
There's just a real lack of stuff in Weird West. I appreciate that its a relatively short game, but even if you're rushing only the main quest, it's lack of breadth in nearly every department is stark. There's a real element of every area feeling like a procgen version of each other, with one template for town, dungeon, temple and fields put on different floor textures - with every story gets basically one location each that feels hand-made. Combat, whilst actually fairly fun and certaintly above most WRPGs, quickly becomes repetitive. Each character gets only 4 unique skills on top of about 20 shared ones, which only in the werewolf campaign feel very different - and otherwise behave mostly identical. Random events across the west get quite repetive to the end, and sidequests of any substance are extremely limited.
But again, if you're signed up for Weird West, if you know the context - you were probably expecting something along those lines. But the story and the worldbuilding will be good, there'll be some really cool shit to make up for it, the quest design will be great or something - right?
And there is, but there is a twist in the tale, and in my opinion it's what makes Weird West a game I think could be very divisive. Normally, good Western RPGs with a similar smorgasboard of problems actually make sure to do all they can to make sure you don't just miss the good stuff. Take New Vegas, a game that despite being ostensibly open world, funnels you in a general direction and makes most of it's really good questlines cross your path at some point or another.
Meanwhile, if you follow the path of least resistance in Weird West, do everything you're told to and keep an eye on that objective marker, you will have probably the most miserable time possible. You will experience the least interesting versions of the stories available, have the worst gameplay experience, because it'll all be pretty basic and the game wont really be responding to what you do.
To get the juice out of Weird West you need to squeeze it. Mess with the narratives, do weird shit like kill your husband for no reason, make vendettas, truly test how far you can push the narrative and choices until the game stops you. Usually, it'll go further than you think, and it's great. The game in general is extremely good at giving the player's actions long term consequences, both in major story decisions and in gameplay ones. Even in the next life, the actions of previous characters resonate through the west, leaving a world changed, be it in the ghost towns, or the peoples in it. This stuff is fantastic, especially as the events and people of the world itself is interesting - so getting to influence it in a noticeable manner that you get to interact with is satisfying.
Gameplay also benefits greatly from throwing a spanner into the works. Whilst the core systems are pretty basic - it's twin stick shooter with some stealth elements and skills basically - things like environmental effects, third party enemies/wildlife, friendly fire and such add up to make a system that quickly descends into chaos, which is where it thrives. Going into NPCs estate to negotiate for a thing, failing, deciding to steal it, getting caught and then quickly getting involved in a fireight that leads to a dozen dead, including the mayor and the rest of your posse, with you having gained a bounty and a vendetta - that's a good encounter. And when those posse members can be major NPCs, and these encounters can significantly change the world, it makes rolling with the chaos massively enjoyable and unpredictable. It helps that the flat out gunfights where everything is on fire is by far the best way to get fun out of the gameplay.
When the game's played like this - wild and chaotic - the world of weird west, story and gameplay and world, integrate so well. Far gone from those ten UE Marketplace assets placed over the map 90 times, it becomes a thick, cruel world, where death lies around every turn, stories come from nothing and the supernatural wraps around it all like a thorny rose.
The game ends well, to boot, with a satisfying conclusion that answers the right questions, even if the final Oneirist story is probably the weakest without it. And again, at about 12-15 hours, it knows when to end.
But you have to put your own effort in, and possibly stretch your sense of disbelief a bit, for it to work. And I think it is perfectly reasnable for the game's myriad problems to really not make that worth it for many. Hell, I myself am not really sure how to score or truly think about it, and i'm a veteran of enjoying kusoge through it's faults.
Ultimately it's miles better than anything Arkane have put out since dark messiah, and probably the best Western RPG since New Vegas - if you can put the legwork in to get the juice.
I am always craving for more things in the Weird West genre, and here we have a game that is named after the genre, so I was very hyped for it. Along with the fact it was going to be an immersive sim from one of the Arkane co-founders, it was setting up to be probably really cool. However, I could not bring myself to play anymore than a couple hours.
Most immersive sims are first person with cleverly designs levels with multitudes of ways to figure how to progress. Weird West does have many ways to figure something else, but it lacks the same interactivity that first person I-sims usually have. A lot of the the levels however feel similar to overworld asset reuse, some of them are probably well thought out, but the ones I saw don't reach the heights of its peers.
With the camera being top down it definitely seems like they were trying to be more CRPG/ARPG, and it shows. I don't hate trying to fuse I-sims and the top down perspective, but the gameplay just feels really clunky. Switching weapons feels really weird, along with using powers. Melee is just downright unfun to try to do. All that not even mentioning the most basic combat action of shooting feels terrible.
The story also never really dragged me in. I can see I-sim protags being a blank slate for your many options and paths you choose, but most of the ones I have played, Corvo in Dishonoured 1 is the only real blank slate that I can remember. I only got to the first character in this game and they are literally nothing.
Overall the idea is really fucking solid, but it just plays so clunky with an uninteresting story.
Most immersive sims are first person with cleverly designs levels with multitudes of ways to figure how to progress. Weird West does have many ways to figure something else, but it lacks the same interactivity that first person I-sims usually have. A lot of the the levels however feel similar to overworld asset reuse, some of them are probably well thought out, but the ones I saw don't reach the heights of its peers.
With the camera being top down it definitely seems like they were trying to be more CRPG/ARPG, and it shows. I don't hate trying to fuse I-sims and the top down perspective, but the gameplay just feels really clunky. Switching weapons feels really weird, along with using powers. Melee is just downright unfun to try to do. All that not even mentioning the most basic combat action of shooting feels terrible.
The story also never really dragged me in. I can see I-sim protags being a blank slate for your many options and paths you choose, but most of the ones I have played, Corvo in Dishonoured 1 is the only real blank slate that I can remember. I only got to the first character in this game and they are literally nothing.
Overall the idea is really fucking solid, but it just plays so clunky with an uninteresting story.
INJUSTIÇADO!
Não consegui jogar praticamente nada enquanto estava jogando Weird West, ele prendeu totalmente minha atenção.
Gosto muito da liberdade de abordagens, as consequências das escolhas, o mundo reativo e sistêmico, características essas que são comuns de Immersive Sims (como Dishonored, Deus Ex, Prey, etc).
A história é legal, porém o texto em si é muito bom, os diálogos são maravilhosos, dá vontade de ler tudo. Eu me peguei diversas vezes lendo livros e documentos do jogo simplesmente por que são bons de ler e sempre tem algo a acrescentar no lore ou até mesmo no contexto do que você está fazendo. Alguns documentos fornecem informações sobre locais, criaturas e história que mudam a forma como você joga.
O mundo que eles criaram aqui é muito interessante, e a exploração compensa com o quanto você pode descobrir sobre o mundo. O jogo possui 5 mini-campanhas que se resolvem todas no final, no geral eu gostei da trama de todas, e de todos os personagens envolvidos nelas.
Eu tenho críticas ao jogo, mas é bizarro o quanto elas não importam muito pro fator diversão. Acho que muitos jogadores que gostam de immersive sims passam por isso, por exemplo, Dishonored tem problemas mas ainda assim é muito divertido.
Mas vamos às críticas, um dos os pontos que mais me incomodam no jogo é uma certa facilidade. Tive que aumentar a dificuldade no meio do jogo por que depois de um certo progresso, as soluções se resumem a "vou matar geral mesmo", fica muito fácil virar uma máquina de matar. Acredito até que a forma ideal de jogar é a "Nimpossível".
Ainda quanto às diferentes soluções para as missões, achei os poderes dos personagens meio inúteis, terminei sem usar quase nada. São poderes meio sem graça, e quase não ajudam em situações do jogo que não sejam combate (salvo algumas exceções como ficar invisível na terceira campanha).
O Save Scumming é praticamente uma mecânica do jogo. Porém toda vez que você volta o save em um local, as IAs são resetadas, então já me deparei com situações bizarras onde resetei o save numa situação e quando carreguei todos no local viraram zumbis, totalmente aleatório. Teve uma situação em que eu estava invadindo um local e fui pego, mas mesmo assim salvei, e ao voltar o save um pouco depois, simplesmente todos passaram a me ignorar como invasor.
O jogo é ambicioso e tem muitas possibilidades! Me surpreende muito ver um estúdio pequeno como esse fazendo algo tão grande. Isso reflete em alguns problemas, mas que eu resolvi simplesmente evitando eles, como mapas e encontros casuais repetitivos.
