How the West Was One on the Uses and Limitations of Diaspora Review
From commencement to terminate, the Gunfight at the OK Corral lasted 30 seconds which, incidentally, is about how long it takes to grasp the concept of Hard W. CreativeForge Games has produced a plough-based strategy game with a dark, supernatural story set in the wild due west. Think XCOM, merely with cowboys (howdy, commander).
The reasons why it's an interesting game, however, require a more detailed explanation. Hard West is deeply ambitious; it boasts a few mechanics that could prop up a game like this on their ain. Combined, they brand for a refreshing take on the genre that - in spite of its faults - is rather special. We'll start, as all skillful westerns do, with a scrap of story.
Hard West's entrada is split into eight carve up chapters or scenarios; each ane centred effectually a particular character. These scenarios (each ane of which tin be completed comfortably in one sitting) frequently intertwine, assuasive you to explore the aforementioned story from both sides. In one instance, the person yous but spent a whole chapter controlling becomes the elusive effigy your new graphic symbol is hell-bent on killing. It's an interesting approach that keeps the campaign from feeling like i long slog, and information technology offers up a skilful deal of mission variety.
While the obligatory gunfights play out in turn-based missions, much of the narrative substance comes from wandering and role-playing your way beyond the game map (this portion of the game is the equivalent of base edifice in XCOM). Exploring locations on the map will help yous larn new items, new posse members and, crucially, advance the story. How y'all fare in this text-based risk determines what shape you lot enter your next combat mission in - the choices you make impact on your finances, your wellness and, in some cases, fifty-fifty your sanity.
This section of the game gives a surprising amount of narrative heft to Hard Westward, making information technology ane of the more memorable stories I've encountered in a plough-based game. Information technology's a pity, and then, that it'south hampered so badly by an over-emphasis on conciseness. Consider this passage:
"Solomon locked himself in the workshop for an unabridged 24-hour interval. He built a mining drill to excerpt the meteor from the crater. He also built an insanity gauge, and then that whenever he visited a location, he could observe the gauge to bank check that expanse's Madness level."
While the desire to avoid swamping the player with a wall of text is understandable, that's an awful amount to absorb in just three sentences. Too often story beats similar these experience so rushed as to seem non-expert.
By dissimilarity the game's narrator, death, is fantastic. The understated voice acting punctuates the game's tragedy-laden story brilliantly. In narrating primal moments during combat missions, it also spoon-feeds you some tactical data from time to time. These are always worth exploring; non only exercise they give you lot an advantage in combat, but they pad out the story in ways that brand the missions memorable, rather than just another gunfight next to some tumbledown buildings.
The combat missions in Difficult Due west are solidly executed and will exist familiar fare for anyone who's played a turn-based strategy game before. Where Hard West'due south combat gets interesting, though, is in the menu system. Eschewing skill copse and course systems, all of Hard West's special abilities are tied in to playing cards that tin be assigned to whatsoever character. Characters have between three and five slots available, allowing yous to play around with different character builds before beginning each combat mission. Equipping shadow salve and shadow cloak, for instance, means you lot non only regenerate health when out of direct sunlight, but you're also completely invisible to enemies. These cards allow for a tremendous amount of character flexibility, opening up a vast range of tactical options. It's just a shame that your carte stash resets at the start of each scenario - the abilities are so much fun to play effectually with that it would accept been nice non to have to unlock them all again each fourth dimension.
Hard West is likewise interesting in that information technology doesn't rely on random dice rolls to determine whether an attack hits or not; instead, you lot accept the luck system. Every combatant in Hard West has a luck stat. When a shot is fired, the pct chance to hit is compared to the number of luck points the target has left. If the luck value is higher the shot goes wide, however the target loses luck points to cover the cost. Conversely, if the bullet connects, that graphic symbol gains luck points back, making them harder to hit next fourth dimension. Information technology's a slightly more than open-faced approach that encourages a more aggressive playstyle. For example, if an enemy is in full comprehend and you only accept a 20 per cent gamble to hit, it'due south however worth taking that shot. You'll either practice some damage or whittle away some of their luck, making the adjacent shot more than likely to connect. Wyatt Earp once said "in a gunfight... you need to take your time in a hurry". I couldn't have put it meliorate myself.
Using a character to soften up targets like this while sending someone round on a flanking manoeuvre is immensely satisfying and helps reduce the amount of chin-scratching that so oftentimes occurs with turn-based strategy games. It also, bizarrely, sometimes has you lot hoping one of your characters gets shot.
The thing is, the majority of special abilities in Difficult Westward are powered by luck - some requiring a whopping 75 points to activate. While you tin can use consumables to heave your luck, the easiest way to fill the meter is to go shot. Hoping someone would fly one of my characters so I could use their shriek ability and deal 3 impairment to every enemy in sight was a strange feeling, but in some ways that's the essence of Difficult Due west'south combat. It's a more ragged take on turn-based strategy; taking lumps is a primal part of the experience. Hard West is a game nigh falling down six times and getting up seven.
While the gainsay for the most part in Hard West is actually enjoyable, at that place's one major drawback in that your enemies don't trigger when discovered for the showtime time. While in games similar XCOM they'll nuance to cover when revealed, Difficult West'south cowpokes remain perfectly nevertheless. As a result, it'due south remarkably easy to move forwards into cover and, in doing and so, flank an enemy you didn't even know was there. After that, information technology'due south simply a matter of turning effectually and killing them outright (if you lot still have an activeness indicate left) or wincing as your character gets plugged on the enemy turn.
Making kills this way feels like failing up or playing dingy. I could make a hackneyed reference to 'gettin' the driblet on a varmint' at this point, but bluntly these moments don't feel like the actions of a slick gunslinger. They feel more like robbing yourself of an interesting tactical challenge.
In that location is, still, an element to Difficult West in which yous can legitimately go the drop on your enemy. In a fisftul of missions, you start out in the setup stage, whereby the enemy hasn't been alerted to your presence yet. Y'all're costless to position your shooters to your center'southward content before slapping leather, though straying into an enemy's cone of vision will cause them to become suspicious and somewhen assault. This phase can make all the divergence at the starting time of a combat, letting you level the playing field in a way that doesn't feel like cheesing - generally because each mission with a setup stage tends to exist crawling with bad guys.
Despite its limitations, then, Difficult Due west is a game that punches well in a higher place expectations. Its developers took some bold pattern decisions that, for the most part, actually pay off. It'southward occasionally clunky and frequently exploitable, merely it's also genuinely memorable. CreativeForge Games may not be the best writers in the business concern, just they sure equally hell ain't no snake oil salesmen.
Source: https://www.eurogamer.net/hard-west-review
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