

Supernatural threats (and allies) aside, he has to worry about rifts with neighbouring non-indigenous trapper communities, which you might choose to heal. Across Rivers and his folk appear as protectors of the West, here to track down and purge the literal spirit of greed behind settler expansionism. On the upside, he can devour corpses to replenish his health.Īfter Qui'g comes Across Rivers, a member of the Lost Fire Nation, which are based on real-life Anishinaabe indigenous groups and written by Elizabeth LaPensée, who is of Anishinaabe descent. He's also, to say the least, unwelcome in human towns, so selling your surplus inventory can be tricky. Qui'g has no idea who he is or rather, used to be. But then you're plunged into the body of Cl'erns Qui'g, a recently transformed pigman. It all seems comprehensible enough - an Old Western Fallout-style CRPG with a touch of the Arkane. She also shows you the ropes of various map mechanics, like pop-up random encounters and the game's morality system, with crimes only affecting your reputation if witnesses live to tell the tale.
#Weird west developer plus#
Her story teaches you the basics of stealth - think viewcones and hiding in bushes - and gunplay - think crouch behind cover, plus a huge emphasis on AOE abilities and terrain traps - together with the bone relics and glittering golden cards you'll use to unlock abilities and boost your stats. You start off as Jane Bell, an ageing bounty hunter forced to saddle up for One Last Job after her partner is abducted by cannibals. Beginning in different corners of the world map, a grimdark themepark of archetypal North American geography, each character offers not just a different playstyle but, in theory, a different perspective and set of dramatic constraints. You play a member of the aforesaid cowled illuminati, who in turn plays many other characters - possessing a different person chapter by chapter care of a magical brand, in a grand, sorcerous experiment of unknown purpose. It's a valiant attempt at recreating the protean intricacies of the best immersive sims with a smaller team and budget, packed with great ideas that don't quite mesh. hit-and-miss, much as its efforts to miniaturise the knock-on immersive chaos of the WolfEye founders' previous Dishonored games are more admirable than satisfying. There's a lot going on here, but in practice, Weird West's weirdness is. The realm is divided not just between settler communities and indigenous Americans, but factions of cannibals, werewolves and witches, all of them being manipulated by an off-screen illuminati of cowled figures who might as well call themselves game designers. Quests alternate gritty pulp novel conceits with otherworldly enigmas: one moment you're squeezing a barkeep for information on a posse of kidnappers, against a backdrop of tinkling piano the next, you're trying to make sense of a captive meteor. Stores are happy to trade in ectoplasm and cursed goblets alongside deerskin and copper. Magic is an everyday concern: town deputies sling lightning and fireballs alongside bullets. Here's a quick look at some Weird West gameplay. Dip into the caves and you'll encounter ravenous mutants and blue-stone temples where cultists debate visions of the apocalypse.

Head out into the wilds and you'll find raucous villages of pigmen and ghost towns that absent-mindedly manifest from the foundations up. This very much isn't your classic rootin' tootin' cowboy yarn.

WolfEye's Weird West mixes this vast, rancid legacy with outright fantasy elements sourced partly from the likes of Lovecraft and partly from the studio founders' previous Dishonored games.
#Weird west developer series#
Think of Media.Vision's Wild Arms series for PS1, where six-shooters are ancient relics wielded by chosen adventurers, or the pre-patch version of Red Dead Redemption, with its cursed physics and flying centaurs, or the dreamy vestiges of frontier life you encounter while trudging the plains of Where The Water Tastes Like Wine. Videogames have certainly taken it in some peculiar directions. The Old West has always been weird, hasn't it? A bloody daydream of plunder and desolation, heroism and nihilism, reincarnated in a thousand motley forms across generations of books, films, folk songs and campfire stories.
#Weird west developer full#
A bold, atmospheric yet dissatisfying ensemble RPG shooter, full of untapped promise.