Apesar das leves críticas, o tempo que passei em Weird West foi super divertido, o jogo me fez buscar soluções criativas em vários momentos, e estou animadíssimo pra ver o que mais esse estúdio (de um dos fundadores da Arkane) vai fazer no futuro.
De qualquer forma fico muito feliz em ver que os Immersive Sims não morreram, e que é possível um estúdio indie fazer algo com esse escopo!
-------- CRÍTICA COM LEVE SPOILER AGORA ---------
Por último, acredito que o final poderia ser mais punitivo com certas ações, eu matei mais de 400 pessoas no jogo e não colhi nenhuma consequência disso. Basta responder a pergunta de forma certa e pronto? Podia ter ousado mais.
Não consegui jogar praticamente nada enquanto estava jogando Weird West, ele prendeu totalmente minha atenção.
Gosto muito da liberdade de abordagens, as consequências das escolhas, o mundo reativo e sistêmico, características essas que são comuns de Immersive Sims (como Dishonored, Deus Ex, Prey, etc).
A história é legal, porém o texto em si é muito bom, os diálogos são maravilhosos, dá vontade de ler tudo. Eu me peguei diversas vezes lendo livros e documentos do jogo simplesmente por que são bons de ler e sempre tem algo a acrescentar no lore ou até mesmo no contexto do que você está fazendo. Alguns documentos fornecem informações sobre locais, criaturas e história que mudam a forma como você joga.
O mundo que eles criaram aqui é muito interessante, e a exploração compensa com o quanto você pode descobrir sobre o mundo. O jogo possui 5 mini-campanhas que se resolvem todas no final, no geral eu gostei da trama de todas, e de todos os personagens envolvidos nelas.
Eu tenho críticas ao jogo, mas é bizarro o quanto elas não importam muito pro fator diversão. Acho que muitos jogadores que gostam de immersive sims passam por isso, por exemplo, Dishonored tem problemas mas ainda assim é muito divertido.
Mas vamos às críticas, um dos os pontos que mais me incomodam no jogo é uma certa facilidade. Tive que aumentar a dificuldade no meio do jogo por que depois de um certo progresso, as soluções se resumem a "vou matar geral mesmo", fica muito fácil virar uma máquina de matar. Acredito até que a forma ideal de jogar é a "Nimpossível".
Ainda quanto às diferentes soluções para as missões, achei os poderes dos personagens meio inúteis, terminei sem usar quase nada. São poderes meio sem graça, e quase não ajudam em situações do jogo que não sejam combate (salvo algumas exceções como ficar invisível na terceira campanha).
O Save Scumming é praticamente uma mecânica do jogo. Porém toda vez que você volta o save em um local, as IAs são resetadas, então já me deparei com situações bizarras onde resetei o save numa situação e quando carreguei todos no local viraram zumbis, totalmente aleatório. Teve uma situação em que eu estava invadindo um local e fui pego, mas mesmo assim salvei, e ao voltar o save um pouco depois, simplesmente todos passaram a me ignorar como invasor.
O jogo é ambicioso e tem muitas possibilidades! Me surpreende muito ver um estúdio pequeno como esse fazendo algo tão grande. Isso reflete em alguns problemas, mas que eu resolvi simplesmente evitando eles, como mapas e encontros casuais repetitivos.
Apesar das leves críticas, o tempo que passei em Weird West foi super divertido, o jogo me fez buscar soluções criativas em vários momentos, e estou animadíssimo pra ver o que mais esse estúdio (de um dos fundadores da Arkane) vai fazer no futuro.
De qualquer forma fico muito feliz em ver que os Immersive Sims não morreram, e que é possível um estúdio indie fazer algo com esse escopo!
-------- CRÍTICA COM LEVE SPOILER AGORA ---------
Por último, acredito que o final poderia ser mais punitivo com certas ações, eu matei mais de 400 pessoas no jogo e não colhi nenhuma consequência disso. Basta responder a pergunta de forma certa e pronto? Podia ter ousado mais.
Um mundo que merece ser visitado
Weird West apresenta um dos mundos mais interessantes que conheci recentemente. O jogo às vezes se torna um pouco repetitivo, mas conhecer esse mundo é fascinante. E ironicamente, apesar de tanta morte e violência, o jogo tem algo a falar a respeito da vida.
Apesar de não se aprofundar muito em seu roteiro, há boas ponderações a respeito do significado de estar vivo, de sentir e do conceito de imortalidade. O Oeste é um mundo violento e hostil, mas que também tem espaço para generosidade, perdão, fé e esperança.
Os diversos grupos do Weird West, na maioria dos casos, estão apenas tentando viver como sabem e como podem. E às vezes para fazer o que é certo, você precisa tomar decisões difíceis que vão contra o que os personagens sempre acreditaram. Fazer o certo pode custar muito caro e até te fazer repensar se foi mesmo a escolha correta. Nada que rejogar não resolva.
Os desenvolvedores da WolfEye criaram um jogo que me fascinou com seu mundo, que me fez pausar uma missão principal porque eu queria saber “o que será que tem ali?” ou para simplesmente fazer alguma missão secundária, seja para ajudar alguém ou porque tinha algo de muito interessante para descobrir.
Um mundo que vale a pena conhecer e que eu adoraria revisitar em uma sequência.
Review completo: https://gamelodge.com.br/critica-weird-west-um-oeste-estranho-e-fantastico/
Weird West apresenta um dos mundos mais interessantes que conheci recentemente. O jogo às vezes se torna um pouco repetitivo, mas conhecer esse mundo é fascinante. E ironicamente, apesar de tanta morte e violência, o jogo tem algo a falar a respeito da vida.
Apesar de não se aprofundar muito em seu roteiro, há boas ponderações a respeito do significado de estar vivo, de sentir e do conceito de imortalidade. O Oeste é um mundo violento e hostil, mas que também tem espaço para generosidade, perdão, fé e esperança.
Os diversos grupos do Weird West, na maioria dos casos, estão apenas tentando viver como sabem e como podem. E às vezes para fazer o que é certo, você precisa tomar decisões difíceis que vão contra o que os personagens sempre acreditaram. Fazer o certo pode custar muito caro e até te fazer repensar se foi mesmo a escolha correta. Nada que rejogar não resolva.
Os desenvolvedores da WolfEye criaram um jogo que me fascinou com seu mundo, que me fez pausar uma missão principal porque eu queria saber “o que será que tem ali?” ou para simplesmente fazer alguma missão secundária, seja para ajudar alguém ou porque tinha algo de muito interessante para descobrir.
Um mundo que vale a pena conhecer e que eu adoraria revisitar em uma sequência.
Review completo: https://gamelodge.com.br/critica-weird-west-um-oeste-estranho-e-fantastico/
I truly respect everything about this game - I love the style, the energy, the colourful characters, stories and setting. It turns out though that twin-stick shooters aren't for me. I put just over 6 hours into it and once the challenge started to pick up I felt completely overwhelmed by the combat. Plus the checking pointing did me no favours here. If you have the patience to master the combat, then this is a lovingly crafted game well worth your time.
This should be right up my alley in theory but the gameplay just doesn't click with me. The shooting does not feel good at all (even after updates intedned to improve it) and the emphasis on stealth seems to clash with what the game is going for stylistically. The top-down tactical stealth style has never really worked for me in other games either. If you enjoyed the likes of the Shadow Tactics or especially the Desperados games, you will likely enjoy the gameplay in Weird West too. Not what I was hoping for from this premise/world.
Pretty disappointed. It's not bad by any means but not engaging enough narratively or gameplay wise to keep me going passed 5 hours. The game starts off with your son dying and husband being kidnapped but its not set up for you to actually care about it. Then the gameplay got old pretty fast. I did a couple bounties and the map was pretty much identical. Im sure when you are fully kitted out with cool abilities you can have some crazy fights. But eh. I don't want to invest more time.
I have no doubt there's an incredible game here, I can feel the bones of it in the couple of hours I've played of it.
But doing so on a controller is horrific. Truly an unpleasant experience. Controls like absolute dogshit.
But doing so on a controller is horrific. Truly an unpleasant experience. Controls like absolute dogshit.
I admire this game so goddamn much. To take something as technical as the concept of the immersive sim and scale what kind of game it is into this top-down Action RPG, in a setting that doesn't rely on usual tropes for either horror or westerns? I aspire to beat this one day, even though I have no idea when that day will actually come because I have no idea how long this game actually is.
Bounced off this extremely hard upon initial release, partly because of the all-consuming timesink that was Elden Ring but also because frankly, it wasn't quite good enough to hold my attention. I was intrigued by the setup and drawn into the world they've built here but the combat was a confusing mess - limited tactical options and 'so precise it feels unprecise' shooting. I didn't need many excuses to bin this off and go back to Elden Ring but it was all too happy to give me them.
