This is one of my favorite games, mainly because it's not anything that complex. It's an RPG with silly stickfigure characters, gameplay that's good enough to keep you engaged, and most importantly, AMAZING (and I mean this, AMAZING) writing.

I've beaten this game a few times since I first played it in 2017, including getting The Really Hard Way, and it's nice to play every once in a while. There's tons of shit to discover with every subsequent playthrough: the map is much, MUCH more vast than you'd think.

Worth your money!

An RPG that is full of humour. Ultimately, the sheer amount of dialogue and side-quests goes against it here, as it becomes hard to track what you were doing over multiple play-sessions.

It would be unfair to mark down an RPG for being too in-depth and I do remember my time with this game vividly and quite fondly, but I don't want to have to keep notes of the game I'm playing so I am marking it down anyway.

Recommended, just maybe come prepared with a notepad.

"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk." A nebo naopak mluvte dokud nevymluvíte protistraně díru do hlavy. West of Loathing se dá lehce odbít přirovnáním k southparkovským RPGčkům Stick of Truth/Fractured But Whole. Má s nimi společnou strukturu i mechanismy skrze adventurnější průzkum světa versus tahové JRPG like souboje, simplicitní (ovšem koncepčně absolutně dotaženou) vizuální stylizaci i to, že pod parodicko-satirickým odlehčeným hávem se skrývá regulérní RPG. Akorát tam, kde si druzí dva jmenovaní berou na paškál především fantasy/superhrdinská klišé, tak tam první jmenovaný operuje (nejen) s westernem, který je ve hrách stále spíše pole neorané; a v RPG žánru pak tuplem.

Jak již bylo naznačeno v úvodu, tak nejednu situaci můžete řešit konfliktem či disputací na ostré nože. A pro první průchod hrou, který při plnění všeho zabere cca třináct hodin, doporučím druhé jmenované. Ne snad že by to bylo lehčí či že by zdejší soubojový systém nebyl zábavný (byť je časem poněkud jednotvárný a po několika hodinách se přejí; až na několik tužších soubojů), ale proto, že si při něm ještě mnohem více užijete hlavní devizu hry. Humor. Ten je sice ve hře od úvodního menu přes popisy předmětů až po dialogy, ale nejvíce vynikne právě v dialogových přestřelkách.

Autoři se ani nesnaží o humory na sílu a za každou cenu, což nemálo zarazí s ohledem na to, že je všudypřítomný. Převážně se to drží v mantinelech chytré i hravé práce s žánrovými westernově-rpgčkovými klišé. Většina humorů však stojí čistě na textech a v tom má tento titul velkou výhru; jeho autoři umějí psát úderné dialogy i popisy (angličtina tu rozhodně není z nejtěžších, ale hodně sází na různé významy slov, řčení, slovní hrátky apod.), které jsou opravdu vtipné. Zdá se to jednoduché a samozřejmé, přesto devětadevadesát procent titulů, které by rovněž chtěly být tuze moc vtipné, toto neumí ani zpola tak dobře. Co zpola, ze třetiny. Záhy jsem se tedy přistihl, že se culím celou dobu a bezpočtukrát se i rozesmál až k slzám.

Tolik ke stylu hraní a humoru, ovšem to nejsem ani zdaleka jediné klady. Dalším nepřehlédnutelným je hravost a nápaditost jednotlivých lokací. Čekají na vás tucty a tucty lokací, z nichž většina je unikátní a s vlastním nápadem. Kupříkladu se budete snažit lapit gang v Potěmkinově vesnici, která jednak plně dostává svému "názvu" a druhak tím umožňuje jeden puzzle využívající tradiční westernově-groteskové klišé, čeká na vás také überbyrokratické městečko duchů, kde budete běhat od jednoho formuláře pro druhý, získávat razítka, povolení apod. A to nejsou ani ty nejpamátnější lokace, takových tu je přehršel.

Přesto to zápory samozřejmě má. Soubojový systém, který se díky malé výzvě časem stane čistě rutinním, jsem již zmínilh. Horší však je finální akt, kde na velké ploše je jen minimum lokací, což zarazí speciálně s ohledem na to, kolik toho na stejný/menší prostor nabídly první dvě. Ani se zde nerozjede mnoho nových questů a vesměs jde o pokračování již započatých. Ovšem zdaleka nejvíce znát je to na hlavním linii, která má tak nebývale utnuté vyvrcholení, že nad tím kroutím hlavou i po dvou dohráních. Právě kvůli utnutí a prázdné mapě finální akt působí jakoby tvůrcům došel čas, finance či prostě jen nápady, rozhodně však ne jako něco, co je hotové a dodělané.

