HIGH The buildup to the second boss fight.

LOW The actual second boss fight.

WTF “Little guys for big jobs” is a profoundly weird way to describe bullets.

There’s nothing slick about Blood West.  It’s a slow, lumbering thing – an exercise in patience, demanding to be taken on its own terms. 

My first forays into this stealth focused, first-person shooter were mired in frustration, while my seemingly interminable failures put the main character’s immortality to the test.  However, once I was willing to abandon my preconceived heuristics and fully lean into Blood West’s loop, I loved every second of it.

Recently resurrected by a talking cow skull of dubious origins, the player takes control of an unnamed, undead gunslinger tasked with defeating a great evil corrupting the land.  Structured as small open-worlds, players will explore haunted canyons, swamps, and mountain ranges across the American old west.  Light RPG elements allow for some character customization, but make no mistake, spirits, mutants, and gaggles of gun-toting birdmen offer stiff resistance to incautious players, and maintaining a low profile is crucial.

Impulse and quick reflexes find no purchase in Blood West – every action must be carefully considered, with a solid contingency plan in place should things go awry.  Stand-up fights netted poor results for this spooky cowpoke, and each encounter turned into a tactical calculus.

Take the simple act of equipping weapons – players are only able to swap between two at a time, one large and one small.  Is it more prudent to take the bow, able to stealthily dispatch weaker enemies from afar?  Or is it better to knife them in the back, relying on the close quarters fury of a double-barreled shotgun should that colossal wendigo stomping in the background take notice?  These questions become existential as health is fleeting, and death is severely punished on the plains of Blood West.

Each defeat (and subsequent resurrection) results in a “soul flaw” — a semi-permanent status effect that negatively impacts a core stat such as health, stamina, or sneaking ability.  These compound with each death, worsening up to three times. While they can eventually be remedied, these flaws do nothing to make the hostile world of Blood West any easier.

While Blood West is punishing when approached as a typical first-person shooter, it is immensely rewarding as a tactical stealth experience.  Its open-ended structure offers players abundant freedom in tackling objectives, and most areas can be approached from any direction.  I came to organize my play into discreet sorties, probing further into the wilderness and systematically clearing areas of enemies before returning to base camp to trade treasure with the merchant and heal up.  Defeated enemies stay dead until the player rests or resurrects, and I began to feel a measure of control over my environment when I realized I could stay alive much longer with the most important tactic of all – knowing when to cut bait. 

Eventually, I came to realize the majority of my deaths in Blood West were a result of my own hubris – deciding to take a snap headshot without properly scouting the area, accidentally alerting a horde of monsters in the process, or pressing into uncharted territory despite a depleted health bar.  Individual enemies are generally not difficult on their own, and most can be outrun should they become overwhelming.  That’s not to say that every death is the player’s fault, but I rarely felt Blood West was unfair and often found my own stubbornness and inattention to be the source of any frustration.

Careful attention is not only important for combat but also exploration.  Whether it’s a moored steamboat off the beaten track or a lonely cabin on a hilltop, there is sure to be loot worth finding.  As I began to explore the more far-flung corners of the map, I found powerful, unique items that literally changed the way I approached Blood West – a rifle that heals forty health with every headshot, or a trinket that offered a twenty percent boost to health, stamina, and experience points.  Some of these items shaped my play for hours to come, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that I might not have rolled credits in Blood West without them.

There is one area where Blood West falls short, however – the boss fights.  Each act is structured around tracking and exterminating an evil entity, and the narrative revolves around the buildup to these encounters.  Unfortunately, these battles are uniformly disappointing and rely on mechanics that stray from Blood West’s strengths.  Whether it’s dexterity-based dodging or battles of attrition, gone is the emphasis on thoughtful, strategic play that forms Blood West’s foundation.  While certainly a letdown, these criticisms amount to little more than quibbles in the wake of all that Blood West does right.

Blood West won’t be for everyone, but those willing to go along with its demanding play and deliberate pacing will find an engaging experience that celebrates the player’s wits as much as reflexes.  I won’t soon forget the feeling of being low on ammo, even lower on health and deep behind enemy lines, knowing I should turn back, but forging ahead anyway, intoxicated by what treasure could be around the next corner – because more than likely, it’s worth it.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Buy Blood West: PS5 – Xbox – PC

Disclosures: This game is developed by Hyperstrange and published by New Blood Interactive LLC. It is currently available on PC, PS5, and XBX/S.  This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 30 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the primary campaign was completed, but the DLC campaign was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence. This game is definitely not aimed at children.  While the visuals are generally low fidelity and rendered in a cartoony, non-realistic fashion, there is plenty of blood and gore.  Enemies can be killed with various firearms, knives, and swords.  When killed, enemies will spray blood out and can be partially dismembered with certain weapons.  Alcohol and tobacco can be consumed as power-ups.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game only offers subtitles in certain instances.  Primary dialogue between characters is fully subtitled, but the player’s character makes many comments throughout gameplay that are not subtitled at all. While this game offers two options for text size, this only applies to certain menus and did not impact the text in subtitled dialogue. This game relies heavily on stealth, and when playing without sound I found it more difficult to remain unseen and, consequently, died more frequently due to enemy noises that are not represented visually. The missing in-game subtitles combined with the lack of visual indicators for key contextual noises means this game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Blood West Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Great variety of playable characters with interesting abilities. Tense combat.

LOW Some poor AI. Hard to track some enemies. Lackluster ending.

WTF The big bad had relations with robots???

Legend tells of the Drifter — a spacecraft appearing to those in need, offering passage to a paradise known as the Homestead. The ship has decided to gather up an infamous gang known as the Wild Bastards, but why it wants them and the truth of where it’s going are a mystery. All the Bastards know know is the evil Jebdiah Chaste (hater of all things alien, robot, and criminal) is hot on their tails, looking to end them permanently.

Wild Bastards is an amalgamation of FPS and tactical roguelike play brought into existence by the same crew responsible for 2019’s Void Bastards. Players are tasked with traversing multiple star systems on the hunt for missing members of the Wild Bastards gang, of which there are 13 playable in total, each with unique abilities and playstyles. 

The basic gameplay loop is broken up into three distinct phases — a navigating-the-galaxy map portion, a turn-based tactics portion, and finally an FPS portion. While all the phases have randomized elements, the basic loop follows a consistent formula.