Anyway, several months have passed and a big patch has dropped that not only fixes a few issues with the game it also adds a way to tweak the speed and pace of the combat to your liking. I'm normally a big action game fan but here I found slowing things down and allowing for a much more tactical approach - more lenient aiming requirements and a bullet time effect while you're lining up shots - felt like a much better fit for the game and almost instantly allowed me to click with it.
From that point onwards, I had a great time with Weird West. Great, well-written characters and some interesting (albeit fairly binary) moral choices affect the decent story. There's a fair bit of ImmSim in here too, with what appears to be a fairly rigid RPG actually being extremely open-ended, allowing for the death of major characters and loads of different approaches to situations.
My only real issue with it is that out of the five playable characters, the final one is a bit dull because the overarching storyline that ties them all together and comes to a head with that character isn't as interesting as the four unique tales that the other characters have to contend with. DLC that simply adds more of these personal stories from within this interesting world would be most welcome.
Anyway, several months have passed and a big patch has dropped that not only fixes a few issues with the game it also adds a way to tweak the speed and pace of the combat to your liking. I'm normally a big action game fan but here I found slowing things down and allowing for a much more tactical approach - more lenient aiming requirements and a bullet time effect while you're lining up shots - felt like a much better fit for the game and almost instantly allowed me to click with it.
From that point onwards, I had a great time with Weird West. Great, well-written characters and some interesting (albeit fairly binary) moral choices affect the decent story. There's a fair bit of ImmSim in here too, with what appears to be a fairly rigid RPG actually being extremely open-ended, allowing for the death of major characters and loads of different approaches to situations.
My only real issue with it is that out of the five playable characters, the final one is a bit dull because the overarching storyline that ties them all together and comes to a head with that character isn't as interesting as the four unique tales that the other characters have to contend with. DLC that simply adds more of these personal stories from within this interesting world would be most welcome.
didn't play this one very long, and I get the feeling there's a good game here for people who are willing to make the effort to engage with the various subsystems and put up with a lot of jank, but I think I like my immersive sims more polished than this. maybe I'll give it another shot down the road when/if I own it on Steam
The jank is real. There's a lot of cool systems at play. I just really wish the shooting felt nicer. Also I have this tech tree that I could never quite figure out how to use in a satisfying way (I have not finished this though)
Definitely a game where perf issues make it really hard, and I would have some frame skipping that makes it real tough. A game where patience is definitely required!
Definitely a game where perf issues make it really hard, and I would have some frame skipping that makes it real tough. A game where patience is definitely required!
Has all the hallmarks of a huge timesink and doesn't feel good enough in the hands to justify it.
I didn’t expect much from this game and I was pleasantly surprised. The far-distance 3rd person shooting felt really satisfying and the stealth was the best feeling one since dishonoured. The 5 entertained stories you go through were ly well written and I loved being able to go back and add my previous avatars into my posse as I went. The ending was great as well with a recap of everything I did and the consequences it had in the world. There are so many ways the game can go and you really affect the world around you based on your decisions. My only criticisms is that the special skills and abilities were underwhelming. Buying better guns was more effective than trying to use the unique abilities of each character in the end.
Picked it up, 1. For the unique fantasy western setting and 2. Because at the time I thought immersive sim basically just meant “good video game.” The game is a dissappointing mess. As far as I played (through Chapter 2) the story was bare bones, the characters were so stodgy and lacking in any passion or enthusiasm, not helped by the lack of real animation or voice acting. The RPG elements are non existent, all you have is a fairly basic perk system which I honestly just stopped caring to spec into once I had my health and sneak attacks. Combat is probably the best part of it, but even then the “immersive sim” aspects are basic, shoot red barrels for explosion, shoot green barrels for poison, etc.. you never get any of those chain reactions you get playing something like Metal Gear Solid V, and honestly after a certain point I found myself just falling back on sneak attacks since they’re so much more powerful than every other option.
Apesar de utilizar de mecânicas sistêmicas e prezar pela criatividade do jogador, típico de immersive simulators, Weird West nada, mas morre na praia com um sistema desconfortável e recheado de bugs.
O uso do stealth é de certa forma bem implementado, mas ocasionalmente sofre com os bugs mencionados, perdendo imersão ou causando falhas inesperadas.
A parte desconfortável reside no combate. A mecânica de tiro não é satisfatória e, apesar de funcional, bem como o gameplay melee, é um tanto desagradável de executar, com um feedback insatisfatório e inconsistente.
A escrita, por seu lado, é muito bem feita, com uma trama cheia de ocultismo e temáticas mais adultas, dando espaço pra diversidade e pluralidade de histórias, dando uma variedade incrível para personagens e histórias, sem se aprofundar demais.
Tudo é infelizmente um tanto superficial, deixando um pouco a desejar em aprofundamento. Mecânicas, roteiros paralelos e diversos diálogos de missões menores todos ficam com um gostinho de simplório demais.
A sensação geral infelizmente é de repetição e mais do mesmo o tempo todo, mesmo que haja uma troca de protagonistas. Apenas o roteiro se mantém fresco, atiçando a curiosidade e desenvolvendo a trama e os personagens principais.
Pra piorar, tive um bug que travou meu avanço e deteriorou completamente minha vontade de prosseguir.
O uso do stealth é de certa forma bem implementado, mas ocasionalmente sofre com os bugs mencionados, perdendo imersão ou causando falhas inesperadas.
A parte desconfortável reside no combate. A mecânica de tiro não é satisfatória e, apesar de funcional, bem como o gameplay melee, é um tanto desagradável de executar, com um feedback insatisfatório e inconsistente.
A escrita, por seu lado, é muito bem feita, com uma trama cheia de ocultismo e temáticas mais adultas, dando espaço pra diversidade e pluralidade de histórias, dando uma variedade incrível para personagens e histórias, sem se aprofundar demais.
Tudo é infelizmente um tanto superficial, deixando um pouco a desejar em aprofundamento. Mecânicas, roteiros paralelos e diversos diálogos de missões menores todos ficam com um gostinho de simplório demais.
A sensação geral infelizmente é de repetição e mais do mesmo o tempo todo, mesmo que haja uma troca de protagonistas. Apenas o roteiro se mantém fresco, atiçando a curiosidade e desenvolvendo a trama e os personagens principais.
Pra piorar, tive um bug que travou meu avanço e deteriorou completamente minha vontade de prosseguir.
i love the ideas, the art style, the character and the era it takes place really sings to me. but the game play doesn't click with me for some reason, feels like there are other isometric games that have done similar gameplay way better than this
Playtime: 38 Hours
Score: 8/10
I really had a fun time with this one! So I am big fan of immersive sim games, especially ones Arkane used to make like Dishonored and Prey, but with their recent games being very different to what they used to make, I have not been that keen to play them. I have not played Deathloop but I do want to give it a try at some point, and Redfall I am not touching with a ten foot pole. But then Wolf Eye Studios, made up of ex-Arkane devs, shows up with this game, and it gives me everything I've missed about Arkane!
To start with what I liked, I enjoyed the setting of this game. Having it be the wild west but with dark fantasy elements like witches, werewolves and pigmen was something unique for me. While there are games like Hard West 2 that do the same thing, this game was my first experience with something like that. I also liked the storytelling approach of having you play as five different characters throughout the campaign with their own individual stories to complete. It was again something different to most games and it made me feel good and like I was progressing, as I finished each characters story. And you even get a results screen at the end of each characters arc which was cool.
Gameplay wise, its kind of a mix of Dishonored, Prey and the original Fallout games in how the world map and travel work. Each character has their own specific class abilities which are fun to use and is definitely where the Dishonored influences come in. You also have weapon abilities for each of the weapon types that do carry over to all the characters. These were fun to use but there were only a couple of them I used often. Then you get perk cards which you can use to unlock various different perks that have 3 ranks each. Most of these are stat based with percentage bonuses, but there ones that were very useful like being able to save lockpicks after use or being able to jump up to higher ledges which felt the most Arkane to me. At one point, I was even able to sneak into an enemy camp and save an NPC and get out, without being seen because I could just scale up the walls, which I was particularly very proud of!
