I burnt-out on tactical RPGs years ago and couldn't get back into the genre for years. Then this game came along and set me entirely on fire — not just for the incredible Bravado system — but tactical RPGs as a whole. This game was so incredibly good, I still feel insane for how much I loved it. Like, really? Just me who thinks the chase / train levels are genius? Just me who thinks that the Bravado death-chains reinvent the whole genre?!? Oh well. Lock me in an asylum and throw away the key. This game made me absolutely gaga.
Lives up to its name, first and foremost when it comes to the difficulty level. A fun, challenging game which gets the mood across in an engaging way and kept my interest throughout the campaign, though the scenarios started playing out too samey after a while.
The Poker hands level up system was really interesting, and I'm happy to have experienced the game for this aspect alone. Sound effects were also consistently good, with the sound of gunshots and the Bravado trigger just as satisfying every single time. Graphics were crisp and clean, with some nice atmospheric lightning, especially in the night scenarios. Cool character and UI design.
The Poker hands level up system was really interesting, and I'm happy to have experienced the game for this aspect alone. Sound effects were also consistently good, with the sound of gunshots and the Bravado trigger just as satisfying every single time. Graphics were crisp and clean, with some nice atmospheric lightning, especially in the night scenarios. Cool character and UI design.
Compared to the first game in the series, this one is vastly superior. It now has more than one voice actor!
Okay, jokes aside, Hard West 2 takes everything that worked with the first game and refined it, and takes everything that was unbearable and either makes it better or cuts it out. The different posse members now feel unique with their special abilities and modifiers, the narrative slides don't leave you in fear of getting an annoying drawback or anything, the story isn't bogged down with too much grimdark, and ricocheting bullets is available to pretty much everyone (even the bad guys) and makes playing the game feel different to other tactical strategy games.
If you didn't like the first game, you'll like this one!
Okay, jokes aside, Hard West 2 takes everything that worked with the first game and refined it, and takes everything that was unbearable and either makes it better or cuts it out. The different posse members now feel unique with their special abilities and modifiers, the narrative slides don't leave you in fear of getting an annoying drawback or anything, the story isn't bogged down with too much grimdark, and ricocheting bullets is available to pretty much everyone (even the bad guys) and makes playing the game feel different to other tactical strategy games.
If you didn't like the first game, you'll like this one!
Turn based weird west strategy game with overworld story and choice segments, mechanically plays closer to a puzzle game than most in the style, that sometimes works quite well. Bravado system of regaining a character's action point when they get a kill leads to a lot of chain action and trying to position your characters to attack in the most advantageous order. Looks good. Entertaining moments in the overworld sections, though the main story is fairly lacking and is over quickly. Allows you to set gameplay speed to .5, 1, 2, or 4 which is nice to speed up travel or character movements in battles. Weapons give a decent variety of options with different passive abilities, status applying effects, ranges, possible cooldowns, damage and action point values, etc. A recent patched toned down the annoying regeneration powers of some of the undead enemies which was good to see.
Some interesting and fun ideas but most aren't used enough or to get the most enjoyment out of them. You unlock cards that you equip to characters ideally to create poker hands with the stronger hands unlocking more of a character's abilities as well as giving small to large benefits based on the card itself. It's a cool system but some character abilities aren't that useful, fun, or practical with the way levels or times missions/achievements/side missions are set up, might just not fit the playstyle in how you are using the character, or they overlap with other characters having some of the same skills. There are missions that have you and enemies riding on horseback which they did in a good visual way as the stage scrolls along as you play with you either assaulting trains or chasing after other mounted riders. Where the enjoyment is lessened a bit is the limit stage types where mounts are used and that horses just disable abilities instead of giving new ones. You can use objects in the environment to bounce your bullets off of but this tends to be a bit limited in use, becoming the most useful if you make use of certain weapons that give bonuses for it but these weapons tend to start showing up when the game's maps seem to start having less objects that allow you to use them in that way.
Can be too much uncertainty from map advancement as movement through fog of war/enemy spawns as you might just suddenly stumble into an area where it will just throw ten enemies at you at the end of your turn with some throwing grenades, causing massively debilitating effects, or teleporting your characters elsewhere. Some poor or annoying side objectives that can give pointless limitations, or might barely even be completable if you took certain party members before they were even revealed. Hit and crit chances don't really work well with a game that focuses entirely on its bravado system, and like many games with critical hits you will be frequently wanting not to crit targets as it won't factor into sensible strategies and hitting that 5% chance can mess up your strategy or prevent side objectives from getting completed. Conversation choices that depend on loyalty often just asking people to do basic things not at all out of line with what the character can or would probably do most of the time. Deer with a melee weapon and grenades are so much more powerful than anything else that anyone not taking advantage of them will likely find the game significantly more difficult (likely why I saw so many complaining about difficulty before a recent patch when I wasn't having issues on hard). Lacking basic movement options like choosing where you want to be standing when using certain abilities and problems like being able to flip over a table to create cover but the table takes up two tiles and it only allows you to interact with one side of the table to flip it. It also never allows you to position characters at the start of a mission which can range from being a minor annoyance to a massive inconvenience on some of the mounted levels where characters are prevented from getting to certain spots based on the obstacles around their deployment point (you think, I'll bring my more melee focused character, but when the mission starts the game says sorry they aren't ever allowed to get on the train with the characters that can).
