Game News Hard West Released

[Infinitron]

Tags: CreativeForge Games; Hard West

Today sees the release of Hard West, a fancy-looking turn-based tactical game set in a supernatural Wild West. Originally Kickstarted back in 2014 by Polish developer CreativeForge Games, the Codex initially overlooked Hard West because of concerns over its streamlined nuXCOM-inspired design (or maybe I was just too lazy to post about it lol). Whatever the case, Bubbles saw it at Gamescom earlier this year and came away with not-entirely-negative impressions, something which made lead designer Kacper Szymczak very happy. His insistence on winning our approval is quite touching, so let's give it a fair shake. Here's the game's launch trailer and description:

Welcome to the Wild West like you’ve never seen it before. When a tragic turn of events sets one man down a path of supernatural chaos and revenge, he must brutally hunt down all those whom wronged him. Follow Warren on his descent into the darkest recesses of the human soul, and try to survive in a world full of hard choices and even harder consequences. Because in this world, death is a constant presence and the black pacts which you make with forces beyond human comprehension will forever haunt all those around you.

Fight and survive through 8 unique story-based scenarios, and try your hand at 40 individually designed turn-based combat missions. Journey deeper into the world of Hard West and meet a colorful cast of playable characters whose fates are intimately intertwined with yours. Together you will need to make divisive choices to uncover the ultimate plans of the ancient powers at play, as you unravel a deep narrative storyline featuring multiple endings depending on the choices you make during the game.

Game Features

• A Unique “Weird” West World: Explore a world where Western legends meet demons, arcane rituals and satanic cults and where the dead can walk the Earth again. For a price.
• Compelling Turn-based Combat: Control 1-4 squad members in thrilling turn-based combat encounters and master a range of powerful western-inspired special abilities, from feats of gunslinging to survivability against all odds, to take out your opponents in a series of original tactical maps with unique story-based objectives.
• Collect and Combine Special Abilities: Obtain new special abilities by collecting and equipping unique cards which are earned throughout the game by completing main- and optional objectives, exploration , bartering, treasure hunting and more. These cards can be combined to create even more powerful combos, and provide additional options in combat.
• Choice and Fate: Experience a deep story where decisions made during and between combat scenarios will resonate through future events and change the ultimate fates of a divisive group of colorful characters
• Luck of the Draw: Use a combat system that goes far beyond pure probability by featuring luck as a unique guardian of engaging and challenging combat
• Dynamic Cover: Change the flow of combat thanks to an extensive cover system which allows for the creation of effective cover from objects in the environment, making flanking and maneuvering during battles a truly powerful tactic
• Shadow Spotting: Exploit the Blazing western sun to Locate out of sight enemies by the shadows that they cast, along with the sounds they make
• Ricochets: Utilize Metal objects to allow master gunslingers to shoot beyond the line of sight for increased tactical combat options, and diversified planning
• 40 Historically Inspired Weapons: Equip and employ an eclectic collection of deadly shotguns, rifles, pistols and sniper rifles, all based upon real outlandish prototypes, designs and ideas from the era

Hard West is available on Steam and GOG for the price of $20, with a 20% launch discount until next week.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Looks nice, ill wait for some codexer impressions before giving myself an early Christmas gift.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Together you will need to make divisive choices to uncover the ultimate plans of the ancient powers at play

Just need a husky voiceover for the trailer: "Make divisive choices.... together"

 

[Drowed]

Oooh. I was waiting for this. Waiting for impressions too, but I really like what I'm seeing. I hope it doesn't suck.

 

[LeStryfe79]

In your wildest dreams...

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Bought it. Will post some impressions in few hours.

Edit: Fuck. Between it being on prerelease sale and on launch sale there was a short window of time when it was not on a sale. Guess when I bought it? Though the sale was only a prerelease thing ....

 

[Baron Dupek]

Without playing both titles I'm certainly sure - it's better than FO4.

Together you will need to make divisive choices to uncover the ultimate plans of the ancient powers at play

Come on, you already have good setting (not another fantasy garbage), no cartoon or pixelated graphic (overrated garbage and it's ugly in most cases) and turn based combat, cut that cliche crap out.

 

[Jack Dandy]

Codex should never snub anything turn based with stats

 

[Infinitron]

Bought it. Will post some impressions in few hours.

Edit: Fuck. Between it being on prerelease sale and on launch sale there was a short window of time when it was not on a sale. Guess when I bought it? Though the sale was only a prerelease thing ....

Refund, buy again.

 

[Ohmsquare]

So far combat and overall presentation are pretty great - especially that Luck mechanic is interesting. But it seems to have some weird technical issues with overheating GPU (up to 95C!), mainly when alt-tabbing to desktop.

 

[Melcar]

Hmm, saw it on GoG a few days ago. Still at a discount right now. Tempted, but I guess I will wait for some kind of impressions/review. Was scrounging for WL2 (sorry VD, no Linux version no AoD for me).

 

[Bester]

Been playing it for an hour. Selected "Hard", which promised to be challenging.

First fight after the tutorial - spent almost about 40 minutes trying to beat it, died 4 times, had to restart. So it's challenging. The voice acting and the music are great so far and the atmosphere is dark and there's a sense of hopelessness and melancholy. It's good.

There's also some RPG elements which were not in the trailer: when you're on the map, you're sometimes presented with choice of what you want to do story-wise (which will probably have consequences later), and there's an actual story it seems.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Once you enter a map is it always TB, like xcom, or can you explore and interact in real time, and only enter TB when in combat?

 

[Bester]

Once you enter a map is it always TB, like xcom, or can you explore and interact in real time, and only enter TB when in combat?