The loot in this game reminded me a lot of Vampyr and Maneater funny enough, in that you can take some white rarity weapons and upgrade them up to purple, epic weapons by the endgame. You do get legendary weapons but I found you can only really buy them from merchants and their was only one rifle I managed to loot off an enemy I killed. Some weapons do come with 1 specific stat bonus like faster reload speed or more critical hit damage. These are the ones I tended to hold onto and spend the time upgrading. But looting weapons is only really a side piece to this game. As for types of weapons you get revolvers, rifles, shotguns, bows, melee weapons and a handful of grenade types. Melee weapons can be very clunky since you have to ready the weapon with the aim button and then you can swing, so I didn't use them at all really. they felt very much like Silent Hill weapons actually lol I mostly used rifles and bows, especially since bows are great for stealth. Overall I found the combat to be good, but I do wish there were more passivist options like in previous Arkane games. Here your only passivist option is to sneak up behind enemies and knock them out, which especially got annoying with bounties, as that's your only option if you want to capture bounties and bring them back to the sheriff as opposed to just killing them.
I also appreciated the choice and consequence in this game. Each characters journey usually has you make some big choice at the end, with some small choices throughout. These can lead to you getting a friend for life that will show up at random times during combat to help you out, or it could lead to them having a vendetta against you and them trying to hunt you down. My one critique is that this game doesn't go as far as I would have liked with the RPG mechanics. I can't talk specifics because of spoilers, but certain events that happen in each of the stories are very scripted and there's not much you can do to change or get a better outcome, aside from the specific choices the game lets you make. On the plus side, some characters you encountered previously during quests can become bounties for you to track down later which I liked as well.
The companion system is also a highlight as you have plenty of options. You can go and recruit your heroes from previous journeys and their the most powerful since they have access to all the abilities you unlocked when you played as them beforehand. There are characters that you help in each of the stories that can be companions, as well as just basic mercs that you can hire to just be muscle. You can use them to hold your loot too, which the previous heroes I would say are the best option for that as there easier to find once you switch to the next character. You can also use your horses satchel or your bank deposit box to store items, but these have limited space so the companions are a good option as well.
As for the story, like I said previously I liked the approach of you having 5 different stories to complete. There is an overarching story of why these characters are connected and how they got their powers but that only really gets revealed at the end with the last Oneirist character you play as. The Oneirist characters story is very short though and is only really there to tie everything together. The four stories before that though are very good with the bounty hunter and Pigman being my favorites, since their stories felt the most personal. There is no voice acting aside from the games narrator, so you will be reading text a lot, but its not too long winded to read. I didn't really mind this, but it would have been nice if they had added in some limited voice acting with the definitive edition, for the big story moments, but I get indie devs often can't afford to do that. Back to the story, there is a witch character you encounter throughout the game who is basically this games version of the Outsider from Dishonored as she critiques the choices you made. But what I like is that when you encounter her, shes really talking to you as the player as opposed to the character your playing as. And she drops a lot of hints that only make sense once you finish the game.
Last few critiques, are this game does feature random encounters on the world map. You can only skip these once you get a horse which is cool, but only some of them give you the option to skip straight from the world map. Others will force you to load into the area and only once the enemies start attacking you, can you then jump on your horse and ride away. I would have just preferred an option to skip from the world map always. The game also uses a lot of procedural generation which is fine at first but it can get annoying after a while. You will visit a lot of the same looking areas repeatedly with only small variations and only some areas being uniquely hand crafted. It can also lead to some really annoying bugs, like one where I had to deliver some medicine to 2 NPCS in the same area for a side quest. Every time I went there, they were always on fire for some reason and would die, thus leading to me failing the quest. There was also one time where every NPC in a town started shooting at me for no apparent reason, since my reputation was very high and I hadn't stolen anything or killed anyone. Reloading a save thankfully fixed this and it never happened again but man was it annoying.
(Skip to last paragraph if PC modding doesn't apply to you)
QUICK PSA ABOUT MODDING ON PC: This game does come with mods that you can access and download from the games main menu. Some of them being really cool like the option to play the entire game in first person. These mods are very cool and I loved having them but IF YOU DOWNLOAD AND PLAY WITH MODS IT WILL DISABLE ACHIEVEMENTS! I only found this out after I had already downloaded some mods after playing a couple of hours of the vanilla game. This is the type of game I prefer to play in first person, so I kept the mods enabled, but I will have to replay it now to get the achievements which sucks. I wish they would have at least warned you with a message prompt about mods and achievements, because I couldn't see one as far as I could tell and even when I googled and did research, no one was talking about it which is why I wanted to mention it.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Weird West and it gave me everything I wanted from it. If you like Dishonored and Prey and want more of it while forgiving some shortcomings, then you may like this game!
All Games I have Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/
Score: 8/10
I really had a fun time with this one! So I am big fan of immersive sim games, especially ones Arkane used to make like Dishonored and Prey, but with their recent games being very different to what they used to make, I have not been that keen to play them. I have not played Deathloop but I do want to give it a try at some point, and Redfall I am not touching with a ten foot pole. But then Wolf Eye Studios, made up of ex-Arkane devs, shows up with this game, and it gives me everything I've missed about Arkane!
To start with what I liked, I enjoyed the setting of this game. Having it be the wild west but with dark fantasy elements like witches, werewolves and pigmen was something unique for me. While there are games like Hard West 2 that do the same thing, this game was my first experience with something like that. I also liked the storytelling approach of having you play as five different characters throughout the campaign with their own individual stories to complete. It was again something different to most games and it made me feel good and like I was progressing, as I finished each characters story. And you even get a results screen at the end of each characters arc which was cool.
Gameplay wise, its kind of a mix of Dishonored, Prey and the original Fallout games in how the world map and travel work. Each character has their own specific class abilities which are fun to use and is definitely where the Dishonored influences come in. You also have weapon abilities for each of the weapon types that do carry over to all the characters. These were fun to use but there were only a couple of them I used often. Then you get perk cards which you can use to unlock various different perks that have 3 ranks each. Most of these are stat based with percentage bonuses, but there ones that were very useful like being able to save lockpicks after use or being able to jump up to higher ledges which felt the most Arkane to me. At one point, I was even able to sneak into an enemy camp and save an NPC and get out, without being seen because I could just scale up the walls, which I was particularly very proud of!
The loot in this game reminded me a lot of Vampyr and Maneater funny enough, in that you can take some white rarity weapons and upgrade them up to purple, epic weapons by the endgame. You do get legendary weapons but I found you can only really buy them from merchants and their was only one rifle I managed to loot off an enemy I killed. Some weapons do come with 1 specific stat bonus like faster reload speed or more critical hit damage. These are the ones I tended to hold onto and spend the time upgrading. But looting weapons is only really a side piece to this game. As for types of weapons you get revolvers, rifles, shotguns, bows, melee weapons and a handful of grenade types. Melee weapons can be very clunky since you have to ready the weapon with the aim button and then you can swing, so I didn't use them at all really. they felt very much like Silent Hill weapons actually lol I mostly used rifles and bows, especially since bows are great for stealth. Overall I found the combat to be good, but I do wish there were more passivist options like in previous Arkane games. Here your only passivist option is to sneak up behind enemies and knock them out, which especially got annoying with bounties, as that's your only option if you want to capture bounties and bring them back to the sheriff as opposed to just killing them.
I also appreciated the choice and consequence in this game. Each characters journey usually has you make some big choice at the end, with some small choices throughout. These can lead to you getting a friend for life that will show up at random times during combat to help you out, or it could lead to them having a vendetta against you and them trying to hunt you down. My one critique is that this game doesn't go as far as I would have liked with the RPG mechanics. I can't talk specifics because of spoilers, but certain events that happen in each of the stories are very scripted and there's not much you can do to change or get a better outcome, aside from the specific choices the game lets you make. On the plus side, some characters you encountered previously during quests can become bounties for you to track down later which I liked as well.
The companion system is also a highlight as you have plenty of options. You can go and recruit your heroes from previous journeys and their the most powerful since they have access to all the abilities you unlocked when you played as them beforehand. There are characters that you help in each of the stories that can be companions, as well as just basic mercs that you can hire to just be muscle. You can use them to hold your loot too, which the previous heroes I would say are the best option for that as there easier to find once you switch to the next character. You can also use your horses satchel or your bank deposit box to store items, but these have limited space so the companions are a good option as well.
As for the story, like I said previously I liked the approach of you having 5 different stories to complete. There is an overarching story of why these characters are connected and how they got their powers but that only really gets revealed at the end with the last Oneirist character you play as. The Oneirist characters story is very short though and is only really there to tie everything together. The four stories before that though are very good with the bounty hunter and Pigman being my favorites, since their stories felt the most personal. There is no voice acting aside from the games narrator, so you will be reading text a lot, but its not too long winded to read. I didn't really mind this, but it would have been nice if they had added in some limited voice acting with the definitive edition, for the big story moments, but I get indie devs often can't afford to do that. Back to the story, there is a witch character you encounter throughout the game who is basically this games version of the Outsider from Dishonored as she critiques the choices you made. But what I like is that when you encounter her, shes really talking to you as the player as opposed to the character your playing as. And she drops a lot of hints that only make sense once you finish the game.