Things start on a galaxy map. As the player’s ship enters a new system, they must choose a path through a series of waypoints in a style similar to other roguelikes of the current era, evaluating each stop along the way for potential threats such as dangerous weather conditions or increased enemy damage. Each planet has a maximum number of characters who can beam down to the surface, forcing the player to strategically assemble their away team based on the characters’ abilities and possible synergies. accordingly.  Overuse of a particular character increases their exhaustion level, which nullifies certain abilities until they rest or are healed with beans (it makes sense in context.) 

Once on the surface, a turn-based tactical map opens.  As with similar isometric tactical titles, players direct their Bastards to locations where they may be able to find temporary upgrades such as increased damage or better armor, as well as permanent “Aces.” These act like a tech tree for permanent abilities or buffs.  Players are given a finite number of movement points each turn, and then enemy forces on the surface (representing Chaste’s bounty hunters) take their turn.

When the Bastards are forced to deal with enemies, combat ensues. and this is where the FPS portion of kicks in. Once combat starts, the only way to successfully complete an encounter is by finding and eliminating all enemies. A handy counter keeps tabs of the number of baddies hunting the gang, allowing players to know how badly outnumbered they are, or how close they are to winning a fight.

In FPS mode, players control one Bastard at a time, though they travel in pairs when they can.  It’s possible to swap between teammates at the push of a button, based on personal preference or on which character’s abilities work best in a given situation.  For instance, Hopalong (my favorite) has a lasso that freezes opponents while dealing DPS and an ability where he can freeze every enemy on the map for a short period. In contrast, Casino’s special ability instantly kills a random foe. 

Each Bastard also has distinctive movement rates, sneakiness levels (how easily they’ll be detected by enemies) and weapons such as Billy’s custom six-shooters, Judge’s sniper rifle, and Roswell’s “mason ray” — basically, their fancy name for a big, honkin’ laser cannon.  Learning the ins and outs of each character’s attacks and abilities takes some time, but makes combat encounters easier once mastered. 

If a combat encounter is successful, the team can continue exploring the planet.  However, there’s some risk/reward here — if a team stays too long, strong foes begin appearing.  Each one is increasingly difficult to defeat, and if the team keeps defying the odds, the final foe is literally indestructible. This mechanic means players wont be able to hoover up 100% of the loot and should wisely beam back to the ship at opportune moments rather than face these enemies. 

Adding to Wild Bastards‘ difficulty is that some characters might refuse to work with others while on a run. These fallings-out are random and might put a crimp in the player’s strategic plans. On the other hand, characters members may also become pals, which grants them additional boosts in battle — the Bastard known as Smoky will incinerating any enemy who damages his friend, as an example.

Overall, combat is fast and satisfying.  The weapons are a joy to use, and the array of abilities cater to any playstyle.  there are a few small hiccups with enemy AI, though. Once in a great while, the AI forgets to move an enemy around, leading to some incredibly easy kills and sometimes it’s difficult to locate the final enemy on a map, leading to some less than inspiring searching. However, the overall feeling of being both hunter and prey is exhilarating.   

In terms of narrative, Wild Bastards tells an interesting story about loyalty, betrayal, and even the nature of faith.  It deftly uses humor in even the most serious situations to keep the overall tone lighthearted — it’s a bit like an extremely profane, old-timey Western. The interactions between characters were also a treat, such as Sarge’s pontificating about his war record, or Preach’s sermonizing/lusting after Roswell.  I just wish there had been a more definitive final battle, as the ending sequence was a bit too abrupt to be a satisfying conclusion to the tale, and despite the roguelike nature of the gameplay, there are definite objectives and a clear endpoint along the way.

Wild Bastards was a joy to play.  Despite a few small rough spots with enemy AI and the general scourge of RNG, I looked forward to each play session. Even after the campaign credits rolled, I found that the game offered a staggering number of challenge mode missions, and I plan to put more time into it as the completionist in me looks forward to unlocking the achievements while conquering every map and mission.

Wild Bastards sounds like it shouldn’t work. Its foundation is a patchwork of different genres frankensteined into a single title and the frenetic FPS portions are broken up by long stretches of slow-paced tactical movement and galactic navigation. Despite all this (and the damned RNG) I can’t deny that it all works. The story is filled with fascinating and funny (if not likable) characters I wanted to see succeed. The tactical portions present interesting choices, and the FPS sections are fast and furious. if there was ever a game where the whole was more than the sum of its parts, it’s this one — and it comes highly recommended!

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Blue Manchu and published by Maximum Entertainment.It is currently available on XBX/S, PS5, Switch, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 16 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Strong Language, Violence. The official description reads: This is a first-person shooter in which players assume the roles of surviving members of an outlaw space gang on the run. Players travel from planet to planet completing quests, recovering lost gang members, and engaging in firefights with enemies (e.g., other outlaws, robots) across western-themed towns. Players use laser pistols, shotguns, blaster rifles, and explosives to kill enemies in fast-paced combat. Battles are accompanied by realistic gunfire, explosions, and cries of pain. Enemies disappear amid smoke and colorful light effects when killed. The words “f**k,” “c*ck,” and “c*nt” are heard in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. Story-based dialogue is completely subtitled.  In game, a visual signal indicates the direction from which enemy movement/speech can be detected, but in-game dialogue does not have subtitles. This dialogue does not affect gameplay, but it does represent banter between characters that assists with world-building. The indicator is not always on screen, but upon detecting an enemy’s movement or speech, a second indicator appears on the player’s compass, approximating the direction of the enemy’s location.  Despite these two indicators, it is possible to be surprised by enemies.  The game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable. Keyboard controls are completely remappable, but controller functions are not remappable.

The post Wild Bastards Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH It’s still one of the greatest games ever made…

LOW …in a barebones port.

WTF I recommend The Bravados if you haven’t seen it. Super underrated western. 

I love westerns. It’s a genre of film I’ve become quite acquainted with in all its different forms and subgenres (neo-westerns, spaghetti westerns — even acid westerns) and one I’ll continue to seek.

In the time I’ve spent playing through the latest port of Rocksar’s seminal Red Dead Redemption, I’ve watched films like John Ford’s Stagecoach and the Coen Brothers’ True Grit in an effort to absorb the Wild West in many different ways, putting myself in the right headspace to review a game as massive and as important as the original Red Dead. 

The truth is, however, I didn’t need to do all that to confirm what I already felt back in 2010 when I first played it. Red Dead Redemption was — and still is — a masterpiece. This latest port to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch offers clear evidence lot of that, nostalgia be damned.

Taking place in a fictionalized version of the American West, RDR is a third-person action-adventure in which players control John Marston. He’s a former outlaw, now forced to work under the watchful eye of an investigation bureau in an effort to wrangle up former members of the infamous Van Der Linde gang, John’s former posse. It’s an interesting setup as John’s mission is one of desperation — the bureau employing him has his family held hostage to ensure his cooperation.   

