That’s great to hear, reviews from some people I trust online were kind of mixed. Will have to form my own opinion and play it soon.
I didn’t get very far with this, but I played enough to get accustomed to the basic combat sufficiently that I was enjoying it. As has been noted in the thread, it balances rather precariously between being an action game and a tactical game, somewhere well north of Robotron, but far to the south of Commandos. So any further playtime would involve exploring the larger structure of the game world, namely the economy and the character development. I’m ready. Let’s do this!
Oh, wait, hold on, no. Not ready! Looks like the developers aren’t ready. Barely a month after the game’s release and they’re applying a few “overhauls”, according to their comments about a patch due in early June:
I don’t mean to pick on Weird West, since they’re by no means the only developer who does this, but I really dislike this approach. The designers create something, release it, and then for whatever reason, decide to overhaul what they’ve just released. Is it because the release version is problematic, in which case shouldn’t they have figured that out before releasing? Or are they’re overreacting to feedback and starting down a long ugly process of letting the loudest malcontents drive the process?
As far as I’m concerned, either possibility is a red flag. And whether they intended it this way or not, their announcement says to me I shouldn’t bother playing Weird West until version 1.03, if at all.
-Tom
At this point unless I am truly super excited about a game (which happens with about one or two games a year) I just wait for the devs to abandon it before playing. Most games are early access these days, whether admitted or not.
I’m on the last off the five characters you progress through, and the game probably does need some tweaking. It’s very good, really, even so. Combat starts out awkward but eventually you get the hang of it (I found making aiming a weapon a toggle rather than a hold made dodging much easier for instance), and the atmosphere and setting is cool. Story is not as “weird” as I’d like–I prefer a more Lovecraftian approach to weird West tropes–but it’s not bad.
Where the game starts to fray a bit IMO is in things like progression, loot, balance, and variety. Most reviews comment on the reused locations and features, and while they do a good job of disguising it to some extent there simply isn’t enough variety to avoid a sense of deja vu all over again towards the end, if not sooner. Because you keep some of your character upgrades between lives, you do get progressively stronger, but more importantly, because you can recruit your former self to your posse, and then strip them of the gear they had at the end of your time as them, by the third or fourth life you have an arsenal of purple or gold gear, and no real incentive to find or buy anything else. As fighting and looting are a big part of the game, this drops the bottom out of the fun factor to some extent.
Not much thrill in scrounging a few bullets and a raw rattlesnake, really. And inventory management is a PITA; you are always out of space with no real way to increase it other than your saddlebags, which fill up quickly as well. Luckily you can scrap weapons for ammo on the fly.
The best parts of the game though are some of the battles, when the stars align, and the choices you have to make. Each “life” gives you a recap at the end of the segment, recounting what you did and something of the consequences. And some of that can come back to bite you in the butt, or help you.
There are continuity issues, though. Some posse members, including former selves, keep talking about needing to do things you’ve, well, already done. And there are issues with NPCs going agro for no reason and sometimes things glitch out and won’t progress properly. But mostly it is pretty solid.
tl;dr, I think it’s a great foundation that right now is a bit shallow if still enjoyable.
I finally uninstalled without finishing. It was, by the last character cycle, getting pretty stale. I still like the concept, but I think it is underbaked right now.
I stumbled across a podcast featuring a couple of the writers
It has been a good series so far on “video game writing” (natch); only six episodes. Listening to this one, now. It’s a peek into creative processes, challenges around things like localization, etc.
Anyway, that’s more about the podcast than “Weird West”, but I thought I would put this here.