Weird West Video Game Review

Weird West Video Game Review.Weird West is an action RPG that follows the story of five characters in a wild West that is also nourished by dark fantasy to populate it with all kinds of creatures and black magic. A game full of systemic possibilities, heir to the Arkane formula. We tell you everything in the Weird West analysis.

It didn’t take me more than a moment to recognize Raphael Colantonio ‘s signature as soon as I got on Weird West . The designer likes worlds based on systems that interact not only with the player or the environment, but also with each other. Thus, Weird West is the Arkane brand without being Arkane: a game where the customization of the style of play prevails over everything else. Do you want to make a name for yourself in this strange West? You’ll see results in the form of allies unexpectedly arriving to save the day, for example. Do you want to create the most absolute chaos? You can annihilate an entire population and turn the place into a ghost town that will dwell with supernatural creatures while the perpetrator (you) is incessantly persecuted by justice.

Weird West is a game of the West and it is not. Dishonored ‘s seared mark is also noticeable in the taste for dark and strange fantasy. There is a certain fascination in beginning to understand the sinister magical rules that make up this world. When you realize that monsters like Mermen not only feed on the population, but can also consume their memories. From the first minute you notice how this environment is vitiated by the grotesque and the phantasmagorical. For a strange black magic that begins with the same player embodying, literally, a cast of characters, each with their stories and motivations, but a common element.

This is one of the most unique elements of Weird West, making it a choral game. Five different characters that have their special conditions and abilities. For example, a retired bounty hunter, a man turned into an anthropomorphic pig, or another with the ability to transform into a werewolf. It’s an interesting idea that the game takes to its fullest consequences. It could risk breaking continuity or the player’s sense of progression, but it doesn’t. Why? Because we are able to transfer some skills to the next, allowing us to improve our speed, damage, stealth or combat skills, for example. Others are defining of each character and scarce, too, which favors the replayability of the title.

Once you are released onto the field of play, yes, freedom is absolute. Freedom to accomplish objectives as you see fit, kill even key story NPCs, and annihilate enemies from the most traditional to the most creative ways. You can make use of the arsenal, made up of pistols, rifles, shotguns, bows, explosives or short-range weapons; but it’s interesting to see how, especially in the face of severe ammo shortages, WolfEye Games wants you to tap into the creative element by using elemental attacks, taking advantage of terrain, including rain or fire. Many things in Weird West can be a weapon. Also, the map is big enough to be filled with side quests,secret places with caches and bounty hunter missions, for example, in case we want to level up our character more and be more prepared for the main mission.

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The problem is the technical limitations. Colantonio is used to making games that take advantage of all these elements in complex, multi-layered settings. The world of Weird West, on the other hand, is made up of a series of levels separated by a map that never quite takes off. The prairies, towns, mines, canyons and other environments that we visit do not have such a stimulating depth or design to want to play with all these mechanics and often, even for the use of stealth, it is easier to make life less complicated and pull force brute and many, many bullets.

The combat system is simple and similar to the twin stick shooter style of many isometric action games: one stick to move the character and another to aim. It requires a lot of precision; So much so that, even if you have no problem dispatching enemies, you have a constant feeling of inaccuracy in actions, of lack of control over them, which does not help you enjoy the duels to the fullest. I think that with the mouse, things will improve substantially, but my experience with the controller has been somewhat imprecise. The controls get too chaotic and, again, it’s easier to turn everything into a fight for health bars, than to exploit the possibilities of the game, since the skirmishes happen too quickly to be as tactical as it allows, for example , a Divinity: Original Sin 2.

The visual style doesn’t help much either. He has personality and is particularly reminiscent of Arkane’s previous work in the menus and 2D drawing. The levels are simulated in a kind of paper map, in which we can see the limits of the sheet, creating a very unique and attractive style. But a poor graphic section limits both exploration and combat. The poorly detailed textures and modeling, with often dark and sinister lighting, make it difficult to clearly spot caches, corpses, and items to loot, making navigation a bit difficult. It doesn’t help that, in my case, there is no PS5 version, but rather that the game directly runs the PS4 version with a resolution that blurs the whole a little more and makes that exploration a little more difficult (and I understand that it will not happen on PC).

There are enough reasons to be interested in Weird WestWeird West is a title that defines Colantonio’s style, always betting on intricate designs that offer multiple possibilities to the player. But I think the path of WolfEye Games has just begun. They have been ambitious on the systemic sideand, although I can understand that the visual limitations, perhaps the design of its levels as well as the combat could have been more refined, since they are what really sustain the game in the long term. There’s plenty of reason to be interested in Weird West, though: Its mix of Wild West and supernatural elements may seem “weird,” but it’s much more appealing than you thought. Breaking the campaign up into five character journeys helps to see different perspectives of the world and encourages a variety of playstyles. It’s clear that WolfEye is precisely targeting a very specific type of player here, and if you’re targeted, it’s easy to fall under its sinister spell.

Action and Possibilities”

Weird West presents a very different Wild West, full of black magic and supernatural creatures that makes you interested in the rules that govern this sinister world. So does its structure, divided into a cast of characters, each with their personal mission and unique abilities. Raphael Colantonio’s brand is clear: it is a systemic game where freedom and interaction between elements is the order of the day. But I think Weird West is not without its problems. The combat mechanics are not very refined and the level design is not intricate, which does not help to want to delve into the possibilities that the game offers. Graphically, although it has personality, it is not very attractive either and sometimes its lack of detail hinders exploration. It is a personal game that targets a specific audience.