Last few critiques, are this game does feature random encounters on the world map. You can only skip these once you get a horse which is cool, but only some of them give you the option to skip straight from the world map. Others will force you to load into the area and only once the enemies start attacking you, can you then jump on your horse and ride away. I would have just preferred an option to skip from the world map always. The game also uses a lot of procedural generation which is fine at first but it can get annoying after a while. You will visit a lot of the same looking areas repeatedly with only small variations and only some areas being uniquely hand crafted. It can also lead to some really annoying bugs, like one where I had to deliver some medicine to 2 NPCS in the same area for a side quest. Every time I went there, they were always on fire for some reason and would die, thus leading to me failing the quest. There was also one time where every NPC in a town started shooting at me for no apparent reason, since my reputation was very high and I hadn't stolen anything or killed anyone. Reloading a save thankfully fixed this and it never happened again but man was it annoying.
(Skip to last paragraph if PC modding doesn't apply to you)
QUICK PSA ABOUT MODDING ON PC: This game does come with mods that you can access and download from the games main menu. Some of them being really cool like the option to play the entire game in first person. These mods are very cool and I loved having them but IF YOU DOWNLOAD AND PLAY WITH MODS IT WILL DISABLE ACHIEVEMENTS! I only found this out after I had already downloaded some mods after playing a couple of hours of the vanilla game. This is the type of game I prefer to play in first person, so I kept the mods enabled, but I will have to replay it now to get the achievements which sucks. I wish they would have at least warned you with a message prompt about mods and achievements, because I couldn't see one as far as I could tell and even when I googled and did research, no one was talking about it which is why I wanted to mention it.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Weird West and it gave me everything I wanted from it. If you like Dishonored and Prey and want more of it while forgiving some shortcomings, then you may like this game!
All Games I have Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/
Eu esqueci da vida real por 2 semanas por conta deste jogo.
É isso ai mesmo que tá no título, Weird West me prendeu como nenhum jogo desse gênero havia me prendido, esse mundo de terror misturado com velho oeste e um gráficozinho desenhado, foi o ápice da felicidade pra mim, é claro que não achei o jogo la essa perfeição também, Weird West tem seus erros e suas complicações que podem desanimar.
Essa mecânica dele de você poder passar pelas missões de qualquer jeito, seja furtivo ou porra louca me encantou demais e me fez lembrar muito do Dishonored. Amo jogos que dão a liberdade ao jogador de passar de um objetivo sem precisar se forçar a um estilo de jogo, se você for bom o suficiente e tiver estudado bem os locais, é possível passar sem precisar matar ninguém.
E sobre a história? cara achei uma história maneira, não achei nada la muito mind blowing mas a forma de contar ela é interessante, cada vez você termina uma jornada e vai pra outro personagem até chegar no ultimo, fique atento que todas as suas escolhas tem mudanças significativas no rumo do jogo, você pode tanto fazer uma jornada heróica ou também acabar fazendo uma jornada de um baita vilão.
Durante essas 28 Horas de jogo eu fiz o tanto de side quest que deu pra fazer na telha com duas jogadas, e o que me chateou nele é que pra fazer todas TODAS side quests mesmo, acaba dependendo da sua sorte, pois as missões podem ou não cair na sua jogada dependendo das suas escolhas, isso me deixou chateado pois eu queria fazer o 100% nele, mas fazer o que nem tudo são flores.
Enfrentei alguns problemas chatos de otimização durante a campanha, cenários em que o FPS caía pra 45 e 48 mesmo eu tendo um PC bem a frente dos requisitos recomendados, uns bugs la e ca de crash que são típicos de alguns jogos da UE4.
Enfim, eu recomendo demais Weird West pra quem quiser se aventurar em um universo imersivo de terror no velho oeste, eu particularmente não achei a transição de histórias massante, mas teve muita gente que achou então fique ligado nisso! Amei esse jogo de ponta a ponta, ta longe de ser um dos meus Fav, mas ele me proporcionou uma experiência qual eu não irei esquecer tão fácil assim.
É isso ai mesmo que tá no título, Weird West me prendeu como nenhum jogo desse gênero havia me prendido, esse mundo de terror misturado com velho oeste e um gráficozinho desenhado, foi o ápice da felicidade pra mim, é claro que não achei o jogo la essa perfeição também, Weird West tem seus erros e suas complicações que podem desanimar.
Essa mecânica dele de você poder passar pelas missões de qualquer jeito, seja furtivo ou porra louca me encantou demais e me fez lembrar muito do Dishonored. Amo jogos que dão a liberdade ao jogador de passar de um objetivo sem precisar se forçar a um estilo de jogo, se você for bom o suficiente e tiver estudado bem os locais, é possível passar sem precisar matar ninguém.
E sobre a história? cara achei uma história maneira, não achei nada la muito mind blowing mas a forma de contar ela é interessante, cada vez você termina uma jornada e vai pra outro personagem até chegar no ultimo, fique atento que todas as suas escolhas tem mudanças significativas no rumo do jogo, você pode tanto fazer uma jornada heróica ou também acabar fazendo uma jornada de um baita vilão.
Durante essas 28 Horas de jogo eu fiz o tanto de side quest que deu pra fazer na telha com duas jogadas, e o que me chateou nele é que pra fazer todas TODAS side quests mesmo, acaba dependendo da sua sorte, pois as missões podem ou não cair na sua jogada dependendo das suas escolhas, isso me deixou chateado pois eu queria fazer o 100% nele, mas fazer o que nem tudo são flores.
Enfrentei alguns problemas chatos de otimização durante a campanha, cenários em que o FPS caía pra 45 e 48 mesmo eu tendo um PC bem a frente dos requisitos recomendados, uns bugs la e ca de crash que são típicos de alguns jogos da UE4.
Enfim, eu recomendo demais Weird West pra quem quiser se aventurar em um universo imersivo de terror no velho oeste, eu particularmente não achei a transição de histórias massante, mas teve muita gente que achou então fique ligado nisso! Amei esse jogo de ponta a ponta, ta longe de ser um dos meus Fav, mas ele me proporcionou uma experiência qual eu não irei esquecer tão fácil assim.
Weird West fits the bill. It is indeed a weird world, mixing your standard western setting, with all the garnishes of a Western, mixed with other various things.
Pig men? You got it. Zombies and witches? Absolutely. Pretty sure I saw a UFO at one point as well. The story of Weird West slowly reveals a fairly bizarre story about a group of five strangers who are all connected by a brand.
This brand and a strange group of individuals that you will slowly learn more about all seem to be connected and along the way, you will go out there to find answers. The main stories won't really connect much, all deal with a different group of people and their who set of issues and questions, but the main connective thread does help tie things together to where it never felt like five completely separate stories.
As you progress and these stories end and begin, you'll see some continuity. Since the land doesn't really change but the tasks do, you'll come across similar people. One stranger, a man named Essex, will always seem to pop up for example. On top of that, you'll be able to recruit your old heroes and have them tag along as you change over to a new playable character.
I do wish the stories would have a bit more post consequences though. They have some, choices you make will have longer lasting effects to both the world and yourself, but some of the decisions I made didn't really feel like they changed much.
For example, in one of the earlier stories I had the option to expose a city sheriff for being a flesh eating monster. I chose to keep her secret but I never really saw her being around as having much consequences. Maybe exposing her secret makes for bigger changes to the world but it would be nice for some of these changes to be more than just "things stay the same"
The game says that areas you explore can change over time depending on your actions. Go into a city and kill everyone? Well, there's a chance that that city will become abandoned and a new haven for bandits and monsters, while also losing a safe place to rest and buy new goods.
Over time, these areas can become overrun on their own without your intervention supposedly, though my playthrough never saw that happen, least not in any obvious manner.
On top of these types of changes, the game features a ally/enemy system. While exploring the world, you'll come across (either through side quests you discover or purely accidental) people who you can choose to help. If you do help them out, they'll become allies, forever in your debt. What that basically means is if you're in combat and near death, sometimes they'll show up to try and even the odds.
