Hard West 2 is a pretty good Xcom with its own gimmicks that change the formula a little while remaining familiar.
To begin with, one of the least interesting aspects of this game is the story, which is fairly anecdotal. The characters are pretty cool, each with their own story, which is developed a little with the help of side quests. The main story is very classic, with the protagonists being deprived of their souls by a demon and having to get them back, nothing incredible but still ok.
The most interesting part of this game is by far the gameplay. As I said earlier, it's a turn-based game in the vein of Xcom, with a system of wooing and action points to act with the characters. The subtlety is that if you kill an enemy, you switch to bravado mode and get all your AP back, which means that, if you get it right, you can string together a series of eliminations to win battles methodically and satisfactorily. The different characters each have their own way of playing, with one character using cac and others focusing more on ranged attacks or shotguns. Another interesting point is the fact that the characters don't level up. Progression is achieved by buying new weapons or by using cards that you can equip to your characters, which allows you to obtain passives that greatly improve your characters. These cards can be obtained in various ways, by completing quests or secondary objectives. Apart from combat, there's a bit of map exploration to discover side quests and other objectives, but it's still pretty meagre and uninteresting. I finished the game on the difficult setting, but it's still doable without too much difficulty, so it's not necessarily an extremely hard game.
From an audio point of view, the game is pretty solid, whether in terms of the music or the sound design, and the voice acting is also very good for the various characters.
Finally, the game is visually very good for a game of this kind, despite the occasional difficulty of vision due to the different levels of play. The characters are recognisable and the particles are also well realised.
Overall, this is a very good Xcom like that suffers a little from a rather weak story and a lack of ancillary content, but which is really very good in the main gameplay and which I think could easily please fans of the genre.
To begin with, one of the least interesting aspects of this game is the story, which is fairly anecdotal. The characters are pretty cool, each with their own story, which is developed a little with the help of side quests. The main story is very classic, with the protagonists being deprived of their souls by a demon and having to get them back, nothing incredible but still ok.
The most interesting part of this game is by far the gameplay. As I said earlier, it's a turn-based game in the vein of Xcom, with a system of wooing and action points to act with the characters. The subtlety is that if you kill an enemy, you switch to bravado mode and get all your AP back, which means that, if you get it right, you can string together a series of eliminations to win battles methodically and satisfactorily. The different characters each have their own way of playing, with one character using cac and others focusing more on ranged attacks or shotguns. Another interesting point is the fact that the characters don't level up. Progression is achieved by buying new weapons or by using cards that you can equip to your characters, which allows you to obtain passives that greatly improve your characters. These cards can be obtained in various ways, by completing quests or secondary objectives. Apart from combat, there's a bit of map exploration to discover side quests and other objectives, but it's still pretty meagre and uninteresting. I finished the game on the difficult setting, but it's still doable without too much difficulty, so it's not necessarily an extremely hard game.
From an audio point of view, the game is pretty solid, whether in terms of the music or the sound design, and the voice acting is also very good for the various characters.
Finally, the game is visually very good for a game of this kind, despite the occasional difficulty of vision due to the different levels of play. The characters are recognisable and the particles are also well realised.
Overall, this is a very good Xcom like that suffers a little from a rather weak story and a lack of ancillary content, but which is really very good in the main gameplay and which I think could easily please fans of the genre.
A very solid, polished and confident 7/10. The main mechanic is a great success — chaining kills with Deer never stopped being fun, and my brain loved the dopamine hit of seeing the death icon followed by the bravado glow and sound effect. Had to rely too often on the very generous auto saves to fix apparently harmless mistakes that ended with half of my party wiped out in the next turn (thanks to sometimes unclear enemy ricochet but also pure carelessness from my part). Could've switched to Normal instead of Hard but I honestly liked the stakes, and the missions seemed fair. The story is very thin but what it lacks in emotion and depth it has on spectacle and flair.
After about 30 hours, the lead up to the final battle is a big and juicy cherry on top of what feels like an incredibly fun experience. The final pull of the trigger is a satisfying one, but I’m definitely not ready to ride off into the sunset. Hard West 2 hits the bullseye on creating a fun and infatuating strategic RPG experience and I look forward to saddling up on whatever the team from Ice Code games has for us next.
https://thethirstymage.com/2022/09/04/hard-west-2-stands-tall-on-steam-review/
https://thethirstymage.com/2022/09/04/hard-west-2-stands-tall-on-steam-review/
At the beginning the voices distracted me, in special Flynn, it sounded so out of character. The issue continue but I think I get used to it.
Is a good game, no too complex, not that simple, played on hard mode and completed it in 36hs.
Is a good game, no too complex, not that simple, played on hard mode and completed it in 36hs.
I burnt-out on tactical RPGs years ago and couldn't get back into the genre for years. Then this game came along and set me entirely on fire — not just for the incredible Bravado system — but tactical RPGs as a whole. This game was so incredibly good, I still feel insane for how much I loved it. Like, really? Just me who thinks the chase / train levels are genius? Just me who thinks that the Bravado death-chains reinvent the whole genre?!? Oh well. Lock me in an asylum and throw away the key. This game made me absolutely gaga.
Lives up to its name, first and foremost when it comes to the difficulty level. A fun, challenging game which gets the mood across in an engaging way and kept my interest throughout the campaign, though the scenarios started playing out too samey after a while.
The Poker hands level up system was really interesting, and I'm happy to have experienced the game for this aspect alone. Sound effects were also consistently good, with the sound of gunshots and the Bravado trigger just as satisfying every single time. Graphics were crisp and clean, with some nice atmospheric lightning, especially in the night scenarios. Cool character and UI design.
The Poker hands level up system was really interesting, and I'm happy to have experienced the game for this aspect alone. Sound effects were also consistently good, with the sound of gunshots and the Bravado trigger just as satisfying every single time. Graphics were crisp and clean, with some nice atmospheric lightning, especially in the night scenarios. Cool character and UI design.
Compared to the first game in the series, this one is vastly superior. It now has more than one voice actor!
Okay, jokes aside, Hard West 2 takes everything that worked with the first game and refined it, and takes everything that was unbearable and either makes it better or cuts it out. The different posse members now feel unique with their special abilities and modifiers, the narrative slides don't leave you in fear of getting an annoying drawback or anything, the story isn't bogged down with too much grimdark, and ricocheting bullets is available to pretty much everyone (even the bad guys) and makes playing the game feel different to other tactical strategy games.
If you didn't like the first game, you'll like this one!
Okay, jokes aside, Hard West 2 takes everything that worked with the first game and refined it, and takes everything that was unbearable and either makes it better or cuts it out. The different posse members now feel unique with their special abilities and modifiers, the narrative slides don't leave you in fear of getting an annoying drawback or anything, the story isn't bogged down with too much grimdark, and ricocheting bullets is available to pretty much everyone (even the bad guys) and makes playing the game feel different to other tactical strategy games.
If you didn't like the first game, you'll like this one!