-Interesting enemies and verity of quests and items to keep the game interesting throughout.
- Even with the enemies carrying the game, the game felt slow sometimes and dragged out.
- The map and level design is great and promotes explorations really well.
- Even with the enemies carrying the game, the game felt slow sometimes and dragged out.
- The map and level design is great and promotes explorations really well.
Dropped this game at the final boss because I have a massive skill issue.
Blood West is one of that games that may make immersive sims great again — it has everything to be a exemplary representative of the genre and a good game generally. I enjoyed it a lot, especially the swamp level, but the mountains seemed to me kinda lame comparing to the other part of the game.
I also liked the skill system, but IMO most of the perks appears to be very situative and not as useful as they could be. On the other hand, maybe that was the point: you're making your own unique build using only necessary for this build skills. Anyway, the system is fine, but it could be better, I think.
The stealth system is okay too, but sometimes it may be frustrating a bit. Don't know if would've I changed it, prolly not.
Resuming all of the said, Blood West is a quite nice game with some big potential in it, which the devs can develop in the possible sequel or a similiar to this game project. Good work.
Blood West is one of that games that may make immersive sims great again — it has everything to be a exemplary representative of the genre and a good game generally. I enjoyed it a lot, especially the swamp level, but the mountains seemed to me kinda lame comparing to the other part of the game.
I also liked the skill system, but IMO most of the perks appears to be very situative and not as useful as they could be. On the other hand, maybe that was the point: you're making your own unique build using only necessary for this build skills. Anyway, the system is fine, but it could be better, I think.
The stealth system is okay too, but sometimes it may be frustrating a bit. Don't know if would've I changed it, prolly not.
Resuming all of the said, Blood West is a quite nice game with some big potential in it, which the devs can develop in the possible sequel or a similiar to this game project. Good work.
Coming off the heels of the phenomenal Postal Brain Damaged (one of my personal favorites of 2022) Hyperstrange decided to go in the opposite direction with the next game they made, with Blood West being more of an immersive sim. While its a bit under cooked in some ways I still had a fun time.
As the name suggests, the overall look of Blood West is a mixture of both the wild west and horror, with all the enemies being deformed in one way or another (even allies aren't immune considering you play as a zombie). In this department BW absolutely nails it with flying colors, as each locale is teeming with atmosphere that makes exploring feel that much more rewarding. Another strength of Blood West is just how engaging the loop can be, with every area being filled with nooks and crannies that reward all play styles (though I'd argue stealth is preferred but I'll talk about that later). Melee weapons in particular feel so much fun to use, with the ability to HEADSHOT with them making combat a joy with excellent sound design and visceral. Guns are also a valid option but since the game doesn't auto reload the risk of being caught without a full clip is something that can and will happen which increases tension. A perk system exists which gets the job done but more interesting is the trinket system, with 3 slots being available. While the game has way too many (and lots of them are very specific) I still loved being able to tinker my build that much further, with some options being really fucking broken (stack stealth on stealth).
If I had to say what Blood West falters at the most it would easily be its balancing and bosses. While I appreciate just how many options Blood West offers, its all a bit pointless when stealth trumps so many options. With the right perks you can absolutely BREEZE through the first act and most of the second/third because of just how busted the systems are (and how bad the AI can be). Couple that with just how brittle you are in the beginning and its very easy to build into stealth. I think Hyperscape knew this because Act 3 tries (emphasis on TRIES) to balance it out by introducing much tankier enemies and more open areas that aren't that stealth friendly. A valiant effort but a bit ruined since most enemies have the awareness of a fish and won't react to gunshots, allowing you to clear multiple areas with the loudest of weapons and they just won't come after you (except if you don't kill them in one shot which isn't even that common). On the subject of bosses I don't hate the idea in theory but the execution fucking sucks, as they all are just massive bullet sponges that all boil down to shoot the area that does the most damage. The final boss in particular essentially forces a switch to a more gun oriented build because of how fucking tanky it is, while also spawning even tankier enemies because why not. It all just feels counter-intuitive considering the generally low health pools of most enemies. On a minor issue the lack of some quality of life improvements is bizarre, with inventory management in particular being pretty clunky and slow.
With a bit of polish and some balancing fixes I can see a Blood West sequel being a phenomenal followup and one of the best in the Immersive Sim genre. For now it's simply a good time with some messy design choices here and there.
7.5/10
As the name suggests, the overall look of Blood West is a mixture of both the wild west and horror, with all the enemies being deformed in one way or another (even allies aren't immune considering you play as a zombie). In this department BW absolutely nails it with flying colors, as each locale is teeming with atmosphere that makes exploring feel that much more rewarding. Another strength of Blood West is just how engaging the loop can be, with every area being filled with nooks and crannies that reward all play styles (though I'd argue stealth is preferred but I'll talk about that later). Melee weapons in particular feel so much fun to use, with the ability to HEADSHOT with them making combat a joy with excellent sound design and visceral. Guns are also a valid option but since the game doesn't auto reload the risk of being caught without a full clip is something that can and will happen which increases tension. A perk system exists which gets the job done but more interesting is the trinket system, with 3 slots being available. While the game has way too many (and lots of them are very specific) I still loved being able to tinker my build that much further, with some options being really fucking broken (stack stealth on stealth).
