6/12/2023 0 Comments Weird west switch![]() ![]() It's a character-driven RPG where you solve problems and mysteries, primarily with a gun. It doesn’t take long before you start to see where Weird West is coming from. The five hours I spent with Weird West wasn't enough time to guess at where the story goes, but I was able to get a grip on my role in the game. The level of historic transformation here doesn't resemble Friends at the Table's Sangfielle (opens in new tab), which disassembles the bones of the Old West into something monstrous and unknowable. It's also the first game I've played set in this time period that features a number of Black and Asian characters, although it's unclear to me at this point if Weird West plans to grapple with America's westward expansion from those perspectives or the native perspective, which are often erased in western fiction, or if the supernatural will take center stage. Weird West is about making plans that inevitably tumble out of control. Nods to the nature of Weird West's world (hint: it's weird) and not only my character's place in it, but my place as the player, upended a lot of my assumptions about how it'd frame a well-trodden sort of fiction. A recurring character who takes the form of a young, dead girl referred to my character as "the passenger" almost as if that name was for me, the player. Not everyone I bumped into had a story to tell or a quest to give. His portraits are raw like Disco Elysium's cast, but not quite as surreal. I didn't remember their names, but I remembered their faces thanks to Cedric Peyravernay’s art, which previously defined the gloomy Dishonored series. ![]() As I led my veteran bounty hunter through Weird West's tangled world, I spent a lot of time speaking with the people, something that happens rarely in Deathloop. Here's a complete list of all the new games of 2021 and beyond to get excited about.Weird West yanks the camera back from the first-person view established by Ultima Underworld and System Shock to a bird's eye view, turning the characters into board game pieces. Weird West is hitting PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on January 11, 2022. I take a zombie miner beating at least a dozen times before I crack the encounter's code, but whereas this would make me walk away from a game like, say, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Weird West keeps me weirdly invested. During my playthrough, I die more times than I can count, but the sheer variety in which I can approach an encounter keeps me from getting frustrated. Vibes aside, Weird West's combat is pretty challenging, especially for those of us who aren't the best at twin-stick shooters. There's little dialogue in the game, with most of it playing out via speech bubbles, but when the narrator does speak it's incredibly effective. I nearly die to a pack of bears while staring up at the brushed concrete of an abandoned church, and I accidentally walked straight into a firefight because an entrancing, glowing mass sat at the center of an area and I just had to know what it was. Visually, it's somewhat reminiscent of West of Dead, with a slightly cell-shaded vibe that doesn't skimp on the details. Weird West is like nothing I've played recently in both gameplay and style. All five protagonists' paths will come together in the final chapter, and I'll even be able to take the previous protagonist along on some of my journeys, although now I will certainly do that with more caution, considering what happened to my last bodyguard. Although I don't finish Jane Bell's main questline during my initial playthrough, Weird West will lead you through four other people's journeys – and everything I did during my time as Bell will permanently affect the world for the next protagonist. The environment remembers your every move, remaining the same even after you've died – and beyond. He was a bodyguard whose name I can't remember, but he was also someone's family, and Weird West wants you to keep that in mind. Later, as I'm strolling back through Grackle in search of more bounties, a bit of dialogue pops up over the head of a villager lamenting his death. "Oh shit," I mumble before digging through his pockets for coin and trinkets, thinking nothing else of the man who just died to protect me. ![]() He holds his own against Jessica Miller's gang for the entire battle, landing some important shots on a bad guy who was trying to flank me, but stumbles into a fire I started by smashing an oil lamp and dies at my feet. He offers to act as my bodyguard for a fee, so I decide to bring him along on a bounty mission. Early on, I gain a fair bit of coin by rifling through the pockets of my fallen foes and happen upon a man leaning up against the outside of a saloon. The world of Weird West is dangerous and dire, and everything you do affects it.
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