And Luck is a really, really weird stat.Ĭutscenes are stylised, animated stills, and they work really rather well. There are plenty of abilities on offer (“Transfusion” swaps the health of the caster and the target “Dodge” guarantees that all shots at that target will miss unless they have 100% accuracy, and then there’s the aforementioned Ricochet) but these cost Luck. Hard West has some genuinely unique twists on this formula, too. A low-penetration weapon like a concealed pistol will do sod-all damage to someone hiding behind a wall, but a massive elephant gun will pierce through and inflict a fair bit more.
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Someone in full cover might still get shot, but they will take significantly less damage, with each weapon dealing different amounts of damage to targets in the open, in half cover, and in full cover. It employs the same half-cover/full-cover system, too, although this seems to impact damage more than accuracy. There are exceptions – some weapons allow shooting twice – but that’s generally how it works. Each rootin’-tootin’ member of your gunslinging posse has two action points for use per turn, with shooting ending his or her turn you can either move twice, move and shoot, or shoot once. The meat of the game is really in the tactical combat, though, which takes an awful lot of inspiration from the XCOM remake. You could leave this building by the front entrance, or you can sit someone on the rooftop to act as a sniper, or head across it to climb down ladders to the back… Varied objectives and map layouts keep tactical battles feeling pretty fresh. Once unlocked, they can be purchased from a specific trader who crops up in every scenario. Only one thing carries over, and that’s a trio of unlockable items in each scenario. This… sort of makes sense, given the time lapses between scenarios, but the lack of consistency means there isn’t much feeling of actual progression. Warren might have been loaded down with guns and money by the end of his first scenario, but start his second, and he’s pretty much back to his old six-shooter and shotgun. Unfortunately, the scenarios don’t really follow on from each other. Each offers something different some are decent, some are a bit rubbish, but all of them offer a unique identity to each scenario. Another divides each “day” into five sections, and forces you to manage food supplies lest your party go hungry. One has you trying to draw a crime boss out of hiding by causing as much mayhem as possible and raising the bounty on your head to the point where he can’t ignore you. Not major changes, but enough that each scenario feels like it’s “yours”.Įach scenario also has a different mechanic on the overworld, which – again – changes things up. Need some dynamite for one quest? Well, you could try stealing it from the local mine, or murder everyone there and take it… or maybe you’ve already stolen some identification that’ll just let you claim it without trouble and without risk. Searching that shipwreck might get you some extra cash to spend on weapons and provisions, true, but it might also collapse on you, forcing you to either fight a few battles with stat-reducing wounds or to spend some cash at a doctor to fix your posse up.
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There are no manual saves so decisions really do feel important in terms off how you handle situations, and there’s often risk/reward involved.
The overworld stuff is generally pretty linear, but most scenarios have a number of extra locations to explore and side-quests to undertake. I suspect this might be a budgetary thing rather than a deliberate choice, but it works out as a positive. Hammy voice-overs and crap acting could’ve ruined the sheer style of the world instead, the only voice you’ll hear is that of Death, the narrator, whose gruff Southern twang brings back memories of Bastion‘s own superb narration. I’d have loved to have seen some zombies, werewolves, and vampires in there (although the former is alluded to at least once), but I’m perfectly happy with the central theme being the Devil’s machinations, with occasional implications of ancient abominations and terrifying Things in the shadows.Ĭleverly, there’s next to no voice acting throughout, which is a serious plus. This is a horror-styled variant of the Wild West, where cowboys, bandits, saloons, and prostitutes with hearts of gold deal with the Devil, clash with cultists, cavort with cannibals, mingle with madness, and pick up powerful artifacts of Mesoamerican deities.
The Weird West is something that’s horribly underrepresented in gaming (I mean, there’s Silverload and… uh…) and that probably adds more than a little to the joy of Hard West. Undoubtedly, the star of the show is the setting. Pulling off a decent ricochet shot does feel pretty amazing, although it tends to be a fairly rare occasion as only certain objects allow ricochets.
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