If I had to say what Blood West falters at the most it would easily be its balancing and bosses. While I appreciate just how many options Blood West offers, its all a bit pointless when stealth trumps so many options. With the right perks you can absolutely BREEZE through the first act and most of the second/third because of just how busted the systems are (and how bad the AI can be). Couple that with just how brittle you are in the beginning and its very easy to build into stealth. I think Hyperscape knew this because Act 3 tries (emphasis on TRIES) to balance it out by introducing much tankier enemies and more open areas that aren't that stealth friendly. A valiant effort but a bit ruined since most enemies have the awareness of a fish and won't react to gunshots, allowing you to clear multiple areas with the loudest of weapons and they just won't come after you (except if you don't kill them in one shot which isn't even that common). On the subject of bosses I don't hate the idea in theory but the execution fucking sucks, as they all are just massive bullet sponges that all boil down to shoot the area that does the most damage. The final boss in particular essentially forces a switch to a more gun oriented build because of how fucking tanky it is, while also spawning even tankier enemies because why not. It all just feels counter-intuitive considering the generally low health pools of most enemies. On a minor issue the lack of some quality of life improvements is bizarre, with inventory management in particular being pretty clunky and slow.
With a bit of polish and some balancing fixes I can see a Blood West sequel being a phenomenal followup and one of the best in the Immersive Sim genre. For now it's simply a good time with some messy design choices here and there.
7.5/10
+ Great mood with the cursed wild west vibe
+ Good looking visuals & art style
+ Varied enough enemies for each location
+ Enemies are better dealt with with specific strats and weak points
+ A lot of unique equipment loot variety
- Grind based inventory management is broken and missing a LOT of QoL features, examples:
you can't place an item on top of another to replace its position;
items are always placed horizontally so even if you have space vertically you cant pickup or unequip items;
and more problems I've forgot, all this makes inventory management really annoying...
(Resident Evil got this right decades ago come on)
- Story almost might as well not be there...
- Leveling perks are meh
- Gameplay loop & objectives starts getting a bit repetitive
Solid game for Wild West enjoyers, just needs riding on the sunset and train level.
+ Good looking visuals & art style
+ Varied enough enemies for each location
+ Enemies are better dealt with with specific strats and weak points
+ A lot of unique equipment loot variety
- Grind based inventory management is broken and missing a LOT of QoL features, examples:
you can't place an item on top of another to replace its position;
items are always placed horizontally so even if you have space vertically you cant pickup or unequip items;
and more problems I've forgot, all this makes inventory management really annoying...
(Resident Evil got this right decades ago come on)
- Story almost might as well not be there...
- Leveling perks are meh
- Gameplay loop & objectives starts getting a bit repetitive
Solid game for Wild West enjoyers, just needs riding on the sunset and train level.
Was playing this before i got sidetracked by Elden Ring and some other fps
Feels a bit like playing a horror immersive sim, so i def will come back and finish this
Feels a bit like playing a horror immersive sim, so i def will come back and finish this
It's.... okay. I think it overstays its welcome (disregarding the much weaker Act 3 compared to the firs two Acts) simply because it's a very simple gameplay loop that never evolves or changes and has worn out its welcome and becomes tedious by Act 3.
A lot of the systems just sort of fall apart by the end - resources are not scarce (and exploration mostly just gives you these resources, so exploration is pretty unrewarding), leveling up doesn't really matter because most perks are not very useful or interesting, and what you were doing in the first hour is still what you'll be doing in the 15th. The maps start off seeming like these huge unexplored expanses, but in reality they're pretty small and just completely littered with enemies so that you're forced to crawl around them slowly because you die extremely quickly.
I think I'd probably be singing this game's praises if it was half the length, the leveling system was revamped to be more interesting, and some of the more tedious elements like the death penalties were taken out. But instead the game feels stretched for too long, and the problems become more and more apparent the longer you play it.
Still, I didn't hate it, and actually quite enjoyed it at times, I just wish the game either would have ended sooner or had a better system in place to evolve the gameplay for the entire length of the playthrough.
A lot of the systems just sort of fall apart by the end - resources are not scarce (and exploration mostly just gives you these resources, so exploration is pretty unrewarding), leveling up doesn't really matter because most perks are not very useful or interesting, and what you were doing in the first hour is still what you'll be doing in the 15th. The maps start off seeming like these huge unexplored expanses, but in reality they're pretty small and just completely littered with enemies so that you're forced to crawl around them slowly because you die extremely quickly.
I think I'd probably be singing this game's praises if it was half the length, the leveling system was revamped to be more interesting, and some of the more tedious elements like the death penalties were taken out. But instead the game feels stretched for too long, and the problems become more and more apparent the longer you play it.
Still, I didn't hate it, and actually quite enjoyed it at times, I just wish the game either would have ended sooner or had a better system in place to evolve the gameplay for the entire length of the playthrough.