These allies can die though during these battles and if they die, they die for good.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, you can also make enemies. During battles, there is a chance that someone decides to run away or catches you doing something nefarious. In some situations, this can turn people into your enemy, where at times, when traveling to new locations or while exploring areas, these people who have survived your attacks or have a vendetta against you, can show up and try and get revenge by killing you then and there. Much like the allies, these enemies can be killed then and there and you'll never see them again.
These two systems work pretty nicely. At times, when I was losing a battle, those allies showing up to help did swing things a bit. I also did grow attached to some of these allies and really tried to make sure I wasn't killing them all the time. I definitely re-loaded a few times just to make sure a fallen ally was revived.
Unfortunately, a lot of the other systems in this game aren't all that great. AKA, the gameplay is kinda whatever.
Weird West features top down action. For me, that's always featured a camera that's always a bit disappointing. Weird West does a decent job with keeping the scale relatively small, so my normal frustrations with top down camera displays are lessened a bit, losing track of enemies, not being able to see all, things like that aren't as bad in this game......but it still happens with some minor consistency.
Controlling the camera and the game in general is not bad, which also helps.
The shooting though, is kinda basic and kinda boring. There are special abilities that all main characters have, all with a bit of uniqueness but they are fairly underwhelming and also pretty uninteresting.
Overall, the game playing aspects of this game aren't all that bad, they are just incredibly basic and after a while, since it never really evolves, it just becomes whatever. A few nitpicks with things like inventory space, but nothing overly critical. It's blandness though stands out a bit more because of that.
Weird West is still an interesting time. The story is interesting, weird, and offbeat enough to keep me entertained and a bit intrigued. The end reveal of how these heroes are all connected was a letdown but it kept me going and interested up until that and by then the game is already in its last moments so despite that and some solid, albeit bland, gameplay, it's worth a playthrough if top down action adventure games with a bit of an offbeat nature to them appeals to you. If it does suck you in, the various consequences your actions can provide, and the permadeath aspects of it do give it some replayability aspects to it.
Pig men? You got it. Zombies and witches? Absolutely. Pretty sure I saw a UFO at one point as well. The story of Weird West slowly reveals a fairly bizarre story about a group of five strangers who are all connected by a brand.
This brand and a strange group of individuals that you will slowly learn more about all seem to be connected and along the way, you will go out there to find answers. The main stories won't really connect much, all deal with a different group of people and their who set of issues and questions, but the main connective thread does help tie things together to where it never felt like five completely separate stories.
As you progress and these stories end and begin, you'll see some continuity. Since the land doesn't really change but the tasks do, you'll come across similar people. One stranger, a man named Essex, will always seem to pop up for example. On top of that, you'll be able to recruit your old heroes and have them tag along as you change over to a new playable character.
I do wish the stories would have a bit more post consequences though. They have some, choices you make will have longer lasting effects to both the world and yourself, but some of the decisions I made didn't really feel like they changed much.
For example, in one of the earlier stories I had the option to expose a city sheriff for being a flesh eating monster. I chose to keep her secret but I never really saw her being around as having much consequences. Maybe exposing her secret makes for bigger changes to the world but it would be nice for some of these changes to be more than just "things stay the same"
The game says that areas you explore can change over time depending on your actions. Go into a city and kill everyone? Well, there's a chance that that city will become abandoned and a new haven for bandits and monsters, while also losing a safe place to rest and buy new goods.
Over time, these areas can become overrun on their own without your intervention supposedly, though my playthrough never saw that happen, least not in any obvious manner.
On top of these types of changes, the game features a ally/enemy system. While exploring the world, you'll come across (either through side quests you discover or purely accidental) people who you can choose to help. If you do help them out, they'll become allies, forever in your debt. What that basically means is if you're in combat and near death, sometimes they'll show up to try and even the odds.
These allies can die though during these battles and if they die, they die for good.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, you can also make enemies. During battles, there is a chance that someone decides to run away or catches you doing something nefarious. In some situations, this can turn people into your enemy, where at times, when traveling to new locations or while exploring areas, these people who have survived your attacks or have a vendetta against you, can show up and try and get revenge by killing you then and there. Much like the allies, these enemies can be killed then and there and you'll never see them again.
These two systems work pretty nicely. At times, when I was losing a battle, those allies showing up to help did swing things a bit. I also did grow attached to some of these allies and really tried to make sure I wasn't killing them all the time. I definitely re-loaded a few times just to make sure a fallen ally was revived.
Unfortunately, a lot of the other systems in this game aren't all that great. AKA, the gameplay is kinda whatever.
Weird West features top down action. For me, that's always featured a camera that's always a bit disappointing. Weird West does a decent job with keeping the scale relatively small, so my normal frustrations with top down camera displays are lessened a bit, losing track of enemies, not being able to see all, things like that aren't as bad in this game......but it still happens with some minor consistency.
Controlling the camera and the game in general is not bad, which also helps.
The shooting though, is kinda basic and kinda boring. There are special abilities that all main characters have, all with a bit of uniqueness but they are fairly underwhelming and also pretty uninteresting.
Overall, the game playing aspects of this game aren't all that bad, they are just incredibly basic and after a while, since it never really evolves, it just becomes whatever. A few nitpicks with things like inventory space, but nothing overly critical. It's blandness though stands out a bit more because of that.
Weird West is still an interesting time. The story is interesting, weird, and offbeat enough to keep me entertained and a bit intrigued. The end reveal of how these heroes are all connected was a letdown but it kept me going and interested up until that and by then the game is already in its last moments so despite that and some solid, albeit bland, gameplay, it's worth a playthrough if top down action adventure games with a bit of an offbeat nature to them appeals to you. If it does suck you in, the various consequences your actions can provide, and the permadeath aspects of it do give it some replayability aspects to it.
I was only on the second chapter with the Pigman and it was enough to convince me that this probably wasn’t worth continuing playing for the time being. There’s a lot of stuff to like and appreciate here so far; the immersive sim elements layered onto the real-time isometric combat can be pretty fun at times, the presentation is pretty slick and bold, and the setting itself has some decent potential. But what hampered my experience the most, aside from the story not really doing too much for me, is the gameplay. The real problem comes down to the strict bird’s eye isometric camera view which doesn’t gel well with the real time shooting. It often becomes a battle between the camera and the player which doesn’t feel enjoyable. Considering this is meant to be an immersive sim it was probably intentional to show how unconventional the combat really is, and how you need to look for other ways to overcome obstacles. Mostly through environmental means like picking up candles and tossing them at enemies to light them on fire, pouring gasoline on them to slow them down and light them easier, or throwing explosive TNT barrels at them in a bullet crossfire. While this is a pretty cool idea on paper, and even in the game there are mild strokes of genius to show how effective this can be, it becomes too much of a hassle to appreciate fully.
You’re probably better off getting this off from gamepass rather than buying unless it really scratches that specific niche for you. Might give it another shot in the future.
You’re probably better off getting this off from gamepass rather than buying unless it really scratches that specific niche for you. Might give it another shot in the future.
Full video review: https://youtu.be/i4SMtORbZrE
So the founder of Arkane Studios - the devs behind the popular Dishonored series - decided to leave and form a new company a few years ago and this game is the result of that. I liked Dishonored and I like Westerns, so why not?
Overview
Weird West is basically a top-down CRPG set in a western-dark fantasy world. The combat is done in real-time, but there are abilities and such that can slow that down. The game world is large and there is plenty to explore, a bunch of side quests to complete, and a lot of perks to unlock too. The game loop revolves around completing “journeys” which are basically campaigns that let you play as one of five characters. These are played in an enforced order and are tied together by an overall story.
Combat and Controls
Weird West is a bit... weird in some ways. For example - the combat. Ranged weapons? Completely fine. Melee weapons though? Absolute pain to use. You have to hold a key to prime the melee weapon and then just spam left click as fast as possible, missing about half the time due to a combination of evasion chance and the game just straight up not connecting hits.
The controls in general never quite clicked with me - and this is with me playing on mouse and keyboard. I made some adjustments to attempt to make them more intuitive, but frequently found myself not activating the abilities I wanted to, pulling out the wrong weapon, and crouching when I did not want to. Yeah, some of that may be me, but I play a ton of games like this and generally don’t have these issues, so I’m not really sure what’s going on here.
When the combat works though - it’s some great stuff. The different guns are simple, yet fun to use, the difficulty is well-balanced on normal, and I always love games that include good stealth mechanics. I’m the type of guy that always plays the sneaky, pickpocketing thief - the one that knocks out enemies, drags off their body to some hiding spot, and finds a way in without anyone ever knowing. All of that is possible here and then some.