V kostce se tedy dá říci, že "konec špatný všechno špatné aneb jak pětihvězdičkové záležitosti finálním aktem nohy nedušínovsky podkopnout". Ovšem je to v nadsázce, protože ani onen nedůstojný závěr nepřebije fakt, že tak konstantně vtipnou a hravou záležitost se vám nepoštěstí hrát každý rok.

Game Finished [Again] In 2024 #15:

In preparation for what's going to be a pretty big undertaking, I wanted to play some shorter games. Shadows Over Loathing, this game's sequel, is on my list for after that undertaking, so I wanted to replay the first game, which I remembered really liking when I played it years ago.

West of Loathing is a singleplayer spinoff to the browser based MMO Kingdom of Loathing, which I played a fair bit of when I was younger, despite my relative lack of understanding it. You don't need to have played it to understand this game in the slightest, and you could probably get away with not even knowing it exists, but it's fun background info. The Loathing series, as I suppose it counts as one now, is characterized by an extremely simplistic art style of monochromatic stick figures and a LOT of jokes.

Many games have tried to be comedic, but West of Loathing is intimately Committed To The Bit in every way imaginable. An NPC will mention things haven't been the same since The Cows Came Home, which is an event that deeply impacts the setting to the point demonic cows are one of your primary types of random encounter. As the jokes are so integral to the game, I regretfully must leave them as unspoiled as possible, but I will make one exception for my absolute favorite joke in any game, the spittoons. Spittoons are, of course, pans that people spit things such as tobacco in. However, in West of Loathing, they contain amazing gear. Every time you investigate one of these, the narration gets increasingly hostile towards you. It starts at telling you how gross it is to be sticking your hand into one, and why you REALLY shouldn't be doing it, and only escalates from there with somehow more disgusting spittoons and more powerful equipment. There's a very noticeable lean on the fourth wall, but the spittoons are one of the few times it gets broken entirely. To call this bit god tier is an understatement. While this is the best one, there are a LOT more jokes. In my roughly eight hours of playing the Joke Per Minute rate was utterly insane.

It helps as well that the game itself is really good at what it sets out to do. The gameplay is secondary to the writing and jokes for sure, but there is still very clear effort being put in. You choose one of three classes, western spins on the fighter/mage/thief dynamic, and explore the west, getting into turn based battles along the way. If you are RUSHING the main story, the basic quest can be done extremely quickly, but a lot of the joy comes in finding new places, which will give you new stuff and new jokes. The stat and skill system deserves special attention, too, as with the right stats and skills you can solve encounters in ways other than combat. This game lets you skip the final boss with the right item. There are also a lot of puzzle based encounters. The Gun Manor DLC is a great example of this, having you explore a manor full of ghosts that you can choose to either settle peacefully by solving their puzzle or violently. Some puzzles made me break out a guide, but there are very few truly bad puzzles.

I didn't have the words for it when I first played, but this game is a genuine CRPG, and a great one at that. The main game is short enough to allow you to replay it multiple times, and there are four different companions to facilitate this. It's a really excellent little package, and absolutely worth playing, as it seems to have become a bit of a hidden gem. I greatly look forward to Shadows over Loathing.

By the same devs behind the classic browser game Kingdom of Loathing, this is a short turn-based RPG that takes place in a comical western setting. The writing is easily the best part of the game, as it's one of the funniest games I've played. Every character, random encounter, conversations, etc. are well worth reading.

Combat is fine, but pretty bare bones. It's your standard turn based battle system with a new coat of paint. Nothing to write home about, but I do have a soft spot for short RPGs that don't waste the players time to hit that 40+ hour mark. (Costume Quest, Penny Arcade games, and others are some of my faves.)

This game was meant to be played multiple times to experience everything. I definitely missed a TON of stuff in my 8 hour play-through so I'll probably play through it again eventually. Definitely recommend this as, once again, some of the most fun & clever writing I've read in a game. ALSO IT'S ONLY LIKE $11.

West of Loathing is the kind of game where it's very obvious that they put all their stock into the gags. I mean, every character in the game is a stick figure and the combat is so easy that playing on hard mode is essentially the only way to get a decent challenge out of it.

And the writing and quests are fun, at first. They're clever, cute little romps that usually put a smile on my face and made me chuckle. The problem is that I think the game is too long and complex for something not taking itself seriously: for all the gags of "oh look, this necromancer facility is actually a place you can make chocolate using their chemical stand lmao," it still has puzzles and challenges that require you to either write specific, mission-critical details (that are usually hidden in a paragraph of jokes) down to remember them, or you simply ignore it and try to brute force everything and get unsatisfying conclusions.

So when you couple the fact that eventually the game's biggest strength (the writing) becomes grating after a while, there's not really any reason to keep going. When it all becomes more tiring to figure out what the game wants from you than to enjoy the ride, you're better off just shooting straight for the ending. There's very little reason to replay it, as well, considering there aren't even really "evil" options or ways to do quests differently.