I'm honestly shocked by just how much I enjoyed Blood West. I tend to enjoy if not love stealth games (Dishonored being the legendary exception to that), but I found the atmosphere and general gameplay loop to be satisfying and tense.
Blood West doesn't have the deepest stealth systems, but where it lacks there, it makes up for in some stellar atmosphere. The chilling music comes in unexpectedly and adds to the overall vibe, the sound of the world draws you in further, and enemy sounds serve the double purpose of adding to the tension while also giving you a sense of your surroundings. It's nearly perfect, if not used super effectively as a mechanic.
Its idea of splitting up the open world into three separate regions also serves to its benefit, letting it explore three distinct landscapes that each add new horrors while helping keep gameplay fresh. It also helps the pacing, since you aren't feeling like you need to go 12 miles just to get to the next objective marker.
That variety continues forth with weapon and enemy designs, each growing in power and becoming more and more messed up through the game's three chapters. It was a joy finding new weapons, even if many of them are just upgrades of previous weapon designs.
The only complaints I have are of that minor gripe regarding stealth, and the boss designs. Each boss at the end of each chapter is cool in concept, but generally boils down to a bullet sponge that relies more on enemy spawns than it does difficulty of the actual boss. There were a lot of times where Alt + F4 was a saving grace since ammo counts carry over between lives. This was especially true with the final boss which became particularly frustrating.
Despite these gripes, I'm still super happy with the time I put into Blood West. We need more open-world stealth games like this (which I've pleasantly heard the Stalker series does beautifully), especially those willing to delve into the supernatural in such an inspired way.
Blood West doesn't have the deepest stealth systems, but where it lacks there, it makes up for in some stellar atmosphere. The chilling music comes in unexpectedly and adds to the overall vibe, the sound of the world draws you in further, and enemy sounds serve the double purpose of adding to the tension while also giving you a sense of your surroundings. It's nearly perfect, if not used super effectively as a mechanic.
Its idea of splitting up the open world into three separate regions also serves to its benefit, letting it explore three distinct landscapes that each add new horrors while helping keep gameplay fresh. It also helps the pacing, since you aren't feeling like you need to go 12 miles just to get to the next objective marker.
That variety continues forth with weapon and enemy designs, each growing in power and becoming more and more messed up through the game's three chapters. It was a joy finding new weapons, even if many of them are just upgrades of previous weapon designs.
The only complaints I have are of that minor gripe regarding stealth, and the boss designs. Each boss at the end of each chapter is cool in concept, but generally boils down to a bullet sponge that relies more on enemy spawns than it does difficulty of the actual boss. There were a lot of times where Alt + F4 was a saving grace since ammo counts carry over between lives. This was especially true with the final boss which became particularly frustrating.
Despite these gripes, I'm still super happy with the time I put into Blood West. We need more open-world stealth games like this (which I've pleasantly heard the Stalker series does beautifully), especially those willing to delve into the supernatural in such an inspired way.
God damm, my definitiv game of the year. If you like games like Stalker or just have fun looting the Wasteland in Fallout than this is the Game for you. An incredible, smartly designt immersive Sim FPS that actually gets better the further you get.
It starts off slow with you having to deal with rusty revolvers and relying on Stealth kills, eventually ramping up to having you become a Wild West God blasting heads with bullrifles. I can not stress enough how satisfiying the progression is. By the end youll be stacked with weapons, trinkets and perks that all change your build in really different ways. Ill go as far as to say it does progression better than most traditional rpgs.
In addition to that the enemie varity is incredible. From chapter to chapter Blood West changes it up just enough for you to feel powerful, but it never forgets to challenge you. Every enemie has different tactics for different builds, that youll have to learn and adapt to play well against them. And it all ties into my favorite thing about Blood West: It just lets you go. There is a world and a narrativ to experience for sure, but it never forces itself on you. Already know where objectives and late game weapons are ? Just go there, no strings attachet. I have so many secrets still to discover and Im so ready for another playthrough. Play Blood West, Blood West is fucking awseome.
It starts off slow with you having to deal with rusty revolvers and relying on Stealth kills, eventually ramping up to having you become a Wild West God blasting heads with bullrifles. I can not stress enough how satisfiying the progression is. By the end youll be stacked with weapons, trinkets and perks that all change your build in really different ways. Ill go as far as to say it does progression better than most traditional rpgs.
In addition to that the enemie varity is incredible. From chapter to chapter Blood West changes it up just enough for you to feel powerful, but it never forgets to challenge you. Every enemie has different tactics for different builds, that youll have to learn and adapt to play well against them. And it all ties into my favorite thing about Blood West: It just lets you go. There is a world and a narrativ to experience for sure, but it never forces itself on you. Already know where objectives and late game weapons are ? Just go there, no strings attachet. I have so many secrets still to discover and Im so ready for another playthrough. Play Blood West, Blood West is fucking awseome.
