Weird West Review – WILD WACKY FUN!

Weird West is an awesome top-down action RPG, following along the paths of five different characters. Initially, I got the feeling this should have been more of a turn-based tactics style release. However, that’s only because I have an unhealthy obsession with tactics games. When it comes to Weird West; the combat, world, art design, and everything else to do with this title screams “PC game”.

A Deep and Weird Western Story

Weird West has 5 different stories interconnected by an overarching narrative that involves 5 different characters. The story begins with an unidentified person stuck in a room with 5 portraits, with each image portraying a different character. Suddenly, through what looks like dark magic, the characters’ consciousness is put into the body of a lady farmer who just happens to be a retired Bounty Hunter. Drastic events occur and chaos ensues.

All things considered, this is an exceptional story to kick the game off with. It has twists and turns, loss, surprise reveals, everything to make it a captivating story. Once completed, the story moves over to a new character as the main character’s consciousness is then put into a Pigman.

As the main character moves along, possessing another one of the 5 characters, they can go and recruit a previous character they have already “possessed”.

As already stated, there are 5 separate characters to play as. As the main character moves along, possessing another one of the 5 characters, they can go and recruit a previous character they have already “possessed”. Meaning if you sought to make the Bounty Hunter an overpowered beast of a character, this can be incredibly beneficial when recruiting her while playing as the Pigman. This is expertly done and just drives you to level each character up as much as possible.

Strong Gameplay… Built For PC

The gameplay is mostly fine but can be quite finicky and annoying in places. Especially when it comes to playing on console, aiming in Weird West is incredibly frustrating. Trying to lineup an enemy is super sensitive, meaning you also spend your time moving in each direction to help with your aim. What is immediately apparent is that aiming should be a lot easier on PC, as the line of sight and crosshairs should simply follow where the mouse goes. Apart from this annoying aspect however, Weird West is fantastic.

I love the top-down aspect of the game and how it rewards players for investigating every possible location. Plus, Weird West caters to how you’d like to play the game. Want to stealth your way through? There are bushes to hide in and barriers to cover up behind to strategically take out each enemy. Want to go in guns blazing? There are countless crates with food and water barrels placed around each map to help with replenishing health. It just lets you solve problems how you want.

All The Power

The most important aspect of the gameplay however, is levelling up your character with abilities and perks. Abilities are specific for each character. Meaning once you move from playing as the Bounty Hunter to the Pigman, all abilities are reset. These abilities help dramatically. From dealing elemental damage, to allowing for a silent shot, or being able to shoot everyone within a certain distance.

Obtaining both abilities and perks makes the game so much easier.

Then there are the perks. However, what makes the Perks slightly better is that they are carried over from character to character. This means you get to keep the perks you have already unlocked. This is possibly even more helpful, as you can get perks such as increased health, recruits dealing more damage, and doing increased damage to unaware enemies – my personal favourite. Obtaining both abilities and perks makes the game so much easier.

A Gorgeously Weird World

The world of Weird West looks fantastic, especially when it comes to the maps for each location. The art design for each town looks awesome, from the buildings to each character design. There is also so much to discover, from wandering into each town and to all of the random encounters. The world the developers have built here is incredibly deep and rewarding.

The world the developers have built here is incredibly deep and rewarding.

Each new playable character expands the map a little more, allowing you to discover new locations and places that may just hold more precious items to upgrade your character. Not to mention there are 7 different factions that you will run into with their own ambitions, moral code, and views on life. This amount of detail just shows how much effort was put into trying to make this world as deep and interesting as possible.

Decision

The world the developers have created is immense and incredibly interesting. With so many side quests, extra missions, characters, and factions to discover. The stories are incredibly captivating and well-written, and the game looks amazing. The only downside is that aiming is unnecessarily hard when playing on console. So if you wish to pick this title up, I would suggest purchasing it on PC.

By Dillon Van Der Putten – Reviewed on PlayStation 4

This game was reviewed using a download code provided by Devolver Digital. The Beta Network uses affiliate partnerships, however, this does not influence reviews or any other content published. The Beta Network may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links that are on the website.