Exploration and Loot
As the guy that likes to sneak around and steal stuff - I like me some good loot, and unfortunately, Weird West is not the most accommodating there. I mean, there are a bunch of buildings and containers TO loot, but about 90% of that loot is just some flavor of junk - whether that be a pack of cigarettes, a sheriff’s badge, or a pocket watch - so it is a bit disappointing to spend all this time looting and walking away with maybe one or two cool things out of 100 or so.
Sneaking around and exploring was way more rewarding when you came across side content, of which there is a good bit. Sometimes my sneaking would lead me into a trap door in which I find an imprisoned gunslinger who, if freed by me, will be in my debt and come help me during future shootouts at random. Sometimes I found little notes or other letters that added to the lore and sometimes these contained instructions on where to find even better loot. There’s usually a couple of these things per area, so exploring is almost always worth it even if the loot may not be the best.
Story
It’s not the most involved story, but what is there is somewhat weak. The main thing is this supernatural mystery binding five characters together, but the actual character writing itself isn’t that strong. The first character, for example, is a former bounty hunter whose husband gets killed and - many hours later after completing that journey - I still knew little about this husband or felt any sort of attachment to what was going on. To me, it felt more like a driving force for the gameplay - which may not even be a bad thing for most.
Overall
I have some more minor complaints - like the iffy graphics, but that pretty much sums up my experience with Weird West. I may have gotten sucked in early on and dumped hours into it, but I also cannot deny it does have numerous faults, such as the melee combat and the loot system.
So while I recommend the game, I’d say it’s only a light recommendation. If you’re into this genre? Well worth a look. However, there are better picks out there and this is probably one best left for a sale. That or give it a shot on Game Pass - it’s pretty much the perfect Game Pass kind of game.
So the founder of Arkane Studios - the devs behind the popular Dishonored series - decided to leave and form a new company a few years ago and this game is the result of that. I liked Dishonored and I like Westerns, so why not?
Overview
Weird West is basically a top-down CRPG set in a western-dark fantasy world. The combat is done in real-time, but there are abilities and such that can slow that down. The game world is large and there is plenty to explore, a bunch of side quests to complete, and a lot of perks to unlock too. The game loop revolves around completing “journeys” which are basically campaigns that let you play as one of five characters. These are played in an enforced order and are tied together by an overall story.
Combat and Controls
Weird West is a bit... weird in some ways. For example - the combat. Ranged weapons? Completely fine. Melee weapons though? Absolute pain to use. You have to hold a key to prime the melee weapon and then just spam left click as fast as possible, missing about half the time due to a combination of evasion chance and the game just straight up not connecting hits.
The controls in general never quite clicked with me - and this is with me playing on mouse and keyboard. I made some adjustments to attempt to make them more intuitive, but frequently found myself not activating the abilities I wanted to, pulling out the wrong weapon, and crouching when I did not want to. Yeah, some of that may be me, but I play a ton of games like this and generally don’t have these issues, so I’m not really sure what’s going on here.
When the combat works though - it’s some great stuff. The different guns are simple, yet fun to use, the difficulty is well-balanced on normal, and I always love games that include good stealth mechanics. I’m the type of guy that always plays the sneaky, pickpocketing thief - the one that knocks out enemies, drags off their body to some hiding spot, and finds a way in without anyone ever knowing. All of that is possible here and then some.
Exploration and Loot
As the guy that likes to sneak around and steal stuff - I like me some good loot, and unfortunately, Weird West is not the most accommodating there. I mean, there are a bunch of buildings and containers TO loot, but about 90% of that loot is just some flavor of junk - whether that be a pack of cigarettes, a sheriff’s badge, or a pocket watch - so it is a bit disappointing to spend all this time looting and walking away with maybe one or two cool things out of 100 or so.
Sneaking around and exploring was way more rewarding when you came across side content, of which there is a good bit. Sometimes my sneaking would lead me into a trap door in which I find an imprisoned gunslinger who, if freed by me, will be in my debt and come help me during future shootouts at random. Sometimes I found little notes or other letters that added to the lore and sometimes these contained instructions on where to find even better loot. There’s usually a couple of these things per area, so exploring is almost always worth it even if the loot may not be the best.
Story
It’s not the most involved story, but what is there is somewhat weak. The main thing is this supernatural mystery binding five characters together, but the actual character writing itself isn’t that strong. The first character, for example, is a former bounty hunter whose husband gets killed and - many hours later after completing that journey - I still knew little about this husband or felt any sort of attachment to what was going on. To me, it felt more like a driving force for the gameplay - which may not even be a bad thing for most.
Overall
I have some more minor complaints - like the iffy graphics, but that pretty much sums up my experience with Weird West. I may have gotten sucked in early on and dumped hours into it, but I also cannot deny it does have numerous faults, such as the melee combat and the loot system.
So while I recommend the game, I’d say it’s only a light recommendation. If you’re into this genre? Well worth a look. However, there are better picks out there and this is probably one best left for a sale. That or give it a shot on Game Pass - it’s pretty much the perfect Game Pass kind of game.
27horas de gameplay perdidas por conta de save corrompido, foi a gota d'água.
Not very good. This game tries to dip its fingers into too many features and systems at once, and none of them end up feeling very consequential as a result. There are a lot of cool ideas (like the friend for life/vendetta system where people you help/harm can come back later to intervene in combat), but for the most part these things have very little impact on playing the game.
The twin-stick combat is okay (except for the melee weapons) but the skill trees are a spectrum between meh, useless, and decent but unable to be used often because of Action Point limitations. Unfortunately you end up doing a LOT of combat between quests and random overworld encounters, and it doesn't feel good for long.
The level design, coming from former Arkane devs (and even specifically former lead level designers!), is the most disappointing part. Between the towns and the caves and the open fields, the levels felt samey, boring, and lacked any sort of intention that would make me think they were trying to give the player multiple ways to tackle problems.
The art design is solid but the repetition of assets and the pseudo-isometric perspective means that you aren't seeing much and when you get a chance to it can be hard to enjoy it. The dialogue and story weren't terrible but weren't super compelling (and the ending is lifted straight out of Prey 2017).
The twin-stick combat is okay (except for the melee weapons) but the skill trees are a spectrum between meh, useless, and decent but unable to be used often because of Action Point limitations. Unfortunately you end up doing a LOT of combat between quests and random overworld encounters, and it doesn't feel good for long.
The level design, coming from former Arkane devs (and even specifically former lead level designers!), is the most disappointing part. Between the towns and the caves and the open fields, the levels felt samey, boring, and lacked any sort of intention that would make me think they were trying to give the player multiple ways to tackle problems.
The art design is solid but the repetition of assets and the pseudo-isometric perspective means that you aren't seeing much and when you get a chance to it can be hard to enjoy it. The dialogue and story weren't terrible but weren't super compelling (and the ending is lifted straight out of Prey 2017).
Well this sure is a... WEIRD one snare drum laugh track. In all seriousness though, it's alright. It manages to build an in-depth isometric immersive sim, and on top of that provides an altogether decent story. Yet there really isn't much else on top of that foundation. The majority of side content is Bethesda style randomly generated fluff. Combat never really evolves past firing wildly into crowds. There's very little reason to explore beyond the critical path. A lot of the systems (particularly upgrades) go unused. Controls are awkward whether you're playing on Keyboard or with a controller. Don't get me wrong, it's a good game, great even, and I'll never turn down a new immersive sim. I just wish there was a bit more immersion to the simulation.
I really enjoyed my time with Weird West. The comic style illustrated art direction is a great choice in visual presentation for something that plays largely like a twin-stick shooter CRPG, and the central conceit for the story is really great. You play through 5 unique short stories as different characters, and they vaguely overlap and affect each other and all contribute to the overarching narrative at play.
"Starting Fresh" is something that could have really brought this game down a lot when it comes to the character builds/progression. But you're never really starting completely fresh. One of the progression systems goes with you across the stories, so you're always getting better at some things across the game. The other progression system is unique to each character, but this potential problem of feeling like your power gets taken away is alleviated in that once you're in a new character you're able to track down previous characters you played as and recruit them to your posse. They bring with them all the upgrades you gave them during their playthrough, as well as all of the items they had on them when you completed the story. In practice it's a system that feels really great, and in some ways made sure I was more connected to each of the characters.
The immersive sim components in terms of environmental mechanics that you can use to your advantage are pretty decent. I didn't engage with all of the mechanics but they seemed pretty powerful when I did choose to use them on the odd occasion.
