Still, Wolfeye’s ‘immersive sim’ supernatural western shooter is undoubtedly stylish with its broody art and raw, expressive lines. Most immersive sims are first-person for a reason, and frankly I can’t think of recent games that have attempted to do this, even poorly. Having missed the golden age of Ultima, my immediate point of reference after a few hours in the Weird West was the Shadowrun Returns/Shadowrun Hong Kong series – technically these are tactical turn-based RPGs where the sense of immersion stems from the depth of its writing – but even as my playing hours reached double digits, things still didn’t quite click for me. Wolfeye’s goal was to tackle the world of top-down immersive sims as homage to the Ultima CRPG series. Similarly, if you clear out a bandit-occupied town, its former residents may eventually return to their homes.On paper, Weird West reads like the kind of game I’d like, but in practice it’s an acquired taste. Bandits might even have moved in, next time you visit. Kill everyone in the town of Grackle, from the shopkeepers to the sheriff, and the place will become abandoned. And that’s not a part of the storyline, just something you can do if you want to. You can also turn settlements into ghost towns by wiping out their inhabitants. Not every decision is as notable-some are mere footnotes in the daily news-but you do feel like you’re having an impact on the world. Make the second choice and they’ll go out into society, turning up in subsequent chapters as NPCs. To give an example-and it’s a spoiler for the second chapter-you can choose to leave your fellow pigmen as soulless husks, or return their missing souls to their bodies. But the main thing that persists is the state of the West, which is shaped by your major and minor decisions. Passive character perks persist through the whole game, while the former protagonists retain their inventories, reducing the need to gather supplies in later chapters. While each new chapter is a fresh start of sorts, certain elements are carried across. I couldn’t wait to see how it all played out, and was left pretty satisfied by the conclusion. It’s a fascinating story with memorable characters including Pigman Joe, who has been cursed so he can only communicate in rhyme. With each new chapter, you see even more of the West’s weirdness, until you’re ankle deep in an overarching narrative concerning ancient entities and the body-hopping Passenger. You can even recruit the protagonists of the previous stories, each of whom has been marked by a mystical brand. Structurally, all five stories are similar, playing out as miniature CRPGs complete with main and side quests, and companions who can tag along on the adventure. The second story in this anthology puts you in the trotters of an unholy man-pig mashup. You’ll chat with a sentient, foul-mouthed sentient tree and battle witches in ancient, subterranean temples. All that weirdness comes out in a flood, as you traipse across the world for clues to your identity. The second story in this anthology puts you in the trotters of an unholy man-pig mashup, who leaves his swamp to enact revenge upon the witch that did this to him. I mentioned the pigman earlier, and now it’s time that Chekov’s gun went off. Thankfully, there’s far more to Weird West than its combat. My main takeaway from the top-down sneaking and shooting is that Desperados III developer Mimimi Games does it a whole lot better.
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