In many ways, West of Dead is simultaneously the antithesis of AND the perfect model of the roguelike dungeon crawler. You got your consumables, different realms, rapid game reloads, short sessions meant to be replayable, and procedurally generated levels. I think what most sets it apart from your Hades or Enter the Gungeon is its particular emphasis on slower combat.
You learn this very quickly.
Instead of being "encouraged" to use cover generously, you’re all but forced to even in the first underworld area. When cover is destroyed our outside arm’s reach, you also have access to your main proactive defensive maneuver, the dodge. Your savior and condemner. This floaty dash is very inconsistent in its ability to actually dodge incoming shots. Try to use it only when necessary. While you can and sometimes have to spam it in swarm scenarios, I find it’s even less consistent in its pathing and distance you gain from using it when spamming the move.
So long as you can adjust your expectations for a slower, more methodical experience, you can enjoy yourself plenty with the combat, jank and all. In fact, the game is quite easy. I didn’t die once before I was already at the end in a minuscule four and a half hours. The only difficult sections - excluding getting used to the cover movement - was the final boss and the preacher, and the latter only because of his gargantuan health pool and seemingly neo-like ability to dodge your shots. Since it’s a roguelike you can obviously keep playing for more secrets and upgrades, but honestly? I had my fill by the end of my first session. In a pure dollars to hours exchange, West of Dead probably isn’t that great of a deal, but I didn’t regret my time with it at all. Luckily, I got it on sale, and so should you if you have any intention of playing it.
Also, as a side note: It’s odd how frequently I incidentally play games that are roguelikes or Metroidvanias, with this one being one of the former. I don’t know if that speaks more to my not looking into prospective games deep enough or just the prevalence of those genres, or both. Not that it’s a bad thing, it’s just funny how many titles from those genres I’ve played without knowing ahead of time. But I digress.
The procedurally generated maps here are much smaller, refreshingly small in fact, and are well designed in the sense that it makes you feel like you’re outside while still in actuality being in dank, claustrophobic rooms better suited for close-quarters gunplay. There’s little to no backtracking, and realms take less than an hour to clear.
And while the game is blink and you’ll miss it quick, it will at least be a visually stunning time for the night it takes you to beat it. The comic book art style is undeniably the biggest beacon of awesome West of Dead possesses, and what I’d wager is the largest draw the game has. One that I’m afraid has caused a lot of unfortunate expectations, like the assumption that the depth is as good as the art direction. And I admit that as someone who is in the 90th percentile of people who played and actually enjoyed the title. Even I can agree this is missing some much-needed variety in the gun and tactics department. That said, I certainly had a better time than Ron Perlman did, who appeared to have been threatened at knifepoint to provide the VO for the main character for the game. Which is a shame, because he really is a great choice for the role.
To anyone considering buying West of Dead the two roadblock questions I’d ask would be: are you ok with a shorter, easier adventure than most roguelikes, and are you content with this being a cover shooter focused on methodical gunplay? If both of your answers are yes, then the game isn’t such a hard sell when it’s discounted. Otherwise, I’d steer clear.
You learn this very quickly.
Instead of being "encouraged" to use cover generously, you’re all but forced to even in the first underworld area. When cover is destroyed our outside arm’s reach, you also have access to your main proactive defensive maneuver, the dodge. Your savior and condemner. This floaty dash is very inconsistent in its ability to actually dodge incoming shots. Try to use it only when necessary. While you can and sometimes have to spam it in swarm scenarios, I find it’s even less consistent in its pathing and distance you gain from using it when spamming the move.
So long as you can adjust your expectations for a slower, more methodical experience, you can enjoy yourself plenty with the combat, jank and all. In fact, the game is quite easy. I didn’t die once before I was already at the end in a minuscule four and a half hours. The only difficult sections - excluding getting used to the cover movement - was the final boss and the preacher, and the latter only because of his gargantuan health pool and seemingly neo-like ability to dodge your shots. Since it’s a roguelike you can obviously keep playing for more secrets and upgrades, but honestly? I had my fill by the end of my first session. In a pure dollars to hours exchange, West of Dead probably isn’t that great of a deal, but I didn’t regret my time with it at all. Luckily, I got it on sale, and so should you if you have any intention of playing it.
Also, as a side note: It’s odd how frequently I incidentally play games that are roguelikes or Metroidvanias, with this one being one of the former. I don’t know if that speaks more to my not looking into prospective games deep enough or just the prevalence of those genres, or both. Not that it’s a bad thing, it’s just funny how many titles from those genres I’ve played without knowing ahead of time. But I digress.
The procedurally generated maps here are much smaller, refreshingly small in fact, and are well designed in the sense that it makes you feel like you’re outside while still in actuality being in dank, claustrophobic rooms better suited for close-quarters gunplay. There’s little to no backtracking, and realms take less than an hour to clear.
And while the game is blink and you’ll miss it quick, it will at least be a visually stunning time for the night it takes you to beat it. The comic book art style is undeniably the biggest beacon of awesome West of Dead possesses, and what I’d wager is the largest draw the game has. One that I’m afraid has caused a lot of unfortunate expectations, like the assumption that the depth is as good as the art direction. And I admit that as someone who is in the 90th percentile of people who played and actually enjoyed the title. Even I can agree this is missing some much-needed variety in the gun and tactics department. That said, I certainly had a better time than Ron Perlman did, who appeared to have been threatened at knifepoint to provide the VO for the main character for the game. Which is a shame, because he really is a great choice for the role.
To anyone considering buying West of Dead the two roadblock questions I’d ask would be: are you ok with a shorter, easier adventure than most roguelikes, and are you content with this being a cover shooter focused on methodical gunplay? If both of your answers are yes, then the game isn’t such a hard sell when it’s discounted. Otherwise, I’d steer clear.