Weird West: Game Review

After passing through Weird West, it is impossible to look at modern, unprincipled AAA projects. Rafael Colantonio and his WolfEye Studios team made, if not the “Game of the Year”, then definitely a contender for this proud title.

Weird West is a purebred representative of the immersive sim genre (from the English “immersion simulator”), because its hallmarks are a living and responsive world, and interaction with mechanics is more immersive in what is happening. Yes, Weird West could easily be called an isometric action RPG, but it would be a banal disrespect for the work that WolfEye Studios has done.

History of our town

Be sure – when you first start Weird West, it will seem to you that everything here is somehow incomprehensible and unusual. The story throws you right off the bat, the dialogues hit backhand, and the global conflict is generally incomprehensible. But this is a deception, trying to interest the inquisitive player so that he understands and is imbued with what is happening in the plot.

In total, Weird West has five storylines intersecting with each other:

• about a bounty hunter who retired a long time ago, but the tragic death of a child and the kidnapping of her husband make her take up arms;
• a man turned into a monster – a pigman trying to figure out who he was and why they did this to him;
• a native Westerner, the River Crossing Indian, who traveled to these lands to destroy the Windigo, the spirit of greed;
• a werewolf in human form whose calling is to awaken the ancient Red Moon and conquer the West;
• and about oneira, the witch of the local lands, whose visions predict the end of all things, but she can try to fix everything.

All these five stories go one after another and make up a single scenario, the ending of which depends only on the actions of the player. And this is not an empty phrase – each plot-important action will be shown to you at the end of the campaign, and there are usually more than 5-10 of them. Any additional task completed, a moral issue resolved, or a theft from a local shop will affect how the Wild West will become in the finale.

I would like to note the study of additional missions. You never know what they will be – whether it’s a whole story with your own characters, or a situation that requires action from the player. Save the town from the ghost of the local moonshiner, disenchant the talking stone figurine, trust the witch and not open the magic box until the very end – there are plenty of these in the game. But there are also simpler tasks, like freeing an Indian from a prison in a big city – the entire scenario of this task will be created by the player himself.

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“Real” virtual world

The hardest part about creating immersive sim games is making sure that the project doesn’t fall apart when the player tries to find a possible solution to the situation. WolfEye Studios succeeded, because they made the Wild West work according to its own laws. Even the wildest bacchanalia and the murder of important plot characters in Weird West will not affect the passage in any way – there are always several possibilities and outcomes.

Playing as a werewolf, I decided not to fulfill the prophecy of the Blood Moon, but to figure out what was going on in the Church of the Hounds. Seeing a lever that opens a secret passage in the room of the head of the werewolf clan, it was possible to unearth new information about the mission of the protagonist, and then retreat from the predicted events. The most amazing thing is that the game gives a whole story arc to this behavior, turns the narrative on its head and rewards (or punishes) for the choice made!

The same applies to the open world Weird West, made in the best traditions of the original Fallout. Traveling across the global map and stumbling into small locations or random events, the player takes part in a variety of situations. Sudden attacks, moments where you need to take sides, and even requests from partners – yes, yes, depending on the composition of the group, events on the global map also change.

After finding the River Crossing Indian in the next chapter, I was able to recruit him into my team and discover several events related directly to his history, people, and beliefs. But ordinary mercenaries without prescribed characters simply travel with the player in the team and help in battle.

The fastest hand in the Weird West

By the way, about the combat system Weird West. There are problems with aiming on the keyboard – the camera keeps trying to fly away from the direction of the cursor. Yes, and there are simply enough rough edges: the character sometimes cannot take aim at the enemy standing in front of him, abilities may not work, and melee combat simply does not work at first – endless dodges from the enemies got to the bottom. But when you pick up a gamepad, magically the control becomes normal, and aiming is convenient and clear. Keep this in mind.

Character skills also help during skirmishes. Each of the five heroes has a set of four personal active perks, as well as general weapon abilities. For example, a pigman can violently rush into a crowd of enemies, kick the ground and knock everyone around, or acquire thick skin and take no damage for 10 seconds. But the abilities of the guns open up new types of shots, stealth attacks and improved handling of one or another type of firearms or melee weapons.

Each character Weird West has his own active skills, although there is also a general leveling with the help of golden cards – they passively increase a variety of character abilities and are transferred between stories, which allows you to become only stronger from chapter to chapter, and not stagnate.

A covert approach to solving situations is also welcome in Weird West – the hand of the creators of Dishonored is visible. Almost always, in addition to the battle scenes frankly imposed by the plot, you can covertly get to the desired point or character, and some heroes and weapons even have skills associated with this way of passing.

Conclusion

Weird West is the kind of project that major publishers should look up to. A world that works according to its own laws, a large number of possibilities, five mysterious storylines, interconnected stories of heroes and the atmosphere of a dark western – you will not see this from modern Ubisoft or Electronic Arts.

Yes, there were rough edges in the pre-release version. But on March 30, a new patch was released that corrected not only the problems, but also improved the artificial intelligence of opponents. Definitely recommended to buy or try through Game Pass if you like westerns, occult atmospheres, varied gameplay and dark country music.

Pros

• A story where the player’s every action has consequences
• A virtual world that operates according to its own laws
• Combat system and character abilities
• Lots of features and mechanics
• Worked out additional tasks
• Visual style
• Soundtrack

Cons

• In some chapters, minor problems with the economy
• Roughness when playing with keyboard and mouse
• A small number of bugs