Gameplay consists of both linear missions involving combat or open-world exploration. Story missions usually see John riding his horse to various destinations, getting into firefights and performing a few narrative-centric odd jobs like making deliveries or wrangling cattle. 

Traveling on horseback is satisfying and the world still feels lively, even more than 13 years later, and one of the greatest parts of RDR is how often I found myself distracted by different things on the map.

For example, early on I was heading to a story mission in town, when I noticed a rabbit on the road. Seeing as I had to start one of the hunting challenges which involved killing five rabbits, I chased it, shot it, and found myself by an NPC. This character told me to talk to another NPC about some sort of business opportunity. On the way there, I noticed a mythical jackalope. After killing it, I realized I had to get back to the main story mission I intended to complete, but during my return, I was held up and my horse got stolen — I now had to chase after the bandit. 

It may seem like I’m rambling, but I can’t overstate how much I loved moments like these. These mini-stories offer something that very few open-world games get right. Rather than simply offering some boring checklist or arbitrary collectibles, I’m given a world that feels like it’s made up of different moving parts. Animals react realistically to each other, random people in the town or on the frontier are doing their own thing, and I have a choice in how I interact with it all. 

That choice also plays into Red Dead Redemption’s honor system. If the player acts honorably (helping NPCs with issues, returning stolen goods, incapacitating enemies via non-lethal means), the world will take notice in different ways, such as shopkeepers offering discounts on goods or gang members starting to get more violent. The same is true for the inverse as well, allowing players to make a choice in how they approach the world, and how the world will relate to them. 

Of course, it’s not as deep or as extensive as the systems in 2018’s Red Dead Redemption II, but it’s fascinating to see how unique Rockstar’s approach to an open world of this size was in 2010 and still is in 2023.

Mechanically, it holds up well and the gunplay still feels satisfying. The Dead-Eye mechanic that allows John to slow down time and target things remains great and is useful for hunting or taking down multiple enemies. Sure, it’s still an Xbox 360-era game visually, though the locked 30fps and 4K resolution make playing smoother, but one can’t really complain in that regard. 

Narratively, the campaign is exceptional, taking players on a journey to the titular ‘redemption’ that John Marston seeks as he’s forced into violence again after creating a quiet life for himself and his family. In a way, it mirrors Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, in which the main character Will Munny is a retired outlaw seeking a bounty. 

At the risk of making this review sound like nothing more than me flexing my Western film fandom, I did try to see what other references I could pull from this playthrough. Other than a few aesthetic choices (Marshall Johnson looks really similar to James Coburn in Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid), clear homages (certain parts of Woody Jackson’s score are definitely inspired by Ennio Morricone’s oeuvre of spaghetti western compositions) and some thematic throughlines found across the genre as a whole, RDR sets itself apart from most other westerns. Rather than feeling like a collection of too-familiar elements, Rockstar developed their own revisionist western — a subgenre that deconstructs classic tropes of the American West. 

In that way, Red Dead Redemption’s story is a full realization of that. It’s a darker and more cynical take on the West, showing the ugliness of what life was like back then. Lawmen are corrupt, there’s danger at every corner and prejudices run rampant. The land is desolate and the people inhabiting it are desperate, which is all summed up really well in a line of dialogue. While riding to a story mission, John speaks to another character, stating that “Men are formed, then they’re born.” The world is changing rapidly and those who don’t change their ways are victims of that great change. 

While the narrative and gameplay do hold up exceptionally well after my dozen or so hours of playing, there’s a major caveat with the package — this is a straight port of a 13-year-old game for PlayStation 4 (not even a native PS5 port) and Nintendo Switch. Xbox Series players already have the original 360 titles in backwards compatibility mode (with a full 4K upscale) and PC players are once again left in the dust.

It’s a shame that the package is so barebones without any major enhancements like a 60fps patch or touched-up visuals. The resolution bump is nice and Switch players get a portable version, but other than that it’s hard to justify the package to those who already have access to either an Xbox Series console or even an Xbox One X.

Also included is the standalone expansion, Undead Nightmare. This alternate storyline has players controlling Marston in a zombie-infested version of the RDR map. What’s great about this DLC is that players can jump straight into it from the main menu without having to play the main campaign. It’s a great (and sizable) addition to the package, as it offers some levity and horror schlock in contrast to the main story’s more serious tone. While it’s a bummer that the original multiplayer isn’t included, at least players are getting two games’ worth of content here. Still, don’t expect much in the way of new.

Regardless of the feature-light port and general sparseness of the package, Red Dead Redemption still earns its place as one of the finest games ever made. Even if its follow-up improved upon everything, this was a joyful blast to the past, reminding me that all greatness starts somewhere. For those looking to live out another cowboy fantasy before Rockstar decides to release Red Dead Redemption III, they can certainly do worse than this.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is published and developed by Rockstar Studios. It is available on Switch and PS4. This copy was obtained via the publisher and was reviewed on PS5. Approximately 15 hours were spent in single-player and the game was not completed but the game was completed before in an earlier release on Xbox 360/PS3. There is no multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M for Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, and Use of Drugs. According to the site: This is an “open-world” action-adventure game in which players assume the role of John Marston, a reformed criminal on a mission to capture the remnants of his old outlaw gang. Players roam Wild West environments and perform various missions for criminal figures and law enforcement: destroying bridges, helping individuals in distress, delivering packages of drugs (e.g., opium), capturing outlaws, and eliminating rival figures. Players use shotguns, pistols, and rifles to kill enemies in realistic gun battles. Players can engage in melee-style hand-to-hand combat and trigger slow-motion effects by shooting enemies at close-range or by targeted shooting (i.e., aiming for body parts). Blood often spurts out of characters when shot; head shots and knife attacks result in much larger sprays. In one sequence, a bloodied and mutilated corpse can be seen hanging from the rafters of a barn. Players have the ability to shoot pedestrians in the game; however, a “Wanted Level”-penalty system discourages these acts by triggering a law enforcement response. The game contains a scene in which two characters have sex on a table; there is a brief instance of female nudity. One sequence depicts a man injecting himself with a syringe filled with cocaine. Language such as “f**k,” “c*nt,” and ‘sh*t” can be heard in the dialogue. 

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are not present in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are subtitles and visual cues throughout the game and subtitle size can be adjusted. Enemy positions are always on the minimap, as well as other important things that should be known to the player. Audio cues are not necessary for gameplay. This is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls cannot be remapped.

The post Red Dead Redemption (PS4) Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Team-focused combat mechanics.