Something that surprises me with this game is it seems like there's going to be an update roadmap with potential new content. For instance they just added a zombie plague event that I assume with only be around for a few weeks, and perhaps this will just be something that rotates consistently. It seems an odd game for these kinds of events, but maybe it means that if I return to it six months or a year from now, all sorts of weird new events will change how I play the game and give me an almost new experience again.
Buy it if you can, but if you have GamePass you kinda owe it to yourself to play it.
"Starting Fresh" is something that could have really brought this game down a lot when it comes to the character builds/progression. But you're never really starting completely fresh. One of the progression systems goes with you across the stories, so you're always getting better at some things across the game. The other progression system is unique to each character, but this potential problem of feeling like your power gets taken away is alleviated in that once you're in a new character you're able to track down previous characters you played as and recruit them to your posse. They bring with them all the upgrades you gave them during their playthrough, as well as all of the items they had on them when you completed the story. In practice it's a system that feels really great, and in some ways made sure I was more connected to each of the characters.
The immersive sim components in terms of environmental mechanics that you can use to your advantage are pretty decent. I didn't engage with all of the mechanics but they seemed pretty powerful when I did choose to use them on the odd occasion.
Something that surprises me with this game is it seems like there's going to be an update roadmap with potential new content. For instance they just added a zombie plague event that I assume with only be around for a few weeks, and perhaps this will just be something that rotates consistently. It seems an odd game for these kinds of events, but maybe it means that if I return to it six months or a year from now, all sorts of weird new events will change how I play the game and give me an almost new experience again.
Buy it if you can, but if you have GamePass you kinda owe it to yourself to play it.
I was excited for Weird West based on the pedigree of the developers at WolfEye Studios. I never watched any trailers or read any previews. The only pre release I saw was games coming out in March, which described this game as an old school CRPG, which it ended up not being.
So with no expectations, I went in blind and found a pretty good game. It's an immersive sim with a unique story telling device. The world and characters are great. I loved exploring, and it didn't bother me that most locations were reused. It made the unique locations stand out more.
There is a learning curve to the combat, but when it clicks, it feels mostly good. Though changing weapons always felt clunky for some reason. Stealth also takes time. It's a slow process that requires patience and a little luck. NPCs have an almost preternatural ability to turn around right before you knock them out. I enjoyed that unlike other stealth games that NPCs would change patrol routes and wouldn't stick to the same route when reloading a save. Some times it was frustrating, but mostly made the stealth more fun by being unpredictable.
The overarching story is okay, but the strength is more in the five individual stories that make up the whole. The main characters are mostly blank slates with their own pasts and concerns to deal with. I loved the mysterious supporting characters and wish they were in the game more. I unfortunately found a recurring character's story to have a slightly disappointing end, but overall, I enjoyed the characters and stories.
Weird West is a great first game from a new studio. It was a game that I didn't know I wanted. There are flaws that may be fixed with patches down the line. There are other flaws that are part of the design that won't be fixed. Ultimately, I enjoyed this game and eagerly await the next game from this studio.
So with no expectations, I went in blind and found a pretty good game. It's an immersive sim with a unique story telling device. The world and characters are great. I loved exploring, and it didn't bother me that most locations were reused. It made the unique locations stand out more.
There is a learning curve to the combat, but when it clicks, it feels mostly good. Though changing weapons always felt clunky for some reason. Stealth also takes time. It's a slow process that requires patience and a little luck. NPCs have an almost preternatural ability to turn around right before you knock them out. I enjoyed that unlike other stealth games that NPCs would change patrol routes and wouldn't stick to the same route when reloading a save. Some times it was frustrating, but mostly made the stealth more fun by being unpredictable.
The overarching story is okay, but the strength is more in the five individual stories that make up the whole. The main characters are mostly blank slates with their own pasts and concerns to deal with. I loved the mysterious supporting characters and wish they were in the game more. I unfortunately found a recurring character's story to have a slightly disappointing end, but overall, I enjoyed the characters and stories.
Weird West is a great first game from a new studio. It was a game that I didn't know I wanted. There are flaws that may be fixed with patches down the line. There are other flaws that are part of the design that won't be fixed. Ultimately, I enjoyed this game and eagerly await the next game from this studio.
I love weird west as a genre so this was an instant buy for me. I thought it was really neat how they managed to make it western but also a bit more modern with a female head hunter for example who saves her husband(!) from a siren (a monster that is traditionally female but in this case is not). The other characters are more traditional but still fun. But she was my highlight. It felt like someone finally took advantage of the fantasy aspect that makes the Western so Weird and honestly - finally some fresh air. Very nice. Very appreciated.
I wish I was more into the game play. D: Had a hard time with it bc it was definitely not for me but that's fine, I just ran around hacking at people with a machete regardless of whom I played. Not very elegant but effective. As long as I have fun I don't care.
I also really liked the overall story because it was NOT about revenge for a change. Woho!
Seriously, the writers really gave the world more than just a passing thought and it shows!
I wish I was more into the game play. D: Had a hard time with it bc it was definitely not for me but that's fine, I just ran around hacking at people with a machete regardless of whom I played. Not very elegant but effective. As long as I have fun I don't care.
I also really liked the overall story because it was NOT about revenge for a change. Woho!
Seriously, the writers really gave the world more than just a passing thought and it shows!
This review contains spoilers
Lovely little wild west romp that lets you run amok in a barely holding on supernatural county.
While it has some great ideas there to be fleshed out, such as the vendetta system and the twin stick shooting, a lot of it doesn't land. You will find that a lot of the good of the games comes from its art direction, voice acting and oddness of the first two chapters.
Combat has some interesting ideas, but most skills are less useful than the inherent didge everyone has, the only ones ones I ended up using frequently enough were the tornado and the pigmans bulletproof. Other things like the ambush related ones took too long to get set up, and then by the time you're that far in the game (unless you mainlined the build) you're strong enough to not need to even bother with stealth.
In it's defense however, the chain reaction of events you can set off and then have to adapt to due to things like explosions and enemy movement is really fun when it lands. There have been a few times where by my own hand while struggling with tight stealth, I'll take the risk of an explosion while things are quiet or parkour across buildings to really shift things in my favour. If you find yourself in samey arenas (which will happen a lot) trying choosing to play differently, you might surprise yourself, even if you have to burn through supplies to support said switch up.
The setting and atmosphere are great and fun, but only for a limited time, by the time of the Hunter I was pretty done and nothing from the world building really got me anymore. Past those initial fun and disturbing ideas, it quickly gets very repetitive in tone.
There are a few other nitpicks; like the inventory system having a limit just because, too big to worry about past just dumping stuff in someone elses. The exporation really touts multiple solutions, but very often is thrown to the wayside for another stealth section. eg hit a button to activate a fire trap that will only take 1/4 of an enemies health, why not just go for knockout, that sort of thing.
The ending is very meh as well, its not exactly a twist by the time you get there and the game makes sure of that intentionally, but its hardly one to get excited about, sadly by the time of the ending I was just waiting for the game to end so I don't think that speaks very highly for it.
While it has some great ideas there to be fleshed out, such as the vendetta system and the twin stick shooting, a lot of it doesn't land. You will find that a lot of the good of the games comes from its art direction, voice acting and oddness of the first two chapters.
Combat has some interesting ideas, but most skills are less useful than the inherent didge everyone has, the only ones ones I ended up using frequently enough were the tornado and the pigmans bulletproof. Other things like the ambush related ones took too long to get set up, and then by the time you're that far in the game (unless you mainlined the build) you're strong enough to not need to even bother with stealth.
In it's defense however, the chain reaction of events you can set off and then have to adapt to due to things like explosions and enemy movement is really fun when it lands. There have been a few times where by my own hand while struggling with tight stealth, I'll take the risk of an explosion while things are quiet or parkour across buildings to really shift things in my favour. If you find yourself in samey arenas (which will happen a lot) trying choosing to play differently, you might surprise yourself, even if you have to burn through supplies to support said switch up.
The setting and atmosphere are great and fun, but only for a limited time, by the time of the Hunter I was pretty done and nothing from the world building really got me anymore. Past those initial fun and disturbing ideas, it quickly gets very repetitive in tone.
There are a few other nitpicks; like the inventory system having a limit just because, too big to worry about past just dumping stuff in someone elses. The exporation really touts multiple solutions, but very often is thrown to the wayside for another stealth section. eg hit a button to activate a fire trap that will only take 1/4 of an enemies health, why not just go for knockout, that sort of thing.
The ending is very meh as well, its not exactly a twist by the time you get there and the game makes sure of that intentionally, but its hardly one to get excited about, sadly by the time of the ending I was just waiting for the game to end so I don't think that speaks very highly for it.