Synopsis:
Discover a dark fantasy reimagining of the Wild West where lawmen and gunslingers share the frontier with fantastical creatures. Journey through the story of a group of atypical heroes, written into legend by the decisions you make in an unforgiving land. Each journey is unique and tailored to the actions taken – a series of high stakes adventures where everything counts and the world reacts to the choices you make. Form a posse or venture forth alone into an otherworldly confines of the Weird West and make each legend your own.

Publisher: Devolver Digital
Reviewed on: PC (Intel i5-9400F, @2.90GHZ, RTX 2060, 16GB RAM)
Also available for: PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Developer: WolfEye Studios
Director: Raphaël Colantonio

Weird West is an interesting game, and not in a sarcastically nice way, in a very genuine way. The way it weaves the Immersive Sim and RPG elements into an experience that will be different for every pioneer that takes the journey is first-rate, though there are some bumps along the way.

The Journey you are on does live up to the titular weirdness, with much of the story content encompassing a haunting atmosphere, aided by excellent visuals and music that set the scene. The story is broken up into five different journeys, during which you inhabit a different character from all ends of the West. Within each of these vignettes, you have an arc for each of the characters, underpinned by a central thematic dilemma whilst also uncovering more about the overall storyline in Weird West. Everything is written really well, and you meet so many intriguing characters along the journey that come in and out of the story at different points. Of course, there are many choices to be made, and they often are morally ambiguous in the outcome you are deciding on. 

The sense of exploration is alive, and it is easily the most rewarded method of gameplay in Weird West. The West is not one open-world; rather, many smaller areas travelled via an overworld map. The scope is smartly used because many of these areas are handcrafted for exploration, and the game knows when and how to reward you for taking part. Maybe it is a simple Nimp Relic, which is used to unlock powers, or perhaps you find a way to approach the quest in a completely different way. All of this is achieved through interesting spaces to explore, and their tightness allows the game to be dynamic within these spaces. One town I came upon had become infested with a plague-like bee, and all the residents had bailed themselves up in the hall. After I cleared the town, the residents were able to clean up, and on subsequent visits, the town was again a hive of activity, which helped make these centres feel alive. There is also the opportunity to eliminate the population of a town, which allows for bandits and outlaws to move in and stake their claim. 

Though the exploration in Weird West is not just about spatial exploration, it is also about gameplay exploration. There are a lot of systems in place that players can explore to allow for a fair amount of freedom in how they approach a situation. Plenty of immersive sim interactions are never explained, only discovered through logic or exploration. I threw some dynamite while it was raining, but this meant the fuse became wet and didn’t explode. My favourite interaction was the Pigman I killed by setting him on fire, which resulted in his lootable meat being cooked and, therefore, edible right away!

Though not all aspects of the gameplay are equal, there are times when the active combat can feel clunky to control, with dynamite either hard to throw in the right direction or the twin-stick shooting not entirely living up to some of its contemporaries. This does not always drag on the experience, as you often are not in prolonged shootouts. 

It took me a while to get going on my journey into the Weird West, as initially, the RPG and Immersive Sim elements seemed a bit at odds. A stealthy, non-lethal run is not something that felt to me to be achievable without a great deal of patience and skill in the game. Shootouts are very common in the West, which initially I was taken aback by, as I generally favour a stealthy approach in this kind of game. It wasn’t until I had a couple of random encounters that it struck home that this game didn’t expect you to be hiding behind boxes waiting for the opportunity to strike. This is further shown by the number of enemies that are often grouped together, making it difficult to pick off one by one. There is also a lack of options for stealthy and non-lethal gameplay, which is a bit of a disappointment. 

The morality system of Dishonored is replaced here by the ex-Arkane Studios team at WolfEye Studios with a reputation system that rewards you for your good deeds for the civilians. It does not punish you for mowing down wave after wave of gangsters. While just about every NPC is killable in the game, you can then separate them into the NPCs that would affect your reputation and those that don’t. Bounties are the easiest way to boost your reputation within the West, and each of these offers an attractive little opportunity to play how you feel, which is a core tenet of Weird West. 

The bounties are also excellent ways to show off the great emerging stories in Weird West. One bounty, I simply snuck along the outer perimeter, opened a window and shot the gang leader in the back of the head (and getting a multiplier for him being unaware) and then slinked away while the other gang members rushed about looking for me—another bounty I bought into jail, creating a vendetta with the bounty. The next time I visited that town, he had escaped and hired some thugs and ambushed me as I arrived in town. Our shootout was deadly and nearly led to me accidentally shooting some helpful NPCs that would have sunk my reputation. Other Vendettas against me ambushed me as I travelled and were started as I killed their gang leader, and they managed to escape and regroup.