LOW Uninteresting story and characters.

WTF Give orcs a break.

There are some games that are uncompromising in their difficulty. They offer no easy mode and no handholding – they’re all trial and error, with players finding only the occasional success.

Redemption Reapers is one of these games.

It is an unforgiving take on the Strategy-RPG (SRPG), deriding some of the niceties that have become standard in the past two decades, and instead opting for a demanding – sometimes frustrating – experience.

The story is a simple and generic one, based in a grimdark low-fantasy world where an army of orc-like monsters known as the Mort are sweeping the land. The protagonist, Sarah, is a member of the elite Ashen Hawk Brigade, one of the last fighting forces left holding them back… And that’s about it.

Players are given little information either through dialogue or cinematics about the state of the world or its lore. There are supplemental texts to collect, but otherwise the storytelling leaves much to be desired – as do the characters. Built on blasé archetypes like the stoic leader, the jaded spearman, and big guy with an axe, the Hawks struggled to make me care. Sarah, at least, approaches being interesting as she’s regretful of a massacre she was a part of, but SRPGs rarely focus on story or character. No, the tactics are generally the focus and here, at least, Redemption Reapers has some nice toys to play with.

In some ways, it’s cut from the same cloth as older SRPG classics like the early Fire Emblems or even Final Fantasy Tactics. 

Players direct the five members of the Hawks, each with their own weapon type – dagger, sword, spear, axe, and bow (no spellcasters). They’ll  control free movement within a range determined by their stats and abilities determined by available action points that recharge each turn – but not enough to use the most powerful in quick succession.

There are no pesky social mechanics that the kids seem so fond of these days, but instead a series of menus to navigate between engagements regarding equipment, weapon repair, and more. And within the confines of the grid, there are no mulligans or time rewinds – one wrong move and a character will be out of the fight (or at least until a game over or retry). 

All of this is rather standard for the genre, but the defining feature of Redemption Reapers’ combat are the formation follow-ups. When another party member is within range of a targeted enemy, with the press of a key (quick-timed prompts lasting only a few seconds) that second teammate will land an additional blow before the enemy can counter.

This isn’t just a neat trick to deal some extra damage, it’s an absolute necessity since each of the characters are glass cannons, dishing out damage but able to take very little in return. Some are more fragile than others (there is only one true tank) so defensive formations and support buffs are also crucial.

Healing is limited to one-use-per-battle heals that can be restocked at rare waypoints within a mission and some high-cost healing spells unlocked later in the game. As such, players will not win a war of attrition.

When the system works, it sings as a satisfying cavalcade of attacks and positioning, especially since party members can often still move after attacking. Sadly, it doesn’t work all that often. Instead, it just feels limiting – due to the difficulty of encounters, it doesn’t pay to try any fancy flanking or pincer maneuvers. Instead, it’s more about moving into formation, defeating waves of enemies, and then rinse and repeating…

…Well, in most cases anyway, because Redemption Reapers is also a ‘character build’ game meaning you’ll be choosing to specialize in certain skills over others.

Leveling up comes with skill points to be put into various attacks and passives, and more are unlocked through progress. These choices might come back to haunt a player, though, as they did for me when I opted to avoid investing in abilities aimed at making one character operate out of formation, only to later have a mission start with that character isolated from the party.

The mission structure is also lacking. Most missions I played were either ‘eliminate all enemies’ or ‘defeat the commander’, which is essentially the same as ‘eliminate all enemies’ because of the design of the maps, which are generally linear paths through a series of small arena sections rather than a truly open field with multiple approaches.  And don’t get me started on the mindless AI companions that are useless if not detrimental within the missions they do appear, dealing little damage or dashing ahead of the pack to be killed.

Despite strong foundational combat mechanics common to the genre, Redemption Reapers is weak in just about every other aspect. Those flaws in combination with its punishing difficulty make it hard to recommend, and I’d say that it’s likely to produce more groans than thrills for all but the most hardcore SRPG players.

Rating: 6 out of 10

— Stephen Cook

Disclosures: This game is developed by Adglobe and published by Binary Haze Interactive. It is currently available on PS4/Switch/PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 15 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the main storyline was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood, Mild Language and Violence. This is a strategy role-playing game in which players lead a small band of mercenaries as they battle a rampaging army of goblins. From a 3/4-top-down perspective, players maneuver their mercenaries around grid-based battlefields to fight goblins in turn-based combat. Players use swords, spears, and bows to kill enemy forces. Battles are highlighted by sword slashes, cries of pain, and blood-splatter effects. Cutscenes depict additional acts of violence and blood: a man impaled though the abdomen; a woman slashed across the neck; a corpse lying in a pool of blood. The word “bastard” appears in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. There are no audio cues or effects necessary to play. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers partially remappable controls. Keyboard controls can be customized but controller controls cannot be changed.

The post Redemption Reapers Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The Thoroughly Modern Circe.

LOW The hive queens feel a little OP.

WTF The rhyming pigman!

In the Weird West everything is wrong, everything is brutal, and everything is awful. This is a world wallowing in muck and misery — a place so bleak that there are multiple cannibal groups that number amongst the world’s factions. It’s cold, violent and almost entirely hopeless… and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

A top-down action-RPG with a stunning degree of depth, Weird West wears its ambitions on its sleeve, and it kicks off with as daring an opening as I’ve seen — the player doesn’t control the bounty hunter whose husband is kidnapped and child killed in the first few scenes, but rather, they’re an ethereal force that possesses her and leads her on a journey of revenge.

Not since kill.switch have I encountered a game so interested in having a conversation about what it means to to swoop into a character’s life and start making decisions for them. Yes, that’s very much the nature of narrative-based games with branching stories, but Weird West takes things further by asking what happens when the player ducks out and the people they controlled have to live with decisions that were made for them?

Weird West has one overarching storyline, but players complete it by going through five smaller campaigns, each one starring a different character. The first is the bounty hunter whose family is killed, and once revenge is exacted, the focus shifts to the next character, and beyond. I’d love to mention exactly who those subsequent characters are, but finding out is a good portion of the fun, especially when each new face seems to have been chosen with the intention of making the ‘weird’ part of the title as accurate as possible.

Each one has a main quest to follow that will drag them around a section of the map, getting into fights and searching for clues. There are also optional sidequests that unlock a sidekick or add some depth to the world. However, it’s important to note that Weird West makes these quests meaningful by allowing their resolutions to echo forward from one campaign into the next.