I haven't been in a town where you can explore yet, maybe they don't even exist. I visited a town once but only got a window where I could trade or hire some help, or learn prospering techniques while staying on the map. There was no town to enter.

When you visit a place where you will have to fight, you can play in TB out of combat to set things up and position yourself.

 

[Saduj]

Codex should never snub anything turn based with stats

There are stats?

 

[Markman]

There are stats?

Chars have basic stats that you pimp with cards and items. Plus there is "passive" stuff that you get while derping in the "adventure" map. So far I got only negatives for choices I made, only plus for the main char I got was cause I made a full house with cards.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

That thing is seriously awesome! Been playing for more than an hour on hard, here are my early observations:
-Difficulty is quite serious. For now, hard feels actually hard. Far harder than Dragonfall on very hard or Wasteland 2 on ranger in Arizona
-AI seems decent. Enemies are good in flanking. Usually when enemies are leaving cover they do it to make more damages to the player(at least it looks so).
-No hp sponges. 2-3 bullets and both enemies and players die
-First mission after tutorial has a good encounter design. (defending a house)
-There is a possibility to start the tutorial as a tutorial or as a normal mission. There is written a promise that it is short and to the point which is true. The best part: if player declines playing it as a tutorial then he must deal with a quite strong opponent on the start which is not attacking during tutorial
-Ricochet ability is fun.
-Luck mechanic is really interesting. It works as a mana pool for abilities, but it protects from being hit. The more severe a hit chance is the more luck it takes to stop it. Luck is automatically used for that purposes. Being hit and losing hp replenish some of it.
-There is some environment manipulation. Could open wells doors to improve its cover. Environment can be destroyed like windows.
-Abilities are presented as cards which can be assigned to characters. Looks like 1 ability cannot be used by 2 different characters.
-Chance to hit is chance based but damages are not, there are an exact number of damages being done if it hits.
-There are 4 stats. Equipment boost it. Some items have special effects.
-Atmosphere and writing are good so far. Feels like there is a potential for it being very good. There are CYOA parts between missions which looks quite complex. There are many choices, some yield different rewards. Luck is sometimes spend there, guess using it lowers it's pool available during next mission. Loved the intro. Love how this low budged game managed to make far superior in writing and presentation intro than multimilion budgeted Fallout 4.
-Looks like there are secondary objectives/consequences to missions (having to pay gold if hired merc dies)
-Always had luck with bugs but so far haven't encountered any. Enemies think a little too much before turn. Game runs smooth, but I have a good pc.
-There is an ironmode and a mode in which being low on hp gives debuffs, but there is more xp.(or skill points, whatever is used)
-Rotating camera is little unhandy. You don't do it with mouse but with q an e keys.
-Like how when using shooting target button, the enemy with the highest chance to hit is automatically selected.

Had a good feeling when buying it, but (as for now) it surpassed expectations. I recommend this. We may have got a sleeper hit.

 

[Bester]

-Ricochet ability is fun.

I don't understand how it works. Whenever I chose it, I don't know where to click to make a ricochet happen.

Otherwise I agree with your post, the game seems awesome even after a few hours.

It got 65 on metacritic from pressretards.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I don't understand how it works. Whenever I chose it, I don't know where to click to make a ricochet happen.

Otherwise I agree with your post, the game seems awesome even after a few hours.

It got 65 on metacritic from pressretards.

Click on ability. Find any metal object (shines lightly). Nothing can block a line of view between player character and object. Click on the object. There should be a line from the player to the object shown. Reapet it from object to the enemy. Shooting tabs opens. Shoot.

 

[Bubbles]

It got 65 on metacritic from pressretards.

So again, this all sounds great! But then there are the bugs. The hot desert sun didn't cook Hard West enough. This is evident everywhere, from menus that take entirely too long to open, to a glitch where accidentally hitting the delete key sets the camera at a horizontal angle on the ground that renders the game nigh-unplayable. I would love to have taken a screenshot of that since it happened so often, but even the screenshot function stopped working a couple hours in. There are typos galore in the text and there are times when said text implies that there should be another dialogue option, but there's nothing to be found. I also dealt with a handful of hard crashes.

This is frustrating because there's a legitimately great game to be found underneath all of the blood and sand. I'm going to fondly remember the small vignettes in this game. Running around as an inquisitor, manipulating people into killing others so that I can build an eldritch artifact. Seeking revenge as a half-man, half-demon. Playing as the villains I saw in previous chapters, understanding what motivated them to become such evil pricks.

This is a world worth exploring, and I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of it. Maybe that'll be in the form of a huge patch that puts this broken machine back together, or a sequel that brings the best of Hard West to the forefront. What I'd really like to see is a tabletop game in this setting, because it honestly feels like it might be better suited in that realm. Either way, I hope there'll be a reason to come back.

5/10: Average - Like a meal of lukewarm water with white bread. It filled my time and my belly, but lacks any discernible flavor or nutritional value. A game that left me no different than it found me. Just passing through.

http://www.destructoid.com/review-hard-west-321364.phtml

 

[Jaesun]

Meanwhile Fallout 4 is a 7.5/10

 

[Brother None]

Backed this on Kickstarter back when. Gotta love the sense of style and novel setting combined with dat glorious TB.

Looking forward to finally fully diving in, tried a bit in the Early access release but it didn't have the shine it does now.

Codex review ETA? Someone must stand up to the MetaCritic Beast

 

[udm]

Meh. I don't give a fuck what those retarded "profeshunalz" think.

Spoiler

Meanwhile Fallout 4 is a 7.5/10

Spoiler

Bro your post was the first thing that came to my kind even as I was reading the review earlier this morning.

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

Its pretty good so far.
Definitely improved from the very first version the backers got to try.

 

[Sranchammer]

I give this two thumbs up. Nothing like using beaners for cover.