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Hard West

[ review ]

Hard West logo

| PC (Steam) Review January 3rd 2016 |

True to it's name, Hard West is a tough tale set in the unforgiving wilderness of the Wild West. In the opening scene, your mother is lost to bandits. Left with low hope and little choice, your father ropes you into the dangerous gold mining trade from which you struggle to eek out a living. Opportunities belie misfotrune at every turn; caves collapse upon discovering their riches and working relationships become very soured when your new friend is captured. With prospects hitting rock bottom, your father succumbs to a suspicious offering from a mysterious stranger: an amulet that will cure bad luck and heal your woes. Unforuntately, your woes are not at an end and the amulet forever curses the owner to bring bad luck wherever they wander. Burdened with a poisonous aura of misery and the guilt of his decision, your father exits your life.

Hard West screenshot main menu
Hard West screenshot mysterious stranger intro He'll make you a deal you can't refuse...

Hard West's story begins like a sombre western, except it includes all of the action they promise but usually fail to deliver on. Soon enough, clues begin to drop to suggest that this is not your typical wild west world and you begin to get the feeling that something big is gonna go down. The fantastically voice-acted narrator is suddenly revealed to be Death himself, the mysterious stranger no longer shows up on foot but instead materializes out of thin air and it's not long before you're battling horned demons and cannibalizing the corpses of your assailants (not a mandatory activity). It's an effective transition from ordinary to supernatural that makes for a refreshing backdrop to this tactical RPG.

What surprised and impressed me the most is the way in which the story is told. While visiting areas on the overworld map, text-based branching dialogue options will open up various opportunities and potentially reveal new places. Narration flows seamlessly from cutscenes into map exploration and battles, which helps to tie them all together nicely into a singular storytelling device. Once again living up to it's name, Hard West is littered with tough choices that have far-reaching or sometimes immediately impactful consequences. Curious promises will be made in return for your help, risks will surround the paths to riches and pursuing the local myths and legends is a trepidatious endeavour with unpredictable outcomes. Your morality and trust will be called into question as you are presented with these hard choices and you'll have to carefully consider whether you want to play the role of a selfish, profit-driven individual or a selfless, helpful character. It's a hugely interactive method of storytelling that deeply involves the player and the decisions they make.

Hard West screenshot cover system

Evident from the outset is the attention to detail Creative Forge Games have applied throughout the game. Check out the first screenshot: how's that for a snazzy main menu with all the animated bells and whistles? Battle maps extend beyond threadable ground to include a multitude of extra buildings and scenery, which is nice to see while you're scouting around for enemies. Almost every wall, piece of wood and object lying around can be used or turned into cover. Shotgun shells and rounds of ammunition shatter windows and send glass in every direction. The user interface is also highly-detailed with decorative silver flourishes surrounding every button and piece of canvas.

Let's talk action. Encounters are turn-based, tactical firefights which see you choosing an area to take cover behind and line up your shot from. That giant boulder may offer you full cover but will consume all of your action points reaching it whereas the nearby barrel will offer half cover and leave you with enough AP to take a shot. Skills add new layers of depth to this would-be familiar system: pray for random bonuses, ricochet shots off obstacles, reduce all friends and foes to 1 HP and much, much more. These skills are obtained as rewards, in the form of playing cards. Sacrificing the skills and passive bonuses of individual cards can be beneficial, because special bonuses are obtainable by equipping a set of cards whose combined face value amounts to a poker hand. Combine this tinkering with a wide range of weapons, relics and items and you're in character customization heaven. I personally loved the level of customization this allows, especially given that the skills are tied only to cards and are therefore completely interchangeable amongst characters.

Hard West screenshot supernatural wild west This is when things start going bump in the night!
Hard West screenshot demon vs hand cannon

Death is permanent in Hard West; if a character dies in battle, they're gone. However, most extra party members are fleeting due to the fact that the story moves on between chapters. Mess up once and you'll have to restart or move on without them. After making a few rash decisions myself, I was left with only 1 party member to take on the next mission: a siege against a high-profile criminal and a mob of his best shooters. Herein lies the beauty of the skill and exploration systems. While wandering around the map for the best equipment I could find, one store owner had a new dialogue option: he offered to add an extra barrel to my double-barreled shotgun. Yes please. Talking to him again, he offered to add a 4th. Hell yes! I also now had a large deck of cards to choose my skills from, since my other members had bit the dust. I won't talk about the combination used because it was one of the highlights of the game for me and I don't want to spoil it. Suffice to say, I was transformed into a supernatural, quad barrel shotgun wielding force to be reckoned with that went on to kick some serious ass. It still wasn't easy, but boy was it glorious. I found playing around with the skills, stats and weapons and then using them to successfully enact your own strategies and theories on the battlefield to be hugely entertaining.

Gameplay is challenging but always fair. Positioning yourself effectively is paramount if you want your shot to have a high chance to hit. Missing is never a total loss though, because you will detract from the enemy's luck instead, which is needed to use skills. Taking a hit from an enemy adds to your own luck and brings you closer to activating powerful skills that can really help to level the odds. Even when I had to restart a battle, I wasn't cursing the decisions I made but instead found myself excitedly looking forward to trying out new strategies and skill/item combinations. There are so many other good ideas and little secrets knocking about in this game too copious to cover here, but they await any pilgrim who ventures out into the Hard West.

Hard West screenshot take cover and shoot

Hard West

Developed By: Creative Forge Games

Published By: Gambitious Digital Entertainment

Purchase on Steam