For example, in the first campaign players run into a corrupt tobacco baron who has some valuable information — do they do an awful task for him in exchange, or try to get the information in a riskier way? The results aren’t just a few ticks up or down on a morality meter, they’re seismic changes in who holds power in the West’s various settlements, and what kind of foes or friends they’ll be encountering in their next incarnation.

While it has the look of a Desperadoes-style turn-based tactics game, Weird West gives players direct control of just one character in real time, allowing them to run, gun, and sneak around in just about any way they choose. Most problems can be talked through, but even when combat is a necessity, there’s a huge variety in how to approach it. The quality varies a bit, though. When it comes down to shooting, I felt like controller-based aiming could have stuck to enemies more tightly, but mouse-based shooting was extremely tight. Melee combat was iffy. There’s no weight or impact to it, and up-close battles invariably wind up with characters flailing away at one another until someone falls over dead.

Beyond shooting and punching, every area is filled with opportunities for environmental exploitation. There are pools of oil to set on fire, water barrels to electrify and burst, and so many barrels of TNT scattered everywhere that it has to some kind of a health and safety violation.

In addition to normal combat skills, the each character has a variety of skills and spells that range from temporary bullet deflection all the way up to conjuring a lightning tornado. They can also recruit up to two posse members to fight alongside them, including previous main characters, should the player have left them in a state where they’d be interested in continuing the journey. The partners come with infinite ammo and decent health, so they can do quite a bit to prop up those iffy fighting abilities. Thankfully, Weird West offers difficulty levels that range from ‘very hard’ down to ‘story’ — the easiest setting still has plenty of fighting, but it generally won’t get in the way of even the clumsiest shot seeing all of the narrative ingenuity that the developers have packed in.

Weird West is a truly special experience. While each one of its stories is compelling in its own right, when put together they transform into something fantastic. This is a game that shows its monsters and asks the player to be disgusted, and then turns them into a monster and asks if they feel the same way. As such, every one of the journeys contained within is worth taking, but it’s only once players have trod all of those roads that they’ll appreciate just how amazing Weird West‘s accomplishments are. It’s deep, it’s fascinating, and it’s full of the kind of storytelling that resonates for a long time after credits roll — truly an incredible experience from beginning to end.

Disclosures: This game is developed by WolfEye Studio and published by Devolver Digital. It is currently available on PC, XBO/X/S, and PS4/5. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 35 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Strong Language, and Violence. There’s just so much cannibalism in this game. Seriously! There are also drunks, whorehouses, unbelievable gore, plenty of swearing – this isn’t a hard decision at all. No kids anywhere near it.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I played most of the game without audio and encountered no difficulties. All dialogue in the game is subtitled. Text can be resized. It’s fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, the game’s controls are not remappable.

The post Weird West Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The soundtrack.

LOW Bad luck. 

WTF It’s a hip-hop infused western. I’d have a lot of questions too. 

I love Westerns. Whether it’s movies like True Grit, Dead Man, or even Hell or High Water, I love the look and feel of them. I’ve written at length about the lack of cowboys in games before and that sentiment is still true, so naturally, I’ll jump at any chance to play a Western-themed game, no matter the genre — a good thing, since this game blends several of them.

Developed by Duckbridge, Luckslinger is a 2D action-platformer in which players control the titular Luckslinger. Accompanied by his flying duck companion, a six-shooter and a throwing knife, this anti-hero must track down the six outlaws who robbed the town of Clovercreek. 

Right off the bat, Luckslinger‘s visual style reminded me of old Atari and Intellivision games. It’s unique but simple, relying on a heavily pixelated look full of bright colors. Everything is well-defined and pops, and the main character’s look evokes that of characters from Sergio Corbucci’s famous Spaghetti Westerns like Django or The Mercenary, complete with a wide-brim cowboy hat, poncho, and bright red shirt. The soundtrack is just as stylish, thanks to a jazzy hip-hop score that elevates the entire experience to something cooler than expected. 

Luckslinger’s gameplay revolves around running, jumping, and shooting, but the main hook revolves around “luck” — a force that can either help or hurt the player, and is treated as a commodity in this game’s world. Luck is represented by small gold tokens scattered across each area. When collected, they fill a ring that the Luckslinger can use.

For example, I was going to fall short while jumping over a gap. With a press of the Luck button, a platform manifested under me and I was able to save myself. Good luck also came into play in some gambling minigames, allowing me to tilt the odds and win money or special ammo. Of course, bad luck also exists, thanks to things like objects landing on the players, or small animals with a desire to attack. Unlike good luck, however, bad luck is seemingly random.

Combat here is enjoyable, but there are also plenty of distractions, like the aforementioned gambling minigames that allow players to earn luck, weapons, or money. Secrets also litter each town, like more money and even side missions like bounties and players can also collect records that play instrumental hip-hop — it’s a treat. 

Overall, Luckslinger is a stylish and enjoyable adventure. Sure, it’s a little weird seeing a pixelated hip-hop spaghetti Western, but it successfully fuses different influences into a wild cowboy ride like none other.

Disclosures: This game is published and developed by Duckbridge. It is currently available on PS4, XBO, PC and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 5 hours were spent and the game was completed. There is no multiplayer. 

Parents: According to the ESRB this game is rated T for Violence, Blood, and Crude Humor  While it is a bit edgy with a dew crude jokes and pixelated blood. all the violence Is very cartoony and ripped from school games meaning young kids should be perfectly fine playing this game. 

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Subtitles are present as well as all appropriate visual cues. No sound is needed to play this game and it is perfectly accessible. 

Remappable Controls: No, the controls are not remappable. There is no control diagram but there is a tutorial in the beginning of the game that explains how to play. B is to jump, X is to shoot, Y is to throw a knife and the left bumper is to activate luck.

The post Luckslinger Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH A captivating opening movie exquisitely sets the mood.

LOW Every part of combat.

WTF Why does this town even have guards if they’re not going to kill the wolves that are chasing me around?

I was a decent Mortal Kombat 2 player in the arcades. I could hold my own as long as I used Baraka, and I had no trouble beating the game on a single credit. Then the arcade updated the cabinet’s code — new finishing moves were added, and supposedly the AI had been altered to be smarter and more challenging. The extra challenge was a disappointment, though — it decided that the optimal way to win fights was to constantly walk towards the player, blocking any attacks and throwing the moment they were in range to do so. No jumping, no special moves, and every character exactly the same — just walking forward and throwing.

Eventually we learned the tricks to defeat this strategy and the next update reset the enemies back to their previous state, but seeing that in MK2 taught me something about game design. Smart AI isn’t necessarily interesting AI, and challenging foes aren’t always satisfying to fight.

