Hard West (PC) Second Opinion Review

Right from the get-go, Hard West seems like a game split between two concepts. Is it a dramatic story-driven game, or is it a tactical RPG that really just focuses on the battles? It turns out that it's not really either of those things; it's a bit like a half-assed blend.

Yes, the main character lost his mother and is now out for revenge, and that could make for an interesting few character-driven quests that involve dispatching the murderer's henchmen, but the story just meanders between several different things, eventually simply forgetting about the main plot altogether and focusing on how you beat somebody at a card game. That person is now out for revenge, and, well… yada yada. Apparently, everybody's out for revenge, everybody's batshit insane, and quite frankly, the plot and characters lose much of their charm when the game's entire universe is this messed up. The protagonists' lack of verbal input on anything that happens in the story or in combat also renders the game a bit insipid.

It's not just the universe that is messed up, though - the plot is, too. It's broken up into several campaigns that consist of a few battles interspersed with some side-quests on an overworld map. Those side-quests seem pointless. Sure, they grant money, weapons, and/or items of various kinds, but the quests themselves are not fun. They include small contained descriptions of locations and irrelevant side-characters, like shop owners, and they present different options to handle those characters or situations. The only problem is there is no indication of what is to be gained from making one choice rather than the other, and the chances of winning a bet aren't clear, either. Take all the items before the sandstorm rolls in, or take some and flee? It's not even clear what kind of outcome might be expected, so why does it matter what choice is made? It's completely arbitrary, there is no role-playing to be done, it's an illusion.

It's nice that there's so many locations on the map, but they don't provide any background info on the main character or any other characters, really. Moreover, traveling from one to the other doesn't affect the characters' chances of survival; it doesn't result in any penalty to the next battle. After getting away from the ridiculous overworld section and continuing with the story, it turns out that it moves from one plot to the next, and it's pretty discombobulated. One minute you're tracking down a masked man, and the next, you need to find a demon that amassed riches and might be able to help you out. Who even is this demon? These frankly unconnected plots serve only to pad out the story.

Things fares a bit better when it comes to the combat gameplay. The characters have various skills at their disposal that they can use if their luck is high enough, and they take up quite a few action points. They are powerful enough to be able to turn the tide of battle, which is nice. The skills are generally equipped by assigning playing cards to characters' card slots before battle. In battle, there is no way to prepare anymore, which adds much-needed tension to the gameplay. It also doesn't seem like the skills are so powerful that they render the different weapons' stats pointless.

Positioning is important, too, for dodging attacks by avoiding being trapped or ambushed. Of course, the fun thing is that the team can be positioned in such a way as to draw out the enemies and encourage them to take up certain positions, leaving the enemies open to attack from another friendly character coming from a different angle. They key to survival is taking cover, while the key to winning is cornering or ambushing, which is even possible if one or more of the team wields a sniper rifle to pick them off.

Different weapons have different range, damage, and ammo count. Which weapons should be chosen depends on your preferences. Some of them allow two shots per turn, which tends to be useful for people who want to take chances with low hit rates. Those weapons are also useful for shooting enemies that are in cover, as cover reduces damage taken. In essence, these weapons seem useful for trapping. Weapons with high damage speak for themselves, though one could make the case that these are intended as one-man army weapons to decimate enemies quickly and take up positions fast. The ones with small clips will need to be reloaded more often, causing a turn to be lost unless the movement phase is skipped.

Despite this gameplay depth, it feels like something is missing, such as a way to manipulate the map, and the amount of cover it contains. Maybe there's some lack of enemy manipulation that's the problem, or being able to make them scatter by chucking dynamite or something. Hard West gets a little stale after a while, as many maps just play out very similarly, and the skills' focus on simple gunshots doesn't help. The enemies are usually almost all to be found on ground level, somewhere in relative cover. Nobody ever surprises, nothing unforeseen ever happens. The odds are usually not stacked against you when it comes to the map layout; it's more related to enemy count.

Yes, of course it's challenging to have to kill so many enemies, but the game just isn't very dynamic. Why not start a level with many enemies being somewhere on top of buildings, ready to take the team out? Why is it always just a flat arena with a few buildings to take cover in? Situations like needing to hold down a building while being attacked from outside from all angles are too few and far between. Even when these situations present themselves, going about the usual business of roaming the map is always too easy.

Thankfully, there's more on offer than just combat, as there are also side-objectives involving finding loot or food to sustain the characters (in a specific survival-oriented overworld section), or jailbreaks and escapes involving stealth. The stealth does add a nice strategic element of careful positioning before the assault, which can really help determine the flow of battle. With such few health points increasing the tension, it's really helpful and fun.