Normally when a game reaches for too much it feels unfocused and falls short on everything. Hard West is a rare exception, it tries to do, an experiment with a lot of things, but the core gameplay loop remains solid as hell regardless of what's surrounding it. And that alone to me is worth a recommendation to check out a game. To see something different.
While easily summarized as a wild west X-Com, that descriptor may set up some misleading expectations. While the combat systems themselves are similar, Hard West is vastly different in its structure. There's no persistent base building, research, items, or even units. Hard West is split into several small scenarios that will start you fresh with a new party and a clean inventory each time.
The protagonist and story beats may change from one scenario to another but they are in general connected. When you are not in turn-based combat, you find yourself in the overworld, here you can build your posse, visit item shops, story-related locations, and optional narrative encounters that depending on your choices may net you some weapons, curses, injuries, or blessings. Each scenario also features a unique overworld gimmick related to the current plot beat, these range from mining gold or cranking up your bounty, to managing the food rations of your posse.
Some complain that the overworld takes away too much time from the game, but I disagree, as a mechanic, it brilliantly gamifies one of the core aspects of a good western, the downtime in between the action, those lonely scenes featuring wonderful and vast vistas of the west.
As for the narrative, the main plot is a fitting cliche for the setting: A deal with the devil is done and a tale of greed, violence, and vengeance unfolds. On its own, it's not very deep or detailed, but the whole game is narrated by this universe's version of Death, done by an excellent VA that does a lot of heavy lifting along with the soundtrack to set the grim wild west tone.
The narration added to the overworld mechanics brings me the feeling of playing through someone's tabletop RPG campaign: "Hard Tales of Warren, the Vengeful Undead Gunman." In that way, I find the simplicity of it all quite enduring and it even gives me ideas of my own for some ttRPG sessions.
The only place where the game falters to me is that many of the scenarios end too quickly and could have used a few more combat encounters, often ending right when your current party starts to feel strong, leaving a taste of unfilled potential or lost progress, as once the scenario ends, say goodbye to that posse and hello to a new one.
There are a lot of interesting mechanics introduced that aren't explored to the fullest over the course of the game like the time of day, shadows, and supernatural abilities all feel a little underutilized. And to conclude, the game feels rather reluctant to embrace its weird west side, feeling a bit too restrained at times. Give me more demons, more insane characters, outlandish powers, weird places, and guns made by exorcist combat priests, please!
I'm sure the team also wanted to do more, and most likely it all came down to budget, manpower, and time. Regardless of my gripes, Hard West is well worth playing for western fans.
While easily summarized as a wild west X-Com, that descriptor may set up some misleading expectations. While the combat systems themselves are similar, Hard West is vastly different in its structure. There's no persistent base building, research, items, or even units. Hard West is split into several small scenarios that will start you fresh with a new party and a clean inventory each time.
The protagonist and story beats may change from one scenario to another but they are in general connected. When you are not in turn-based combat, you find yourself in the overworld, here you can build your posse, visit item shops, story-related locations, and optional narrative encounters that depending on your choices may net you some weapons, curses, injuries, or blessings. Each scenario also features a unique overworld gimmick related to the current plot beat, these range from mining gold or cranking up your bounty, to managing the food rations of your posse.
Some complain that the overworld takes away too much time from the game, but I disagree, as a mechanic, it brilliantly gamifies one of the core aspects of a good western, the downtime in between the action, those lonely scenes featuring wonderful and vast vistas of the west.
As for the narrative, the main plot is a fitting cliche for the setting: A deal with the devil is done and a tale of greed, violence, and vengeance unfolds. On its own, it's not very deep or detailed, but the whole game is narrated by this universe's version of Death, done by an excellent VA that does a lot of heavy lifting along with the soundtrack to set the grim wild west tone.
The narration added to the overworld mechanics brings me the feeling of playing through someone's tabletop RPG campaign: "Hard Tales of Warren, the Vengeful Undead Gunman." In that way, I find the simplicity of it all quite enduring and it even gives me ideas of my own for some ttRPG sessions.
The only place where the game falters to me is that many of the scenarios end too quickly and could have used a few more combat encounters, often ending right when your current party starts to feel strong, leaving a taste of unfilled potential or lost progress, as once the scenario ends, say goodbye to that posse and hello to a new one.
There are a lot of interesting mechanics introduced that aren't explored to the fullest over the course of the game like the time of day, shadows, and supernatural abilities all feel a little underutilized. And to conclude, the game feels rather reluctant to embrace its weird west side, feeling a bit too restrained at times. Give me more demons, more insane characters, outlandish powers, weird places, and guns made by exorcist combat priests, please!
I'm sure the team also wanted to do more, and most likely it all came down to budget, manpower, and time. Regardless of my gripes, Hard West is well worth playing for western fans.