M.E.A.T. is an RPG set on the Canadian frontier in the 19th century. Players control Culligan, a rich widower who owns the local mine and has to investigate a series of increasingly-strange happenings delaying production. This includes understandably hostile natives, vicious animals and supernatural threats. The game features a ton of real-time combat, and it’s all terrible. So terrible, in fact, that it forced me to give up entirely after a dozen hours.

Where to begin? Equipping items is a chore, with the player forced to unequip items to add them to the utility bar. This is an absolute necessity since the game doesn’t pause when the inventory is up, so attempting to swap weapons during combat is a shortcut to death. Sometimes the weapon swapping doesn’t work, however, with items suddenly disappearing from the bar for no reason. Players also need to equip ammo for ranged weapons and it doesn’t automatically swap when they change weapons, so going from a pistol to a shotgun is pointless since I won’t be able to fire the shotgun because my pouch is still full of pistol rounds. It’s slow, awkward, and remarkably difficult.

The combat is sadistic. Anything but the lowest-level trash enemies were capable of killing me in just two or three hits, and eventually the prospect of constant death and reloading — one of M.E.A.T.‘s good points is that it allows for anytime saving outside of combat — wore me down to the point that I set the combat to ‘easy’. Suddenly it took enemies 5 hits to kill me instead of 2-3.

I looked for ways to advance, but was stymied at every turn. Low-level enemies rarely drop anything that can be sold for profit, and despite the fact that my character is canonically the richest man in town, I had no money to buy better weapons and armor. The only option was to spend hours grinding enemies until I was a high enough level to tank the damage and kill more difficult foes who actually dropped some useful items.

This grinding was made more frustrating by the AI quirks similar to those that I alluded to with MKII — foes will always make the smartest possible move in combat. Melee enemies will strike wildly until they’re at 10% health, then they’ll always flee and force the player to chase them — not an easy task, since M.E.A.T. uses grid-based movement, and players must be standing still to strike. It’s easy for enemies to move out of the player’s one-tile range and make a quick getaway. Unless players get lucky and the monster runs into a corner, most melee foes must be finished off with a ranged weapon, wasting a precious round of ammo on a critically-injured foe. Eventually I learned attack spells that do surprisingly little damage, but at least it was enough to save a bullet.

Ranged enemies are even worse, as they all take a single shot from the absolute maximum attack range, then back away before the player can return fire. Move towards them and they flee until they’re back at maximum range and the process starts over. The only technique that worked was equipping a gun, standing still, and waiting for them to get into range. Generally I would get one hit in for every two I took. Unsurprisingly, these gunslinging foes don’t have any weapons that can be looted on their death, although if I was extremely lucky, there was a chance I might get back half the ammo it took to kill them!

The final straw came when I was given an assignment to kill three bandits hiding in a cave next to a fort that criminals were using as a hideout. This meant that killing three target enemies required also killing a dozen more powerful foes first. I spent two hours grinding levels and collecting healing items before taking on the gang, and after killing two of the targets I couldn’t find the set of stairs leading to the third. As I went back to search for it, I discovered that every enemy I had struggled to kill on my way to the goal area had respawned the moment I left the screen. Stuck there, unable to go forward or backwards, I had to give up entirely.

While I’ve been extremely critical of M.E.A.T.‘s combat system, it’s possible that this torturously-bad fighting is intentional. The opening movie is a long pan across scenes of carnage where demons and beasts brutalize people, and everything about the game’s aesthetic reinforces the idea that this is a vicious, fallen world. In fact, the first quest in the game has the main character bribing a sheriff to release his prisoners to work as slaves in the player’s mine, and it only gets more bleak from there.

So, is M.E.A.T. a terrible game, or is it exactly the game the developers want it be? Is its frustrating gameplay a way of telling the player that they don’t belong on the frontier, and that everything wants to kill them because the white man’s presence in the West is anathema? If that was the developers’ intention, I applaud the bold decision to deliver a repellent experience in order to make a historical point. However, even if this is all by design, it doesn’t make the game any more playable, nor can I find any reason to recommend this agonizing gameplay.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Tripping Bears. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed.

Parents: This game was not rated by the ESRB, but it features Violence, Strong Language, and Use of Alcohol. It’s a gory horror game about brutality in the American west. Children absolutely should not be playing this. Consider it a strong T or light M, rating-wise.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I played most of the game without audio and encountered no difficulties. All vital information is given through text. Fonts cannot be resized. Fun fact – the game literally had NO SOUND until six weeks after its release!

Remappable Controls: No, the game’s controls are not remappable. The game is controlled with a mouse and keyboard. Players can move with directional keys or mouse clicks. All attacking and inventory management is done with mouse clicks and keyboard hotkeys.

The post M.E.A.T. Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The art style.

LOW When I don’t get the “Traitor” revolver.

WTF That economy.

West of Dead continues publisher Raw Fury’s eye for titles with good visual style and tight mechanical design. Unfortunately, West of Dead also continues a trend of indies that would be perfect if not for bugs and design issues that are sure to be ironed out in six months’ time.

The game is a roguelike, procedurally generated twin-stick shooter played from a cinematic isometric view. The art style is evocative of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comics — all heavy blacks with splashes of color — and it even has Hellboy himself, actor Ron Perlman, voicing the main character.

The story follows a mysterious gunman with a flaming skull who wakes up to find himself dead and possibly in purgatory. He’s told that good souls head East and bad ones go West, but there’s a preacher blocking travel in both directions. The gunman must try and track down the preacher and piece together his own past while doing so.

The dungeons are broken up into dark rooms and hallways, and in each room there are a number of cover spots behind tombs or boxes, etc, that the player can flit between while taking pot-shots at the enemy. There are also unlit lanterns in most rooms, and turning them on will stun enemies. Using the cover and lanterns is important because health items are random and sparse until a life-giving canteen is unlocked, and even then, it’s not much.

How the player approaches each area depends on their loadout. Guns are randomly found or bought from a shop with randomized merchandise from an initially-small pool, and the player can carry two firearms at a time. 

Guns have infinite ammo that reloads over time. Shotguns pack a punch, but have short range and small capacity. Rifles shoot much further, but require lining up shots to do good damage. Pistols and revolvers are mid-range and reliable, but deal low damage compared to the others. In addition, the gunman has two ability slots that can equip random active effects with cooldowns such as grenades, quicker reload times, or damage shielding. There are also passive support effects, as well.