Your Birth Month is Your Horror Western Game Name:
January: Hard West
February: Weird West
March: Hell West
April: Dark West
May: Undead West
June: Doom West
July: Demon West
August: Ominous West
September: Evil West
October: Abominable West
November: Cursed West
December: Blood West
January: Hard West
February: Weird West
March: Hell West
April: Dark West
May: Undead West
June: Doom West
July: Demon West
August: Ominous West
September: Evil West
October: Abominable West
November: Cursed West
December: Blood West
Dark Souls de disparos y con sigilo... mal, pero mal de fatal. Huid.
note: i wrote a review for this game in early 2023 which i've since expanded & revised below for the december 2023 full release
great fundamentals (it feels good to shoot guys, i like cowboys) but extremely shaky in the finer details (everything else). at its core theres a great game here; i love slinking around the rotting desertscape and stepping on meaty viscous carrion and blowing grub men's heads up with my big rifle, but the interstitial bits dont facilitate those things very well. fundamentally the guns feel good and shoot better; cowboy weapons are always a treat because the slow reload times and low magazine sizes demand a lot of patience and careful consideration and so combat encounters become a game of stealth and precision rather than just jumping around spraying bullets everywhere (which i'm shitty at!). the three maps available in the full campaign are packed with bits of gear and special guns but feel very cold towards the player, since you can't really interact with any of the objects laying around and there's scary monsters that bite you everywhere. my initial playthrough of the game months ago had me really annoyed with all the backtracking needed to get around the map but further updates have mitigated that a little bit with some handy teleporation items. the problem though is that in theory this could be a rich wild west hell world but in practice it almost plays like a roguelike - you run to a location you haven't explored, run around cover picking up random bullets and bandages and shooting zombies in the head (you have to land head shots, every enemy takes about 20000 body shots to kill), and then you get low on resources and teleport back home to sell the loot and start over. it's somewhat fun at first but it gets old pretty fast!
a lot of this may just be my shitty video game abilities clashing with an intentionally hostile world, which would make sense - this is a setting warped by evil undead monsters, there's eldritch blood magic or something, i dunno but you would expect it to be very harsh towards human survival. where the game lost me is in trying to pull an actual narrative out of any of this. the basic story (i think) is that you're a dead gunslinger revived by native american ghosts? to purge the land of cursed artifacts which have allowed evil flying skulls and wendigos to kill everyone... yeah obviously this is pretty dumb. i don't know if the native american elements are even horribly offensive beyond being cliched, but they seem to be included as a flimsy justification for the fantastical story elements and if you're not gonna put the effort in to do a decent portrayal then you're just asking for some scrutiny, like come on. most of the lore comes via little notes scattered around the map that take up inventory space and aren't particularly interesting and i ended up just immediately selling them off without reading after going thru about twenty or so. i don't mean to be entirely negative though because i do like the general tone and a lot of the creature designs!! there clearly is a lot of heart here but it feels like some of the narrative and theming are simply there so that the gameplay elements (which are fun to be clear, if repetitive) have a reason to exist. i've had a hard time getting into this one in the past but with the full release it's warmed on me a little, so even if i never play this one again i'll probably still check out whatever the developers make next.
great fundamentals (it feels good to shoot guys, i like cowboys) but extremely shaky in the finer details (everything else). at its core theres a great game here; i love slinking around the rotting desertscape and stepping on meaty viscous carrion and blowing grub men's heads up with my big rifle, but the interstitial bits dont facilitate those things very well. fundamentally the guns feel good and shoot better; cowboy weapons are always a treat because the slow reload times and low magazine sizes demand a lot of patience and careful consideration and so combat encounters become a game of stealth and precision rather than just jumping around spraying bullets everywhere (which i'm shitty at!). the three maps available in the full campaign are packed with bits of gear and special guns but feel very cold towards the player, since you can't really interact with any of the objects laying around and there's scary monsters that bite you everywhere. my initial playthrough of the game months ago had me really annoyed with all the backtracking needed to get around the map but further updates have mitigated that a little bit with some handy teleporation items. the problem though is that in theory this could be a rich wild west hell world but in practice it almost plays like a roguelike - you run to a location you haven't explored, run around cover picking up random bullets and bandages and shooting zombies in the head (you have to land head shots, every enemy takes about 20000 body shots to kill), and then you get low on resources and teleport back home to sell the loot and start over. it's somewhat fun at first but it gets old pretty fast!
a lot of this may just be my shitty video game abilities clashing with an intentionally hostile world, which would make sense - this is a setting warped by evil undead monsters, there's eldritch blood magic or something, i dunno but you would expect it to be very harsh towards human survival. where the game lost me is in trying to pull an actual narrative out of any of this. the basic story (i think) is that you're a dead gunslinger revived by native american ghosts? to purge the land of cursed artifacts which have allowed evil flying skulls and wendigos to kill everyone... yeah obviously this is pretty dumb. i don't know if the native american elements are even horribly offensive beyond being cliched, but they seem to be included as a flimsy justification for the fantastical story elements and if you're not gonna put the effort in to do a decent portrayal then you're just asking for some scrutiny, like come on. most of the lore comes via little notes scattered around the map that take up inventory space and aren't particularly interesting and i ended up just immediately selling them off without reading after going thru about twenty or so. i don't mean to be entirely negative though because i do like the general tone and a lot of the creature designs!! there clearly is a lot of heart here but it feels like some of the narrative and theming are simply there so that the gameplay elements (which are fun to be clear, if repetitive) have a reason to exist. i've had a hard time getting into this one in the past but with the full release it's warmed on me a little, so even if i never play this one again i'll probably still check out whatever the developers make next.
