Any NPC or even important story figure can be gunned down, should you be privy to some wild west morality. Sure, you can be law-abiding bore of a paragon, but why do that when you can stick your 6 shooter straight in their face. One of the most advertised elements of Weird West’s story is your agency within it. Sadly, it ended up more of a drunken, slurred nothingness – so devoid of interesting story hooks I stopped paying attention to the dialogue come the 4th campaign. I had high hopes for the story to come together into a saloon-buckling tale of strange huckleberries and gunslinging beasts. The vultures must have got to the carcasses first. It should be an engaging structure, but it falls a bit flat by the fact that none of them are voice-acted and in between the core story developments at the beginning and end of arcs, there’s mere morsels of narrative to latch onto during the middle chunks of campaigns. While Jane’s and Across Rivers stories were relatively standard fare, Pigman’s journey had a fair bit of intrigue, with the last two characters offering a darker perspective. There’s some supernatural, unnatural goings on that you’ll need to uncover through each persona, so prepare to strap in for the long haul, as very little will make sense until you hit the end of all 5 arcs. A man turned into a swine through sorcery, a native facing off supernatural wendigo and hostile settlers, there’s variety in the avatars you’ll assume control of, for sure.Ĭompletion of each arc provides a scene of the wider story unfurling, with some… interesting… beings cropping up inexplicably throughout your adventures with riddles, musings and existential queries galore. Jane’s tale isn’t the only story you’ll be embarking on however, as Weird West is split into 5 mini-campaigns, each with a unique character and perspective to link the overall narrative together. With her son slain in cold blood and her husband whisked away, presumably for torturous purposes, we’re encouraged to dust off our cowboy boots, saddle up and have our trusty revolvers at the ready. Jane Bell, a long-retired bounty hunter is accosted by some savage gang members of the Stillwater prestige. Weird West certainly sets out with a puzzling opening act.

Quite the contrary, it’s one of the most routinely run-of-the-mill titles I’ve played for a long while, seemingly in-spite of its setting merging the wild west with fantastical elements. It wears the title of Weird proudly within its name, yet there’s very little that’s actually weird about it. Weird West is kinda like that exact friend.

Except, not only were they not in any way weird, they weren’t even humorously oddball. Almost using it as a means to define their entire personality, they couldn’t help but just relentlessly inform you of how *hilariously strange* they were. Did you ever have that friend growing up? You know the type: the one who loved to proclaim just how *wacky* and *weird* they were. These developers had made some of my favourite gaming experiences, so translating that into a western setting should have been a certified slam-dunk, right? The sandboxes of Prey and Dishonored are phenomenal, with Prey especially delivering a masterclass in open-ended problem solving opportunities. Zombies, wraiths and werewolves meet the bounty hunters of the wild west, but is it as cooky as it claims to be? The Finger Guns review of Weird West.Īrriving fresh off the heels of esteemed developers who delivered some of the most immersive experiences such as Prey and Dishonored, Weird West aims to merge science and fantasy western into a compelling adventure driven by the player’s own ambitions and creativity. Zombies, wraiths and werewolves meet the bounty hunters of the wild west, but is it as cooky as it claims to be? The Finger Guns review.

The weird west