West of Dead is divided up into chapters, each containing three procedural maps and a boss fight. There are also extra levels that contain monsters and secrets. The player levels up on each run by finding upgrade spots that grant a choice between more health, stronger abilities, or upped weapon damage. When a character dies, all of their upgrades, guns and support items are removed, but some persistence comes from finding ‘fragments’ of new weapons and abilities that can be unlocked with in-game currency. Once purchased, those items will appear in the randomized rotation.

The devs go to lengths to force the player to change their strategy like a good roguelike should — some enemies charge the player, some monsters are invulnerable from the front, some foes warp behind the player, and so on. I found myself butting heads with problematic enemies in the second map, but once I understood how they worked, I was able to push further into the game until faced with the next challenge. Every death made me want to go back and try again, and it was all smoothed out by the sound of a great cinematic Western soundtrack and Ron Perlman’s tones.

When the action in West of Dead is flowing, it feels great – vaulting over cover to trigger a lantern that stuns enemies, and then shooting them with a revolver while they’re paralyzed for a moment is fantastic. Unfortunately, West of Dead is also host to lots of little problems that rubbed me the wrong way.

First were the small things like the auto-aim occasionally encouraging me to shoot at a harmless barricade instead of the enemy in front of me, and sometimes not even aiming at things in the same room. Sometimes the fiery cowboy might slide through cover instead of over it. There are chat prompts encouraging the player to converse with the NPCs, only to find that there’s no relevant dialogue there.

However, the worst offender is the economy.

The first map generates about 12 units of meta-currency for unlocks. The issue? After the first few that cost 10-20 each, most of the weapons and upgrades cost at least 75, with some going all the way up to 500. Earning that much buying power requires a grind that doesn’t feel rewarding and undermines the good work done elsewhere in West of Dead.

Despite the small bugs and a skewed economy that diminishes the experience, West of Dead is still something I can’t put down. The developers seem committed to fixes and I expect the experience to improve as time goes on, but it’s already an incredibly solid game that I enjoy and can easily recommend.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Upstream Arcade and published by Raw Fury  It is currently available on PC, Switch, PS4 and XBO. This copy of the game was obtained via Game Pass reviewed on the XBO-X. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Fantasy Violence. The game is cartoonishly violent and contains a lot of dark themes. Ron Perlman narrates stories of violence against children, abandonment, and drinking. It fully earns the T rating.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game is playable without sound but the game plays a tune when a room is cleared and subtly changes the camera angle — there were a couple of times where I didn’t notice the camera angle change, so was not aware that the room was cleared. The text size cannot be altered, nor can the color be changed.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable.

The post West Of Dead Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Hyper-crunchy team-based tactics. Lesbian cowgirls.

LOW Playing 3/4ths of the boat level without knowing I could swim.

WTF Why can’t I pick up ammo and give it to a teammate?

The first two Desperados games never blipped on my radar since they didn’t come to console, but I surely do remember Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. That unassuming title from the same team seemed to come out of nowhere (appropriate, given the ninjas?) and set my tactics brain on fire — complex, nuanced, detailed and intricate, it was one of the best experiences I had in 2017, and I was ravenous for more. Now, in 2020, Mimimi Productions has delivered.

Desperados III is a semi-realtime team tactics title seen from an overhead isometric perspective. The player is in charge of five characters, each with a predefined personality and skillset. Cooper’s the cowboy with a throwing knife and revolvers. Doc is handy with bandages and a sniper pistol. Hector’s the strongman with a giant bear trap. Kate dazzles guards with her good looks, and Isabelle practices Voodoo that can dominate an enemy’s will.  

The premise is classic Western — Cooper’s after the man who killed his Pa, and he gathers a ragtag group of skilled misfits who can help him get the job done, upending a dirty railroad company’s underhanded deeds along the way. Although cutscenes are minimal, the crew often talks to each other during missions to build camaraderie. They’re a solid bunch, and the chatter is appreciated. That said, story is not the draw here.

Most levels in Desperados III are massive, sprawling affairs set in the West (and beyond) filled with dusty roads, construction sites, stables, saloons, and, of course, plenty of enemies. Hostile troops come in various flavors and roles — some are stationed at specific places to keep watch, while others have predetermined patrol routes. It’s up to the player to study enemy patterns and their surroundings to figure out how the team’s talents can crack the challenges that lie before them.

Each area is incredibly detailed, offering multiple paths towards victory. Cautious players can use Cooper and Isabelle’s agility to climb and sneak along rooftops. Hector might lay his trap down and whistle for a guard to come investigate, while Doc is perfectly content to pop heads from the safety of being a hundred yards away.

This crew is capable of handling any situation, but there’s a twist — since every level has multiple enemies covering each other and tiny windows of opportunity to operate unseen, the player will often have to coordinate actions between two (or more) characters at once via “Showdown Mode”.

With the press of a button, everything onscreen stops and the actions of every character can be planned out in advance. For example, Cooper can be told to spring from behind a corner to silence a guard while Hector prepares to blast three stationed nearby who would have come to his aid. At the same time, Kate can plan to coldcock the goon she’s been sweet-talking to stop him from sounding the alarm. Once plans are laid, all three actions are triggered simultaneously to take out an entire group of foes that would have been impossible to do in sequence.

Even better, there’s no one correct answer for any scenario. Sometimes Showdown is the way to go, other times the direct approach works, and sometimes being quiet wins the day. In addition to this freedom of approach, I loved that the devs have story events that affect team composition — some characters aren’t available in some levels, and these forced changeups keep things fresh. Instead of constantly relying on the same abilities, the player is asked to make do with what they have — something easily solved with one teammate becomes a new challenge with another, and vice versa. It’s wonderful.

Smartly, the devs let the player save at any time with no limits, and thanks to this, the willingness to experiment comes without penalty. It’s absolutely the right call, not only to encourage new strategies, but because Desperados III can often be quite difficult, requiring a thorough, systematic approach to every area — running and gunning almost never works.

No, success comes from meticulously scrutinizing each map and figuring out which guards need to be taken out in which order, and then how to take them out without causing a ruckus. I saved and reloaded dozens of times in each map because even the best plan can (and will) fail repeatedly thanks to unexpected guards popping up, lookouts that go unnoticed until too late, or just plain poor timing on the player’s part — half a second’s delay can mean the difference between sneaking away or getting a bullet in the head.

While I absolutely love Desperado III’s formula, I will say that many levels are too long. It’s common to spend an hour or two on a single mission, and even longer if things don’t go well. The devs make clear that speedruns are possible by setting them as in-game achievements, but the first time through a location is usually overwhelming. Being faced with one huge job after another can feel grueling, so for this review I limited myself to one level per day to prevent burnout. A few smaller levels sprinkled throughout the campaign would have been welcome.