Decent immersive-FPS with a focus on stealth.
A complete open-world each chapter free to explore as you like, full of secrets and extra goodies. Servicable skilltree that doesn't offer a lot of interesting perks though.
Guns in this game are (literally) hit or miss, as the leniency with headshots is non existent (as in, being barely a few pixels off will count as a miss), and bodyshots are a waste of ammo on virtually every weapon except for the shotgun.
Stealth in this game is really easy most of the time, but extremely punishing if you mess up, since guns-blazing approaches require you to be super accurate with headshots (or have enough shotgun shells on hand), and as mentioned before; headshots have no leniency and all alerted enemies move their heads super sporadically.
The bosses are laughably easy, along with a really, really annoying ending that nullifies any and all efforts to say the least without spoiling it.
A complete open-world each chapter free to explore as you like, full of secrets and extra goodies. Servicable skilltree that doesn't offer a lot of interesting perks though.
Guns in this game are (literally) hit or miss, as the leniency with headshots is non existent (as in, being barely a few pixels off will count as a miss), and bodyshots are a waste of ammo on virtually every weapon except for the shotgun.
Stealth in this game is really easy most of the time, but extremely punishing if you mess up, since guns-blazing approaches require you to be super accurate with headshots (or have enough shotgun shells on hand), and as mentioned before; headshots have no leniency and all alerted enemies move their heads super sporadically.
The bosses are laughably easy, along with a really, really annoying ending that nullifies any and all efforts to say the least without spoiling it.
Fanning a Rusty Revolver
Dark Souls Combat
Great western kinda empty but its an indie game
Explaoration for great loot is fun
Enemies are unique with different quirks to defeat
Story is not that interseting servers the gameplay
Great western kinda empty but its an indie game
Explaoration for great loot is fun
Enemies are unique with different quirks to defeat
Story is not that interseting servers the gameplay
This game almost feels like it's perfectly made for me; it's a western game, has a focus on stealth, open world that's separated in multiple smaller maps, and the hardcore gameplay that forces you to properly plan for everything. There is just so much to love, but as the game goes on what there isn't to love also becomes bigger.
The game is focused on stealth but said stealth feels really barebones, you only really have three stealth tools: a bow/crossbow/melee weapon, throwable rocks and bushes to hide on. Many times you can be spotted by an enemy you couldn't have seen, and being spotted in a place full of enemies is practically immediate death, as there's barely any places to hide and enemies will chase you for miles. This is at its worst during the last chapter when the game introduces bullet sponges and invisible enemies.
In general there's just a lot of shit that I can only describe as tedious. The game has a lot of skills, but many don't do anything interesting; a bunch of artifacts, but you can only equip 3, which also doesn't make sense since many artifacts have a con for using them; and a ton of weapons but you can only use a large and a small weapon at a time. There's no need to have such annoying limits, which is also combined with how dying gives you a debuff.
I'm just complaining so much cus this genuinely could be one of my favorite games, it takes all of the right steps and in general does so much cool shit. But it just goes on for too long and has too many components which feel not so much undercooked but rather fully unnecessary.
The game is focused on stealth but said stealth feels really barebones, you only really have three stealth tools: a bow/crossbow/melee weapon, throwable rocks and bushes to hide on. Many times you can be spotted by an enemy you couldn't have seen, and being spotted in a place full of enemies is practically immediate death, as there's barely any places to hide and enemies will chase you for miles. This is at its worst during the last chapter when the game introduces bullet sponges and invisible enemies.
In general there's just a lot of shit that I can only describe as tedious. The game has a lot of skills, but many don't do anything interesting; a bunch of artifacts, but you can only equip 3, which also doesn't make sense since many artifacts have a con for using them; and a ton of weapons but you can only use a large and a small weapon at a time. There's no need to have such annoying limits, which is also combined with how dying gives you a debuff.
I'm just complaining so much cus this genuinely could be one of my favorite games, it takes all of the right steps and in general does so much cool shit. But it just goes on for too long and has too many components which feel not so much undercooked but rather fully unnecessary.
