weird west review
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need to know
What is it? A top-down immersive simulation game set in the Weird West – a Wild West full of supernatural monsters.
Release date March 31, 2022
expect to pay $40/£31
developer wolf eye studio
Publisher Devolver numbers
audit date Intel Core i7-10750H, 16GB RAM, GeForce RTX 2060
multiplayer game? Do not
association Official website
I’ve been through it many times when I’m traveling in the Weird West. Bounty hunters, werewolves, pigmen – that’s unforgettable. In everyone, I made the West better, or worse. Even though it’s a game about constant micro-decision – stealth or direct attack; Molotov cocktails and oil barrels or revolvers and Woo slow-motion diving – Weird West focuses on the bigger picture as well as other immersive sims , including shame and prey.
The bigger picture begins in a familiar place: a retired bounty hunter searching for her kidnapped husband. For the first few hours, I tangled with the outlaws in typical Wild West fashion, wondering where all the weirdness was. You buy supplies in town and collect bounties before you set off, traversing an open-world map filled with abandoned mineshafts, ghost towns, and isolated homes. Often, these locations are filled with enemies that you can sneak past or fill with lead through fast-paced top-down combat.
(Image credit: Devolver Digital)
I may be damned, knowing that Weird West’s creative director Raphaël Colantonio was co-director of the original Dishonored and director of Prey, but I couldn’t help comparing Weird West to Arkane’s immersive sim — at least at first so. The similarities are there, especially when you enter a hostile environment that offers a variety of approaches, but the action isn’t as fluid or creative as Arkane’s game. The unlockable abilities are mostly about increasing your damage output, adding elemental effects, or letting you hit multiple targets – you can’t synergize abilities meaningfully, like the outsider powers in Dishonored 2.
Stealth, usually my favorite method, is certainly possible in Weird West, but I use it more as an opener, as a prelude to the inevitable carnage when everything goes wrong. That’s partly because the novel encourages it – you’re fighting very easy-to-kill assholes, be it gang members, scary sirens, or gold-driven settlers – and partly because of the dark visual style, it sacrifices lameness Readability of comic aesthetics.
I’ve been zooming in to better identify characters and environments, and zooming out to get an overview of the level, and often find myself in the process. When the fight broke out, it was refreshing and very fast. However, between that dirty visual style and the overly complicated dual-stick control scheme, I never found it that interesting.
(Image credit: Devolver Digital)
My main takeaway from top-down sneaking and shooting is that Desperados III developer Mimimi Games has done a better job. Thankfully, Stranger West is much more than just combat.
I mentioned pigmen before, it’s time for Chekov’s gun. The second story in this anthology puts you in the trot of an evil man-pig mashup who leaves his swamp to exact revenge on the witch who did it to him. All these strange things come in waves as you travel across the world for clues to your identity. You’ll chat with a sentient, foul-mouthed sentient tree and fight witches in an ancient underground temple.
The second story in this anthology puts you in the middle of an evil man-pig mashup.
Structurally, all five stories are similar, all in the form of a miniature CRPG, complete with main and side quests, and companions who can follow the adventure. You can even recruit protagonists from previous stories, each with a mysterious stamp. With each new chapter, you’ll see more of the weirdness of the West until you dive into the overarching narrative about ancient entities and jumping passengers. It’s a fascinating story with memorable characters, including Joe the cursed pig, so he can only communicate in rhymes. I can’t wait to see how it turns out and am very happy with the conclusion.
(Image credit: Devolver Digital)
While each new chapter is a new beginning, certain elements are present throughout. Passive character perks run throughout the game, while former protagonists keep their inventory, reducing the need to gather supplies in subsequent chapters. But what persists is primarily the state of the West, which is shaped by your major and minor decisions.
As an example – here’s a spoiler for Chapter 2 – you can choose to have your fellow Pigs become soulless husks, or return their missing souls to their bodies. Making the second choice, they will enter society, appearing as NPCs in subsequent chapters. Not every decision is so dramatic—some are just footnotes in the daily news—but you do feel like you’re making an impact on the world.
You can also turn settlements into ghost towns by eliminating their inhabitants. It’s not part of the storyline, just what you want to do. Kill everyone in Grackle town, from the shopkeeper to the sheriff, and the place will be abandoned. The bandits might even have moved in the next time you visit. Likewise, if you clear a town that has been overrun by bandits, its former inhabitants may end up returning to their homes.
(Image credit: Devolver Digital)
In fact, a town is so similar to other towns that if it collapses you’ll hardly miss any, but the possibility is exciting – the idea is almost anyone Can be killed and the game will follow. I tested this once, when a story ally lay in ambush for me, attacking in a scripted event on the way to the goal. I died several times trying to win the next fight – until I reloaded an earlier save and killed allies before she could open me up. Ambush still happens, but my attacker is now a short woman.
I’m sure there will be better examples once Weird West comes out, and I’m eagerly anticipating those more creative anecdotes. Weird West’s conclusion takes it all into account, so pay attention to the people you kill and all the decisions you make. Far more than many games with branching stories and moral systems, Weird West is looking at everything you do.
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