I’d also like to see more dramatic punctuation during the campaign. The giant levels take a significant amount of time and effort to get through, but the payoffs are rarely showstoppers — there aren’t many emotional high points or ‘wow!’ events that feel commensurate to the challenge. After taking two hours to systematically remove an overlapping series of guards covering each other with airtight sightlines, getting a low-key “we did it.” and moving on to the next one feels a bit flat.

Those complaints are minor ones, though. Like Shadow Tactics before it, Desperados III is one of the best tactics games available, and certainly one of the most satisfying titles I’ve played this year. It’s a finely-tuned masterpiece of Swiss-watch construction, polished in every respect and delivering the kind of tuned cerebral action that isn’t easily found. For fans of complex strategic gameplay, they just don’t come better than this.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Mimimi Productions and published by THQ Nordic. It is currently available on PS4, XBO, PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4. Approximately 28 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed (still playing!) There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes and Violence. The official ESRB description reads as follows: This is a strategy game in which players assume the role of a cowboy (John Cooper) on a quest for revenge in the Wild West. From a top-down perspective, players traverse the wilderness and frontier towns to battle enemy bandits and rival gangs in turn-based combat. Players use pistols, shotguns, and stealth attacks (knives, traps) to kill enemies; players can also employ indirect kills (e.g., poison) to dispatch enemies. Combat is accompanied by realistic gunfire, screams of pain, and blood-splatter effects; fallen enemies can be seen lying in large pools of blood. Cutscenes depict additional acts of violence: a man shot in the head; a man executed at close range by a villain. The game contains references to suggestive material: dialogue referencing brothels (e.g., “She on the first floor of the Flagstone brothel, drinking whiskey and watching the girls dance”; “Fanciest whorehouse in the quarter. Girls there will make your dreams come true.”) and allusions to sex (e.g., “That was one hell of a night…What’s wrong darling? Lost something in the heat of the night?”). The words “f**k,” “sh*t,” and “a*shole” are heard in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There is one colorblind mode available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue can be subtitled, including ambient conversations from NPCs if the player is close enough in the game for their character to ‘hear’ them. Text cannot be resized or altered. No audio cues are necessary for gameplay, as there is ample visual feedback onscreen at all times for nearly every situation — how much noise a character makes, when enemies spot the player, and more. It’s all visual. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls are fully remappable.

The post Desperados III Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Brilliant concept that combines ’90s JRPGs with Western themes.

LOW Anything that isn’t the writing.

WTF All the animals look like textbook image scans.

If I tried, I could probably count every Wild West-themed video game I’ve played on one hand. It might be a sign that I don’t play enough games, but I’d like to think it also means cowboys are severely underrepresented. Sure, Rockstar gave us the Western of all Westerns with Red Dead Redemption II, but what else is there?

Well, I never expected my next Western to be a 16-bit RPG, but Boot Hill Bounties, the second in a series by Experimental Gamer Studios, combines elements of Westerns with ’90s RPGs. Unfortunately, the results are mixed.

BHB puts players in the shoes of The Kid – a young, hotshot farm boy whose father died trying to bring justice to a small town. Since then, The Kid has become a part of a group with the goal of taking down five legendary outlaws.

Doc is clearly the rogue outlaw who keeps to himself. Moon is the Native American member of the group, important to the story. Rosie, the badass female gunslinger, serves as the headstrong member looking to help out in any fight. They each have their own stories to tell and their own purpose to go on this quest for vengeance.

Every great Western needs the right posse and I commend the devs for the diverse and interesting cast supporting a story that is surprisingly sensitive to Native Americans — as the campaign deals with a conspiracy against a local tribe, it’s nice to see a cowboy story that doesn’t rely on Native tropes. Aside from that progressiveness, the story is ripe with Western film cliches like small town saloons, stagecoach ambushes and characters riding into the sunset.  

Between heavier plot points is plenty of humor and light-heartedness, as well as the quiet moments so crucial to Westerns where characters reflect on themselves and the morality of their situation. Ironically, the writing is BHB’s strongest asset, though the story itself is fairly average — the plot is just a simple revenge tale, but moments like when the posse is hanging out by a campfire or eating dinner together are where the writing shines.

Although BHB cites Spaghetti Westerns (Italian-made westerns prominent in the ’60s with films like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly) as inspiration, in my opinion it has few stylistic elements in common — a few music cues that remind me of composer Ennio Morricone, perhaps, but I’d also say it takes flavor from classic films like 3:10 to Yuma with its simple tale of good vs evil. However, instead of simply echoing the machismo-driven stories of John Ford films, BHB gives players a more sensitive and diverse adventure that feels like both a tribute to these films, and also a satire of the now-toxic ideals they’ve pushed for decades. 

Unfortunately, while the script and characters hit some good notes, the gameplay holds Boot Hill Bounties back. Players navigate the overworld on foot or by horse. Enemies appear on the overworld, allowing players to initiate or avoid fights at their discretion.

The combat uses a system similar to something like the Active Time Battles found in Final Fantasy – basically, players need to charge a meter before attacking, and every attack takes a certain amount of time. The more powerful the attack, the longer it takes to charge. it’s just personal preference, but I’m not a fan of waiting for a meter to fill before taking an action and would have preferred a more traditional turn-based system.

Apart from that, BHB‘s battles get repetitive fast because there’s not much enemy variety, and seeing the same enemies over and over made the encounters feel like a chore. While I appreciate the use of woodland creatures, fighting the same family of beavers five times in a row gets tiresome.

Another issue with the gameplay is that there’s no journal that keeps track of the current mission.The map is fairly large and it’s easy to get lost or distracted. For moments when the player wants to get back on track, it would have been nice to have a quest log or a recap of recent conversations to remind me what the hell I was doing.

While the central quest in Boot Hill Bounties may have been cliche and the gameplay slightly disappointing, the time spent with my crew made it worthwhile. This Western yarn might not be a consistently excellent experience, but it still reminded me of how much I love the Wild West.

— CJ Salcedo

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Experimental Gamer Studios. It is available on PC and Switch.  This copy was obtained via publisher for review and was reviewed on Switch. Approximately 18 hours of play was spent and the game was completed. The game can be played in co-op but no time was spent in this mode.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10+ for Alcoholic References, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language and Mild Blood. Honestly, this game feels like a healthy mix between a lighthearted Western and an anime. Most younger players might not be able to comprehend themes of racism and death easily, but there’s really nothing too objectionable here.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: I played the entire game with no sound and had no problems. All the dialogue comes through speech bubbles filled with text, and there are no necessary audio cues. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, the controls are not remappable.

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