Jogo tem um pouco de vários jogos que amo como System Shock 2, STALKER, Pathologic 2, Diablo 2 mas principalmente Huntshowdown que fiquei feliz dessa versão single player, se curte esses jogos você vai amar
Blood West is a boomer shooter take on an immersive sim that is dripping with atmosphere and has good writing on the periphery. It’s intense onboarding will be too much for most I feel, and ultimately it’s empty worlds left me wanting for more. But once I did manage to click with its combat powered by a surprisingly diverse and comprehensive perk system, I could see why it has so many fans. I’d love to suit up for a more refined sequel, but if you are looking for an unforgiving stealthy immersive sim that isn’t pulling punches, this might be a sleeper hit for you. Read my full review on pixelsforbreakfast.net
Blood West is a stealth FPS game set in the Wild West era where weird west legends meet eldritch horror. Which is already a really unique and interesting setting and to be honest, I really like it. You have also such vast variety of enemies and different weapons, it's crazy. Each new chapter confronts you with new types of monster and each new enemy has a different behavior which means you always have to adapt and be careful whenever you encounter a new enemy. You never know what crazy stuff these enemies can do and you can easily find yourself swarmed by eldritch monsters. However, the game never forces a playing style on the player, so you can always decide how you want to play the game without any disadvantages. When you die, you will respawn at the trader and as punishment you will get a curse which gets worse when you die again. Two things that I probably adore the most are the voice acting and the art design. Both fit the tone of the game extremely well. So since Blood West is a stealth FPS game, the stealth part must be the biggest strength, right ? No not really, it felt a bit random at times and how easily the enemies can see or especially hear you can be frustrating. The monsters also can't hear gunshots, which was weird but I understand why the devs chose this route because that way you can at least use guns without big drawbacks. Overall a really fantastic game with a beautiful art style and really unique enemy design. Each new chapter will introduce you to dozens of new monsters and you must adapt to each new enemy you encounter and find the best way to defeat the monster without wasting much recourses. I can see myself easily replaying Blood West because of it's vast variety of weapons, monsters and perks. It's not an easy game, it is a challenging game but it was still a ton of fun and it's impressive what the developers have achieved.
#5 in my List of Top 5 Games of 2023
Games I finished in 2023 Ranked
#5 in my List of Top 5 Games of 2023
Games I finished in 2023 Ranked
At it's core Blood West is basically a smaller scale Stalker with more traditional RPG elements, set in a "weird west" setting
That sounds good at first, and at first it is! You are very vulnerable so sneaking around, taking enemies out silently one-by-one (which doesn't even have to be silent as long as it's a one hit kill?) before it devolves into frantic fights for your live are fun - at first. The issue is that the combat in the game never really evolves in a meaningful way. The enemies get tougher, sometimes you cannot headshot them immediately and you unlock perks like more health or a short bullet time mode whenever you aim down sites, but the general combat flow doesn't change. And there really isn't much to the game besides combat. You can explore optional areas to level up and find loot but all of that is still all in service of the combat. I had fun with the game for roughly 7-9 hours and then stopped when it became clear that this is how the rest of the game would play out.
That sounds good at first, and at first it is! You are very vulnerable so sneaking around, taking enemies out silently one-by-one (which doesn't even have to be silent as long as it's a one hit kill?) before it devolves into frantic fights for your live are fun - at first. The issue is that the combat in the game never really evolves in a meaningful way. The enemies get tougher, sometimes you cannot headshot them immediately and you unlock perks like more health or a short bullet time mode whenever you aim down sites, but the general combat flow doesn't change. And there really isn't much to the game besides combat. You can explore optional areas to level up and find loot but all of that is still all in service of the combat. I had fun with the game for roughly 7-9 hours and then stopped when it became clear that this is how the rest of the game would play out.
Hard at first but after you understand the mechanics gets much better
Played in early access between 07.13.2023 and 07.15.2023
I picked this up because after playing the System Shock remake I've been on an immersive sim kick. The game was designed to be an intentionally clunky old school immersive sim, right down to needing to reload your weapon manually when you are out of ammo, along with having limited slots in your quick access bar, and limited inventory so be prepared to stockpile your loot somewhere near a trader. You're only allowed two weapon slots; the first can fit all weapons, the second allows only the knife, pistol, and weapons of similar sizes. You also have three accessory slots for healing items along with Molotovs and drinks that give you specific bonuses.
The aggro system is odd. Enemies are able to hear your footsteps and see you if you are in their line of sight. They cannot however hear your gunshots. Once you aggro one enemy, every single one within several meters of it will be aggroed as well, so you will be ambushed the moment you are spotted. The enemies will chase you until they can no longer see or hear you, and they are able to follow you eons away from their placements. The gunners will always lead their shots, so you have to be mindful to change direction after you hear them fire or you will run into the bullet's path.
The basic ammo have almost no punch aside from getting headshots. The enemies in the second map are spongy as all hell, able to soak up to about four bullets from the upgraded revolver I got from the first map, and about three non-headshots from the double barrel shotgun. Headshots are pretty much mandatory to kill. I don't know if the guns' ironsights don't line up to the center of the screen or I'm just bad at aiming, but I've had an easier time getting headshots from the crossbow than any other weapon since the aiming reticle doesn't disappear when I ADS. I've had better luck with the knife in the first map which has a surprisingly long reach and has even the headshot function if you knife the opposition in the head.