Fun and some good ideas but not everything is used to the best effect.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1566277927104565248
Some interesting and fun ideas but most aren't used enough or to get the most enjoyment out of them. You unlock cards that you equip to characters ideally to create poker hands with the stronger hands unlocking more of a character's abilities as well as giving small to large benefits based on the card itself. It's a cool system but some character abilities aren't that useful, fun, or practical with the way levels or times missions/achievements/side missions are set up, might just not fit the playstyle in how you are using the character, or they overlap with other characters having some of the same skills. There are missions that have you and enemies riding on horseback which they did in a good visual way as the stage scrolls along as you play with you either assaulting trains or chasing after other mounted riders. Where the enjoyment is lessened a bit is the limit stage types where mounts are used and that horses just disable abilities instead of giving new ones. You can use objects in the environment to bounce your bullets off of but this tends to be a bit limited in use, becoming the most useful if you make use of certain weapons that give bonuses for it but these weapons tend to start showing up when the game's maps seem to start having less objects that allow you to use them in that way.
Can be too much uncertainty from map advancement as movement through fog of war/enemy spawns as you might just suddenly stumble into an area where it will just throw ten enemies at you at the end of your turn with some throwing grenades, causing massively debilitating effects, or teleporting your characters elsewhere. Some poor or annoying side objectives that can give pointless limitations, or might barely even be completable if you took certain party members before they were even revealed. Hit and crit chances don't really work well with a game that focuses entirely on its bravado system, and like many games with critical hits you will be frequently wanting not to crit targets as it won't factor into sensible strategies and hitting that 5% chance can mess up your strategy or prevent side objectives from getting completed. Conversation choices that depend on loyalty often just asking people to do basic things not at all out of line with what the character can or would probably do most of the time. Deer with a melee weapon and grenades are so much more powerful than anything else that anyone not taking advantage of them will likely find the game significantly more difficult (likely why I saw so many complaining about difficulty before a recent patch when I wasn't having issues on hard). Lacking basic movement options like choosing where you want to be standing when using certain abilities and problems like being able to flip over a table to create cover but the table takes up two tiles and it only allows you to interact with one side of the table to flip it. It also never allows you to position characters at the start of a mission which can range from being a minor annoyance to a massive inconvenience on some of the mounted levels where characters are prevented from getting to certain spots based on the obstacles around their deployment point (you think, I'll bring my more melee focused character, but when the mission starts the game says sorry they aren't ever allowed to get on the train with the characters that can).
Fun and some good ideas but not everything is used to the best effect.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1566277927104565248
A very solid, polished and confident 7/10. The main mechanic is a great success — chaining kills with Deer never stopped being fun, and my brain loved the dopamine hit of seeing the death icon followed by the bravado glow and sound effect. Had to rely too often on the very generous auto saves to fix apparently harmless mistakes that ended with half of my party wiped out in the next turn (thanks to sometimes unclear enemy ricochet but also pure carelessness from my part). Could've switched to Normal instead of Hard but I honestly liked the stakes, and the missions seemed fair. The story is very thin but what it lacks in emotion and depth it has on spectacle and flair.
After about 30 hours, the lead up to the final battle is a big and juicy cherry on top of what feels like an incredibly fun experience. The final pull of the trigger is a satisfying one, but I’m definitely not ready to ride off into the sunset. Hard West 2 hits the bullseye on creating a fun and infatuating strategic RPG experience and I look forward to saddling up on whatever the team from Ice Code games has for us next.
https://thethirstymage.com/2022/09/04/hard-west-2-stands-tall-on-steam-review/
https://thethirstymage.com/2022/09/04/hard-west-2-stands-tall-on-steam-review/
At the beginning the voices distracted me, in special Flynn, it sounded so out of character. The issue continue but I think I get used to it.
Is a good game, no too complex, not that simple, played on hard mode and completed it in 36hs.
Is a good game, no too complex, not that simple, played on hard mode and completed it in 36hs.