Keep in mind you'll be facing more than three enemies at a time if you aggro any one of them in the crowd so it's absolutely not advisable to start a firefight, which is odd since the steam page advertised that it is an option for progression. The game throws a lot of different enemies at you when you aggro them, and you are left to basically shimmy through a maze of lead on bullet fire while trying to headshot the running melee rushers. With the limited HP you have, you are brought down in about a total of four hits from enemy fire unless you upgrade your HP, then it's maybe five.
Death in the game is incredibly punishing. When you die, you will suffer a penalty towards one of your attributes unless you have a trinket that protects you. Die three times and the penalty becomes a curse that penalizes you further. You could have less max HP or make more noise when you sneak, or various other things. You are able to heal the curses through drinking a specific potion, or by doing a task that the totem in the respawn point gives you if your penalty becomes a curse after three deaths.
I would have been fine with how the curses worked, but the game punishes you further with how far some of the respawn points are. In the second map, there are very strong and spongy enemies that ambush you if you aren't stealthy, and I was only able to find one respawn point, which is the one you start at when starting the map. So not only will you suffer curses, but you will have to traverse back all the way from your respawn point to where you wanted to go with all of the enemies you've killed along the way respawned. You are put at a further disadvantage each time because you are spending money to keep yourself stocked with ammo along with the trinket to protect you from the curses. Eventually you may run out of those resources effectively making the game needlessly more difficult and tedious to get through, forcing you to grind to kill the respawned enemies to gather up the money needed to remove the curses and keep you healthy.
Mechanically the immersive sim portions work pretty well and the game has an interesting world to explore, especially the second map. The issue is that the game is brutal and expects you to take a lot of punishment. However instead of designing it in a way where you learn from your mistakes, it punishes you further with a very questionable enemy design where you are effectively playing a lead on bullet hell with far away spawn points. It tested my patience so much that I essentially save scummed to circumvent its mechanics rather than to use them as intended, because after awhile, trying to get through an area's long slouches of walking from point A to B without dying to bulletfire had stopped being fun.
Another point I should make is that the game has no real way to save either. You're only given two options to save your progress; either at a respawn point or you can quit the game through the pause menu and it will save at the exact location you're standing at. Your progress will be overwritten the moment you respawn, so the way to circumvent its long and tedious grinding is to force quit the game between the time you die and the moment you respawn. That way you are able to resume the game without losing progress if you've saved through quitting the game through the pause menu.
With the way the save system is designed, it's very likely that the devs do not want you to create your own checkpoints and quicksaves, hence why I'm a lot harsher with my criticism of the game. However the choice is your's. Either you waste time to manually save the game then resume, then alt+f4 and resume the game quickly after dying, or waste likely more time to grind to get back what you've lost and find your way back to where you've died.
As this game is still in early access, I'm hoping the devs will iron out and balance some of the shortcomings to make this game worthwhile to return to when chapter 3 rolls around in December.
I picked this up because after playing the System Shock remake I've been on an immersive sim kick. The game was designed to be an intentionally clunky old school immersive sim, right down to needing to reload your weapon manually when you are out of ammo, along with having limited slots in your quick access bar, and limited inventory so be prepared to stockpile your loot somewhere near a trader. You're only allowed two weapon slots; the first can fit all weapons, the second allows only the knife, pistol, and weapons of similar sizes. You also have three accessory slots for healing items along with Molotovs and drinks that give you specific bonuses.
The aggro system is odd. Enemies are able to hear your footsteps and see you if you are in their line of sight. They cannot however hear your gunshots. Once you aggro one enemy, every single one within several meters of it will be aggroed as well, so you will be ambushed the moment you are spotted. The enemies will chase you until they can no longer see or hear you, and they are able to follow you eons away from their placements. The gunners will always lead their shots, so you have to be mindful to change direction after you hear them fire or you will run into the bullet's path.
The basic ammo have almost no punch aside from getting headshots. The enemies in the second map are spongy as all hell, able to soak up to about four bullets from the upgraded revolver I got from the first map, and about three non-headshots from the double barrel shotgun. Headshots are pretty much mandatory to kill. I don't know if the guns' ironsights don't line up to the center of the screen or I'm just bad at aiming, but I've had an easier time getting headshots from the crossbow than any other weapon since the aiming reticle doesn't disappear when I ADS. I've had better luck with the knife in the first map which has a surprisingly long reach and has even the headshot function if you knife the opposition in the head.
Keep in mind you'll be facing more than three enemies at a time if you aggro any one of them in the crowd so it's absolutely not advisable to start a firefight, which is odd since the steam page advertised that it is an option for progression. The game throws a lot of different enemies at you when you aggro them, and you are left to basically shimmy through a maze of lead on bullet fire while trying to headshot the running melee rushers. With the limited HP you have, you are brought down in about a total of four hits from enemy fire unless you upgrade your HP, then it's maybe five.
Death in the game is incredibly punishing. When you die, you will suffer a penalty towards one of your attributes unless you have a trinket that protects you. Die three times and the penalty becomes a curse that penalizes you further. You could have less max HP or make more noise when you sneak, or various other things. You are able to heal the curses through drinking a specific potion, or by doing a task that the totem in the respawn point gives you if your penalty becomes a curse after three deaths.
I would have been fine with how the curses worked, but the game punishes you further with how far some of the respawn points are. In the second map, there are very strong and spongy enemies that ambush you if you aren't stealthy, and I was only able to find one respawn point, which is the one you start at when starting the map. So not only will you suffer curses, but you will have to traverse back all the way from your respawn point to where you wanted to go with all of the enemies you've killed along the way respawned. You are put at a further disadvantage each time because you are spending money to keep yourself stocked with ammo along with the trinket to protect you from the curses. Eventually you may run out of those resources effectively making the game needlessly more difficult and tedious to get through, forcing you to grind to kill the respawned enemies to gather up the money needed to remove the curses and keep you healthy.
Mechanically the immersive sim portions work pretty well and the game has an interesting world to explore, especially the second map. The issue is that the game is brutal and expects you to take a lot of punishment. However instead of designing it in a way where you learn from your mistakes, it punishes you further with a very questionable enemy design where you are effectively playing a lead on bullet hell with far away spawn points. It tested my patience so much that I essentially save scummed to circumvent its mechanics rather than to use them as intended, because after awhile, trying to get through an area's long slouches of walking from point A to B without dying to bulletfire had stopped being fun.
Another point I should make is that the game has no real way to save either. You're only given two options to save your progress; either at a respawn point or you can quit the game through the pause menu and it will save at the exact location you're standing at. Your progress will be overwritten the moment you respawn, so the way to circumvent its long and tedious grinding is to force quit the game between the time you die and the moment you respawn. That way you are able to resume the game without losing progress if you've saved through quitting the game through the pause menu.
With the way the save system is designed, it's very likely that the devs do not want you to create your own checkpoints and quicksaves, hence why I'm a lot harsher with my criticism of the game. However the choice is your's. Either you waste time to manually save the game then resume, then alt+f4 and resume the game quickly after dying, or waste likely more time to grind to get back what you've lost and find your way back to where you've died.
As this game is still in early access, I'm hoping the devs will iron out and balance some of the shortcomings to make this game worthwhile to return to when chapter 3 rolls around in December.
(16.02.22., Early Access)
Blood West, even in the state that it's in right now, is very charming, and there is fun to be had with it's wanky stealth and corny-yet-creepy enemies, big and empty (in a good way) areas, and pretty fun-to-use weapons. But it is severely incomplete right now, and while it can captivate pretty easily, it's not the best at keeping you coming back at the moment. In other words: when I booted this one up for the first time, I played 3 hours straight without even noticing, which is a lot for me, but then couldn't bare coming back to it and stealthing around for resourses and quest items. I hope that they iron out some of the pacing issues, because as fun as it is to travel a long way from the "hub" to the next interesting area, encountering enemies and detour opportuinites along the way, it's not that fun to then journey the same way back every time and not have any opportunity to fast travel to where you've already explored, because Blood West is fun when you're seeing new things or going through new locals, but redoing anything is not enjoyable at all.
Other than that, the special ammo mechanic is very lacking in meaningful decisions for the player, just as the artefacts. Special ammo is pretty scarce and it's not as exciting as it could've been - the Gold variants are just stronger, but not to a degree that feels good, and the anti-spirit ammo feels pointless concidering how little spirits you encounter in any area, and how little difference the special ammo makes. The artefacts kinda suffer the same problem - the effects are just really flacid. In general, it's kinda what can be said about a lot of elements of this game at this point, but these are just the things that stuck out the most to me. Overall, I have high hopes for this one, though I'm not holding my breath.
Blood West, even in the state that it's in right now, is very charming, and there is fun to be had with it's wanky stealth and corny-yet-creepy enemies, big and empty (in a good way) areas, and pretty fun-to-use weapons. But it is severely incomplete right now, and while it can captivate pretty easily, it's not the best at keeping you coming back at the moment. In other words: when I booted this one up for the first time, I played 3 hours straight without even noticing, which is a lot for me, but then couldn't bare coming back to it and stealthing around for resourses and quest items. I hope that they iron out some of the pacing issues, because as fun as it is to travel a long way from the "hub" to the next interesting area, encountering enemies and detour opportuinites along the way, it's not that fun to then journey the same way back every time and not have any opportunity to fast travel to where you've already explored, because Blood West is fun when you're seeing new things or going through new locals, but redoing anything is not enjoyable at all.
Other than that, the special ammo mechanic is very lacking in meaningful decisions for the player, just as the artefacts. Special ammo is pretty scarce and it's not as exciting as it could've been - the Gold variants are just stronger, but not to a degree that feels good, and the anti-spirit ammo feels pointless concidering how little spirits you encounter in any area, and how little difference the special ammo makes. The artefacts kinda suffer the same problem - the effects are just really flacid. In general, it's kinda what can be said about a lot of elements of this game at this point, but these are just the things that stuck out the most to me. Overall, I have high hopes for this one, though I'm not holding my breath.